Asterisk:One – Summer 2002, Asterisk:Two - Summer 2003, Asterisk:Three – Summer 2004, Asterisk:Four - TBA

What happened? Hmmm. Long story.

FOUR FUN FACTORS:

Factor 1: The Asterisk:Series historically hasn’t caught on as well as our solo-artist releases. Oddly, the series has always been the first to premiere our biggest bangers before anything else, (ie. “Stomp”, “Dirtay”, “Don’t Do It”, “Forevershine”, “The Evil That Pens Do” etc). These are signature songs. Those of you who actually own copies of the prior three releases can testify to that.

Factor 2: Everyone was focused on album projects in 2005/2006 (ie. Archetype, APOS, wdFMs4?). If you notice, my involvement on Asterisk:Three was on one song, Chico & The Man’s – “No Hope (f/ Deacon)”

Factor 3: I wanted to do something more akin to Asterisk:One & Two where it was mainly focused on new singles/material from within our camp as opposed to Asterisk:Three where there was more “affiliate” action going on with us behind the boards… but muffuckas are hard to track down sometimes.

Factor 4: The Queens blackout [July] ruined any chance of having the album ready for the Megashow in 2006, (which was the intent in 2006) but that is a blessing in disguise cause now that we have time – it’ll be the first Asterisk to get the pro-pressing treatment (ie. no slimline CD-R mixtape steez).

MY FUCKING EARS HURT

Lately, I’ve spent my weekends writing, recording and mixing for this project. For anyone that’s ever mixed an album, you’ll understand the throbbing eardrum pain you get after spending 8+ hours a day listening to sub-bass whomp. Especially here in NYC…where you’re neighbors live in your kitchen and your headphones are loud enough to get you a noise citation from a beat cop. My neighbors eat ass.

There’s alot of new material bubbling right now – probably since this project has been afloat over the past 2 years. And as with any other project worth it’s salt… there’s been a few snags here and there. Here’s just one example of the kinds of problems I’ve faced with this project:

Case in point: “Oh Snap (f/ Poison Pen)” [Produced by Domingo].
I usually spend alot of time mixing any given track. Recently, I had to accommodate for a little problem…like a missing beat to multi track.

See, “Oh Snap” was actually the first song recorded for Asterisk:Four… back in early 2005. We tracked the vocals with Pen & Session during a mid-winter session over a rough loop of the beat Domingo had sent us for the project. Even on the rough mix, you could hear how banoodles the song was gonna be, and we were all amped.

Normally, the next step would be to get the beat separated and tracked for mixing & sequencing… unfortunately, Domingo had made that beat on an MPC…and over the course of time… the disc was damaged and corrupted before we got the change to track it. The shit literally wouldn’t read. Bye-Bye beat.

So, it took some time, but Domingo managed to find the record and resample the lost sounds. He sent it over to me and I recreated the whole shit from scratch. Every note, kick, snare, hat and chop. I’m literally sitting there listening to the original over and over, making sure that every single detail is recreated, to the slightest timing variation on the loops. I wanted to make sure I retained that Domingo “knock” that he’s so well known for.

After the marathon mix/master, I emailed the song to everyone involved. Domingo hits me back immediately and says “OH SNAP!! YOU DID IT! IT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE MINE!”.

That certainly put a smile on my tired face.

WHERE’S THE TRACKLISTING?

I’m a plotter.

I have a written plan for every project I’ve worked on. It’s how I stay organized with projects. In the past, I’d be quick to post it up on QN5.com and update is as it changed…but in the age of myspace, rss feeds and blogs – what ends up happening is – the minute I post a tracklisting, it gets spread all over the world on various news sites & boards.

Then suddenly, for whatever reason, something will be taken off the tentative tracklist. Then instantly, we start getting complaint messages from people who are upset that ”(insert song/artist here)” isn’t on the project and asking when’s THAT song gonna be done, etc.

