In January of 2021 I was a full time employee for Sonic Librarian. The owner called one day and asked me if I could create 8 hours of hip-hop in a month. He had acquired a contract from a new network called Fox Soul, and at Sonic Librarian, I was the go-to guy for just about everything.

I thought about it for a second and said “Erik! 8 hours of Hip-Hop in one month?! That’s not going to be possible!” then he told me 

“Well, there’s never been a time in my company where I said no to a gig like this. it has to get done, and I believe in you!”

We got off the phone. I was his employee, and I wasn’t going to quit. I’m no quitter! But that meant that I was doing it! He sent me the reference that Fox had put together. The reference music was all Shazamable, though none of it was anything I recognized. I figured this to mean that it was my obligation to create music that was competitive with the references. 4 minute pieces of music that didn’t repeat or loop for an entire 8 hours.

To be totally honest, I was terrified. This remains the only time in my life I was ever worried about a deadline! It meant writing between 15-18 minutes of music per day, for the next month. All of it mixed and mastered, in styles that practically nobody would dare trust to a white dude with a mullet.

To make matters even crazier, because it was going to a network with viewers that would be very in-tune with the tonalities of these music styles, it had to have craft, emotion, variety, interest! It had to sound valid!

It had to be GOOD!

This was a time before AI, but I have a hard stance on my music with AI anyway. I will NOT use it!

Surprisingly enough, I was still taking side gigs. People honestly would’nt accept “no” from me. 

I managed to mix most of the Open Hand – Weirdo album while I was working on these Fox Soul tracks.

I still ended up finishing a week before the deadline was up, but I didn’t tell anyone.

So, the video above represents a month of REALLY HARD WORK, that I didn’t know was possible.

Then why the dogs? Easy! It was the most fun and useful way to make use of these songs that may not see a lot of use otherwise.

I’m very proud of this music!

One last thing. These songs are all available for licensing through SonicLibrarian.com!