I have started the Official R.O.T.C. Newsletter!! If you don’t know by now, Return of the Cypher is where Hip Hop culture resides in the SF Bay Area!! Every Sunday evening at the historic Boom Boom Room in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, we facilitate an organic, top-tier cypher, backed by our in-house live band. The event celebrated its 5 years anniversary this past summer, and the movement is showing no signs of slowing down.. please come through!! Please sign-up here!!
Brand New Banger by Sticky Ricardo featuring Kensho Kuma!! “Never Be Famous” is scheduled to appear on Sticky Ricardo’s upcoming “Sticks and Stones” debut album; his project will also have appearance from the legendary Killarmy clique. This track is about being content with accepting that you’ll never “blow-up” by so-called “industry” standards and is written from the perspective of an independent artist dealing with everyday trials and tribulations. The graphic was created by Jane the Message and is modeled after the Japanese Doraemon font.
Never Be Famous Verse 1: “Yeah, rappers talm ’bout, getting more Prada/ your boy’s independent, shipping out product/ never sold hella units, gotta day job/ I’m performing at the local shows, on my days off/ yeah, use my vacation, for oversea tours/ I’m flirting with a mermaid, on foreign seashores/ hi! getting more supporters, more than before/ but we can’t buy a house or afford the decor/ and we blame one percenters and white older heads/ but I’m more evil when I’m outta bipolar meds/ ughh, Lithium, Depakote in pill cabinet/ but I hate feeling numb, rather feel passionate/ ’bout everything in life, success to the failure/ you talk a good one homie, let’s see you wager/ running with the immigrants, Mexican neighbors/ know the Japones is raw and get’s only greater/ invest my Bitcoin, in Vivranium/ and hire more teachers and librarians/ I don’t give a shit if I don’t rock in a stadium/ but tired of the students getting shot in the cranium/”
Chorus (repeat x 2): “I ain’t even tripping that I’ll never be famous/ ’cause I murder everything, when I hit the stages/ nothing but my real life, written on the pages/ we’ll be here forever, ’cause the way we flows ageless/”
Never Be Famous Verse 2: “My beautiful masseuse got me feeling great/ I’m on a cruise boat with friends and we grilling steak/ if you, talk shit my killers will seal your fate/ ughh, jets and helicopters on my real estate/ I got every pair of Nikes, that were ever made/ at the venues in your city, my records getting played/ Kendrick called last night, and asked for a feature/ my photo shoots packed with some Japanese divas/ (wake yo ass up!) damn, back to my real life/ what I do for a living doesn’t even feel right/ trapped in a meeting writing verses in my head/ I should be out touring in Europe, but instead/ my bitch of a boss, writing me a reprimand/ if I get one more, I’m fired so I’m stressing fam/ lemme get you tea, ah! mix it with some Diprivan/ kill all the cameras, return with some weapons (blam!)/ I ain’t even serious, my dreams and my nightmares/ always influence the rhyme schemes that I write here/ we respected for the way we rep on the mic/ but we speak for real people with some regular lives/”
Chorus (repeat x 2):
Rikinish is a Japanese MC, producer, nomadic teacher, and R.O.T.C. regular; this past week, his debut album Everyday, was released through Orikami Records in France. Please be sure to support the official release!! Yours truly is featured alongside R.O.T.C.’s Jane the Message on a song titled “the Game.”
I am currently working on the “Lyricist ov the Lineage” project, which features new, old, and collaborative tracks.. I am going to compile 60-70 minutes worth of music, and have my uncle DJ Kevvy Kev mix it.. this one is the latest addition to the line-up thus far. Please be sure to check out the whole playlist.
Kensho Kuma “the Game” verse: “Not a freestyler/ want my name mentioned in the same sentence as a legendary writer/ Ernest Hemingway/ cats get resentful that they could never ever step in Kensho’s way/ I’m like Marley Marl, dropping science and math/ a lotta obstacles, popping up in my path/ but we separate, propaganda and facts/ and decisions get made properly with the stats/ yeah, you know the vulture type/ decent at rapping, but always acting stupid and can’t rep the culture right/ scene’s fulla punks frontin’ like millionaires/ but the foul stench of poverty is still in the air/ Kuma! developers be the villains in here/ leaving families without homes and children in tears/ regardless of era, I’m doing my thang/ I’m remembering Oakland, before them bike lanes/ yeah, snitching, literally meant you died/ now everything is vegan and gentrified/ feeling like kamikaze, sent to die/ and fuck pain, ’cause your boy been desensitized/”
“the Game” Chorus: “The game that we playing, life that we living/ we’ll be spitting raw, ’til the very last inning/ the mics we are gripping, the crowds we control/ the rules and traditions, we vowed to uphold/ the game that we playing, life that we living/ we’ll be spitting raw, ’til the very last inning/ anytime you see us on the stage, we wreck it/ it’s Kensho Kuma, Rikinish, and Jane the Message/”
The solo project I’m currently working on, Lineage ov the Lyricist, will be comprised of new, old, and collaborative tracks.. Songs will be regularly uploaded to this playlist here.. I am aiming to upload a minimum of two songs per month. This one will be a lot less formal than my previous releases, and once I have more than enough material, it will be handed over to my uncle Kevvy Kev to be mixed.
Here is a track that I completed back in 2007. Eyez Flash in $ Signz chronicles my awkward relationship with money.. hey, I’ve been an globetrotting independent artist all my adult life. $ has never been a stable variable in my lifestyle. It’s produced by Infamous Mobb affiliate Darb and scratches were done by longtime collaborator DJ Icewater. I asked for Premier type scratched on the chorus, and he absolutely murders it..
