This an hour long discussion on my experience in hiphop and a lotttt of info is crammed in there. It’s tough to touch upon everything all at once, but some major bullet points are discussed and explored here. Big ups to Q-Unique of The Arsonists for facilitating this and being such a gracious host. #StrangeFamous!

New shirt, new shirt, new shirt! 💀
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Show info at www.strangefamousrecords.com/events
Happy #StrangeFamousFriday! My new album is fully recorded but won’t be released until around March of 2027. Lots to figure out still. 🙏

More info on the album here: https://sfrstore.com/news/aupheus-returns-with-the-star-studded-high-artifice/

"‘It's Over’

The final track off of the High Artifice album features the revolutionary rap powerhouse, Lee Reed.

Despite the title it was the third track of the project to be recorded.

Lee being in Canada and me in the UK, we’d been chatting online since becoming Strange Famous label mates in 2018 as well as sharing some great conversations over Zoom in 2020 during those weird times of social isolation.

We went through a few beats and then finally settled on this one. Lee sent through these super fire vocals in April ’21.

I spent quite a bit of time on the beat trying out different ways of dirtying it up, running Lee’s vocals onto tape and running different elements of the beat through old gear, trying to nail the right level of grit to complement his killer flow. Hopefully I got there.

Big thanks and big ups to Lee Reed!

This is my portrait of him in charcoal, acrylic, spray paint and Photoshop." - Aupheus

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Words from Aupheus:

‘Deserts of the Pre-Present’ featuring the legendary Sole was the second collaboration that became a part of the High Artifice project after ‘Chemtrails’ with Illogic.

I’ve been a big fan of Sole’s work since his early Anticon releases. ’Selling Live Water’ and ‘Live from Rome’ in particular were always on heavy rotation. I’m currently thoroughly enjoying his latest album ‘Dads At The End Of The World’ with Televangel.

We’d exchanged some brief messages in the past but had never properly spoken. I reached out to him just before the pandemic kicked in Jan 2020.

We went through a few beat options and ended up going with one with this one. It uses an obscure sample that I found about 25 years but never found a successful way of using it until making this beat.

Sole recorded the vocals during the peak of the pandemic (“As for flattening the curve, somebody dig me a pit”)

Sole said that he’d been bumping lots of 90s rap at that time so had taken the opportunity to flip some styles he hadn’t really done before.

Big thanks and big ups to Sole!

I’m curious if Sage might comment on this issue. Canada has been consistently threatened by Trump in his second term. It seems to me the US (under Trump) has goals to annex and eventually absorb Canada.

This is not fiction. It’s from Trumps fat mouth. The US becoming the world nazi villain was not in my bingo cards. But it seems Trump is turning the world against the US. One man is reversing centuries of diplomacy which I don’t think can be repaired. And honestly, Americans are letting it happen.

It's been driving me nuts. Thing is I had a burned copy of a live album that was circulating within my friend group in the very early 2000's that wasn't Road Tested. It had songs that are on Road Tested and others that weren't, but some were different. I dont know, its been driving me insane that I can't find it anywhere online.

I think this song is now as old as I was when I wrote it. We sure as hell aren’t better off since the “War on Terror,” but Islamophobia is making a hell of a comeback in general. From what I’ve seen anyway. Anyway, heard any good conspiracies lately?

Hi, all.

I went to go put on Dick & Jane from the Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth album

Would love to learn why dope ass songs sometimes aren't included in albums on streaming services.

Can anybody shed some light on why this happens?

Much appreciated!

STRANGEFAMOUS!

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Bandcamp: https://strangefamousrecords.bandcamp.com/

"The first artist to lay down a verse on ‘Drive’ was the one and only Rob Sonic.

Sometime in the early 2000s while CD crate digging in Japan I came across the Operazor EP by his group Sonic Sum. At that point I wasn’t familiar with him or the group, but the dope cover art and a remix by one of my all-time favourite production duos The Opus was all I needed to take a shot on it. That record made me an instant fan.

Fast forward to 2023, ‘High Artifice’ was already taking shape. Sage Francis had asked who else I was hoping to get on the record and kindly reached out to Rob on my behalf.

I made this beat with Rob Sonic in mind - his super dope body of work was a big inspiration in the beat style; I was going for my own take on that chunky, raw, minimal, dirty synthy sound that I first heard on the opening track of ‘Operazor.’ He recorded this verse in December ’23.

Above is my portrait of him in charcoal, acrylic, spray paint and Photoshop. This is the first part of a triptych along with portraits of the other two featured artists on the track, Sage Francis and BLUEPRINT.

Big thanks and salutes to Rob Sonic!" - Aupheus

https://store.strangefamousrecords.com/search?q=Aupheus

📣 PRE-ORDERS are LIVE at https://store.strangefamousrecords.com/collections/awol-one-nick-andre

Welcome Awol One & Nick Andre to the SFR family!

Their debut collab album BUY ART FROM A HUMAN drops everywhere on August 28.

Pre-order the Vinyl / 💿 / 👕 exclusively at SFRstore

Digital pre-orders: http://StrangeFamousRecords.Bandcamp.com
(link to stream the first single in the comments!)

Featuring appearances from Sage Francis, Lyrics Born, Mr. Dibbs, Ceschi Ramos, Codefendants, GEL ROC, OldBoy Rhymes, Casey X. Waits, and more!