Blitz the Ambassador

Blitz the Ambassador

Born and raised in Accra, Ghana, Blitz the Ambassador grew up to the sounds of Afro-Beat, Highlife, Jazz, and Motown. From an early age he played djembe in local drum circles and dance troupes. “Live music was always a part of my life,” says Blitz. “It’s hard to find a Ghanaian kid who wasn’t part of some band.” But when his older brother introduced him to Public Enemy’s classic album, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, he was changed forever. “I had never heard young Black people express themselves in that way before,” recalls Blitz.

After moving to the U.S. to attend college, Blitz continued to hone his musical skills, and grew a large following in Ohio as undergrad at Kent State University. After graduation, Blitz moved to New York City and began to record, Stereotype. This live-instrument-laden, musical exploration, is Blitz’ sonic manifesto. “I set out to change the way hip-hop approaches live instrumentation, to create synergy between all of the sounds on my personal playlist.” Drawing from his diverse musical background, he dove into the project with the explicit intent of pushing the boundaries of Hip Hop music. In the process of recording the album, Blitz formed the band, The Embassy Ensemble, a musical collective of classically trained artists who grew up on Hip Hop. After three long years of recording, Blitz took the album to several. Getting the run around one to many times, Blitz decided go it alone. “One day I just said, ‘Fuck it’,” recounts Blitz. “I was tired of record labels telling me I had to be like somebody else. So I came home and wrote, Rememebering the Future,” Blitz explains. This epic, track illustrates Blitz’ refusal to be a Stereotypical rapper. The chorus of the song is, ‘I am who I am / and you can never change me / Reaching for the sun / remembering the future.’

Tanya Morgan

Tanya Morgan

Tanya Morgan is a rap group.  And that seems apparently clear after their soon-to-be-classic sophomore album, Brooklynati (May 12 – Interdependent Media) started earning them Native Tongue comparisons from the likes of Billboard, Vibe, Spin, and XXL Magazine.  “Tanya Morgan are like the sons of De La Soul — soulful, stressed, effortlessly smart flows, intricate production, the whole package,” says SPIN Music Editor Charles Aaron. With Tanya Morgan’s own Von Pea chipping in on rhymes and production, the trio from Brooklyn and Cincinnati have crafted a concept album called Brooklynati, based on a fictionalized golden-era hip-hop utopia and their individual journies from the real world to get there.  Features include Phonte from Little Brother, British expatriate Che Grand and buzz-worthy California MC Blu.  The video for “So Damn Down” – the lead single from Brooklynati – has been in rotation on MTV2, MTV Jamz, VH1 and Music Choice.

Hailing from both Brooklyn and Cincinnati, Tanya Morgan formed on the message boards of Okayplayer.com in 2003 when Don Will, Ilyas and Von Pea were all solo artists swapping demos and new verses with each other for feedback.  The three MCs decided to collaborate for a one-off project and settled on the name Tanya Morgan – an inside joke to trick hip-hop crate-diggers and sample-searchers into thinking the record was an old-school soul singer.  After their debut album, Moonlighting, was endorsed by the likes of ?uestlove in 2006 and was received enthusiastically by fans, Tanya Morgan decided to keep working together and maintain the name.  After nearly 6 years as a group, the name just means expect the unexpected, and that is exactly what fans have come to love and respect about Tanya Morgan as a rap group.

Tanya Morgan has toured across the US, performing with the likes of De La Soul, Heiroglyphics, Wale and The Roots.  They are regular featured acts at The Roots Jam Session at Highline Ballroom and Don Will was a panelist on independent touring at this year’s New Music Seminar in New York City.  In 2010, each member will release a solo album under the brand “Tanya Morgan Presents:” (Don Will’s Don Cusack in High Fidelity, Von Pea’s Pea’s Gotta Have It, and Ilyas’ Hello, Hell).  Don Will says “We’re just taking it one step at a time, hitting people with new music that will give them a deeper understanding of Tanya Morgan as a group and as solo artists.  Each project has a concept and purpose. We’re not putting out music just for the sake of having an album out.  We make music that we feel and hopefully our fans will feel it too.”