On Books and Bookings

September 17 2006

Brethren,

At long last, the book is launching! "The Rap Canterbury Tales", published by Talon Books, is now in stores, on Amazon.com, Chapters.ca, and dozens of other sites. To get the book you have many options, some cheaper than others; however, there is only one way to get a signed copy, and that is to buy it from me!

For those of you close enough to make it, please come to my book launch party. The official launch event is on Tuesday, October 3rd at the Media Club (corner of Georgia and Cambie). There will be a catered reception and book signing from 7:30 - 9:30, followed by a performance, as well as a display of Erik's illustrations, and afterwards we can stay at the club and have a night out.

I haven't been writing many exciting emails lately, mainly because I've been in the studio recording new music. First, I re-recorded and re-mixed the entire Rap Canterbury Tales album to correspond with the book launch. The new version reflects the current state of my performance, since much of the material has evolved since I put out the original CD two years ago. As a special promotion, everyone who orders the book online can have a free download of "The Rap Canterbury Tales – Second Edition". Simply write "mailing list" in the paypal comment box and I'll send you a link to download the tracks.

I've also been working on my new full-length rap album, entitled "Lit-Hop", which will be fully mastered and ready for release in two weeks. This disc is musically and lyrically miles ahead of anything I've put out yet, and features production and guest appearances from Josh Martinez, Moka Only, Lucid Notion, Jonny Quality, Disraeli, Infinite Potential, John Tennant, Torez, Lin G, and numerous others.

Finally, I am leaving the day after the book launch for my fall tour of the Eastern USA. Between October 4th and December 4th I will be performing at college campuses, schools, festivals, and various venues in Boston, Pittsburgh, New York, Montreal, Ottawa and many other cities. I have an agent coordinating all of my events for this tour, and we also have visits planned to Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Virginia, etc.

Recently I emailed a teacher who bought my CD online, to ask about the possibility of bringing my show to her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, and I got this response:

>Hi Baba -

>HOLY COW! I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU COME VISIT >COLUMBIA, SC!

>::happy dance::

>We will be reading the CTales

>October/November/Decemberish sometime - OH MY GOSH

>this would be fantastic...

To quote any further would be a bit gratuitous, but the point of this exercise is that I still have quite a few open dates in my tour schedule, and I was hoping you might be able to make some introductions. If you know anyone living in the general vicinity of the Eastern USA who might have a similar reaction to the prospect of booking a performance, please put me in touch with them so I can fill my schedule and stay as busy as I was this spring in the UK. Many of my gigs come from these kind of personal connections, and I can't overemphasize their value in making this process work.

Touring in the USA will be an entirely new experience for me, so any and all friendly people will be more than welcome along the way, especially if they have a guest-room and/or couch to spare a traveler.

Hope to see many of you at the book launch on the 3rd,

baba