A select infantry of Return of the Cypher MC’s, myself, Denero, Slice IX, Unlearn the World, and Spread Fox, are featured on Japanese producer Cloud NI9E‘s brand new 12 Sentence Story album. Cloud NI9E is one of my main producers, tour DJ, and frequent collaborators, and is stationed in Tokyo, Japan. The 12 Sentence Story has a jazzy, downtempo vibe to it, but of course my squadron of MC’s bring that Bay Area rawness!!
Cloud NI9E- 12 Sentence Story Puchase here from Introducing!! Label
I am proud to announce the Lineage ov the Lyricist project.. this one is going to be a lot less formal than my previous solo and group albums.. I will regularly add tracks, brand new and old unreleased material, to this playlist; some songs will be original material from selected producers, and others will be verses over instrumentals I like. Once I have more than enough material, I will edit it to about 60 to 70 minutes total, and then hand it over to R.O.T.C.’s DJ Kevvy Kev to mix.
The first track I’m presenting to you is Oriental Rugs. It’s available for FREE download!! The next track for the Lineage ov the Lyricist will be available in several weeks!!
Kuma Oriental Rugs Verse: “To the Asian parent, I’m a screw-up/ to the Rap listener, I’m that dude you trust/ on and off mics, online or real life/ no tattoos on my face, just scars from real knives/ could follow the trends, but that wouldn’t feel right/ civilized gentleman, but I can still fight/ Honoring the protocol, we don’t desert henchmen/ never leave our fingerprints up on the murder weapon/ twenty years in music, consider it a blessing/ and I learned a whole lot from Too Short and Living Legends/ This Jap can’t, pass a CAT scan/ but I been paying dues since the days of Tascam/ was still a teen when I first performed in Japan/ started writing in 二ヵ国語 for all of my fans/ I’m the head Jap in charge, making ancestors proud/ praying 南橋法蓮芸協, please answer me now/ lotta close friends around me are cancerous now/ fiending for some inner peace, but knock a clan member out/ Blow! a lot of phonies, glorifying thug shit/ I’d rather read, Toni Morrison’s Beloved/”
I am proud to present a brand new 2nd Floor Samurais banger.. “Why You Do It” was produced by Japanese turntablist pioneer DJ $HIN of Turntable Troopers Entertainment. It was recorded amidst our Asia tour last year in Osaka, Japan. DJ $HIN runs the Skratch Labo DJ school.. if you’re in Kansai and you’re interested in becoming a DJ, this is mos def the place to check out!! It’s a comfortable environment with more hi-tech gadgets than I can explain..
Kensho Kuma Verse 1: “Got ma game from the smugglers turned businessmen/ it’s a deeper cognition that my words get you in/ yeah the 2nd floor image now worth dividends/ so my circle hella small ’cause the turf listening/ for the intel, hmmm how they get that foreign doe?/ how they tour overseas? what? they was poor before/ how they popping Dom P, and they pouring more?/ you can closely watch, but nothing I’m recording for/ coming with a price tag or sold through an auction/ the weight of the entire world I hold for my squadron/ kamikaze diary, told through my doctrine/ I rep perseverance, we don’t fold when we boxed in/ the broke kids happy with headlining local gigs/ the Samurais on 2nd floor be on some global shit/ monetize, don’t you forgot what the focus is/and we trust only family, not no associates/”
Here is a 2nd Floor Samurais music video which was also shot in Japan last year…
My Return of the Cypher squadron was invited to perform at the Broke Buddha Day Party 10:30 AM- 7:00PM on 04/28/18! Please come down to Score! Bar and Lounge in San Francisco!! This event celebrates a diverse array of soundscapes, playing everything from Hip Hop, Tribal Beats, Latin House, and all sorts of other eclectic tunes. Broke Buddha also features 3-D light reactive tapestries, live painters, and local designers… and TACOS!! Myself, Jane the Message, and the Road Warriors, will be performing sets throughout the day, and of course cyphers are open to our R.O.T.C. troopers. Shout outs to our comrade MC Awokeone for inviting R.O.T.C and to Jane the Message for producing the flier last minute!!
As you hopefully know, Return of the Cypher has become San Francisco’s premier Hip Hop weekly.. I proudly serve as a R.O.T.C. Director and I am extremely excited that our event is about to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. R.O.T.C. is your rightful home in the SF Bay Area, if you were raised by Hip Hop culture. Welcome home. We continue to operate as a FREE weekly. Come visit us Sunday nights starting at 9:00 at the Boom Boom Room in the historic Fillmore district of San Francisco.
Oakland Legionnaire‘s weekly Strictly Business party will be joining forces with R.O.T.C. on a monthly basis starting on 03/14/18. Every second Wednesday from midnight to 1:00AM will feature a R.O.T.C. cypher overseen by R.O.T.C. Director Unlearn the World. Shout outs to Foreign Legion and DJ Saurus!
During my Solo Shogun Stories Tour through France, I got down with the Smileyz Cheeky Chinky Crew.. they are an Asiatic Parisian crew representing Paris. They featured yours truly on “Asiatik Kings”.
Smilëyz Cheeky Chinky Crew- Asiatik Kings feat. Kensho Kuma
Production: Kody Babyghost for Wishing Light Music Label
Realization: Kevin Bantsimba
Shot on location in: France and Strasbourg, France
Camoes by: Architeknic, Noa, and King Siroko