Origins by RONIN.FM

In the years immediately proceeding this, I was more interested in producing for singers than being a solo artist. I wasn't even listening to hip-hop at the time and Bjork was the most played artist in my iTunes library. Due to some unpleasant experiences in 2016 though (such as financial stress, employment uncertainty, the 2016 election, and a breakup), I eventually decided to start rapping again and to make as experimental an album as I possibly could. Ronin was the result of all this. I started working on it during my last semester in NYU's music technology program and used everything that I had learned throughout grad school on it. All of the lyrics that I wrote covered serious personal, social, and political issues that I was dealing with or witnessing at the time.

Every song presented a new set of challenges in terms of production, song writing, and mixing and I felt overwhelmed during much of production cycle. Fortunately, after many sleepless nights and a few mental breakdowns, I was able to meet every one of those challenges and I can say without a doubt that these are the 11 best songs that I have ever made (as of 2017). Unfortunately, this album was also incredibly emotionally and financially taxing, which is why I chose to move in a different musical direction afterwards. I will probably never make another album like this again, but I am extremely proud that I was able to put this album together when I did. I would like to give a big thank you to Emily Cruz and Gabriela Farfan for their appearances and to Nick Dragoni for mastering it (as well as dealing with all of my OCD alterations lol).