FLOWMAN

"It's been a long time in comin', I turn nothin' to somethin'/And even though I feel winded, I gotta keep on runnin'..."For the man who proclaims himself "The Blackest Man Alive", music is more than just a hobby or passion, it's a journey. Born and raised in Northeast Texas, Disgruntled Negro's affinity for music stemmed initially from the gospel music his mother continually practiced. His exposure to the core fundamentals of music at an early age helped him understand the concepts of rhythm, melody, harmony, and basic song arrangement. From there, Negro focused his creative talents elsewhere until his college years when he tried his hand at Hip-Hop.With the major success of internet music sites such as MP3.com and Soundclick, Negro downloaded hundreds of instrumentals, writing and recording original material over them. Unlike many up-and-coming emcees, Negro seldom utilized popular industry instrumentals for practice, preferring to craft his own songs from scratch."A lot of people tell me that doing 'mixtape tracks' helps you hone your skills and I don't disagree," says D. Negro. "I just feel like with all these underground producers providing original tracks online, why not hone your skills with original material until you're ready for a real album?"With his focus on creating original songs, Negro quickly wrote and recorded over 100 original songs over a two year period, most of which were never released. Considering himself a perfectionist, Negro refused to release anything he didn't think was worthy of public consumption."I learned quickly that it's easier to maintain a good reputation than to get rid of a bad one. It's largely the reason why it's taken me so long to finally get this album together. Granted, not even some of my favorite emcees have released albums that I thought were 100 percent flawless, but I want to get as close to perfection as humanly possible with my music," reiterates Negro.After joining with a local rap group/label, Negro's creativity flourished as he worked with a host of talented artists such as 2 Piece, B.U.G., Yung Blu, and Lyzation. However, Negro quickly realized that he was often at his best when he controlled production from the top to bottom."Working with a group, it's fun initially, but that's only when everyone is agreeing. Ultimately, a tribe can't have two chiefs and someone is going to have to shut up or leave. I learned a lot of lessons about myself and about human nature working with those guys and even though things didn't work out like I wanted, I was better off for the experience," Negro reflects.Striking out on his own, Disgruntled Negro established ties with local recording engineer and producer Russ Cain; the two formed an instant rapport and bond. Throughout the early months of 2007, the two collaborated together on half a dozen songs, most notable of which being the laid-back street banger "Blackest Man Alive" and the piano-driven "UnderRated." However, it was the spur-of-the-moment collaboration between Negro, Maintain, and Naughty Boi of Big Boss Entertainment that garnered the most success with "Kingz of the Game", which was featured on HoodHype.com's syndicated podcast (Episode 44, April 3, 2007) and is to date the second highest voted song in the history of that website."Russ and I are in some ways polar opposites, but when it comes to music, we try to look outside of the box. Russ has a production style that isn't like most local producers and he's willing to try new things. I like to think that we both push each other out of our respective comfort zones," says Negro on his relationship with the producer.The making of the full-length album, Solo Mission, is by and large a Disgruntled Negro/Russ Cain collaboration, though Negro does enlist the production talents of XV (Kingzmen Productions/Royalty Records) and M.G. the Future (a.k.a. Dskillz)."This album is about me, largely airing out my frustrations with people in general: what's wrong with Hip-Hop, heartbreak, wack rappers, even me showing my softer side at times. I'm not re-inventing the wheel, but I am trying to show that you can talk about something other than selling drugs, killing people, and disrespecting women in your music. That's not to say that I'm a clean-cut rapper, because I'm not by any means. I'm being who I am on this record, nothing more, nothing less. I'm not playing up my persona to try and appear tougher or cooler than I really am, I'm just being me. Love it or hate it, you have to respect it."