OldBoy Rhymes "American Pyramids" 7-Inch Record + MP3 PRE-ORDER
Please read carefully! ALL pre orders will be held until the ship date. ALL other items in your shopping cart will also be held until the ship date. If you have items that you may want to receive sooner we suggest placing a separate order for those items.
Orders will ship sometime in September 2024*
*ship date is subject to change in the event of manufacturing delays,
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THE SANE ASYLUM, the Strange Famous debut album from OLDBOY RHYMES (produced by MOPES) drops August 9 everywhere you listen to music!
Featuring appearances from Sage Francis, Brother Ali, Mr. Lif, Zion I, Akil of Jurassic 5, Myka 9, Locksmith, Tom Thum, BlackLiq, JEL, and more!
Check out the whole collection of OldBoy merch here - available exclusively at StrangeFamous.com!
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Orders for this product page will receive:
1x "American Pyramids" b/w "Somehow" 7-Inch Lathe Cut Record
- limited to 30 hand-numbered copies!
1x "The Sane Asylum" full album 320kbps MP3 Download upon request
- if you'd like to receive a digital download, please email stormdavis at gmail dot com with your order number + they will respond with a Dropbox link or Bandcamp code within 48 hours.
- MP3s must be downloaded on a computer, not a mobile device
1x OldBoy Rhymes or SFR Sticker [design randomly selected by SFR staff]
1x selection of our trademark 'WTF SFR?!' random nonsense extras
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From the dark tundra of Alaska to the heaving jungles of Papua, OldBoy Rhymes has experienced a lot -- from terrorist attacks to home invasions. He's befriended billionaires, kids in "third world" slums, and people at all levels in between. OldBoy Rhymes has lived a crazy, multi-polar life, and his lyricism is drenched in the love and angst he soaked up along the way.
OldBoy Rhymes’ The Sane Asylum is the war journal of a reluctant combatant fighting for loved ones who can’t. The international American emcee’s full-length debut is a series of true, dramatic dispatches from frontlines all over the planet. From Jakarta to Silicon Valley, the saga has left him with scarred hands, a scarred brain, and an unbroken spirit.
“I’ve spent the majority of my life outside the US,” explains OldBoy. “Since I was a kid, rhyming has been an outlet that I've leaned on to process my perspective on life and society.”
The Sane Asylum broadcasts a point of view that is delicately balanced and brutally informed. It bumps with that trademark Strange Famous Records blend of personal resonance over strong, musical tracks. This no-skips album provides your recommended daily allowance of big beats, soul-shaking samples, and nimble rhymes from an overstimulated mind.
CHECK OUT THE LYRIC VIDEO FOR "LIFTOFF" featuring MYKA 9, JEL, + BUDDY PEACE!
OldBoy’s stage name functions on different levels. Most obviously, he doesn’t feel young. And he’s not. “I don’t believe a no-name nobody has ever dropped a debut album from out of nowhere, in their late 30’s, featuring a bunch of genre icons,” says the rhymer, typing in his top secret American headquarters.
The Sane Asylum is produced by Rhode Island rap vet Mopes (the artist formerly known as Prolyphic). And the record arrives like a mortar shell from indie-rap stronghold Strange Famous. The label is home to a committed crew under the charge of hip-hop luminary Sage Francis. Features and collabs on the record include Sage, Akil (Jurassic 5), BlackLiq, Brother Ali, JEL (anticon), Mr. Lif (The Perceptionists), Myka 9, Runt (of Jivin Scientists), Tom Thum, Locksmith, Lee Reed, Buddy Peace, and the late, great Zumbi of Zion I.
OldBoy’s journey includes a visit to a mental health ward and a life-and-death street scuffle. It almost ends in a plane crash. He takes notes the whole time. Palestine. The pandemic. Generational trauma. Terrorist attacks. An American legacy of murder from JFK to Trayvon Martin. Dysmorphia. Abandonment issues. The immunocompromised life. Body dysmorphia. OldBoy knows what is hard: Life is hard.
“Despite the tone of the album, I am not anti-American,” clarifies OldBoy. “I grew up abroad as an unbelievably patriotic American boy. However, the older I became, and the more I learned, I felt like a kid who grows up to realize their father is a duplicitous deadbeat. My anger is because I love the US and expect more from it. US foreign policy is not ethereal when you have been attacked and beaten down by a crowd of 30+ men and women angry at the US invasion of Iraq — like I have."
His family’s sole breadwinner, OldBoy quit his job to bring his family to America for various medical and mental treatments. It’s just one of a series of ten draining family challenges that besieged him over the last six years. (Ask him, but be ready. He has receipts.)
