Biography
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Born
6 June 1980 (age 43)
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Born In
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Qwel (of Typical Cats) & Maker (of Glue) creative partnership has gone from ‘occcasional collaboration’ to a full-fledged endeavor and the results are loud, clear, and undeniable.
Qwel & Maker reunite for the highly anticipated and long overdue sophomore album, So Be It on Galapagos4. The album's grimy soundscape and hard hitting drums make it the perfect ending for Qwel's four seasons project, which began with Qwel & Maker's 2004 classic, The Harvest. Maker's production on So Be It masterfully captures both the blazing and sometimes overwhelming heart of the summer and the cool relief of a summer night. The hypnotizing beats provide for a roller coaster of emotions and wide range of topics while staying true to a much larger overall theme. Whether pondering hope and love or drug addictions and authority, Qwel amazingly accentuates the provided backdrop with flows ranging from rapid fire to melancholy and hazy. Those expecting the fluff and filler so prevalent in modern hip hop will surely sit in disappointment. So Be It.
Once described by Rolling Stone as having “stark, biographical songs that occupy the same bleak terrain as Francis Bacon paintings or The Dark Knight,” the Chicago-based duo has matured substantially since the release of their 2009 sophomore album, So Be It, and continually raise the bar with their brand of raw, unadulterated, underground Hip-Hop.
"The Owl watches and grows wiser," explains Maker. "As we became more aware of our environment, we gained new perspectives. This album is our way of reconnecting with everything that surrounds us."
The duo is most at home on tracks like "El Camino", where Qwel's lyrics scrape vibrant, and often harsh, realities across Maker's soundscape of hard hitting drums and deft arrangements. "Name looking strange in the limelight / Chamber what you trying to change / Sitting here soaking in hindsight / It's the road / Its the life I chose" concludes Qwel on "El Camino."
Newly committed to the 'life they chose' and resolved to defeat stagnation in an industry in transition, Qwel & Maker have only just begun…
Qwel & Maker are preparing the release of their fourth collaborative album titled Beautiful Raw, which is scheduled to be released on May 28, 2013.
The duo has released four albums together:
– The Harvest (2004)
– So Be It (2009)
– Owl (2010)
– Beautiful Raw (2013)
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