Monday, April 13, 2015

Gramatik Premieres Native Son (feat. Raekwon, Orlando Napier)

Gramatik premiered the first single off his highly anticipated Epigram EP during his Coachella Music Festival set this past Saturday. “Native Son” features Raekwon of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan and crooner Orlando Napier who both joined Gramatik at Coachella for the premiere performance. Fans who missed their performance last weekend can catch another exclusive preview when the guys tear it up again week 2 on Saturday April 18th 4:30pm at Coachella’s Sahara Stage.


“What is there to say? I’ve been a massive fan of the Wu since I was 14,” explains Gramatik. “The very first CD I’ve ever copped was 36 Chambers and soon after that, OB4CL followed. I was in 8th grade. Needless to say, I was immensely influenced and inspired by those albums in all kinds of ways. Raekwon immediately became one of my favorite rappers on the planet, and this was at a time when I was still primarily trying to become an MC. I can go on about this for days, but I’m sure you can imagine how some random kid from Slovenia must feel, realizing he just made a song with a legend.”


“Orlando wrote the song and came by my place one day, played the rhodes and sang it for me casually, and I was like holy shit, we have to make this song!” exclaims Gramatik. “We ended up making it a two part song, with Native Son Prequel being the second song, which is also going to be on Epigram. Both parts talk about a kid that grew up hard on the streets of NYC, each song addressing a different period in his life. Native Son is how he reflects on his younger years, while Native Son Prequel is him living the younger years. The reflective part felt perfect for a Raekwon verse to me, so I sent it to him, thinking nothing would come of it, but much to my surprise, he liked it and said yes. The rest is history.”


Wrapping up his successful tour for 2014 album The Age Of Reason Gramatik became 3rd most downloaded artist on BitTorrent with over 500 million legally downloaded songs. His Epigram EP is scheduled to hit the web this June via independent Lowtemp Music. Fans can also catch Gramatik back on the road this spring and summer including another sure to be sold-out headlining show at The Red Rock on May 9th. Tickets are available now at


redrocksonline.com/concerts-events/detail/gramatik-spe-5-9-2015


TOUR DATES:


April 13: Belly Up (Solana Beach, CA)


April 15: Mezzannie (San Francisco, CA)


April 16: Roseland Theater (Portland, OR)


April 18: Coachella 2015 (Indio, CA)


April 23: McDonald Theatre (Eugene, OR)


April 24: Showbox (Seattle, WA)


April 25: Vogue (Vancouver Canada)


April 26: Distrikt Nightclub (Victoria, Canada)


May 02: Canopy Club (Urbana, IL)


May 09: Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Morrison, CO)


May 15: Hangout Music Festival 2015 (Gulf Shores, AL)


May 22: Mysteryland USA 2015 (Bethel, NY)


June 11: Bonnaroo Music Festival 2015 (Manchester, TN)


June 20: Sonar (Barcelona, Spain)


June 25: Electric Forest 2015 (Rothbury, MI)


July 03: Herchesfield Roeser (Luxembourg)


SOCIALS:


Gramatik.net


Facebook.com/gramatik


Twitter.com/gramatik


Instagram.com/gramatik_lowtemp


Soundcloud.com/gramatik