Song pages
Side 1
Presenting Declaime as the…
Poet of the Mic
God Bless, Less Stress, Mmhmm
Oceans Drowning
Rhythmic Tide
African Drums, the Heartbeat of the Earth
Side 2
A Trillion Neurons
Inhale the Calm, Exhale the Shade
O, the Key!
Ode to My Ride or Die
Raising the Vibration (Love Will Pave the Way)
Overview
After working on “Poet of the Mic,” Declaime wanted to keep working with me. I had no intended hip-hop direction – I have no bona fides there, and my use of the term “bona fides” probably gave that away – but I gave him all my existing instrumentals if he wanted to use them. I didn’t think I’d left any room for vocals in my work, but he found them! And because he thought my lyrics for Quality Mirrors were poetic, it led him to a poet persona that he kept through the album.
With few good vocal productions to my credit, I had to learn a lot on the fly if I was going to make an album filled with them. I also had to reconceive my songs so that they were centered on a vocalist instead of layer and arrangement reveals like they usually are. I did that largely by tightening or loosening Declaime’s vocal timings in the opposite direction of the instrumentals. If the song was big on precision, I could use him to humanize the feel. If the song had a lot of give already (like on “Desert Scorpion” with its abundance of acoustic instrumentation), then I tightened his timing so he held the song together better (as, in that case, it became “Rhythmic Tide.”)
From what I can tell, most poetry albums are poem-first. Somebody has made a poem and then a jam session happens for as long as the poem needs. Him writing poems to the music, in a more traditional rapper/topliner style, not only makes the poems more economical; it also means they were inspired by the different feels of the songs, giving the album a lot more genre variety than usual. I’m hoping that’s enough to make this effort feel fresh. It feels fresh to us, anyway. (As does the artwork, which was made by Sun Rizla in the style of a ’70s self-help book cover.)
Some press about it
“10 Umbrellas for Your Soul catches Declaime and Restless Mosaic in deep experimental waters. Declaime delivers abstract, soulful bars over 11 tracks that twist Hip Hop poetry with spiritual jazz and jagged electronic edges. Production jumps from rhythmic pulses in “Rhythmic Tide” to industrial chaos on “Oceans Drowning,” then settles into meditative grooves like “African Drums, the Heartbeat of the Earth.” Declaime’s gravelly flow locks into every shift, turning oddball phrasing into hypnotic chants. Singles “A Trillion Neurons” and “Inhale the Calm, Exhale the Shade” preview the quirks. Declaime’s work always draws a select crowd, and this album follows suit—quirky, one-of-a-kind. Production mirrors his eccentricities beat for beat. Adventurous Hip Hop heads only.” – HipHopGoldenAge, calling it one of the Best Hip Hop Albums of 2026
First song: Presenting Declaime as the…
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