The Next Wordz From Tha Underground

Coming up this Thursday March 1 is the second installment in the Vancouver monthly hip hop night, 'Wordz From Tha Underground'! I am extremely stoked about this line-up, we got DJ Mint who does a madcap scratch routine, SVS Style Dance Crew a group of girls who do amazing choreographed dance, Keep 6 who always slay it live, Erthtonez who are pretty much the most entertaining and energetic live rap duo in the city and of course yours truly XYL with my DJ Tre Funk.

To see a map to the venue click here. Hope to see y'all there!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

XYL Live for Chinese New Year!

The above photo is me rockin' the Vansky Chinese New Year Party Feb.16. It was a great turnout, around 500 people. The crowd reaction was great and two girls danced on stage behind me which was obviously rad. Check out the video of my performance.

I was very impressed by all the performers that night. The general style tended to be more Chinese ballads, many of them traditional and a number of amazing voices were on display. There was some great traditional dance and also more hip-hop oriented dancing. I got to mention this girl Ying Ying, she first did a traditional dance which was amazing and later threw down a really exciting hip-hop routine. She's the really hot girl with the small pink tutu in my video. Yeah, now you're watching it.

I have to thank Scottie Cash, John Li and everyone who helped organize and work the event, the performers and also to everyone who attended. I look forward to doing more performances for the Chinese community!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

The Mindset

I truly believe that our thoughts influence the physical reality around us. One's mindset plays a key role in the outcome of one's life. Positivity will manifest as such and vice versa so keeping an optimistic outlook is important for me. My greatest inspirations, the 'heroes' of my life are men who sought to achieve what everyone thought was impossible and despite the incredible difficulty before them, they conquered their goals. Men like Muhammed Ali, Bruce Lee and Arnold Shwarchenegger. These people inspire me because they prove that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and stick to your goals with steadfast determination.

I will never quit and I will never let setbacks stop me from progressing. I realize that there is an incredible mountain of work before me and that each day is a struggle. From venue research, studying, writing and recording music, publicity, radio play and everything else that comes along with trying to be a successful musician, I love the challenge. I look forward to working on my career each day because I know it is one more step towards my ultimate goal.

In closing, I would like to recommend a book to anyone seeking to understand this mindset. The book is 'Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai' written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo in the 1800s. It is essentially an instruction manual for new Samurai and it lays out the proper mindset to become a great Samurai. This information can be applied to everyday life as well and for a long time it was my bible, I read some of the passages every day and still do now and then. It shows the incredible work ethic of the Samurai and how to attain it. 'Each day, become better than you were the day before.' That is words of wisdom to live by.

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

The Drinking...

The consumption of alcohol amongst friends, is there really anything better? These days I balance my extreme workload with a bit of good old fashioned social drunkeness. Canadians are known for their iron-clad drinking skills and seeing as I am always drinking with foreigners, I try my best to represent my country. However, the Koreans can definitely hold their own. Did you know that South Korea consumes the second largest amount of alcohol per capita, bested only by those wild and crazy Russians? Also, I have found that Korean women are especially strong drinkers compared to females of any other nationality and can often down entire beers in a single gulp effortlessly. Believe it.

So far, all the rappers I book at my shows and have performed with in general tend to drink pretty heavy. And let's not kid ourselves, this is Vancouver BC. Every rapper I know smokes the herb some to a level of extreme fanatasism. Performing drunk/high is another issue and as for myself I will not do it though I don't mind downing a couple of brews first. Just enough to loosen up but not so much that my speech is impaired.

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace