Album Notes

The Locksmiths are a hip hop group out of Boston, MA, comprised of Cozmos and Tony Mantis. Cozmos brings an ecclectic collection of beats, sounds, samples, cuts and scratches to the table, while Mantis provides a raw, introspective look at himself, hip hop, and life in general by way of unique flows and delivery.

The two met about 6 years back at the Art Institute of New England, where Cozmos was studying sound engineering. Mantis came down to record some tracks with his long time friend Myster DL. DL and Coz had been messing around with some beats together, thus, Coz was in the studio that day. Mantis was amazed at the way Cozmos had laced some samples on a track and in the process was inspired to drop a verse that to this day Cozmos thinks is his hottest verse (though Tony strongly disagrees).

Later, Cozmos did some production for Tony's group Surreal (Mantis & Chris Sinn with DJ RNDM). After that project fell apart, the two hooked up and realized that they had some real chemistry musically.

So, after many late, drunk, high, and extremely bootleg sessions in basements and closet vocal booths, they decided to hit the pawn shop, dig in the couch cushions, and Tony sold one of his kidneys to get some real studio time.

This is their debut album with 19 tracks of unique hip hop for any music lover (hip hop head or not) to enjoy.