I was very close to giving up blogging but how could I do that? This is a good practice to keep up even if blogging isn't that hot right now. The year has been a busy one so far, I have already started doing a lot of travelling doing workshops and it is only march. I am very happy about that.

I have done creative writing workshops in Hounslow, Essex, Central London, Stoke Newington and Wembley Stadium so far and work from the six week project I did in Hackney with Kele Le Roc is now part of an exhibition which is currently going on at Hackney Museum, I went for the launch of it and I felt really proud of the young guys we worked with. Read more about it here

If you want to have more of an idea of the work I do in schools have a look at this short video below:



I dropped a song called "Blackstar" recently, I consider it just a warm up song. I made the beat on the day I found out David Bowie died (January 10th). I was listening to a lot of his music and I came across "Fame" which I am sure I have heard before but couldn't remember when or where. That track is so good I just HAD to sample it. I checked and I am not alone, many others have sampled this track including some very famous artists. I ended up writing lyrics that are very much influenced by me thinking about issues of race and being proud of my African roots. I called the track Blackstar because David Bowie's last album that he released just before passing away was called that. It is also a nod to the duo Blackstar comprised of Talib Kweli & Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as Mos Def). Their self-titled album remains a classic and it contained very positive pro-black content. I have always wanted to come from that kind of angle that they came with that breathes consciousness, positivity, introspection and fun. I have done that a couple of times before.

Rapzilla were nice enough to post "blackstar" much to my surprise. I saw some funny soundcloud comments that were not positive. It seems someone wasn't too happy that I was being pro-black and Afrocentric. I was accused of being divisive and "remixing the song of a heathen" (lol) It seems being pro-black will always be a threat to some who don't understand that being pro-black doesn't automatically mean being anti-white. I even say in the song "this aint black supremacy, I'm just being me.." Ah well, it is what it is. Listen to the track below:



I am currently rounding up my next album as well as a couple of EPs. I am also working on a book that ties in with the workshops I do in schools. More about that later, let me not get ahead of myself. The name of my next album is "Unseen Unheard Unknown" It is inspired by the book "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison as well as many other things I will share soon. If you are supporter from a while back and you were on my journey with me from the 2012 album "Delayed But Not Denied" this new album follows on from that. In fact every album and project has been following a narrative. They are all linked. All will be explained soon.

Here is another track I dropped at the top of the year. I was just trying out a different kind of sound and tempo. If I am really being honest, I wrote this and made it when I was feeling depressed. When winter comes around I experience the blues a lot because it is cold and dark. I end up producing a lot of beats and writing to deal with all my feelings even more than ever. All these tracks I have been dropping won't be on my upcoming album. I kinda dig this one. Press play on "Turn up/Turn Down" below



The track called "Love" that I produced for Fiona Yorke and also featured on was released as a single and the response to it has been amazing, In fact I got to perform it live with her outside London all the way in Ipswich at a gig that I did. It was such a wild gig though haha. I had to wear a suit and all that because it was a ball kinda situation. It went on until 2am. I got home about 4am. Hahaha. The DJ was playing some crazy jungle and drum and bass and that really inspired me. I went home and produced like 4 jungle/drum n bass influenced records hahahaha. You will hear all this music soon. Anyway listen to "Love" below. It is out on itunes. amazon and all digitalstores and part of Fiona Yorke's EP called "Sound Freedom"



oh yeah I have let my beard grow longer than I have ever done in my life hahahaha. I just didn't shave after Christmas. I might cut it soon though. Anyway I am gonna go and live a bit and create more. Follow me on twitter if you are there: http://www.twitter.com/karlnova (@KarlNova) I am on snapchat too at: therealkarlnova

I think when it comes to the colder part of the year I go deeper into beat making mode. I have had a great year creatively. I mean from the start of this year until now I have been on a beat making and songwriting spree. I am still surprised at how my experimental electronic beat compilation "Made 'Em On My Phone" charted on the itunes electronics chart. That was unexpected.

I don't upload all the beats I make. I am working on an album and it is a strange process because inspiration just comes how it wants to. Today I could be on some jazzy soulful hip hop flow and from nowhere a trap beat idea hits me and then just as I am putting that together a house track emerges and then after that I go back to a boom bap hip hop track. It is mad but I love it though!

Anyway here is just a couple of beats I have made that I decided to upload to my soundcloud page.

So I got together with a talented videographer called Bradley Panda at the start of August and we shot a video for this song of mine.

Someone on twitter has already tried to put me down and diss me with some slick talk because it is called "Stadium Music" yet we are on the street but all I am trying to say is this beat I made gave me that feeling of being in a stadium rocking live.

