Album Notes

Joe D and Cool Cee Brown make up the group dirtywater. They have been referred to as the Paul McCartney and John Lennon of rap due to their music that resonates past the time’s boundaries. When you listen to dirtywater., you’re reminded of a forgotten era while simultaneously being introduced to a sound you’ve never heard.

Though both are DC/MD natives, they met on the campus of North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. Prior to their meeting, they had both made names for themselves individually. Cee Brown gained popularity as a spoken word artist alongside songstress Yahzarah and the funk/jazz fusion band, Hidden Image. Joe had turned his apartment into a recording studio compiling a catalogue of underground hits with rap trio Train of Thought.

After Train of Thought and Hidden Image disbanded, both, hungry for a creative outlet, joined the new go-go group The Marquee Band & Show as frontline vocalists. There, for the first time, they witnessed each other's talents. dirtywater. emerged, and the previous attempts that were seen as failures, in hindsight, were actually fuel to a sound best described as fire.

The music boasts of influences from many directions yet speaks humbly to the listener. It conveys emotions and changes moods. In a time where the generation’s soundscape is incomplete, dirtywater is not simply what the game’s been missing. It is Hip Hop as it should be.