{"id":11788,"date":"2013-03-26T22:19:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T05:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/?p=11788"},"modified":"2013-03-26T22:22:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T05:22:14","slug":"gq-death-threats-and-love-notes-the-prelude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/?p=11788","title":{"rendered":"GQ: Death Threats and Love Notes: The Prelude"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11789\" srcset=\"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500.jpg 500w, http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/artworks-000043450099-c7s5up-t500x500-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Album: Death Threats and Love Notes: The Prelude<br \/>\nArtist: GQ<br \/>\nReleased: March 26, 2013<\/p>\n<p>To all hip-hop enthusiasts, it&#8217;s time to get excited. Why? Grammy award winning producer, <a href=\"http:\/\/9thwonder.com\/\">9th Wonder<\/a>, is unveiling his new secret weapon from his budding roster at <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/jamlarecords\">Jamla Records<\/a>: <strong>GQ<\/strong> (also known as Quentin Thomas), who&#8217;s packing so much heat it&#8217;s undeniable not to recognize the fire this Oakland-bred emcee is brewing. <strong>GQ&#8217;s<\/strong> promising album, <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/death-threats-love-notes\/id624857400\">&#8220;Death Threats and Love Notes: The Prelude&#8221;<\/a>, couples the exquisite production of <strong>9th Wonder<\/strong> and his production team, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Soul_Council\">Soul Council<\/a>, with <strong>GQ&#8217;s<\/strong> lively story-like lyrical skills and evident passion in sharing his struggles and triumphs. The collaborative effort provides a strong foundation to the depth of the album.<\/p>\n<p>While Oakland Hip-Hop bred the likes of Hieroglyphics, The Luniz, and E-40, the young <strong>GQ<\/strong> was taking notes, appreciating a variety of music genres and artists, and ultimately becoming a fan of lyrics as he was training to become a college basketball star. His champion mentality provided <strong>GQ<\/strong> with the opportunity to become a member of UNC&#8217;s 2005 National Championship team his freshman year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GQ&#8217;s<\/strong> love for music, however, was still insatiable, and he applied his champion mentality to his other passion: rhyming. By 2009, <strong>Jamla Records<\/strong> welcomed <strong>GQ<\/strong> into their undeniable roster of talent, with <strong>9th Wonder<\/strong> raving that <strong>GQ<\/strong> <em>&#8220;isn&#8217;t a basketball player that can rhyme, he is a rapper than can ball.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since his signage to <strong>Jamla Records<\/strong>, 9th Wonder&#8217;s blazing indie record label, <strong>GQ<\/strong> has been featured on EA Sports&#8217; NBA Live 10, with <strong>David Banner<\/strong>, and collaborated with label mates <strong>Rapsody<\/strong> and <strong>Heather Victoria<\/strong>. Building towards success for 2013, <strong>GQ<\/strong> is set to release a two part release, <strong>&#8220;Death Threats and Love Notes&#8221;<\/strong>, the prequel and debut album.<br \/>\nUpon listening through the tracks, I couldn&#8217;t help but appreciate the goodness and reality of the struggle that <strong>GQ<\/strong> spoke of. It&#8217;s relatable, real, and precisely what the hip-hop game is currently lacking, as evidenced by the intro track, <em><strong>&#8220;Repetition&#8221;<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;Remote flicking, looking for entertainment,<br \/>\nPulp fiction, juicing for arrangements,<br \/>\nI&#8217;m in love with it, see who i&#8217;m engage with,<br \/>\nwake em up and put em to sleep, like where the day&#8217;s went.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em>  <\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;It&#8217;s need what I want, and what I want is what I strive for<br \/>\nfoot away like five foe,<br \/>\nfuck i gotta lie foe,<br \/>\nI&#8217;m here, but I ride slow,<br \/>\nHigher then my pride go,<br \/>\nsee i know a lot of shit, shit that only I know.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;For those just tuning in, welcome to my show,<br \/>\nI&#8217;m not your average guy joe,<br \/>\nI&#8217;m heartfelt like,<br \/>\nKadeem Hardison falling of a rim,<br \/>\nYou don&#8217;t always have to write whats right to hold a pen.&#8221;<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;Could of parted like seeds, but please<br \/>\nI&#8217;d rather lead my people through rough streams<br \/>\nI too, can be a canoe.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Soul Council&#8217;s<\/strong> smooth and head-bopping production is the perfect complement to <strong>GQ&#8217;s<\/strong> passionate lyrical delivery, which makes you understand and enjoy the ride he takes you on as he describes the gritty and dark tales of &#8220;Oak Town&#8221;. For those who crave substance with melodic flows, and enjoy music that inspires you to light up your own fuel for greatness, it&#8217;s time to get acquainted with <strong>GQ<\/strong>, Oakland&#8217;s next Hip Hop hero.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to cop <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/death-threats-love-notes\/id624857400\">&#8220;Death Threats and Love Notes: The Prelude&#8221;<\/a> you wont be disappointed. <\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/keyshiaelainne\">Elainne Dizon<\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TrK0AKCv89M\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Album: Death Threats and Love Notes: The Prelude Artist: GQ Released: March 26, 2013 To all hip-hop enthusiasts, it&#8217;s time to get excited. Why? Grammy award winning producer, 9th Wonder, is unveiling his new secret weapon from his budding roster at Jamla Records: GQ (also known as Quentin Thomas), who&#8217;s packing so much heat it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,6,76],"tags":[2049,1233,2073,142,2066,2059,2070,2068,2072,951,96,2060,2069,2067,2065,498,614,851,2062,521,2071,2061,2074],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11788"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11788"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11807,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11788\/revisions\/11807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}