The Process of Progress w/ Husayn Jay • (Mix/EP) • SM Pilot Release #00 / 2008

Husayn Jay is a California based emcee and producer known for his recent work rhyming in a mc/producer duo with producer Fanatik, as well as previous collaborations with The Understudies Crew and and Sacramento collective After Hijrah. Early in our story, when we first began kicking around the idea of being a label, rather than just a “crew”, Jay was one of the first to offer a hand, presenting two discs filled with material. One disc with 20 originals. One disc with 20 freestyles, remixes and mixtape type joints. At this time, free albums & mixtapes were “hot”, so we picked some favorites from the collection, added a few bells and whistles and turned it into what would be “still vague and untitled label” release # 1. We didn’t have a digital distribution deal yet and getting your music on these new streaming things and iTunes was easier said than done. So we put the album and a rough around the edges cover art in a zip file, and sent it out to The Understudies Crew mailing list. We soon put it on this new thing called bandcamp and maybe a small number of home made CDs for the few shows we would get here and there (memory a little hazy) - to little fanfare beyond our local circuit - but the key takeaway here was that we made a product that we in our circle of friends were proud of, and we were stoked about each other’s energies and taking the first steps into the unknown together. even if we didn’t really know what we were doing at the time, with each step that would follow, we started to do a little bit better each time. Listening back to this one is special and still enjoyable to this day. Husayn Jay remains one of the most unsung emcees in California today, so after you listen to this one, go catch up on his new stuff on Spotify, you won’t be disappointed. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy