MUSIC

THE COME UP 10 (with Kalvonix)
Released August 12, 2022
Kalvonix and I have been making music together since way back when I started rapping. Back in high school when I was first starting out I was just making my own music by myself, but when I heard of a school group about rapping I was interested to see what it was about. To be honest, as a young kid with a wild imagination I imagined a full recording studio with a recording booth and all the equipment needed, but that wasn’t the case. I’m not complaining, I just mention that because it’s funny how kids’ imaginations are. The group was Access Denied, and it was made up of a few different people, mainly Calvin, aka Kalvonix, and his cousins Ohwell and Nizzl. In those days he was called “the rapper of the school” since he loved showing everyone his passion for rapping. I guess at some point he and Mr. Begg, the school English teacher, had come to an agreement to work on a school rap group, and so Access Denied was born. I joined later, but we quickly made a few mixtapes together. We usually recorded right in the classroom, after school hours so no one would be there, and our music was educational and touched on lots of different subjects, without getting too serious about them, but just getting the main message across. Those were fun times for sure, and we even did a show for the Olympics here in Vancouver, and also ended up on the newspaper front cover. “Rapping for a reason” was the title of the newspaper story. They also did an interview with us which was on TV. Of course, all of this wasn’t because we were incredible rappers, it was mostly because it was a school project and we were rapping about positive things. I didn’t mind it at all because I was writing and rapping, which is what I loved doing, but outside of Access Denied I was always working on my own music as well, which wasn’t always the most positive, but it was real to me, since I wasn’t living through the most positive times in my life either. Kalvonix was also doing music on his own, of course, and after he graduated from high school a year before me, we kept meeting up at his house to record song remixes here and there. We eventually had an idea, to release a mixtape together, since we were starting to make more and more songs together. We titled this mixtape “The Come Up.” Back then we weren’t the most professional, we were young and we were really making music kind of in a rush, to be honest. We were having fun though, so we just wanted to move on to the next track and complete it. I spent a lot of nights at Calvin’s house, rapping all through the night up in his room. The good thing is his house was pretty big so I think his parents couldn’t really hear us rapping the night away. Since we were making so much music, we eventually made the Come Up 2, and at some point we decided to turn in into a recurring thing. By the time we recorded The Come Up 3, we had decided that we were getting better and we had to get our music out to more people. That’s when we decided to go around his neighborhood knocking door to door selling CDs of The Come Up 3. I definitely don’t regret it, but the music isn’t really as good as we thought it was in the moment. Over the years we recorded the Come Up 4, 5 and 6, before lots of things in my life changed and I ended up moving away to Honduras, my home country, and eventually meeting my wife Maria, then waiting three years for her residence papers to be approved, and eventually returning here to Canada in February 2020, right before the whole COVID pandemic really started getting crazy. During all of those years we didn’t really make more music together, and maybe we didn’t even think about it. Calvin had success with his own music, always being super active with it and showcasing it to the world, and in my case, I was way into living a spiritual life, to the point that I had decided not to pursue music anymore because I didn’t want fame, because of the possibility of it corrupting me and the beautiful family I had formed with Maria. I remember actually telling Calvin I was quitting music, and he was questioning whether I was sure of my decision. In that moment I was one hundred percent sure. I never wanted fame, but I have always wanted to share my music with people, and to share inspirational messages through it. Fast forward some more time, spirituality-wise my thoughts changed in a way, and I basically decided to start pursuing music as a career again as I grew increasingly frustrated with 9-to-5 life, which I believe is corrupt, soulless and exploitative. I told Calvin I was back into music, so we put together The Come Up 8 and 9, mostly from a few of the last songs we had recorded together, as well as some songs from his albums that I was featured on. As I started getting serious with music again, and Calvin was getting more professional than ever and constantly releasing music on streaming platforms, we decided to make The Come Up 10 an album, with no remixes, just original tracks we could post for streaming. Since life is a lot busier now for both of us, it took us about to years to finally complete this album, but I’m really proud of it, and it’s really symbolic in a way. We’ve come a long way from our early days recording the first Come Up. Our flows have improved a lot, our writing is more impactful and our sound is overall more professional. It’s also been maybe a little over ten years since we started, so the number 10 is kind of symbolic in a way as well. We released The Come Up 10 this year on August 12th, a few days before his Calvin’s birthday. Kalvonix has always been a big inspiration for me, not only because we share the same passion for music and rhyming, but also because he was born with cerebral palsy and faced a lot of struggles growing up, yet he never let that get in the way of his passion and his dream, and nowadays he’s found a decent amount of success, and I’m super happy for him. I’ve always been all over the place, lacking the dedication to make my music thing happen in the way he has, but life is a learning experience, and I can say that now I’m more focused than I’ve ever been, so I’m excited about what the future holds. I’m constantly working on new beats and songs, and Kalvonix and I don’t plan on stopping our work together either, so The Come Up 11 is already in the works. For now though, give The Come Up 10 a listen, I’ve embedded the Spotify link below so you can listen right on here if interested. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to listen, since we put a lot of effort into this album. 
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EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS
Released January 31, 2019
EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS is the second mixtape I released under the name of Rebel Spirit. It was recorded and released while I was in my home country of Honduras for a couple of years. I returned to Canada one year after recording this album, on February 2020. Continuing with the positivity and conscious style of rap, this mixtape opens with one of my favorite tracks of mine “Free the Brain”, a track about freeing our minds from the chains that have us shackled, whether it be any kind of addiction or toxic pattern of thinking. The tape stays true, for the most part, to the old school style I love so much, and it has a chill vibe to it. I also finally write about a lot of topics I also wanted to go deeper into, like philosophy and spirituality, and I think the lyrics in this tape reflect where my mind was at in those days very accurately, and the spiritual situation I was going through. Life is truly a learning experience, and this album represents a turning point in my life, a point of true growth into a new me, expanding my horizons. The cover is me at Altia in Honduras, where I worked for a couple years before coming back to Canada in February of 2020, two months after releasing this tape, as previously mentioned.
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MUSICAL ALCHEMY
Released December 30, 2017

