Epidemic (HexOne + Tek-Nition) & Dreamtek: The Bassment Tapes Vol. 1: Write To Remain Violent

The first installment of a "Bassment Tapes" series, each including a different guest emcee and sonic atmosphere as well an assortment of different producers. "Write To Remain Violent" takes Epidemic back to its hardcore roots with a vengeance. Chicago native: Dreamtek joins forces with the lyrical duo as the three emcees go toe to toe in a battle of lyrical supremacy over hardcore boom bap production. Producers include Double Lyfe, The Loop Holes, Giallo Point, DJ Qvali, One-Take, and 5th Element, while guest features include Efeks, Robust and DJ Tha Boss. Each "Bassment Tapes" project is specifically intended for a 12" release (hence the 30 min length) and will be initially released as a limited edition cassette tape.

EPIDEMIC

Epidemic is a Hip-Hop group comprised of two MC's: Hex One and Tek-nition. The two MC's, then teenagers, met during their early years of high-school. Immediately after learning of each other's ability to rap and love of Hip-hop music, they kicked it off and grew to become very close friends. Hex One (Christian Ortega) was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. At a very early age he and his family relocated to Elmhurst, Queens in New York City, where he first became exposed to and inevitably fell in love with the Hip-Hop culture. Around the age of 13, His family moved again, this time to Miami, Florida. Tek-nition (Edwin Canela), on the other hand, was born and raised in South-Florida having lived most of his life in Homestead.

Both MC's were born in the month of April in 1989 and oddly enough, transferred to the same high-school within a few days of each other. Although both were already fairly skilled, neither Hex nor Tek had fully developed their specific styles of rhyming upon initially meeting one another. However, when they began writing rhymes together they eventually formed similar sounding styles that complemented each other very well. Often during class, they would pass each other a sheet of paper and have contests to see who can keep the same rhyme scheme going the longest. Tek-nition was always an incredible freestyler and as a result, he and Hex became favorites at the cafeteria of their school. Both would simultaneously amaze crowds with complex rhymes and clever punchlines.

Eventually they began recording music, and in 2006, under the name of Epidemic, they put together a mixtape, in which they recorded their rhymes over classic Hip-hop beats. The project however, went unreleased. Displeased with the quality of both the recordings and the beats, Hex moved to Arizona to pursue a degree in audio engineering in 2010. After graduating and moving to Los Angeles for a short time that same year, Hex decided it was time to finally make things happen. The first thing he set out to do was remake and release the mixtape as an actual album. Hex immediately thought of and contacted a beat maker with whom Epidemic had collaborated with in the past, Las Vegas producer 5th Element. Only he could supply the gritty hard-hitting production needed to back Epidemic's aggressive lyrics. 5th Element agreed, and after a few months of work, they had crafted what some call a modern-day Hip-hop classic.

In the end of 2011, a friend of Luxembourg producer Jesse James stumbled upon Epidemic and immediately introduced them to each other through a social media platform. Shortly thereafter, they began collaborating on songs without any serious plans of making a complete project. After months of working together they had accumulated a substantial amount of music together an decided that a full-length would be a good idea. Epidemic's sophomore album Monochrome Skies was born.

DREAMTEK

Dreamtek always had a passion for music. Raised on the blues since a "youngin" he immediately fell in love with Hip Hop at an early age. To him, Hip Hop could reach out and touch your soul similar to how the blues could. Since then he has been on a quest to preserve the essence of raw, real Hip Hop and could care less what anybody thinks about it.

Starting out in the early 90's in Freestyle Cyphers across the city, he sharpened his skills for years before ever touching a pen and writing it down. In the year 1997 he started actually writing raps and recording. His first work was of bad recording quality as expected back then, but the message was there. With clever wordplay and hard hitting battle reminiscent punch lines, DreamTek attempted to make a name for himself in the local scene.

Reality hit and he learned fast that nobody is willing to let you record for free when you have no money. Nobody is going to give you beats. Nobody is going to hook anything up. Everybody in this city is out for self and looking for help making moves proved no easy task. This harsh reality is what initially gave him the idea of creating his own label. A label where like minded individuals can take care of everything themselves and look out for one another. This is when Seven Oddities Records came to life.

Dream continued to teach himself the ins and outs of the studio from producing to scratching/DJ'ing, mixing/mastering, videography/editing and anything else related to the entire back end of this beast. To this day, Seven Oddities Records handles all its work in house and never have to outsource when finishing up a project.

Dreams style of rhyming and producing are widely considered some of the hardest amongst the Underground Hip Hop scene in Chicago. This man is against anything commercial rap and fake. All about the real, rough, rugged and raw Hip Hop he was raised on. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.