Everything together at last – The MC Sean Ward 2006-2011 box set

I have gone to painstaking lengths to find the original files for everything I’ve done in rap music:

• my first couple of tracks recorded in my bedroom
• live freestyles recorded by someone in the audience
• my first professional EP
• the first three singles to emerge out of my late night show on Harth TV

This is all totally independent material.  No record label, no government arts grants, no corporate sponsorship.  Just straight up hustlin’.

This collection is presented in anticipation of my upcoming full length MCSW Volume One mix tape.  That’s going to be done in time for the new season of The Sean Ward Show (live from Harth TV studios) starting on September 1.  It’s got to be done by then for two reasons.  First: we’re going to premiere music videos from the record throughout the upcoming season.  Second: The release of those songs sets the stage for the announcement of the record after that and how you’re going to decide what songs are on it.

This collection represents a big part of my life during the last five years.  It’s kind of emotional for me to see it all collected together for the first time.  I buried my dreams, fears, designs on success, and deepest questions in the lyrics and the beats.

FYI: the strongest feedback I got about this stuff was about the Paid To Party EP – Ladies, apparently it’s the best gym music you’ll find this year.

Listen to everything and download all of it at MC.seanward.net

Originally, I was going to call this record The Reinterpolator.

But what happened was that my stage band, Sean Ward & The Realness (me, Shaun Downey, and DJ Human Kebab from Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) was representing Toronto at a Toronto VS Hamilton CFL Grey Cup party (The Hammer was duly represented by B.A. Johnston).  The promoter gave us our fee plus a mittful of drink tickets, and told us that if we need more later we should just come find him.

We were wild party animals that night and we drank those drink tickets away pretty quickly.  I went to see the promoter about more drink tickets and he explained that he was out of drink tickets.  He asked if it was OK to hand me $60 cash instead.  I said that was OK.  I went back to the band and handed them each a twenzie.  We, enjoying the moment, adopted the catch phrase “paid to party” to describe what we do.  Paid to Party became the giggly catch phrase of the night and at some point I said “That should be the title of the record!”, and everyone said “Yes it should!”

The reason I bring up the story of the title is because you can now listen to my rap EP – Paid to Party - on Grooveshark!

Click here to download a .ZIP file of the whole record in MP3 format – including a Digital Booklet complete with full lyrics!

Watch for the new mixtape coming soon…

Listen to The 4th Annual Sean Ward Christmas Record: Download audio file (Christmas10.mp3)

LINER NOTES:

Christmas is the most magical time of the year, and here I present a truly magical gift for all of my friends, fans, and supporters out there: The 4th Annual Sean Ward Christmas Record.

2010 was an incredible year filled with discovery & growth.  Twitter & Social Media allowed me to connect with amazing new people who now mean the world to me, while growing even tighter with those who have been with me for years.

If you’ve been watching my videos, reaching my comics, or checking out my blog in 2010, The 4th Annual Sean Ward Christmas Record is for you.  I hope it gives you a warm feeling as the weather gets cold out there, joined as I am by my nephews Columb and Ruhl (aged 7 & 9), two genuine kids looking forward to Christmas.

Merry Christmas, and all the best wishes for a Happy New Year.

Click here to download:
THE FOURTH ANNUAL SEAN WARD CHRISTMAS RECORD
(4:16, 6.2 megabytes)

BONUS TRACKS

CHRISTMAS FLOWS ’10
(0:42, 1 megabyte)

You can listen to previous years’ Christmas Records too!

One of Toronto’s finest funk & soul DJs, Splattermonkey, released his newest DJ Mix and named it after my comics series – SUPER PARTY!

Splattermonkey hosts Pass the Butter every Wednesday night at Andy Poolhall in Toronto.

Listen to DJ Splattermonkey’s Super Party mix (hit play to see the amazing track listing):

Here is my exclusive one-on-one interview with the Juno Award winner

Press Play
↓

starring
Sean Ward as a reporter and
Jennica Beshiri as LIGHTS

♪ Check it out on the Bite Daily blog ♫

☆

♫ Go Behind the Scenes ♪

☆

♪ Check out Lights at iamlights.com ♫

☆

It’s got Big Boi from Outkast in it!

Rhymefest & Mark Ronson – Dancin’ Machine Remix

Download this:

This is a song to celebrate Pancake Tuesday, a very special holiday to honor the anniversary of the invention of pancakes, otherwise known as flapjacks and hot cakes. They were invented by Duncan Hines.

Sing-along Lyrics:

Pancake Tuesday is back again
I’ll have my blueb’ry, I’ll have mine plain
I’ll have ‘em with eggs, I’ll have ‘em with bacon
I smell breakfast is what you’re makin’
At dinner time… It’s plain to see
That you should come over, have pancakes with me
‘Cauze it’s true… I don’t want pancakes unless I’m havin’ ‘em with you
Well OK, I’ll just have one but don’t tell nobody ’cause they
Won’t understand
How I’m a pancake/eggs/bacon lovin’ man
Don’t take it wrong
If by the time you get here, the pancakes is gone
But don’t cry
I’ll whip up some more. My cakes will make you high

There is one inarguable ‘biggest influence on pop culture’, and that is The Beatles. There are two contenders to the title of biggest influence on pop culture since The Beatles, and those contenders are Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan.

