Spliff Hemingway and Duke Westlake ~ Water: The 4 Year Journey
I met Spliff Hemingway back in 2012 at a Beat Fighter/Beat Battle/Hip-Hop event @ 2nd Street Jazz Club in Los Angeles. Good vibes, Good people. First time I came out it was to support one of my artists who was booked to perform. After we stayed around to support the rest of the talent; & in between sets we would catch Spliff hop on stage, grab the mic with so much comfortability; & just start flowin'.
I would say about a day after that event, I contacted the event host O-Phrap interested in being a producer in the next upcoming Beat-Battle. Submitted beats & got approved. Fast forward to the day of this event, Walk in, vibe always right; Ashley-Domonique on stage hosting. Beat-Battle goes down. Didn't win but I loved the experience. Ofcourse I stayed around to support the rest of the talent; & like I expected Spliff comes out the cut, gets that grand introduction, grabs the mic; & starts GASSIN! Sometimes getting so into it he's closing his eyes for a minute. For like 5 minutes straight sometimes. The whole crowd would be so magnetic to it and gather towards the stage. Every time. For me & my team just beginning to start performing at that time, it was truly inspirational.
Went home, added bro on Facebook, reached out to find all the music online I could. All I found was one at the time. "Buddha Heads". It was only one joint. It wasn't even that long. But I must've played it all day, on the way home from school, at school, at home. I would randomly come outta no where sayin "apple heads, cherry heads, yo" Lol. Me being a producer & an artist myself, you can tell when an artist & a producer have a good relationship just from hearing the music. Duke Westlake crafted that beat in tone with Spliff to match with clarity.
"Buddha Heads is where it all started. In May of 2011 my crew The A.L.U.M.N.I. opened up for Duke Westlake's crew E.Super. Duke came up to me at the end of the show that night and told me he was impressed with my performance and I told him that I was a fan of his music and we exchanged contacts. We made Buddha Heads the next day. It was like magic the way it all happened. Now here we are 4 years later releasing a classic album together and none of this would have happened if it wasn't for that night" -Spliff Hemingway
I kept up with the movement all those years. Every music video. Every major move, including theVans Warped Tour. (Wish I could've made a show) Every single. Flighted feat. Agallah. Mr. Hemingway. Every year he mentioned his album "Water" that was coming soon. In my mind I was like how can someone hold something back for so long; because in this generation so many artist are used to making music & dropping it repeatedly. But something of this quality deserves all the time to be perfected; which I think is exactly what Duke Westlake & Spliff Hemingway did.
-N3 (LAOnLock.com Founder)