Mind you, these are songs that sometimes don’t even exist. It was just a listing for a song that was intended on by various parties. But people seem to become emotionally attached to the promise of things (sometimes more so than the actual thing itself).

So, needless to say, that after years of putting out fires caused by prematurely posted tracklistings…we’ve decided that announcing them before the album is 100% in the bag is a bad idea. As a matter of fact, we’re gonna try not to even announce projects until they’re well-under way. We’ve already had some false starts in 2005 on some things, so I’m glad I didn’t allow my excitement to get the best of me and post the news…cause y’all would have unfairly hung me for it.

But for your patience, this is well deserved. BEHOLD.

QN5 MUSIC – ASTERISK:FOUR – [Blended By DJ JS-1]

1. Intro
2. QN5 All-Stars – “Fifth Gear” [Produced By Tonedeff]
3. Fresh Daily, Deacon The Villain & Supastition – “Rising” [Produced By Tonedeff]
4. Mr. SOS & PackFM – “Stop/Start” [Produced By Tonedeff]
5. PackFM – “Stomp Remix (f/ Sean Price, Copywrite, Bad Seed, Poison Pen, Session & ArchRival)” [Produced By Elite]
6. The Plague – “Alive” [Produced By Tonedeff]
7. Session – “You Aint Shit” [Produced By Deacon The Villain]
8. IllMaculate & Okwerdz – “Rossi-Bomb” [Produced By Tonedeff]
9. Freestyle (of The Arsonists) – “Little People (f/ CunninLynguists)” – [Produced By Kno]
10. Inverse – “Look Around” [Produced by Kno]
11. Mr. SOS – “T.H.E.Y.” [Produced By Tonedeff]
12. Tanya Morgan – “Sonshine (f/ Deacon The Villain)” [Produced By Kno]
13. Tonedeff – “Optimist” [Produced By Tonedeff]
14. Substantial – “It’s You (I Think)” [Produced By Kno]
15. Masta Ace – “Play Hard” [Produced By: Kno]
16. PackFM – “Great God” [Produced By Tonedeff]
17. ArchRival – “Try All You Want” [Produced By Tonedeff]
18. PackFM & Tonedeff – “Ruthless” [Produced By Domingo]
19. Elite & Leo D. – “Eyes” [Produced By Malachi]
20. Substantial & Tonedeff – “Punk (Megashow Mix)” [Produced By Ferry Corsten]
21. Natti – “Baby” [Produced By YoungLORD]
22. Cashmere The Pro – “Know I Do” [Produced By Kno]
23. Session – “Oh Snap (f/ Poison Pen)” [Produced By Domingo]
24. Debut & Substantial – “Heads or Tails” [Produced By Domingo]
25. Chico & The Man – “My Lady” [Produced By Kno]

BLAM. Take That! [heh-heh]

OK WHATEVER, SO WHEN’S IT DROPPING?

It’s SUPPOSED to drop 02.27.07

...But to be real with you, all the pressed units are due at the warehouse on Feb. 5 and that ain’t gonna happen, cause the CD is still at the pressing plant. Which means, this is looking like VERY EARLY March. (Think first week).

In the meantime, you can PRE-ORDER Asterisk:Four @
[AMAZON.COM] & [UGHH.COM]

We’re distributing this album through KOCH via HBD Label Group this time around, so it SHOULD BE in a lot of good stores this time around. So, be sure to roll through and pick up an extra copy or two and let these stores know that blue schoolers have a voice and to carry more QN5 releases in the future. Remember…they only listen with their wallets.

I have a feeling y’all are really looking forward to this installment and I think y’all are really gonna dig into it. I can tell you firsthand that the production is as top-fuckin-notch as ever and the whole gang is on it – and we’re all doing what we do best. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, be sure to do your homework and pick up Asterisk:One, Two & Three.

I promise you’ll get an A+ if you do.

Hollerate!
Tone.