‘Meet The Beatles’ was Inevitable

Both The Wu and J-Hova are central to the mainstream embrace and popularization of hip hop in the 90s and 00s. But until very recently, only Jigga-Man has been blended with The Beatles. When Producer Danger Mouse’s visionary THE GREY ALBUM dropped in 2004, remixing Jay-Z’s entire Black Album with beats made only out of samples from The Beatles’ White Album, it was a sensation that started a variety of trends which would shape popular taste to the present day, and allow both acts to entrench their dominance and influence in ways neither could have predicted.

Now comes Wu-Tang VS Beatles – Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers. This is a mash-up album by DJ Tom Caruana. Upon discovering it, I tweeted that it was my two favorite things in life coming together, and I was extremely happy to report that it is an amazing and richly entertaining album (I personally feel like it’s better than The Grey Album, but that is open to debate and will vary by individual)

An Unlikely Pairing, Unless you Know your Stuff

I thought I was the only one who loved The Beatles and Wu-Tang equally, but Caruana really knows his stuff. The use and juxtaposition of interview clips turns the listening of the record into an education in both groups’ histories, a comparison of their rise to fame, and a celebration of their legacy.

The album samples Beatles songs, solo Beatle songs, and covers of Beatles songs which means that Wu-Tang VS The Beatles presents a much more diverse listening experience than the gimmick might suggest. It’s full of witty and fun pairings, like the piano from You Never Give me Your Money under I’ve Got Your Money, or using You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) for M.E.T.H.O.D. Man. At twenty-seven tracks, it’s a bit big to take in on first listen but if you love these groups anywhere near as much as I do, you will really enjoy listening again and again, uncovering the layers, and seeing your favorites emerge.

Comparisons with The Grey Album – an “instant classic”, according to Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan of NYU – are inevitable, but Wu-Tang VS The Beatles takes the idea to different place than the limited scope of The Grey Album and becomes something very different. It might not end up being as big of an earth-shaker as The Grey Album, if only because The Grey Album was the pioneer in the mash-up album genre.  But Wu-Tang VS The Beatles equals or betters The Grey Album in three key areas:

BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS:

Encore and 99 Problems on The Grey Album are way better than the original Black Album versions. Here you get similarly superior versions of Labels (remixed with McCartney’s Momma Miss America), Clientele Kidd (using a reggae cover of Live and Let Die), and Uzi (chopping up It’s Getting Better, Skiing from Harrison’s Wonderwall soundtrack, and more), among others.  I’m thinking that there are many fans who love both groups, and this record is an absolute treat for them. And get ready to die of awesomeness when you hear the Wu VS Beatles Outro closing the proceedings.

IT’S GOOD:

It’s one thing to lay some Wu-Tang acapellas over of Beatles songs. It’s another to take the time to make beats out of Beatles songs. It’s yet another to create this insanely detailed, beautifully produced, and eminently replayable sound collage of official release quality.

IT’S EXCITING AND NOVEL:

Technical brilliance and entertainment value are the yin and yang that make or break a project like this. Without one, the other is rendered moot. Wu-Tang VS The Beatles hits both notes with grace, ease, and excitement.

My only complaint about Wu-Tang VS The Beatles: Tom Caruana did it first! I’ve got an idea for a Beatles Meets Wu-Tang project and I never thought others were seeing the parallels that I see.

Download or listen to the album at producer Tom Caruana’s official site - http://www.teasearecords.net/wuvsbeatles

Further reading: check out cover designer Logan Walters’ series re-imagining classic Wu album covers as Blue Note-era sleeves – http://website13156.com/?p=193

What do you think about Wu-Tang VS The Beatles?  A natural fit or an unlikely pairing?

The other night I was digging around in my hard drive, I don’t even remember what I was looking for. I found a treasure chest full of old songs: half-finished numbers, freestyles, and stuff that I had forgotten how much I liked it when I did it.

Here are a couple of gems you’ve never heard before (both of these are freestyles, made up as I went along):

Memory Lane Freestyle
Download audio file (Sean-Ward-Memory-Lane-Freestyle.mp3)

I Needed You
Download audio file (Sean-Ward-I-Needed-You.mp3)

And some stuff you ain’t heard in a long time:

Funky Shit #1
Download audio file (Sean-Ward-Funky-Shit.mp3)

Say Goodbye
Download audio file (Sean-Ward-Say-Goodbye.mp3)

Basically I took everything, from the Paid to Party EP to all of this unheard stuff to stuff that hasn’t been heard in a while and put it all on the SONGS page at www.seanwardraps.com

Let me know how you dig it! Comment below!

photo: dopealot.com