The very first time I saw Damani Nkosi was August 2006 at an MTV Award Pre-Party by Lil Kim. Also the first time I met Snoop Dogg. I did not really meet Damani at that night, just looking back at those pictures a while I go, I spotted him in one of the photos. But we did not physically meet at this point.

The first time Damani Nkosi and me really met was a year later in 2007. It was at a studio in Hollywood, during a recording session with Snoop. Right before the studio got shut down and moved to a different location. It might have been in March, and Damani Nkosi was still Damani at that point. He was the international player. Rapping about girls and money. Shot videos and performed in Paris and China, having videos on BET and MTV, having his own shoe with Adidas, and everything without a mayor record deal, and on top of that had everybody else questioning how he did it.

I remember Damani as a charming person, a funny guy. When you are in the room with him and trying to make fun, you better watch yourself, because he will turn the joke around and aim it right back at you. At the same time I remember him as the guy from Inglewood, not really gang affiliated but always protecting himself, caring a gun around at any occasion. At that point he were part and founder of the group Westurn Union, later Dubb Union. Originally it was Bad Lucc and Damani, but later on Soopafly joined the group as a producer and rapper. They released an album, shot a couple videos and split up. Soopafly stayed with his big homie Snoop, Bad Lucc left and affiliated himself later on with Diamond Lane Music Group and Damani went on with his solo mission, releasing an album exclusively in Japan called “On Vacation From Vacation”.

After that … nothing. Damani was tired and felt empty. Tired to rap about nonsense. How much can you talk about money and – excuse the language – pussy. He was tired to keep looking over his shoulder just because of the crowd that attaches to the kind of music he was making. He just wanted to breath freely and have fun, so he went on to a journey trying to find his sound. Trying to find him self. It was not easy for him to find the right production, but after all, he created “Everybody C’mon”. He was excited. The song was a new direction, a new type of sound for him. The follow up song was produced by Hit-Boy. Both songs had videos done. “Everybody C’mon” dropped April 17th in 2012 … and did absolutely nothing. People that heard the song and saw the video couldn’t believe it, but it was hard to get people to push the play button. The extremely dope follow up track and video never saw the light of the day and Damani stepped away from the microphone. He didn’t want to go back to the rap he used to do, and if nobody wants to hear him, he rather turns his back to it, thinking about pursuing a different career on the business side of the NBA or something. He went on another search, traveled the world a little more, and let the music rest.

In 2013 I received a phone call from Damani. He found it. He found his sound. He found Warryn “Baby Dub” Campbell, which is also listed as one of the executive producer on the album. Damani Nkosi was born.

The first song I ever heard was an unmixed and unmastered version of Free Dumb (Chains Off) and the idea was to title the album “When I Took My Chains Off”, the next song I heard was Ethiopia, he played it to me over the phone. I wasn’t physically there when the album was formed but I always got bits and pieces in my email with new stuff, and it all sounded like timeless music, with a great appeal of Jazz to it.

On July 7th 2013 I received an email with a download link to one audio file with the title “Damani Nkosi Album MASTER”. It was finally done, and the Thoughtful King album was born. Shortly after, Damani came to Hamburg, Germany. He had this vision of the album cover. He wanted a picture of himself walking down the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. Damani, a friend of mine by the name of Said Voerg and myself jumped in my car and got on the Autobahn on a 7-hour trip, from Hamburg to Prague. Half the way, not even crossing the borders, the engine blew up on the middle of the autobahn. The ADAC (similar to the American AAA) towed us to the next town. We got a rental car, and kept on driving towards our destination.

We got to Prague pretty late, checked in the hotel, tried to find some food (that I totally fucked up, because I thought I saw a dope place on google maps) and looked at the location. Around midnight we went to sleep and got back up at 4 am to shoot the album cover for ‘Thoughtful King’. After that we drove around the city a little more, got some food (I finally found the place from the day before and it was dope!) and got back on the road … back to Hamburg.

