This is the classic CTRAFFIK and Caliba street anthem that was inspired by the fans. Whenever we’d be out promoting on the street or performing at our shows, the crowds would chant “Tha Union is on Yo Blocc!” After a while we figured it would be a great chorus idea. On this track, the sound of people screaming “Blocc” during the hook is sampled off the film footage from one of our live shows.


The beat was produced by the Production Duo known as Street Scores. Unfortunately one of the two producers for this record passed away right after we released this single.

We recorded and mixed most of “On Yo Blocc” at the On Point Entertainment protools studio in Lil Haiti (Shouts to Buggah tha Guvnah). The track also features Balli who brings his Jamaican Dance Hall flavor to the beat.


Being that Miami is a Mix of Black, Latino and Caribbean influences, this bi-lingual hip hop track represents our city perfect and is one of my favorites to perform live.

Lyrics:
Intro (Balli):Tha Union,We’re rolling with Tha Union
Tha Union is On Yo Blocc, We’re on Yo Blocc Yeah, Yeah, Yeah


Chorus:
Tha Union Is On Yo Blocc (Blocc, Blocc, Blocc-a)
Tha Unio is On Yo Blocc, Tha Union is on Yo Blocc


Verse 1 (Caliba)
I’m the industry’s enemy but the streets love me
Cuz I don’t follow your rules but my name buzzing
Now who that is?
Caliba Caliba
Who that is?
Caliba Caliba
Who That is? Caliba Caliba Caliba Caliba Caliba Calibaaaa
And I’m Killing the Internet, I got a cyber buzz
They can call me Roger Troutman cuz I get so much Computer Love
But don’t get it twisted bra’
Not new to this business shit
I was ripping campuses when pampers you was pissing in
Me and Traffik got the blocc locked down
From Perrine to Goulds, Liberty City to Chico Town
We stay on the paper chase
I’m in to buying big weight
Then moved to Florida and made it real-er state
Cuz!


Chorus


Verse 2 (CTRAFFIK)
No me importa, no me importa un cajar-ashun
Oye mi herman-ashun,
Me cago en su madre-ashun
Es el Colombi-ashun from Little Havan-ashun
Con el encend-ashun,
Partiendote el cul-ashun
Soci-ashun!
This is for my Chicos and my Haitians
That Dade-County fire,
Live Blazing up the nation
Police come around?
No Informa-shun
Excuse me con el I’m sorry
Yo No Espik Ingl-ashun
CTRAFFIK that chico you know
I’m on the blocc with tha U.N.I.O.N. and its on
We got the street team strong
Got the rank in the zone
Any blocc and spot
That you on we on,
Because…


Chorus


Verse3 (Caliba and Ctraffik)
I’m on the Blocc like hood rat chicks and gang groupies
They cheering us on cuz we living like gangsta movies


I’m on the Blocc like EBT, Bootleg DVDs, Boycotting McD’s
Petty Thieves and robberies


Listen, I’m on the Blocc like eighths and O’s by Arab stores
Known to take your H. and O.’s, You know!


I’m on the Blocc like a dunk with the rims big as hell
I’m on the Blocc like those immigrants that just got here


I’m on the Blocc like dope holes, more dope sold
The streets is talking, that’s why my flow’s so dope, oh!


I’m on your Blocc like Crime, your Blocc like weed smoke
Not your favorite rapper he behind the VIP rope!


Chorus


Outro (Balli)
Tha Union is On Yo Blocc, We’re on Yo Blocc Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

This has got to be one of my favorite tracks ever because its so personal. First off, I looped a sample from Sade’s song “King Of Sorrow“. Everything that Sade drops I buy and I had always hoped to rip one of her tracks.


Secondly, the two verses speak about actual people I encountered at that time (2003-2004) who were so fake that they inspired the lyrics. I had just came back from doing an out-of-town show with Caliba when the rappers who gave us a ride took us to the house of one of their artists to drop him off first. This was the incident in the gated community, way the fuck outside of Miami. Right there on the sidewalk in front of his pristine suburb dwelling I started freestyling the hook “if you living in the suburbs don’t talk about guns and crack…” It all just came so natural to me. This guy had just dropped a mixtape, acting like Tony Montana, etc. etc. The first verse explains it all in vivid detail.


