WINDOWS

Credits

Written by Tree of Lyfe
Produced by Phazzeone
Mixed by Andre Paxton
Recorded in A downtown Los Angeles apartment
Released May 1, 2018
Label Brilliance Limited

Beat by Phazzeone. Mixed by Andre Paxton. Video directed by Robert Baek, edited by the same hands that drew the cover.

Prequel · Now Playing

WINDOWS

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Released May 1, 2018Advisory Explicit

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The Story

Before Paradise

The cover shows a boy looking at the Tree of Life. To him, it is the only way to taste eternity, and you can see it reflected in his eyes. All he ever wanted was to truly live. That drawing marked the official debut of my anime-influenced world. I knew it was the beginning of something special. I wanted to share the perspective that had kept me going, even when everything around me went dark.

To me, windows meant eyes, the windows to the soul. I wrote the song when I started to understand how much perspective shapes reality. The way you choose to look at something changes what you see.

I was living in downtown Los Angeles. Most nights, we'd ride out to a club or bar with the music up, looking for beautiful women and a good time. As we drove, I'd watch the people we passed. The ones dressed up and searching for something to make them feel alive. The ones who came to chase a dream but got lost along the way. The ones who had fallen on hard times and were sleeping outside. The police watching all of us.

We were all looking at the same city and seeing a different place at the same time.

At the time, I was working in Hollywood and creating an album, but I didn't have a radio single. Everything I'd written asked people to listen closely. I needed one song that could make people feel something immediately, then lead them deeper.

One night, Phazze played this beat in the car and everyone came alive. I started freestyling, repeating, "I just roll my windows down when I'm ridin' 'round the town." Everybody caught the vibe. That feeling in the car is why I wrote the song.

I recorded it in my little apartment downtown. Whenever I performed it, the crowd went up. We shot a video and went all out with locations, car rentals, craft services, custom clothing, equipment, and a crew. I wrote the treatment, Robert shot and directed it, and I edited it myself. Altogether, I invested around $7,000 to $8,000 into bringing the record to life.

One thing I hadn't budgeted for was marketing. By then, the money was gone. When my engineer held on to the final album files, the release stalled. I lost a potential record deal and the momentum along with it. I was carrying all of it alone, and eventually I burned out.

I moved from Detroit to Los Angeles to make art, music, and streetwear apparel. Windows was the first place all three met. It was originally part of The Other Side of Paradise, before I knew that vision would grow into an animated series. Windows came first. The prequel.

Tree of Lyfe · Los Angeles, 2018

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Shot across downtown Los Angeles. I wrote the treatment, Robert Baek directed, and I cut it myself.

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