In Hamburg we jumped on a plane and flew to Zurich, Switzerland, to shoot parts of “On My Way To Inglewood” and also a 16 bars promo video … after a couple of hours we were back on a plane to Paris, France. In Paris we linked up with Seendanew, an old friend of Damani. He helped us around town and we shot “Now That’s Love” in the next 3 days.

Back in Hamburg, we got together with two friends of mine that are graffiti artist and shot the video to “Free Dumb (Chains Off)”. A Damani Nkosi mural was painted on a wall in Hamburg. The next night we shot most parts of “On My Way To Inglewood” and also “A Man”. In between we shot press photos and other stuff. We were in full motion to make Damani Nkosis “Thoughtful King” the masterpiece that it is.

Once Damani got back to the states, on this end of the world editing started, while Damani put together a plan. A lot of people from the music industry heard the album. Deals were offered, mayor artists gave compliments, record executives gave compliments, the word was good on all sides. It is a sound that was so long missed in Hip Hop. That was untouched in Hip Hop for such a long time. A great mix between Jazz and Storytelling in its purest form. A Tribe Called Quest would have loved to make such an album.

Today, Damani Nkosi “Thoughtful King” has been out for about 3 weeks. Most of the videos are released. It’s still hard to get people to push the play button and listen to it. Once they have done it, most of them love it. Thanks to great support from mayor artists (such as Musiq Soulchild, Robert Glasper, Problem, Xzibit), athletes (Kevin Garnett) and press (L.A. Weekly, Red Bull, HipHopDX, …), the word got around. Right now we are receiving great reviews from media pages. They love the sound and the whole art around it.

It is still tough to present the album to the masses, especially when you create a certain sound that fit in every age but not in every lane. That makes it hard to find the right group of people to attach to. It’s a slow grind, and – to put it in the words of Talib Kweli – a beautiful struggle, because at the end, good music will always win.

I won’t say that “Thoughtful King” will sell millions of units, maybe at some point it will or it will just go unnoticed in the masses of releases, but it feels right. It gives the people that listen to it a good vibe and let them enjoy it. And that’s what it is about at the end of the day … its not about the money (of course you have to generate a certain amount to cover the costs and eat), but with this album, it was more about the art, the feel, and the people that sit on the other side of the speaker or of the other side of the stage, to give them something positive.

*Photo 2, 3, 4 & 5 are taken by Said Voerg.

A friend of mine is a singer / song-writer and goes by the name of Sebó. We just sat down during a studio session to make a video of his Coldplay version of ‘Magic’. Enjoy …

We turned one of the photos we shot in 2013 to a cover for T. Parris latest project ‘Soul Star: The Concert Edition’. Left is the flyer, right is front and back. T. Parris handed the CDs out at a show yesterday, but they will also be available online in a couple of days.

One of the tracks featured on the CD is Homicide Harlem, which I first listened to in March 2013. We were sitting in a building in Harlem and he asked me what I think of this song, he played me an unfinished version, no hook, no studio recordings, he recorded it with his phone at that point. The song inspired me to go out to the Wagner Projects in Harlem and shoot my version of Homicide Harlem.

This is a story of a young man who was abandoned by his parents as a child. Neglected by his peers when he didn’t fit in and so many times he had questioned the LOVE of those round him … with all these uncomfortable feelings his only option was to DREAM …

And tonight I wanna share that with y’all – I wanna share my DREAM to be one of the best hip hop artist to ever hit the stage … and with that being said I wanna talk y’all on a trip through my reality … SOULSTAR

In January I went to L.A. for a couple of days, smart as I am I went back to Germany right during Grammy Week. Everybody is in town during that week, all the parties are going down, and I am leaving. I left on a Saturday, so the first pre-grammy parties went down Friday, I was able to catch at least one party. There are hundreds of parties in L.A. that night, so its hard to choose where to go, but Dre invited me to his Beats Music party, so how can you say no?

