early 2023 kev asked if i wanted to go to japan with him and i was like absolutely. he had mentioned we would be playing some gigs as he expanded his weekly LA beat night, scenario, to international heights.

we get to tokyo and we kick it with fumitake tamura aka bun. that first night it was crucial we stay up as late as possible despite fatigue so we could adapt quickly to being on a different time. i loved this idea. we stalked the night, bun and kev graciously putting me onto much game.

we continued on this way for a few days. we got ill on stages, we dug for records, we ate like bon vivants, we took every measure of train available, hopped cabs, hoofed it, we kept belly laughing. i simply stayed open and kept soaking up game. there are adults our age who have dedicated their whole lives to torture and murder. our fellowship felt magical insofar as we have only created moving works of art in an effort to illustrate the oneness of experience beneath all identity.

i have been a fan of bun for going on ten years. we collaborated about 5 years ago on some work at the geffen contemporary MOCA for our friend, genius poet, harmony holiday. we were connecting hank dumas’ works to beats and spittin them proper.

to finally connect with tamura in person, in his country, because of music as well as our mutual friend and colleague, kev, was such an overwhelmingly positive experience. it made my mind surge to think of the years it took to get to this point.

i wanted to make a work with bun that highlights the trust of the rapper / producer relationship. tamura’s compositions pushed me like nothing yet has, his conception of what my sound could be left me needing to actualize it. i followed blindly and excitedly. we worked with diligence through the year.

this album more than any other i’ve made encapsulates my vision of rap music. it is free. it is international. it is beloved. it is sharp and silly. it presents one way and participates another. it flexes and is flexible. there is study and there is the mystical. slices and crumbs. it’s something my whole family listened to and enjoyed first.
thank you for working with me bun.

i asked kenny to mix it because he can always hear what i hope to be. and he knows what ruby yacht is on a molecular level. that’s the essence of love, to see something as it wants to be seen. thank you for mixing this record ken.

as always, kev slid on the master and as always he did a lot more than that. his guidance the last decade has been invaluable to my development as an artist, as an entrepreneur and as a person. thank you for bringing me to japan with you and for believing in the ruby yacht kev.

our collaborators are all brilliant. self jupiter was the first person i could hear on it with me. i knew i needed to tap the poetic depths with the og and check back in since ornette’s swan song. to keep it ruby yachting, as i tend to do, i had to get sha ray on the mid-2000s, direct to dvd, Blackcentric, martial arts movie beat and it paid off. my nigga is a falcon. eldon aka ras buckets pulled up with somn nyabinghi and prayed on the whole world before he tucked us in. hprizm has been a guiding star for my work since the formation of ruby yacht. (big ups hemlock for putting me on). i think the entire crux of this project is in the hprizm verse on begonias

“my pops sat me down
said, son
be a 1 of 1.
i painted abstract after that”

there were no cuts. every song written is presented.

the First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap.

me? i love life.

-RF
2024