“Always judge a book by its cover. Then, when you’re finished reading it in its entirety, reassess those thoughts.” — Richardine Bartee

This talent we’re premiering today with Audibase is an audio and visual craftsman based in Seattle, Washington going by the name: UltraLoveForce. Born in Hilltop Tacoma, Washington, weeks after, he moved to Strausberg, Germany with his parents. His mother taught in the military and his father fought in the Gulf War. Somewhere in between, his parents split and his mother wanted him to be cultured so they lived in many different cities. Some include South Central California, Columbus, Georgia, and Colorado Springs. Six years ago, he started rhyming in a barbershop and now, the energy he’s trying to harness is the one you’re about to experience. How can you ever really be mad at a name like that? So far, he’s worked with his heroes Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow, his comrades Jarv Dee from Moor Gang, Eric G of 9th Wonder’s Soul Council, Raised By Wolves, and Nacho Picasso.

[quote style]I don’t know if you’ve ever seen somebody make beats. I tend to pick up things pretty quickly and sometimes, it makes me feel like I’m not doing it right or something like that,” UltraLoveForce admits. “So when I watch my homies make beats, it usually takes them like a couple of days or something. I make them [right] there. I just like to make beats when people are there. I see them moving [in] a certain way and it kind of encourages a certain [action]. My brain tells me to add something just to see them react a certain way and it’s just done right there. Writing is a little more difficult because of the way I perceive Hip-Hop in itself and how I try not to be associated with that — the rank rapper type thing — but it is a great feeling when someone’s reciting your shit. I like them both the same, but right now, I like making beats more.[/quote]

It has been a year since I met UltraLoveForce, formerly Sax G, via a submission email. At the time, he was promoting “Groove You”, a single featuring vocals from Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow. From what I remember, it was his approach that made me want to write about him. *That’s where good artist etiquette gets you. He says that he came across my magazine when looking for cool publications in New York and when he thinks of it, he thinks of Suzi Analogue. He really admires her. He automatically assumed that “we were going to be too cool for it.” He didn’t think we were going to listen to his music at all.

When asked what was the Seattle rap scene like before his emergence, his response was:

[quote]Personally, I’m not from Seattle so it always seems like I am kind of bashing but it’s not my intention. What I say is an honest feeling: Seattle lacks a certain identity. Not that it doesn’t have its own identity, because the family that I run with now are all about their true selves: THEESatisfaction, OC Notes, and our big brothers Shabazz Palaces. You know, they have a true sense of self. But even cats like Nacho and the Moor Gang — it is clear that they are being themselves — before we came on the scene. Not saying that we’re responsible for that, but before we came on the scene, it was really humorous. It was really happy rap. It was on some happy shit. It was like young hyphy. It was like, ‘Look, I’m a rapper’ and not ‘Look, I make music.’ That’s kind of the feel I got from it and I’m not from Seattle, so it will probably be looked at in a certain way but I don’t really give a fuck either.[/quote]

When I asked him about his relationship about Dudley Perkins, he had some nice things to say:

[quote]Dudley is my J Dilla. I knew about Slum Village — I didn’t have no older brothers or nothing like who lived with me so I came across them at the end of the 90s by some random White dude in Minnesota who just wanted to share love. I’m talking like some super White dude like… Do you remember those pants called “JNCO”? They looked like elephants? He had those shits on with like a mesh shirt and everything. He was like, ‘You need to hear this. You need to check this out. It’s called The Slum.’ And I’m looking at it and I’m like ‘Man, this dusty ass cover…’. That was like middle school for me so I was on some No Limit Soldier type stuff. So, when dudes be talking like, ‘J Dilla saved my life’, I be like ‘Don [?] from No Limit Soldiers is just like me bro’. That was their Nicki Minaj back in the day. So stop fronting like you know about J Dilla because you don’t, and we didn’t have any computers. I didn’t know anything about J Dilla, like I said, until 2008-2009ish. The cold part about it was, I had a connection to him without knowing. The only song off the Common album that I liked was ‘The Light’. When Busta put out the “Genesis”, it was like, ‘Why is this the only song I like on here?’ Hindsight would show me: Oh, cause Dilla did it. I like that swing.

But Dudley Perkins was one of the first people where I was like, ‘What is this? What is he talking about? Oh, I like this shit.’ He wants me to make some beats for him, and he wants it in a specific way, and its kind of that unsure moment for me right now but I’ll get them shits done, though.[/quote]

What would Dudley say about you?

[quote]Our relationship isn’t as deep and personal as I’d like it to be. He has a family and stuff like that, and truth be told the most time I’ve ever spent with him was when he was in Seattle at Bumbershoot before I was even making music like that and we were just building on a life tip. He’d probably just keep it short like, ‘Hey, he cool.’ He’s mad chill. I’m in awe when I talk to him. I just try to make sure he likes the beats, that’s it.[/quote]

---

Assignment:

For the first time, instead of asking producers to send beats created or curated for others, I wanted each producer to tell a personal story. A story about themselves. In short, what you are about to listen to is what we like to call an “audiobiography”. After listening to it, you should feel like you know UltraLoveForce a little more than you did before landing on this page. That was his only task given to participate. He was actually the first person I called when planning this project. From what we hear, THEESatisfaction was in the room when he made this audiobiography.

“I kind of used their energy to get the direction of the beats I was making and it all turned out to be something I was really proud of. The beats for this represents something completely different from the beats on my first album. This one’s more joyous. It’s more smiley,” he explained.

“Emoticon beats?”

“Exactly”, he confirmed.

Review:

At the HQ, we had an anonymous listening for this project. To be more specific, radio show hosts from TK in the AM and Team GrungeCake sat with pens and paper in hand as they listened to the music of a faceless and nameless artist in hopes of just giving his music fair critique and they did. Stay tuned for the review.

Full feature available shortly. For now, just listen to the awesome sounds presented by Audibase.

We must say: For a young guy who started making beats three years ago just to rap on them, he’s terrific. Lately, he’s been learning the ins and outs of scoring for films and multimedia. Like most musicians, he’s multifaceted. He’d like to get into animation. For more UltraLoveForce, please visit his website or follow him on Twitter.

We’d like to personally thank Stüssy Seattle and Studio Nels for their contribution to this project. *UltraLoveForce plays a free event at the Neptune Theatre on Thursday, August 15th. For more information, click here for details.

---

For more UltraLoveForce, just click here.