The second character is a guy who showed up to one of our shows down in Homestead, FL asking to be a part of Tha Union. I thought he was cool at first, kind of a bum, but a friend gave him a ride and was introducing him to us as a favor. I don’t judge anyone, especially when they are down on their luck and trying to make it. But his attitude stunk. Later on as we left Homestead we popped his CD demo into the car stereo and immediately were punished by his bullshit lyrics about driving a Bentley and wearing gold chains!!! I swear to you, I never hit eject or ever flung a fucking disc out the window so fast. HOLY SHIT! I hate crappy commercial rap music, plus I just met the fucking guy and he was bumming a ride because he’s so broke. After meeting him, my second verse was in the bag.


On the outro I was touching on the subject of conflict Diamonds and African Gold, way before Kanye West made it a big deal (which I’m glad that he did). The basic premise of this track is what Ali G always says “Keep it Real”. Enjoy!


(Note: I have not seen or heard from those two fake-ass rappers since. Goes to show that they wanted that “Get rich quick” song to pop-off but gave up on the music biz when it got too rough)

Here is a classic from my debut album The BumRush. I can still remember the day when I made this beat, writing the lyrics and the hook just came naturally sine the track was so crazy. On iTunes and Napster this song has become one of the most popular tracks off The BumRush. I touched on the subject of gentrification and a little bit of social justice. This is pretty much a protest song against stereotypes and barriers put in place to keep inner-city, lower-income folks from achieving “the American Dream” (whatever that means). I was fresh out of high school and still mad at the world. Otherwise, this is a banger that you can play loud as fuck!

This song is from the Block Politics mixtape featuring DJ Epps and it marks a turning point in my political philosopy. It was recorded and released in late 2005 when I was still a HARDCORE Democrat, trying to promote the idea of using the 2006 midterm elections as a last chance to remove the Bush Crime Family from office. Little did I know that the Democrats WOULD win that election, take control of congress and then let that asshole Bush and his fucking buddies walk off without a scratch. No impeachment! Back then I was naive enough to believe that the Democrats actually stood for the Constitution, the rule of law, justice, (yadda, yadda, etc and a bag of cookies). We now know that the Democrats are a bunch of coward ass motherfuckers and that the Republicans are still assholes. Fuck them both!

Recently when George Carlin died I was watching a bunch of his videos on YouTube and heard him say that he too abandoned the Democratic Party early on in his life, probably for similar reasons. If you want to know where I stand politically these days then listen to Common Sense. Peace!

This track was written and recorded when Tha Union and NBZ (DJ Epps) were the official Miami street team for G-Unit and Interscope Records. Daddy Yankee had just got signed to Interscope and this instrumental and track reached my hands before it hit the streets or the radio. I basically flipped it and spoke on some of the political stuff that was happening in Colombia at the time. If it wasn’t for the Interscope promotion gig I probably would not have recorded on a pure reggaeton track but I think with Snoop and DY on it the result was not half bad.

About
This song was another that was not written down but created as I rehearsed it over and over in my head… building it up until the story and the rhymes were catchy enough that I’d remember them again in the morning. I think I was obsessed with this song for months while I would freestyle a bit of it everyday to make it come to life. I have to confess that Wikipedia was used to get my facts right even though I already had an idea of how the verses would connect and which artists and genres I would mention. The song is based on the question “Where did Hip Hop come from”. I usually would reply “Do you want the short answer or the long answer?” The quick answer is “the Bronx in the 70′s” – namely DJ Kool Herc. But the long answer is this song, where I try to make the case that Hip Hop is as eternal as the first drum beat from the first Human beings to walk the Earth. If you got a beat and rhymes you got Hip Hop. Drawing on the cave walls was the graffiti, etc. I also try to make the connection that Hip Hop is a result of the evolution of America’s great music genres like Jazz, Rock, Blues and Ragtime. Its been like 30 years since Hip Hop was “born” and it’s world-wide impact proves that it’s one of the greatest forms of expression that mankind has ever created…. Bitchez!!!

About:
This is one of the newer songs that I recorded to complete Rushed Again and the idea for the title came from an audio recording of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”. I knew I wasn’t just going to sit there and try to read the whole thing myself I downloaded the MP3 and noticed that they named the file “tpaine” and quickly thought of T-Pain the “rappa turnt sanga”. The concept of this song came from the content of “Common Sense” and other things I’ve read that lead me to believe that once upon a time the USA really was a free country. A close friend of mine heard the track and commented that it sounds like “anarchy” and I responded, “yeah, that sounds about right”. The woman speaking at the end of the track is Becky Akers who was interviewed for the Lew Rockwell podcast, you can hear the full interview here. That’s some crazy shit the she’s speaking about. I’m just trying to awaken a few heads to the thought of demanding more liberty in our lives. You don’t really ever loose your liberties, you just let the State take them away because of your own ignorance or fear.

