The Sifu Hotman album is officially out tomorrow, but I realized that we’re not on a label and don’t have to conform to any Tuesday release dates so here it is now:
Embrace the Sun by SIFU HOTMAN (Guante x deM atlaS x Rube)
That’s the new project, including brand new songs, remastered versions of our old songs (which you can still get on vinyl here), and more. If you like it, it’s only $5 so please consider buying it.
Like with any new release, the status right about now is a mixture of intense pride, pre-emptive disappointment, fear, guilt from putting so much emotional weight on something so unimportant (in the grand scheme of what’s going on in the world right now), and flat-out relief.
We made something really special. I’m trying to be as objective as possible, and not let the whole delusional artist ego thing mess me up, but I think it’s okay for me to say: this album is good. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever helped create. It does something different, in a powerful way. It says something honest and meaningful even when it’s not an explicitly political or serious album. And it bangs. That’s where that aforementioned “intense pride” comes in.
And since we’ve all found a lot of success over the past year (I mean, Josh especially, but me and Rube too, haha), the logical assumption would be that this really good thing that three successful people have made will take off.
And it almost certainly won’t.
I don’t say that out of humility, or pessimism, or sour grapes. I say it because music like this, no matter how well-liked we are in other spheres, or how hard we work to get it heard, is hard to market. Hell, music in general is hard to market these days, if you’re talking about getting people to spend money on something. But some bass-heavy, throwback punchline rap made by people who are known for doing… not that… it’s off-message. It doesn’t push the brand. It’s bad marketing.
Just to reiterate: this isn’t sour grapes. I’m not saying that something is wrong with the universe because I’m not making lots of money off selling CDs. It’s actually the opposite—this is about gratitude.
I love that we can go off-brand and still knock it out of the park like this, and I’m incredibly grateful to the people who do “get” it. Anyone who came to our release show, or buys this online, or follows any of us on social media—it really does mean a lot. In some ways, it means more than it did ten years ago, or five years ago.
Like I said in this interview, this album was made for the love. We hope you’ll play it loud in your cars. We hope you’ll share it with your friends and post it on your Tumblrs. But mostly, we just hope you’ll like it, that you’ll find something in it the same way we found something while creating it.
Music video for “First Ave Funeral” coming soon.