Lookout for our Inside The BOX. feature with this artist soon. Bio, tracklisting and download link after the jump.
Grammy nominated and Billboard-charting songwriter Uno Boss started his music career as an MC at age fourteen long before anyone ever knew that there was a hip-hop scene in Washington D.C. Now, after years of lending his writing ability to vocalists in genres from gospel to go-go, he is readying the release of his debut solo mixtape dedicated to the one genre in which his own voice is destined to flourish. “ A Long Time Comin’…Volume 1 “ (The Embasse , Nov. 10, 2010) paints masterful, soulful hip-hop pictures of pain, personal growth, and the unforgiving realities of growing up among inner city strife with a talent that only a veteran can possess.
“I just want to make good music and let the people decide my fate,†explains Uno.
Many people have already identified his fate as a great talent. In 2002, super producer Chucky Thompson, a fellow D.C. native, discovered Uno at a meeting in New York City. Recognizing his ability to write creative advertising for local Up Against The Wall ads, Thompson asked the emerging artist to develop music demos for vocalists and rappers submitting to major record label A&R’s. After finishing his first 6 song demo project in a one day, Chucky decided that Uno might be ready for something bigger and later invited him to a writing session with gospel legend Ann Nesby (Sounds of Blackness). That session would eventually lead to Uno receiving writing credit for her Grammy-nominated title cut, “Make Me Better†(2003).
After a few years of demo writing in NYC, Uno returned to DC and opened a recording studio in downtown Silver Spring Maryland, where he started a new independent record label and began to focus more on his own hip hop career. But after being called back and forth to New York for a few more writing gigs, Uno was forced to close the studio after only a year and focus strictly on songwriting. As word of hisability to work within various music genres spread , it opened doors for him to begin working with Industry veterans like R& B Vocalist Mario Winans, Hip Hop artist Benzino (Redemption 2003) , Jazz legend Brian Culbertson (XII) as well as go-go greats like , the legendary Godfather Chuck Brown (“Love†featuring Jill Scott, “Block Party†and “Chuck Babyâ€), Rare Essence (2 AM) , and LISSEN (“Sunshine†and “The Guitar Songâ€).
In 2010, the culmination of nearly a decade of experiencing the highs of working with and learning from some of the industry’s biggest names, the lows of a shelved label deal with former B.E.T. CEO Bob Johnson, and the grind of promoting parties to invest in his own sound, has brought forth a set of â€grown man music that you can feel.â€
With inspiration from classic 70s soul and features from The Embasse label mates 1 Triple 0, B. Steelz, and J-Bone; along with appearances by a few of the city’s top artist including Boobe (The Oy Boyz), Frank Sirius and Ms. Kim . A Long Time Comin’…Vol 1 is a prime example of incomparable ambition from a socially-street conscious man who knows exactly who he is. Uno notes, this is “the first 15 [songs] I wanted the world to hear [from me]… It’s time for the world to here my story because it’s been a long time comin’.â€