About:
Back in early 2007 when the immigration debate got ugly and Latinos took to the streets in massive protests I recorded this song which was later included in the Rushed Again Mixtape. Basically there was a group of idiots who called themselves the “Minutemen” (based on the colonial watchmen) who camped out by the southern border of the US in order to catch some illegal immigrants. This song was my reaction to them as you can tell from the title. I consider Fuck the Minutemen kind of like a sequel to the song Ole Ole Ole. In the photo (taken by my homie Jon Luna) I attended one of those immigration protests down in Little Havana. On that day I showed up with a sign that read “Me Cago En Bush” but one of the event organizers literally tried to snatch the sign out of my hands because he didn’t like it. I stood my ground and asked (in Spanish) “why even bother coming to this country in search of freedom if we can’t even excersize it at all?” The crowd that witnessed this all cheered me on and agreed with my argument but the vibe was that they all wanted the rally to be solely a pro-Immigration event rather than an anti-Bush one. Long story short, we walked the streets of Little Havana and returned to the Orange Bowl (when it was still there) and the grand finale featured the same dumb-fuck republican on a megaphone getting the crowd hyped up. His speech ended with loud “Viva Bush” cries which part of the crowd joined in to say it loud with him. I’m not sure if he did that on purpose to piss me off (and my kind who were there) but it sure was a slap in our faces! Fuckers…

About:
This was another track that pretty much was created in a headshot (freestlye) manner where I would memorize the song as I went along. This helps to keep the flow matching the beat at all times. The song starts off as a basic club track but progresses into a full blown protest song were tax evasion is pretty much promoted. Rappers these days rather beef with each other but none ever try battling the state! Crazy shit! It was created in 2007 but recorded in 2009 (I think) for the Rushed Again CD.

About:
This is one of those songs that I basically headshot (freestyle) over the beat, over and over, until I had it memorized. I’m not even sure the lyrics to this song exist anywhere on a piece of paper. In the song “Sick Hook” I explain the reason why I hardly had time to sit and write songs but in this case it works better because if the song lyrics aren’t sticking in your head then it probably isn’t catchy enough. I had to do a lot of research to make sure I got my facts right regarding the history of the Bush Crime Family. There is so much more to this story that the Bush Crime Family video itself has to take up some of the slack. But even then we’ve only scratched the surface. The beat is from MF Doom. When I first saw the video for All Caps I imagined that this beat could work as a story-telling song instead. At barely 2 minutes in length I had to cut to the chase and tell the Bush Crime Family story in a creative and direct – yet entertaining – way. I urge everyone to research this story themselves and come up with their own conclusion. That’s why I made sure to mention at the begging “based on a true story”, because only time will tell how much more will be revealed about this treacherous family of goons and war profiteers.

About:
This music video is for the song Bush Crime Family from the CD Rushed Again. The video itself is modeled after the Jib Jab style of political-musical-videos. My actual hand was used as a stunt double for both LBJ and Dick Cheney. Bush, LBJ and JFK are all wearing the same suit. I originally wanted Daddy Bush (HW) to wear the suit but it was funnier to leave him in a school boy uniform throughout the video. In the JFK scene I included Fidel Castro to hint at the Bay of Pigs and Marylin Monroe to suggest that JFK wasn’t exactly a great husband or model citizen. When Daddy Bush is trading with the “enemy” the Ayatollah and Oliver North represent Iran Contra, Manuel Noriega represents the Panamanian drug running (which explains the packs of cocaine mixed in with the money bags that Bush receives as payment) and Osama Bin Laden represents the arming of the Afghan Guerrillas (Taliban/Mujahideen) by the CIA when they were at war with the Soviets. When Hitler is sitting on the skulls he is wearing a Russian foot-soldier uniform decorated with his Nazi shit to look like it’s his own. It has tough getting full bodies for these characters in a form that we could animate. There are so many small details in this video that you gotta watch it a few times to catch it all.

About:
Recorded in 2001 for The BumRush album.
Produced, Written, Mixed: CTRAFFIK

Commentary:
I think the idea for this song came from an incident I had in a Napster chat room (around the year 2000 or something) where some person called me a “beaner” as an insult. All I remember is that I went off on the asshole and used the argument that Latinos have added lots to the American culture and that the “gringos” who want us deported are just a bunch of hypocrites because they too were once immigrants. People still tell me that this is one of their favorite songs from The BumRush.