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Qualo : Believe.
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"Qualo's Preast, Chicago Shawn, Optimyst and Shala Esquire pack 'Believe' with a mentality born from years of absorbing Public Enemy, NWA and OutKast: smartly brutal verses over bangin' beats...." - Billboard Magazine
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap: Hardcore Rap
Release Date: 2004
Believe. Record Label: The Movement.
  • Download Album (MP3) - $9.99
  • Buy CD - $12.97
Preview Song Name Time Format Price Select
Creed 2:21 $0.99
Immortal Movement Nation 4:28 $0.99
Do What the Track Say 4:17 $0.99
Dro 4:12 $0.99
Pimpaholic 3:19 $0.99
How to Make a Baby Mama 4:11 $0.99
Ride Slow 4:59 $0.99
Come Outside 5:31 $0.99
We Are the War 5:05 $0.99
Holiday 4:41 $0.99
Coco 4:19 $0.99
Im Yo Brother 3:08 $0.99
I Ain't a Pimp 4:32 $0.99
So Mo Gangsta 3:56 $0.99
This Little Light 4:20 $0.99
Diary of a Mad Band 4:25 $0.99
Never Die 10:30 $0.99
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Album Notes

"What if 2pac was a group....." Chicago, hip hop's new mecca, is rapidly being recognized for being the new breeding ground for the self-produced-artist/franchise performer. The Midwest capital has given the world R. Kelly, Kanye West, and now, the band: Qualo. Qualo, meaning "The four of us", consist of four producer/rappers from the West side of Chicago. This seldom-seen combination makes their musical reach wide and addictive. The four come together with an energy similar to the heydays of the hip hop super-group. Bottomline: a definite franchise... Preast delivers soul-touching, picturesque rhymes with a lyrical depth paralleled only by such greats as 'Pac, Nas, and Eminem. Stepping in the producer's arena, Preast provides equally intense production that is both refreshing and edgy. Chicago Shawn adds a stick of dynamite to the recipe with a high octane flow to match his intricate wordplay and introspective sentimentality. His innovative production keeps Qualo on their toes and listeners under that hypnotic Qualo spell. Adding fuel to the fire is Optimyst. Optimyst lends his distinguished wordplay, commanding the listeners' attention. His compelling "prose" style verses possess a quality of simple sincerity and clarity; a kin to musical icons, Outkast. No stranger to the boards, he also lends his hand in constructing the distinct Qualo sound. Shala Esquire adds a truly cultured "Fugee-esque" perspective to the group. A native Nigerian, Esquire is the proverbial glue, anchoring the Qualo sound with his intriguing street narrative poetry and rock-influenced production. Qualo's unique blend of bass-heavy beats, fierce rhyme techniques, infectious chants and catchy hooks, set to a backdrop of soulful music, social awareness, and political satire will have you rolling in emotion one minute and laughing out loud the next; all the while nodding your head uncontrollably. While the music is an experience in itself, Qualo's true essence can only be captured by seeing their live show. Qualo captivates the audience with a stage presence that is both exciting and inviting. They possess a synergy and presence rarely seen in this post-new school hip hop era. Whether you're a "hip hop purist", a radio junkie, or a rap critic, if you put your ear to the street and listen closely, you'll hear and be quickly entranced by the "hood's heartbeat"... the Qualo sound. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: the Movement. Chicago, LLC 773.536.3540 --

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REVIEWS

This album really catches fire on joints like “Come Outside” and “So Mo Ga
author: Elemental Magazine
Just in case you didn’t get it when they dropped their first album, Movementality, nearly five years ago, this Chicago quartet of producers, songwriters and rhyme-sayers is part of a broader grass roots movement steadily gaining momentum in the Midwest for more than a minute now. If you don’t believe it, listen to the streets or the next best thing and hit up the Internet for the mixtapes floating around featuring Chicago Shawn, Preast, Shala, and Optimyst. Incendiary material like “Gunshots, Warfare, Revelations” add fuel to the fire but is only a tip of the iceberg and hardly conveys the hard-edged ideology and eclectic range of style this collective is capable of. In the end you’ll get a definitive sense of where they’re coming from. They come hard and righteous, and broadsides like “Creed” and “Immortal Movement Nation” go far in seconding that emotion. Preast, like the rest of the group, is a jack-of-all-trades. He produced and played all the instruments for the first track that starts off with the accelerated sample of an Islamic prayer and a heartbeat that goes bump in the night while Shawn goes off like a ticking bomb. The second song is a jack from a Nas classic that sheds even more light on the group’s contentiously contradictory character. They flip-off all the right figures of authority with two middle fingers on “Do What the Track Say” and even call for the arrest of the president, among other brilliant suggestions. But such instigations sound decrepit in the wake of an avalanche like “fuck the situation of corporations monopolizing the radio stations, TVs, CDs and DVDs” that urges audiences to “fuck the internet if the shit ain’t free” even while calling for the heads of “bootleggers and Best Buy too” since “it ain’t cuz we want to but cuz we got to.” Songs like “Pimpaholic” and “I Ain’t A Pimp” would sound sophomorically stupid if it weren’t for the tongue-in-cheek humor in abundance on other tracks like “How To Make A Baby” that are slightly reminiscent of the southern-fried hijinks of OutKast. Still though, the thin misogynistic veneer passed off as black humor saves this album from the sociopolitical dogma that would ordinarily be pure drudgery. Jokes at the expense of the lesser half aside, this album really catches fire on joints like “Come Outside” and “So Mo Gangsta” where their synergy as a unit bears fruit through accomplished beats that bubble and percolate with the slamming bull’s-eye lyricism that is their stock and trade. In the end though it’s tracks like “This Little Light” and “Diary of a Mad Band” that are the rare poetic gems since they’re the most accomplished and expressive in the way that they offer a vivid glimpse into the woeful trouble they and other po’ folks have been steadily seeing since day one. – Elemental Magazine
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The Movement Continues...........
author: K Smooth of Inner City Hoodlumz
Been a Qualo fan, still a Qualo fan. Nothin' but that hot shit, and we know Chi-Town has all this right? Don't stop my niggas, and tell the Drama Ward to keep it poppin'.
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Hot SH_T..... Keep it movin! Support Chi Music..
author: Matrixx (Earchild Productions)
Qualo Keep it Movin. The CD is hot.
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Real Sh!t
author: Revelation 8:10 aka Rev
Yeah this CD cold mayne.. real life shit, Im feelin it, nuff said yall.. keep doing yall thang.... If yall interested in being on a compilation mixtape, hit me up, I got lots of nice features such as Father Tyme, Vizion, Mac & AK from Cali, Fingeroll of No Tamin, RiP of RiP Records + mad others... hit me up on email rev@revelation810.com or check out my website www.revelation810.com my album Loyalty out now... CHITOWN, WILD 100s! One hunnit...
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