It’s crazy how fast life changes. Since 2012/13 when DG and I recorded the Rebel Gang tapes, I recorded only a couple of tracks, which is why a lot of my 2014 Crooks In Castles release included many of the Rebel Gang album songs in it. After 2014 things changed and I started making even less music. The truth is I travelled back to my home country of Honduras, for various reasons, and various things happened that shaped my life forever. Life happened, and music was put to the side for a bit, unfortunately. I still wrote lyrics and made a few beats from time to time, but I didn’t release any projects until my I finally decided to record some music again and my 2017 mixtape Musical Alchemy was released. On this tape my focus was on creating music that would inspire people, far from wanting to rap about drugs and guns, about girls and partying, I chose to start trying to use my gift to inspire people. After all, that’s what I had started making music for in the first place. That’s the point of the mixtape name, alchemy, transmutation, turning the old into new, into gold, constantly improving. This tape has a lot of dope tracks on it which I personally really like, focusing on everything from philosophy to spirituality, music itself, reminiscing on old times on “Trip to the Back of My Mind”, just a bit of everything. I released this tape while still in Honduras, now married to my beautiful wife Maria. I had also changed my moniker to Rebel Spirit by this point, trying to reflect the spiritual nature of the change in my music. It didn’t stick, but it was good for that moment.

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CROOKS IN CASTLES
Released December 1, 2014

The name was inspired by the clothing brand Crooks N’ Castles. A mix of some solo tracks from 2013/14, and also some of the tracks from the Rebel Gang albums. Much like most of the Rebel Gang music, not much of a conscious rapping style, but true to what I was living at the time.  

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FEARLESS FAMILIA
Released August 23, 2013
Since we put out our first album together in 2012, DG and I kept making music together and I took a break with my own releases, I didn’t release any solo tapes until 2014. In the meantime we put out the second RRG (Rebel Gang) album, Fearless Familia. Continuing with the same themes, rapping hard over hard beats we both produced. I wasn’t too much into mindfulness back in those days, and I was crazy and causing trouble. It took me some years to learn to expand my mind, to learn some new ideas, to grow up and to change, but the rhymes on the Rebel Gang tapes reflect some of my internal troubles at that time, even if I don’t present them in that way. I thought I knew where I was headed in life, and how to live it, but I guess I was wrong about a lot of things. Nothing wrong with that though, life is a learning journey, and although DG’s gone at least I got the music we made during those good and crazy times. What I rap about is  lot different now, but I had to include the 2 Rebel Gang albums on here since they are part of my journey after all, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without who I’ve been in my past.

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REBEL LIFE
Released December 1, 2012

A month after my solo project MOVING MENTAL MOUNTAINS was released, Lil’ DG and I released our first mixtape as RRG (Running Rebel Gang). We had been working on the tape for most of the year, and the sessions we had at his studio were some of the most memorable times of my life, the raw energy and love for rapping that we shared, how we would work for hours non-stop, and even the relaxed times when we were just chilling, blazing and jamming to our finished tracks, or even tripping and going crazy over how we were gonna make it, how we had to make the dream come true. These days. after a lot of growing and learning, a lot of observing, I no longer share a lot of the ideas that I had back then, that I expressed in the RRG tapes. It’s been ten years, and although I can’t vibe with some of the lyrics we spit in those days, having grown up and matured, the tracks still go hard and they reflect the reality we were living and feeling at the time. The beats were mostly produced by DG, and I made some as well. Sadly, DG has since passed away. He was a brother to me though, and his memory will live on with me through these tapes we put together as Running Rebel Gang.

