7 Minutes of Sound: The Unexpected Resurgence of Grap Luva
After Grap Luva appeared on Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s Mecca and The Soul Brother and The Main Ingredient albums in the early 90s, he signed to his older brother Pete’s Soul Brother label imprint as part of the group InI. With Pete providing the bulk of their debut album’s production, the group’s future looked bright.
Unfortunately, InI’s career hit an unexpected snag when their Center of Attention album was shelved and widely bootlegged, an experience Grap describes as “an emotional roller coaster.” Despite putting out the underground classic “Fakin’ Jax” in 1996, the album wouldn’t see an official release until 2003 as part of the Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics compilation, which received a 4 out of 5 review from HipHopDX and garnered praise from outlets like Mojo and Pitchfork.
Grap quietly put together a string of impressive guest appearances and production credits over the years that won him admiration from folks like the late, great J Dilla, but his creative process stalled in the late 90s. “I haven’t been making beats consistently since 1999 when my machine broke,” says Grap. “At one point I wasn’t very inspired to do music. Not because of what was going on in the game, it was just within me, my own personal situations I had going on and believing in my creativity.”
Although Grap had worked on several collaborative projects over the years, he hadn’t released a solo effort before 2011. That all changed when Grap asked Redefinition Records producer Damu The Fudgemunk to use his SP-1200 sampler and record some beats for personal use. “I hadn’t had my SP-1200 hooked up properly to record beats at my house at the time,” says Grap. “I knew Damu had an SP-1200 so I asked him if I could come over and make a beat CD, just so I could have my beats on CD to listen to them.”
“At one point I wasn’t very inspired to do music. Not because of what was going on in the game, it was just within me, my own personal situations I had going on and believing in my creativity.”- Grap Luva
Although the trip to Damu’s house started out with a simple agenda, Damu decided to document the process by videotaping Grap playing his beats and discussing their backstories. In addition to getting his own beats on CD, Grap was eager to record to Joc Max’s “Work It Out”, an instrumental he’d recently penned some rhymes to. His initial plan was to put a video of the song online and be done with it. “I was just gonna slap it up on YouTube and keep it moving, not even look back at it,” he says.
After recording the track, Damu’s friend DJ Underdog blasted the song out to various DJs and industry people including Tony Touch, who ended up playing it on his radio show. While “Work It Out” was making its rounds, the video of Grap on the SP ended up becoming 7 Minutes of Sound, which currently has over 300,000 views on YouTube. The resulting enthusiasm from the new song and video led to Redefinition Records dropping Grap’s first solo EP Neva Done in 2011.
Grap’s debut is essential listening for beatheads who enjoy folks like Damu, Kev Brown, Oddisee, and Pete Rock. And although the Mount Vernon native hasn’t actively made beats in almost 20 years, his music continues to speak to listeners today. As a followup to Neva Done Grap released the full length Sounds of Mount Vernon in 2016. Included on the album is the alluring “Donuts on Washington St (One for Mr. Yancey)”, a Dilla tribute instrumental that was recorded between ’97 and ’98. “The vibration of that joint is the horn,” says Grap. “Those are sounds that Dilla used before. I heard the Keith Murray record that he made that with. I ended up finding them sounds and I used them in that beat.” Dilla’s passing in 2006 added an unexpected layer of meaning to the beautiful horn-laced beat, giving it a new purpose for his latest release.
“You gotta just keep enjoying life and keep creating.”- Grap Luva
As for current projects, Grap remains open-minded but is hesitant to get too specific. When asked if the InI album might get a new release to make it easily accessible on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and other digital platforms, Grap hints that something might be on the horizon. “I’m trying to brew up something now,” he says. “Just stay tuned, because you never know.”
Though Grap’s career may not have turned out the way he expected when he signed a deal with InI, he seems happy with his accomplishments thus far. As someone who used to feel the weight of external criticism in his younger years, Grap is now focused on teaching younger producers the craft and learning to enjoy the creative process again. “You gotta just keep enjoying life and keep creating,” he says. “And that’s what I’m trying to do.”
You can connect with Grap on Twitter @HEVnamedmeGRAP.
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