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about

A few months back I was going through some of my old stuff and I found this tape. The handwriting was mine but I had never seen this tape before. Over the coming weeks I became obsessed with figuring out where it came from and what was on it. It is an unmixed 4 track tape that won't play in a regular deck, so I had to find an analog 4 track to play it in. I tried a dozen machines with no luck, inexplicably damaging many of the machines in the process. Whatever it had been recorded on must have operated at a rare speed not used in most recording equipment. One machine I borrowed from a friend was able to at least play the tape at a high speed and after a week or 2 of adjustments I was finally able to hear the tape, and what I heard defied all explanation. Once I was finally able to listen to the tape, I quickly disregarded the year "1992" that was written on the artifact. Despite coming from analog tape, the fidelity of the music was very high. The production was sharp, and the sound compares favorably with anything I've done recently. Besides that, here and there were verses by other rappers I recognized, people I didn't even meet until the 2000s. Even a few people I've never even worked with...and the songs...I didn't recognize a single one of them...it was definitely me rapping in style as well as content, but I had never written these songs...i listened again and again to see if i could trigger any type of memory associated with the music, but just became more and more disoriented. There was something...OFF about the tape that I couldn't put my finger on. Listening for more than a few hours at a time began to make me physically sick. Nausea and blinding headache. Finally I reached out to a few people who I recognized on the tape. By this time I hadn't eaten or slept in days and was in an agitated state. Most of the people I reached out to just looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. Some of them looked at me like I was crazy. The more that i began to focus on the lyrics, the more i began to believe that I was hearing specific messages sent to me from myself, in another time; another place...Listening to the tape I would hear certain phrases and rhymes that would seem to jump out at me. I didn't remember writing or recording them but some of the specifics were too pertinent to my current situation to be a coincidence. Despite the "1992" written on it, if anything, this tape could have come from the future. Or maybe an alternate reality. There was one song in particular that fueled my interest in this theory...the very last song on the tape. More than just clues, this song, the more I listened, contained a detailed exploration of the very themes I was grappling with...Fighting exhaustion and dehydration, I listened again and again. I alienated those around me, but at least I had the tape....That last song was important, i was sure. The rapping was all me and PTate, one of my favorite MCs, from Des Moines. There was no mistaking either of us for anyone else. I actually have done a song or 2 with PTate, but not in 1992. I never even met him until the late '90s in Iowa City. Of course he didn't remember anything about the song. But here he was, rapping on it. The lyrics I knew about, but the music I knew less about. It became my mission to hunt down the producer behind this track. I spent thousands of dollars investing in sound matching technology and dozens of hours running algorithms and scouring all corners of the internet. Finally, after a couple of weeks, I had found a match.I felt like the mystery of the tape was finally beginning to unravel at last. I didnt remember writing or recording these songs, but with time, money, technology, and a little luck I had tracked down the architect of the beat for the last song on the tape. My investigations led me to the soundcloud page of a DJ/ multi instrumentalist named MOD aka Shmukz from the other side of the world, in Belgrade, Serbia. I had DEFINITELY never worked with this guy before, but once I reached out to him on social media I found him to be an excellent human being, and exactly the type of person whom I WOULD work with. The circumstances were just as mysterious to him as they were to me, but he liked what had been done with his beat and was interested in releasing the track....but I began to wonder for the first time whether releasing music from another dimension or universe might be harmful to our existence in this world.....I know many of you are wishing i would shut up about the tape and just share the music. Many more of you wishing i would shut up in general. Well i am convinced there are others out there who would like to shut me up...permanently. The first night i posted anything about the tape i recieved a phone call in the middle of the night. The caller refused to speak or identify themselves. Each night since ive recieved more of the calls, sometimes 3or 4 a night. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm being followed. By now I can't lie to myself, I'm completely obsessed with this mystery music, and I'm compelled to share it in the hopes that somebody smarter than me can make some sense of what has happened here. At the same time, I am fearful of the implications of sharing music from another dimension. I could theoretically change the reality we live in simply by sharing this music with the wrong person. Events that have already transpired could blink out of existence and the path of time could be altered. People you know and love could cease to be, or ever having been, part of your life, and we would all be none the wiser. As a matter of fact who's to say it hasn't already happened? I'm struck with a panic attack like a bolt of lightning. My heart may burst from my chest. If I didn't have a family, things would be different, but I need to ensure their safety first. Fear not truth seekers I have taken steps to ensure this music will live on. Who is patient and brave enough to abide the dude?.....the tape i buried was a fake. I merely switched the housing, and I still have this music from another dimension, here inside of this Madonna tape. I wasn't thinking clearly, my ruse served only to calm my own fears and misgivings. You can't fool the universe. You cannot pull wool over the eyes of time and space. And you cannot undo what has already been done. That said, I think the time is soon to unleash this fated music upon the world, for better, or for worse.

credits

released August 3, 2016
Produced by Shmukz
www.facebook.com/modakashmukz/?fref=ts
Lyrics and Vocals by Cracka Don
www.facebook.com/ia.cracka.don/
& PTate
dmny.bandcamp.com/album/ptate-socks-and-boxers
Mixed and Mastered by E Knowledge
soundcloud.com/bjornsoul

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Cracka Don Cedar Falls, Iowa

Veteran writer, emcee, recording and performance artist.

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