As many of you know, my friend Budo was my main comrade on the production end of “The Language of my World.” But not only did he produce the majority of the the songs off the album, he was also my sounding board for everything that popped into my mind during that year of creating the record. From selling CD’s hand to hand at Bumbershoot, to riding the popularity wave of the Myspace song, we were a team. His range varied from not only making beats but answering my advanced technical questions such as “how do you turn a Wav. into an Mp3?” On top of that he helped me to nit pick, dissect and analyze every verse and over dub that went with it. He was that dude. The guy behind the scenes that should have been at the forefront of the project. It was really both of ours.

A lot of time has passed since 05′. Budo is now a successful professional musician who has gone through an immense amount of growth. He has been on the road with another good friend of mine, Grieves for the past couple years and is an integral part of that performance. I’ve watched him go from a shy trumpet player, who looked as though being on stage was inflicting physical pain to his body, to a charismatic, confident, renaissance man of music, owning every instrument his jewish fingers touch on stage (and there’s a lot).

Budo is competing in the Big Tune Beat Battle Championships tonight in Chicago. I’ve been loosing my voice screaming for this guy for at least the last 4+ years now, and it’s awesome to see him in a place that he deserves to be: amongst the champions. It was incredible to watch him climb his way to the top of the pack at SXSW where he won the event and I’m sure he’s out to beast on some dudes tonight in Chicago. So here’s a toast to one of my favorite people in this world. Everything that you have attained is more then deserved my friend. The city is proud of you. Much love.