Spanning over a decade of making hip-hop music the question of whether they (aLLeYNe & tEMuS) are good would be like asking true underground hip-hop fans if a Lamborghini’s a fast car. One might assume ten years in the entertainment industry will give you automatic bragging rights. True, I suppose. But there are simply not enough words in a thesaurus to tell you how good they are. Besides, how does one define good? Record sales, the most album promotion posters around the city, model looks, abs, movie deals, heavy radio rotation or heavy music video rotation? Is one song good or the whole album good? If those are your “good” judging criteria...then aLLeYNe & tEMuS suck. If your definition of good is based on how music makes you feel, how you relate, getting lost in melodic layers of instruments, when lyrics speak to you, when you feel the bass in the core of your soul and the bass kick make your head jerk, when an album stirs up all kinds of emotion...then aLLeYNe & tEMuS are “good”.
We should ask ourselves not whether a Lamborghini is fast but what makes it fast.
1.Longevity:
Long time friend Kev-Large (Now known as Kevlaar) and aLLeYNe had formed, and were part of a group called Blacksunz which consisted of local artists. The group’s first album was called “Eklyptic Cypha” (1997) and was produced by Kevlaar and aLLeYNe. It went on to sell a few hundred copies locally. Despite the slow but progressive success, most of the Blacksunz members were still taken the bus instead of pushing a Benzie and/or a Beamer so they moved on. MVP tEMuS stayed for the ride and aLLeYNe & tEMuS recorded 5 albums to date: “Alleyne & Temus” (1998), “Dying To Survive” (1999), “Off The Record” (2000), “Da B-Didez” (2004) and “Collide-EP” (2007)
aLLeyNe also has 2 solo albums: “Nothing Else Matters” (2001) and “Everything’s Eventual” (2006)
2. Performance:
aLLeYNe & tEMuS have performed at many local bars, venues, house parties and charities, sold CD’s and got radio play on various university/underground radio stations. In 2009 with the release of their new CD “Push” they plan on expanding their shows to reach places outside of Toronto...perhaps the world.
With regards to musical performance well lets just say that over a 10 year period there's been quite a few upgrades. Beats hug the pavement, bass lines are felt from the core outwards, instrumentation is on some high octane, hooks are fused with nitro and the lyrics are fuel efficient and good for the environment. There is no built in DVD player but the interior is jazzy with a world GPS and the sound system is loud enough to level a few city blocks.
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