I have done this exact thing numerous times over and I will do it again. I am just trying to communicate that feeling.

 "If life is a stage then I can have a concert anywhere"

When I started making music, all I wanted to do was to write rhymes that sounded as fly as the heroes I was introduced to by my cousin who was much older than me. My cousin schooled me in Hip Hop. He played me his tapes of the lyrical greats and I was amazed at this expression I was hearing. I wanted to be part of it.

As time went on. I somehow started making beats. I found out by experimenting with a Yamaha PSR keyboard that I could actually make beats. I was amazed. The keyboard was in a baptist church I was attending at the time. I would sneak into the church during week days when no one was there and make beats. I would be lost for hours. I would actually use the beats I created to perform. I created my own music, wrote my own songs and traveled about performing them on the gospel music/youth group/church circuit/christian scene.

Fast forward into the future. I didn't make beats for ages. I depended on producers I met to help me create and flesh out my musical ideas. Some of my songs were partially produced by me but it wasn't like when I was able to do it on my own.

Now I have found a way to do it again. It is a bit unorthodox. To some it might sound a bit mad but I am doing it. The difference now is I have lived a bit, I am so close to being totally jaded by my experience of the music biz even though the creative side of music is something that will forever burn in me. I started to feel so jaded that I didn't put a lot of lyrics on this project. The beats are doing most of the speaking. You do hear my voice on some of the tracks though, I even sampled myself so that I could become part of some of the beats.

These beats came out of a very confusing period of my life. I guess I found release in the creation of these beats. These are just a few. I do this for the love of it. I don't even care if I never chart, that was never my original reason for getting into music in the first place. When I was sneaking into that church almost everyday making beats, the thought of stardom and fame and success were so far away that I couldn't even conceive such an idea in my head. All I wanted was make a great sound and become part of the music myself. It was an escape for a very troubled teenager who at a very low point was even suicidal back then.

I made these beats while recording my next proper album which I am calling "Familiar Stranger" God willing it will be out next year and you will hear me rapping on it and singing and the sound will be more close to what people have known me for but it is good to experiment and try new things right?

Enjoy this project for what it is. An experiment.

I don't even know what to call this project. It isn't a mixtape and I don't regard this as my 3rd album either. It is more of a compilation that I created while working on what I consider my 3rd album which will be "Familiar Stranger" I am aiming to drop that next year God willing.

Most of the tracks on this are instrumental and inspired by the genre known as dubstep with a few house tracks in there too. I will be recording vocals on a couple of them and releasing them as songs as I go along. The 1st track I am doing this to is "Stadium Music" I have shot a video for it and I will release that soon. The vocal version will be available as a something you can get separately.

After my experience with "Delayed But Not Denied" last year, I decided to get even more into making my own beats and creating the sounds I want and I am getting there one beat at a time. I know that re-introducing myself as a beatmaker after most have known me mainly as an emcee/performer is a slow process of rebranding but with this project I want to achieve that, I guess this is why it is mainly an instrumental compilation. You will hear me singing a lot on this here and there as well too.

So here is the artwork and tracklisting.

I haven't blogged in a while and I think it is because I just don't have the words to express my thoughts and feelings at this time. This year has been deep so far in ways I can't explain.

The only way I have been able to get my feelings out lately is making beats and immersing myself in that. I have been making so many that the words to match all of them haven't come out. So I just leave 'em as instrumental tracks and that is exactly what the song is, a song with no words but it is actually saying something that words can't say.

So what is bothering me? A lot. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting. It is like a whole re-evaluation is happening inside of me. Someone very close to me was close to death and I think that is having an effect on me. Questions like "what am I meant to be doing?" and "what is success?" and "what have I achieved?" are ringing off in my head. What exactly am I chasing after? what is all this really about?

Sometimes facing up to what your intentions are when doing something isn't as straightforward as it seems. I have been involved in a music scene that is underground and very niche and I feel I have contributed a lot but sometimes I feel that in that scene I am a nobody. In addition to thinking this I then think to myself "when did the aim and intention become about becoming 'somebody'?" wasn't it first all about doing it for the love and joy of doing it? I guess my motives weren't as "pure" as I thought.

I released the song "invincible joy" because somehow through all the emotional turmoil i can say I often felt a joy to be on my journey even if it is very faint sometimes and stronger at other times.

I don't even know why I am writing this now, I think I am doing this to see if I can still write a blog and maybe someone out there will feel they are not alone. Maybe I am really doing this to assure myself I am not alone.

Sometimes words are not enough and that is OK.