“Ten thousand hours is the amount of time and practice that it requires to be a master or expert of anything,” said Richmond rapper Radio B, when explaining his new collaboration album with fellow RVA artist Michael Millions.
“Ten thousand hours is the amount of time and practice that it requires to be a master or expert of anything,” said Richmond rapper Radio B, when explaining his new collaboration album with fellow RVA artist Michael Millions.
The two Association of Great Minds members released the 12-track album, TENTHSNDHRS, (10,000 hours) earlier this month, but this isn’t the pair’s first time getting together on a project.
“Michael and I started in a group together back in 1999 and we’ve been making music together for basically our entire adult lives,” Radio B said. “I always felt like we made our best records together.”
Millions and Radio B have always played with the idea of creating an album, but it’s just now coming to fruition.
TENTHSNDHRS begins with an opening speech that mentions how people view extraordinary successes. From there, the tape becomes an immaculate sound of heavy hitting instrumentals and lyrical prowess by both rappers.
Their project goes into great detail about some of the issues facing the world today as well as exemplifies the creativity within the Richmond scene. All of the fundamental elements of hip hop are ingrained in this album.
The project definitely showcases the essence of the golden age of hip hop with such a nostalgic feel within the full package of the tape. The two demonstrate a gritty flow, but still find ways to groove through the pockets of the beat. The type of flow demonstrated by the two are reminiscent of the mid 1990 hip hop artists.
“The project represents where we come from as artist and the music we grew up on,” said Millions.
Back in November, Millions released a solo project, Beautiful, along with a short film of the same name.
The musicians recorded at Millions’ in-house studio and were able to get several other local hip hop artists on the album.
RVA’s Nickelus F was featured on the track, “Vm from Petey” and Noah O spit a couple of lines on “Cold Day in Hell.”
“Noah O just happened to come by the studio a random night when we were recording,” said Millions. “We played him a beat and before the night was over he was recording his verse for the project.”
Production on the album can be credited to various local artists as well. Chiveer’s handy work can be heard on the first four tracks, followed by AVERS band member JL Hodges, Ohbliv and a few others.
TENTHSNDHRS consists of a very cohesive theme of bringing back the essence of hip-hop back while still discussing current events that are going on around the world and area. Not like new age hip-hop that we hear currently, Millions and Radio B evolve 90’s hip-hop and make it more transparent for 2016.
The flow of the album is built together perfectly through each transition from song to song. The two described that the biggest part of creating this album was seeing how many tracks they wanted to use and which tracks weren’t going to make the album.
“After going through each track I truly feel like we put the best songs out onto this project,” Radio B.
TENTHSNDHRS can found on iTunes, so be sure to check the project out. Stay tuned to RVAMAG for follow ups for the artists.
