So when I was 1st rapping in the basement (or actually my friend Roberts bedroom on a karaoke machine) I used to always wonder have Emcees got their names. At first I was known only as Max, but then when I found out there is like 10 emcees, producers or similar names Max I decided I need to EARN a name. Since, I needed to earn it I started writing a lot and seeing what would happen and how far I could get with it. I kept it up and started writing very abstract, almost poetry like pieces and some people dug it, others said it wasn't hip-hop enough. Eventually filling bars and bars, and page after page with random musings, and rhyming prose. It was after about 3 years of rapping and emceeing that I met my friend (and still to this day) and producer/engineer AD Ro$$. How I met AD is a random, there was a crazy emcee in our complex, that just loved to freestyle and his name, believe it or not, was Big Ching$. He was like a cross between a really twacked out bank employee, and a good hearted thief....oh the stories on that guy. Chings, was looking for a place to record for himself, and I just happened to hear him talk about how this guy at the corner of the block had a home studio. Apparently the chingster had freestyled for AD and AD was some what impressed with his tenacity of bugging him to record that they worked out a session schedule. Hearing this I had a mission. You see its EVERY emcees dream, when they are first starting to find themselves a legit producer that they have access to and they can stop searching for random instrumentals online, and downloading already used beats (mixtapes excluded of course) to write to since they had nothing else. So as you can imagine I heard there was someone within arms reach and I was going to be damned sure I went over there and impressed the guy. The next day I got dressed and went into the general direction of the house I was looking for and kinda froze. I forgot what unit he was in, and I also forgot his name....I was screwed but I didn't give up. I sat on a picnic bench and waited for a few minutes to collect my thoughts and try to remember it, when one of Chings friends rolls up, and being the typical college kid this cat was he yelled out a casual..HEY AD WHAT IT IS!!!!>!>!>! at the window of a house nearby, and kept walking after every bird in the vicinity fled from his audio apocalypse of a yell. I knew I had the house in sights. I calmly walked up and gave the door a knock. Waited and turned around ready to flea, since I was a bit nervous but just as I turned around a young, short, lurch looking kid stuck his head out. "Yah?" he said, so this was security I thought to myself. "Adrian here?" I asked, doing my best I'm tough voice. "AD? yah...up stairs". And this non important conversation had opened the doors the property of what will forever be know as SoundDaddy Studios. I walked up stairs, Adrian was screwing around on his keyboard making some Death Metal strings over his Band Sanctus's records and being jolly. He looked up and said..."Hey man, whats happening?", not at all the Wizard of Oz I was expecting. I replied a gruff "I heard you record hip-hop and make beats." He nodded "what you got?" I sat down then and told him to put on a beat, he did, I think it was an alchemist beat but it was 10 friggin years ago..and I started rhyming, about what? I have no idea, but I do remember seeing a black light wizard poster and an old bong and rapping about those. In some cases someone might say, I don't know what I rapped but it was the best I ever did, and I was struck by a light from the heavens, and horns played in the background and the floor opened up and 100 virgins came to greet me. No. That didn't happen, and my freestyle was not the best but it was enough. He dug it. We setup a schedule and went to work..... Now fast forward 1 year, still in the same block, but different units now. Adrian was sitting by his keyboard (as usual) and I walked in, he asked me to name two groups I like, I said Cypress Hill and Mobb Deep, he said ok. Went on his computer and played a couple Cypress Hill songs and a Mobb Deep track. I listened enjoying the tunes, but wondering what this mad scientist had in mind. He opened up Fruity Loops (which we still use to this day) and copied to an extent the beat pattern of the 3 songs combine. He then layered some samples and began going to town, in a whirlwind of fingers on keys a beat was made. It was like the oven timer rang, for he simply lifted his head from his playing and said "Done.". He burnt the beat to a CD and I went home to write. I wrote about 5 drafts (I used to always over write, I have learned since its the impulse and vibe, you want to capture and that can die quickly). I repeated them none stop and called him up and walked over to his house. I busted it down in the booth and it sounded GREAT to me at the time. When we finished he played it back. The 1st two words of the song where "thoughts arisen", I said what do you think of that name? He replayed the track, "Sounds good". Thats all it took. I had earned my name, not by battling or getting a mentor, but by finding myself in music and fighting for my place at the starting line. To this day I think the name made my style more then I myself did, or maybe I became my alter ego more so then anything. If you want to know what it means to me now: Thoughtsarizen means your Thoughts rising above and looking down and speaking direct. Thats what I try to do in my rhymes. Anyway that was probably way to long and fairly boring but hopefully we will get something more legible next time eh?