Moving through The Sane Asylum, OldBoy revisits formative events and irresistible forces. OldBoy, Sage, and Mr. Lif call out the empire in “American Pyramids.” Righteous rage gives way to personal vulnerability on tender tracks like “Sasquatch” and “Somehow.” After the aerobic verbal acrobatics of “Liftoff,” the door closes. And hope has kept him standing.
“The life reviews that I do in ‘What’s Hard?’ and ‘Strange Kids’ are directly tied to conversations I had in therapy,” says OldBoy. “The world around me, and people closest to me, had literally gone crazy. And being sane was driving me out of my mind. Staying solid and carrying everyone on my shoulders resulted in The Sane Asylum.”
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7-INCH SINGLE TRACK LIST
Side A: "American Pyramids" (feat. Sage Francis & Mr. Lif)
Side B: "Somehow" (feat. Brother Ali)
ALBUM TRACK LIST:
01. “What's Hard?”*
02. “American Pyramids” (feat. Sage Francis, Mr. Lif)*
03. “Strange Kids” (feat. Tre, Runt of Jivin Scientists)*
04. “How Many” (feat. Tom Thum)*
05. “Lose You” (feat. Lee Reed, Black Liq, Deuce Eclipse, Mopes)*
06. “New Day” (feat. Akil of Jurassic 5, Maksik)*
07. “Somehow” (feat. Brother Ali)*
08. “Smiley Pills” (interlude)*
09. “War” (feat. Locksmith)*
10. “Faith Healer”*
11. “The Indicator” (feat. Sage Francis)*
12. “Sick with You”*
13. “Sasquatch” (feat. Zion I, Ariano)*
14. “Liftoff” (feat. Myka 9, prod. by jel of anticon)*
* a true story
All cuts by BUDDY PEACE
Cover artwork by Nick P.G.
OldBoy Rhymes logo by Inkymole
Layout by Storm Davis
Album liner notes by DX Ferris
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SOME INFORMATION ABOUT LATHE CUT RECORDS:ARE LATHE CUT RECORDS AND VINYLS THE SAME THING???
No, because "vinyls" don't exist. Don't say "vinyls." Ever. The plural of 'vinyl' is 'vinyl.'
Fine, smartass. Are lathe cut records the same as vinyl records?
They look similar, they both play music when you set them on a turntable and put a needle to their grooves, but they're manufactured from different materials by a different method. This difference in materials and method allows for smaller quantities to be created. Read on for more details.
Lathe cuts will always have some degree of surface noise/pops/crackles, which tends to largely disappear once the music starts, especially for full, loud recordings. However, these lathe cuts are not audiophile records, or even comparable to standard pressed records. They will sound slightly different than the master, because the plastic reacts to certain frequencies differently. They are made from materials that were never intended to be records. Sound quality varies slightly from one record to the next, and some audio tracks translate better than others. There are many factors that determine the sound of the record; the material, the number of records that have been cut by the stylus, the climate, etc… But we drop-test them all and throw away any that are not up to standard. They are all totally listenable, but intended to be used more as playable art pieces. These lathes are not meant to be the way your track is regularly listened to.
Are these as loud as a normal record?
Unfortunately, No. Our cutter heads are 70 years old and utilize a magnet that has, over the years, degraded a little. They were also made before the loudness war and were never intended to produce the kind of volume that modern stereo cutting heads made in the 70s and 80s were geared for. On top of that, the plastic that is used is harder than a lacquer that is used to master a pressed record, and the heads has to work much harder, resulting in less volume (about 75% that of a modern record). So, you will have to crank up your amplifier a few notches past where it usually sits.
Will these play on any turntable?
These records do not always play well on all turntables, especially cheap turntables without a weighted tonearm. However, they have all been play tested to make sure that they track on a properly weighted record player. Lighter tonearm weight and neutral anti-skating works best. Sometimes the needle will get caught in between the grooves and sound awful. You can usually gently nudge the needle sideways into the bottom of the groove, which should fix the problem.
Inexpensive players with red cartridges/needles in particulars tend to have more problems than professional cartridges.
Will these records degrade or hurt my needle?
Absolutely not. These records are made out of hard polycarbonate plastic and will last as long as a pressed record. And your needle will not know the difference between this plastic or the PVC that pressed records are made of. The old adage that Lathe Cuts ruin your needle is a product of lacquer “dub plates” or “acetates”. Lacquers are extremely soft, and with repeated plays, the lacquer would wear off and build up on your playback needle. We DO NOT use lacquers and DO NOT have this problem. We listen to lathe cuts 12 hours a day in the studio, and rarely change out our playback styli.