With the impending release of the re-up to Dollar$ & Daialogue quickly approaching, I decided to put together 24 random facts (D&D dropped on 2/11/11: 2+11+11 = 24) about the initial project. Check em out and see if you find out something you didn't know. Dollar$ & Daialogue 1.5 drops later on this month!
1) Dollar$ & Daialogue was developed as an official follow-up to Slangston’s first mixtape, Money & The Message. The idea was to continue the discussion of money and how it affects, hinders, and stimulates us for better or worse.
2) The original idea was for Slangston to do all of the writing/vocals with a Daialogue verse or two at the most with him remaining behind the boards the majority of the project, but with the energy and dichotomy that came about as songs manifested, a collaborative effort was a better fit.
3) Dollar$ & Daialogue was recorded in four studios, Wes B’s Blu Deuce Studios, Inner Recess Recording Studios, The Hut Studios and L’Daialogue’s home studio.
4) With Slangston’s Blueprint mentality, the only two features for Dollar$ & Daialogue are Hip-Hop Soul singer, Suave and fellow New Orleans emcee, Lyrikill.
5) If you listen closely, there’s a special hidden track at the end of this LP with a certain New Orleans flavor.
6) Despite the large amount of talented producers throughout New Orleans, Slangston chose extended Tygah Woods fam and Memphis native, L’Daialogue for this type of project because of the chemistry that developed in what Slangston calls “one of his best verses written” in the Tygah Woods x L’Daialogue collab “Marie Laveau” (http://bit.ly/odP2kh).
7) The artwork for Dollar$ & Daialogue was created the night before its February 11th release and features the same font that's used on each denomination of US currency.
8) The first song written and recorded for the project was “Do It Tonight,” Slangston’s personal rebuttal to the pessimistic and negative Twitter posts ending in the phrase #FML or Fuck My Life.
9) Not an overtly avid fan of today’s bounce music, Slangston was surprisingly convinced to do a Hip-Hop track with a bounce beat after hearing L’Daialogue’s Triggaman sample flip and production on “Hands In the Air” (http://bit.ly/njIZcl)
10) The idea for “Ladies In The Crowd” came about after watching a Black Milk performance video that displayed a solid, enthused front row of female Hip-Hop listeners at one of his shows, something that isn’t often seen at Hip-Hop shows generally speaking.
11) Writing/recording for Dollar$ & Daialogue started around March/April of 2010.
12) Olde Soul, longtime producer and L’Daialogue contributor, added the Jay-Z cuts from “Some Like It Hot” you hear on the title track.
