“The Independent Hip Hop Artist” is a musical representation of Kraze One’s manifestation in Hip Hop culture. The majority of the project was overseen, written, produced, performed, and engineered by DJ Kraze One who upon its completion felt that he has reached a personal pinnacle in both life and music. Prior to recording this project Kraze One had achieved several personal goals within Hip Hop culture which can be broken down in to three different areas.

In the first field of Hip Hop production Kraze One’s compositions as both a solo artist and with vocalist Aniis Le Neve were released with critical acclaim via Apeman Records (www.discogs.com/label/4636-Apeman-Records). This opened further production opportunities for Kraze One who was commissioned to create several remixes for the DMC label’s Phat Beats series during 2001 (djkrazeone.bandcamp.com/album/dmc-remix-collection-free-download-2001). Kraze One was professionally active as a producer between 1996 and 2003 which reflects the time period when all the beats that make up this project were created.

In 2002 as Hip Hop production techniques began to move away from samples Kraze One’s creative focus shifted to the field of writing and recording rap vocals. Kraze One’s foundations as a rapper date back to the early 1990s and for three decades Kraze One maintained a constant presence as a rap vocalist forming part of several local Hip Hop crews the most notably being True Element (soundcloud.com/trueelement/tracks) which eventually evolved into a full live outfit.

Although most of Kraze One’s recordings and releases as a rap vocalist were confined to local independent projects, between 2012 and 2014 Kraze One wrote and performed several rap verses on compositions coordinated and released by collective artists 32 Troop (www.discogs.com/artist/94893-32-Troop) and Planet Of The Fakes (www.discogs.com/artist/3485691-Planet-Of-The-Fakes). After debuting as a rap vocalist outside of the local music scene Kraze One began to collate his first solo Hip Hop project since the mid-1990s.

Most of the vocal recordings that make up “The Independent Hip Hop Artist” were written and recorded during the 2010s. The accapellas created during the initial recording sessions were saved and used to collate the project during 2013. The final field in which Kraze One was able to utilise as a creative outlet during the collation of “The Independent Hip Hop Artist” was the use of scratches and cuts which can be heard throughout the project.

Since becoming a Hip Hop practitioner Kraze One had ambitions to explore the artform of scratching and mixing records. Like his achievements as a rap vocalist Kraze One had also maintained a constant presence as a Hip Hop DJ on both the local and national music circuit. During the late noughties Kraze One began providing scratches and cuts for several local rappers during both live shows and recording sessions. Kraze One was able to draw upon this experience when constructing the compositions for “The Independent Hip Hop Artist”.

Creatively utilising the above three fields as a Hip Hop practitioner “The Independent Hip Hop Artist” recording project came into existence. Its creation continues to provide Kraze One with an overwhelming sense of completion and achievement. The project was also recorded, mixed, and mastered independently allowing Kraze One full creative control on not just the vocals, scratches, and production, but also the mixing, mastering, and overall sound of the project.

“The Independent Hip Hop Artist” also features vocal performances and contributions by rappers, Fathomless One, Killa Joul, Paranoia MC, and singer Sautee all of whom wrote and performed their sections of the project. The beats to the recording entitled “Disrespect is kept in check” were produced and arranged by DJ Maniphest and feature backup vocals by J*. This recording was created during 2003 and remained in the DJ Kraze One archives for several years before being included as part of this project.