I got there pretty late, and nobody was allowed to go in at that point. Great! Even though I was on the list and everything, no chance. The capacity of the building was reached hours ago. So I kind of managed to get to the front of the line, since I was invited, I already had my wrist band. There were like 6 Security people at the door holding people back, and every minute somebody walked up to them and tried to talk their way in. Even I am usually good with that, what excuse can you give them? They already saying no to everybody. So while at the front of the line I got all the way against the wall and once security was in a discussion with somebody, quick turn, quick jump over the door band, quick fake conversation as I saw a guy that I never have seen before and … I am in!

Best move ever, best decision ever, since nobody really knew what was going on … everybody was there. I got in and ran right into the homie Crooked I. Turned around, here is Drake … took a quick photo of Crooked I and him, then made my way to the stage. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony just finished performing. Let me share the line up:

– Ice Cube: Today Was A Good Day
– Cypress Hill: Insane In The Brain
– Geto Boys: Minds Playing Tricks On Me
– Souls of Mischief: 93 til Infinity
– Pharcyde: Passin Me By
– Method Man & Redman: How High
– Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: Thuggish Ruggish Bone *that’s when I entered the building*
– Nas: Nas Is Like / If I Ruled The World
– Dr. Dre: California Love
– Black Street: No Diggy
– Diddy / Ma$e: Cant Nobody Hold Me Down / More Money, More Problems
– Busta Rhymes: Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See
– Eminem: My Name Is / Real Slim Shady / Lose Yourself

In my free time, when I am in the states, I hang out with my friends. Most of my friends happen to be recording artists that hang out in small, smoke-filled rooms with no windows … the studio. Here are a couple of snapshots to one of those days … with Edi from 2Pac’s Outlawz. We both go way back and recently reunited since he moved back to L.A. from Atlanta and I also designed his mixtape artwork for ‘O.G. Est. 1992′ that came out a while ago. So here are some Snapshots …

I first heard about Iza Lach shortly after she got signed to Snoop, I think it was Soopafly that told me. We both were working on a different project for him at that time and he told me Snoop started to work with some artist from Poland and asked if I knew her. I didn’t.

A week ago Iza came to Hamburg to play a show at the Prinzenbar. Before the place was turned to a bar – which happened a long time ago – Prinzenbar was the first movie theater in Germany. Prior to her arrival in Hamburg I wrote Iza to see if she would be down to meet up and I would just take photos during the night. It was her second time in Hamburg, the first time she performed at the Reeperbahnfestival in September 2013.

After they arrived in Hamburg, I went over to meet them at the sound check. It was the first time for me meeting her and her band. It was one of the moments where you meet somebody and basically feel at the same second you knew that person for 10+ years … we spoke about their hometown Łodzi, how Snoop went there after signing her to shoot 14 videos in 14 days and how that was the most international and probably biggest thing to happen to the polish music scene ever and how she would have to go to a NY Knicks game to hand Woody Allen a movie script.

As soon the sound check was finished we all went to grab something to eat at their preferred italian restaurant. The show started around 9 pm and went on for an hour. I was not familiar with her music at all. Of course I heard stuff here and there and saw a couple of videos, but that’s it. I was totally amazed by the performance of the whole band. The place was not too packed but it was full enough to create an intimate and private atmosphere, and every guest somehow had a special connection with her that night.

The next morning I met Iza and the band at the studio to take some more photos. It was pretty spontaneous but turned out great. After the session they stayed for a while before they left back to Poland. I think, and hope, you will see more collaborations in the future between Iza and me. Until then …

You can check for Izas music and updates on the following outlets: Soundcloud.com, Facebook.com and Instagram.

I just went to L.A. for a couple of days and while I am there I went with my homie Fokes around East L.A., it’s well-known for the largest percentage of Latino residents in the United States (96.7 %).

A friend of mine is a tattoo artist, that goes by the name of Ink Different. He is also the one that put the ink on DJ Mikeflo (Dead Prez). I just went through some old data to do some backups and found these scans. I thought I share them. All shot with a Hasselblad 202FA on film.