I am from Brooklyn, NY. Born and raised. Spent most of my life here. Moving to another state was a big deal for me. Away from everything that I knew. My family, my friends, my job, my music, my city. It's been a year and a half since I was gone. A year and a half since I've performed, recorded or even attended a show. So much anger and frustration was building at this point. So much doubt in my own ability to achieve my goals. I wrote a lot during those times.
Fast forward to July, 17th 2014. My first day back in NY. The Big Apple. The Concrete Jungle. Home. It felt invigorating. Refreshing. Seeing my little nieces surprised faces, dapping my eldest nephew, feeling my mothers tight embrace, feeling that love from my family. I enjoyed two weeks of down time with them. Two weeks of being Sparky the horse to my nieces' Sheriff Callie. Two weeks of helping my parents around the house. Two weeks of catching up with the latest shenanigans of my siblings. I missed it. I've been gone for too long. Being with my loved ones again brought me a joy I can't describe. A great sadness began receding. I knew I'd have to get back to work. Rebuilding my brand wasn't going to be an easy process. But I was ready.
I've kept in contact with Mic Blaque, rapper/engineer in Brooklyn, the entire time I was away. We've built a great relationship with one another while I was in NY. We've performed together a lot and I've recorded at his old studio. He even featured me on his Intermission project in 2011. He was more than just a rapper I knew or an engineer that recorded me. We were friends.
He was building and growing his brand. Performing and connecting with various people that could help him along his journey. I always showed him support in any way that I could. We were both excited that I would be joining his movement. Formed to help each other and others catapult our careers to higher heights. Mic was the one that motivated me to release some new music in 2015. I had so many ideas I didn't know where to start or how to organize them. An inspiring( and tiring) conversation with Blaque at 3am helped to give birth to my Appreciation Day EP. Took some months to knock that out and the response has been great so far.
I've accomplished more this past year than I have the past 10 years of pursuing music. I've performed at many shows and have helped to put successful events together. From SOBs to Spike Hill to Smash Studios and a slew of venues around NYC. In Oct 2014 I opened for Nitty Scott at The Paper Box. I've also helped to organize a show out in Washington, DC ( my first out of town show ). I've spent more time in the studio, most times all day and night, perfecting my own tracks as well as working with other members of the team. I shortened my name from Abyss Da Dark to A.B. so that I could potentially broaden my audience. I helped to turn Respect The Cool into a company and we now run Respect The Cool Studios which is currently located downtown Brooklyn.
It makes me very emotional when I think about how much has changed for me in a year. I promised myself that my life would be different and it is. There's a lot to be proud of. But, much more work needs to be done. And this is only the beginning.