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MOVING MENTAL MOUNTAINS
Released November 19, 2012
This album is a mix of all the different sounds I’d experimented with up until that point. It has the old-school sound of the RUNNING REBEL album, the deep and painfully personal lyricism of RHYTHM AND POETRY, the crisp, new-school drums I’d rapped over on the E mixtape, some of the gritty, hard rhymes of WICKED WORLD, and some chill, psychedelic singing to bring in the spacey, stoned state of mind I presented on REALMS OF REALITY. The title sums up what my attitude was at the time, feeling like I had to move mountains to make the dream happen.

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REALMS OF REALITY
Released April 20, 2012
Continuing my creative streak in early 2012, following the old-school rap flow of RUNNING REBEL, and the hard-hitting heavy rhymes and beats of WICKED WORLD, I released this tape on 420 and titled it REALMS OF REALITY. The concept for this tape was to make it spacey, chilled-out to the max and perfect for a chill smoke sesh, as if it’s taking you through different planes of existence. There’s still good rhymes on here, along with some autotuned singing, as well as chiller, softer beats. Some highlights of this album are the “It Is What It Is” remix that I did with the super talent singer Mary Jane, and the intro track “Divine Dreams”, which is my first public release of the chill electronic music I’d been working on for a while, and which I’ve continued working on up to this day.

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WICKED WORLD
Released March 15, 2012
Early 2012 was a super creative period for me. I had just released the RUNNING REBEL mixtape in February and my song “It Is What It Is” from the same tape, had gotten about 60K views on YouTube. Around that same time I had gotten together with Lil’ DG and we formed RRG (Running Rebel Gang), so we had started working on the Rebel Gang tapes. With that in the works, and about a month after the RUNNING REBEL mixtape release, WICKED WORLD was born. The concept was very different, where RUNNING REBEL was written on a more personal note, this mixtape focuses more on the global situation, on issues with society, government, and the like. It’s got a heavier sound to it, as far as the instrumentation is concerned, and the flows are definitely harder and faster.

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RUNNING REBEL
Released February 14, 2012
This album marks a turning point in my music career, and it’s the one that I’d dare to consider a true classic, without a doubt, of all my releases. This is when I added the Rebel to my name, something that grew out of a lot of (admittedly stoned) philosophizing I was doing at the time. The beats on this tape are true to the old-school sound that I love so much, super chill and smooth with lots of samples, and my rhymes on here are sharp and to the point.
Most of the beats are produced by French beat-maker Dela, but I wrote and recorded these raps on my own, without his explicit authorization, upon falling in love with his style of beats and just getting to work. I wrote my raps to fit them perfectly, and I hope one day I get to purchase the rights to release this album on streaming platforms.

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E
Released December 9, 2011
Although there’s no crazy concept to this tape, most of the tracks on here are hard-hitting bangers over equally crazy beats. Lots of punchlines, lots of fast flows and overall more modern, new-school sounding beats when compared to my few previous releases, R.A.P. and 420 REASONS. Since bragging rap isn’t really my main focus with my music, this mixtape was more or less put together from some of the few bragging tracks I had recorded at the time, plus a few other gems. The E stands for my name, Elias.

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420 REASONS
Released November 30, 2011
This is a chill tape to play while you blaze on some good bud. I usually try to address various topics and ideas within a single tape, 420 REASONS being the exception. I wanted to dedicate a full tape to an unconditional friend who’s been there with me through the ups and downs. A lot of my most creative ideas and enlightening epiphanies have come to me while blazing alone, just vibing and meditating. Of course, moderation is the key, balance is important in life no matter what we’re talking about. Throughout all the problems and stresses of life though, I can always light up a nice joint while listening to some great music and relax for a bit, leaving all of life’s problems behind, and that’s something too many people don’t value enough, those beautiful moments of pure peace of mind.
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R.A.P.” (RHYTHM AND POETRY)
Released November 20, 2011

R.A.P. (RHYTHM AND POETRY) was the first album I fully completed. It was released on November 20th, 2011, 5 days before my 17th birthday. Although I feel that my flow and writing skills have improved since then, I can’t help but admire the fire I had burning in me back in those days, the passion with which I can hear myself spit my rhymes over these beats. Back then I was only making music for the sake of it, because I loved it, and I had a huge collection of beats I’d accumulated, so I chose the ones which inspired me the most, which resonated with the lyrics and themes I explored in this tape, the chillest beats, the rawest or the jazziest beats. A lot of the ideas expressed in this tape marked the beginning of an amazing personal and spiritual journey for me, so while I was writing these rhymes I wasn’t concerned with making money, with how the tape would be released and all of that, but rather with sharing a concrete piece of art with the world, expressing my deepest thoughts and emotions through poetry and music. Honestly, I can say I succeeded in creating what I had in mind, but because the beats I used weren’t beats I’d purchased, I couldn’t post my music onto streaming services, so these deeply personal tracks couldn’t be released to a wider audience. Nevertheless, this album is very special to me since it marks the start of my discography, and so it remains available on YouTube and here on Bandcamp.