My Top 5 Nate Dogg Moments - By Ceschi Ramos

A quick note from Joel:

I'm not afraid to call Ceschi one of my favorite people on the planet. Over the past few years he's impressed the shit out of me by constantly creating new music and touring all over the fucking planet in support of that music. He's a goddamn machine. I first fell in love with him when a friend gave me one of Factor's instrumental albums where he started off his song Pray with "It's like fifteen girls, licking chocolate off their fingertips..." - ever since, I've considered him family.

I'm thankful he took the time to write for us while on Warped Tour 2012 from his phone in a pedo van surrounded by smelly rappers. GO SEE HIM AND TELL HIM I SAID HI!

I'll be the first to admit that this piece is a bit strange, but at least 5 people have told me that they believe I am somewhat of an "indie hip hop nate dogg". Out of these people, at least one of them has been my younger brother David. Recently I did a collaborative song on my friend Kristoff Krane's record that had people tweeting and commenting on Facebook about my likeness to Nate Dogg. 

I'm assuming that this is possibly because I sing a lot on other peoples records…and…..I'm fat…and…I died in 2011.

With that being said, in proper egomaniacal hip hop fashion, I've decided to self analyze and pick apart the reasons why I may receive this bizarre compliment over and over again.

Factor - Fall of Captain EO

OK this doesn't fully count as a "Collabo" because it's just me rapping over Factor's beat on his production album "Lawson Graham".  Still, I feel that it's one of my better choruses on another person's album.  At the time I was listening to a ton of Joanna Newsom and really wanted to incorporate that sound into hip hop vaguely.  This is possibly an example of that. 

As the director of the video for this song (Stuey Kubrick) once told me, "White people can really relate to that sound and they don't know why."

Well put Stuey.

Kristoff Krane - Mouth of the Beast

This beat by Jaq just seemed so classic to me. When i first heard it I felt like doing some Monch shit on it. I don't know, but I just couldn't bring myself to say "rub on your titties". 

So, I figure that this is my attempt at a mid 90s chorus, something that they could chant along to at the hip hop heaven-like Lyricist Lounge that existed in my teenaged mind. 

My attempt at being classic hip hop or something.

Boom.

Sole - We Will Not Be Moved

This is my first and only auto tuned moment on record.  When the Skyrider Band were putting this song together I specifically asked them to auto tune my vocals during the verse because I had initially attempted to replicate a Lil Drake style on purpose. 

The chorus is actually not auto tuned at all - but it's pretty epic and huge with all those strings so I think it deserves to be on this list somewhere. 

Plus, some British hater on twitter said it was the worst chorus ever - so that means something. Maybe if I was doing a fake ass Reggae-rap chorus over dubstep the Brits would like it more….pfffff

Awol One & Factor - Never Gonna Take Us Out

This was such a fun song to record. We were in Tokyo at the end of our Fake Four Japanese tour.  It was a lazy Sunday and we were staying at our friend Aya's father's office which was a former private maternity ward. Our beds still had been setup for IV connections and there was an odd lingering smell of wasabi and birth in the air. 

I remember Graham (Factor) and Tony (Awol) with beers in hand (I don't drink beer but those guys were doing it up that afternoon). Japanese TV is wild and all, but the guys decided that they wanted to lay down this tune instead of watching a man get his balls clamped by scorpions for 50,000 yen. 
Factor set up the MBox and showed us those arena rock drums and we were instantly inspired. 
Awol wrote it and recorded his parts, and I loved the concept - on some super human invincible shit plus some anthemic friends stick together type steez. 

My voice was very hoarse after playing a number of hype Japanese shows in ultra smokey rooms. 
I could barely speak that day but the guys asked me to do the chorus. 

I ended up kinda stealing the melody from a Pinback song that I couldn't get out of my head. 

Bleubird - Time 4 Real

Maybe the most epic rap song I've been a part of?

The story is that my friend Ben aka Radical Face sent this music over to me to show to Noah23 a while back when we were compiling beats for Noah's  "Fry Cook on Venus" album. 

For some bizarre alien reason Noah didn't feel that he could do anything with it so it just sat on my computer unfinished but still sounding great. 

Over a year later Bleubird happened to swing through my home in New Haven with his FREEEBIRD RV. 

We went out for pizza with my Grandpa. 

Then we were bored and decided to do a song in an attempt to make the deadline for Fake Four's Record Label Sampler Volume 3. Bleubird had been working with Astronautalis & Radical Face on his new album Cannonball so it really felt right to dig up this older Radical Face beat and do something with it. 

The 70s rock inspired chorus is my Nate Dogg moment here. 

Everything Radical Face touches is gold, so I'd say this song is a good way to wrap up the list.

I'll be on the Bring It Back Stage @ Warped Tour all summer

PEEP GAME