One love to Philadelphia Freeway for shouting myself, Murs, and Living Legends on his new track, “Master of Ceremony”.

Freeway Shouts out The Grouch in new video! was originally published on The Grouch on February 20, 2012 02:56am

I recently recorded with Santana‘s trumpeter and Grammy® Award Winner, Bill Ortiz for his hip hop tinged album, “Winter in America“. The track that I’m featured on is the title track, “Winter in America” which is an homage to the 1973 song of the same name by the recently passed icon, Gil Scott Heron.

The album also features Zumbi (of Zion I) and K-Maxx, as well as fellow Santana member (and 11 time Grammy® Award Winner) Tony Lindsey, and iconic poet/vocalist Linda Tillery, featured with a spoken word performance of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Nobel Peace Prize speech.

Bill Ortiz had this to say about reaching out to myself and Zumbi, “Carlos has always used music to inspire and bring people together, I follow in that tradition. I’ve been really encouraged by some of the Bay Area hip-hop artists like The Grouch and Zumbi who make music with enlightened lyrics. We often celebrate ignorance in our society, so I wanted to celebrate consciousness.”

Bill Ortiz’s album drops on January 16, 2012 direct to fans and worldwide in physical and digital outlets on January 31, 2012. For more info on Bill Ortiz, head to BillOrtiz.com

Little known fun fact, Bill Ortiz played the trumpet on the classic Souls of Mischief song, “93 ’til Infinity”.

The Grouch featured on Bill Ortiz (Santana Trumpeter) album was originally published on The Grouch on January 5, 2012 02:52am

We just restocked the store with some brand new items. There’s a few new T-Shirt styles, slipmats for the vinyl heads, beanies to keep your head warm, some infant clothes along with The Definitive Collection Box Set and The Grouch USB!

Head over to the STORE 

New Merchandise! was originally published on The Grouch on December 31, 2011 09:03am

I’ll be joining Rebelution for their January tour in support of their new album, “Peace of Mind“. In addition to myself, Pep Love of Hieroglyphics will be on the tour as well. I’ll be on the East Coast leg of the tour, so if you’re out on the East Coast come say what’s up! Dates and Facebook links below. Tickets go on sale November 14, 2011. Stay tuned for more info!

Peace of Mind Tour Dates:

01/11/12 – Killington, VT @ Pickle Barrel | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/12/12 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/13/12 – New York, NY @ Best Buy Theater | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/14/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/15/12 – Silver Springs, MD @ The Fillmore | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/18/12 – Norfolk, VA @ The Norva | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/19/12 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/20/12 – Jacksonville, FL @ Mavericks at the Landing | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/21/12 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/22/12 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/25/12 – Ybor City, FL @ The Ritz | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/26/12 – Charlestion, SC @ Music Farm | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/27/12 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade | FB RSVP | Tickets

01/28/12 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom | FB RSVP | Tickets

The Grouch Joins Rebelution for January Tour! was originally published on The Grouch on December 31, 2011 01:04am

Every year at around this time, it’s a tradition of many to sit back and reflect. People analyze their year, their successes, their struggles, their accomplishments and everything in between. Why? Most people do this to prepare for a new year, to get ready for personal and professional improvements and to reach new goals or milestones. It’s crucial for many to look back before moving forward. Understanding this, HipHopDX decided to track down several emcees to discuss the year that was and preview the year that will be.

Crooked I, Phonte, Saigon, J-Zone, Fashawn, Brother Ali, The Grouch, Eligh and Talib Kweli took time out to speak about all of this. They discussed their challenges and triumphs of 2011, both personally and professionally. They also candidly shared their greatest lessons of the year, courageous enough to be as personal in interviews as they are in their rhymes. Now, while looking back is helpful and insightful, looking forward is also vital. So, each emcee took time to preview the year that is to come, sharing what fans can expect from 2012.

HipHopDX: Describe this last year for yourself (both professionally and personally). What thoughts stand out most for you? What has it all felt like for you?

Eligh: Oh, wow, dude. Well, 2011 was quite a year for me, man. A lot of musical ups and personal…I wouldn’t say downs but transformation. I came into this year doing a tour and started working with Amp [Live] on this Therapy At 3 album. What’s crazy is after that album was done, mixed and printed, ready to go, all the stuff I wrote about on that album, I literally started going through the shit. To make a long story short, I dealt with some terrible anxiety problems. For two months straight, I couldn’t even drive my car. I couldn’t go to the store. I’d never had these problems in my life. All this shit I was going through, I wrote about. So, through this tour, every day I’ve gotten better every day. I’m 95% better than where I was. No matter what else is going on in my life, I’m so grateful to be this much better. This year has been crazy and important for me. This album has been so well received, this tour has been awesome and the shit I’ve gone through has opened my eyes to life in a whole different way. I stopped smoking cigarettes and I took six years clean from everything else in October. I stopped drinking caffeine, too. My last two things were cigarettes and caffeine and I dropped them both so this was a very good year for me.

The Grouch: I started off the year with focusing on Heroes in the City of a Healing Nation with Zion I and we had a great run with that. Then, I went back to Maui [Hawaii], where I live and tried to just family life it up for as long as I could. I was knowing that I had to come back out in December for this tour. So, I had to think of something great and since I was working with Zion I already, we wanted to get one more push on that. Eligh was having his new album with Amp Live. Plus, whenever I’m with Zion I, people are like, “You should bring Eligh next time” and when I’m with Eligh, they’re like, “Where’s Zion I?” So, the Z&G&E just came to me so I was like, “Let’s push this.” Eligh and Amp’s record makes this fresh and then we got Evidence, man so I was super juiced. I was like, “Who’s gonna be the opener? Who’s record do I like in Hip Hop right now?” It’s Evidence. I never spent too much time with him but this was a perfect opportunity. I met him a dozen times over the years and we’d see each other in passing but I feel real good about selecting him. We had a great time on tour.

Read the full article on HipHopDX.com

The Grouch & Eligh reflect on 2011 with HipHopDX.com was originally published on The Grouch on December 29, 2011 09:27pm