Fill In The Breaks MC/producer Jason “Ecid” Mckenzie
returns with his fourth official solo album “100 Smiles ad Runnin” produced entirely by Arizona producer Arsenic. The title would lead golden era hip-hop heads to believe it’s an ode to NWA, and in a way it is. But it’s so much more than a clever play on a classic album title. Smiles show’s the twenty six year old twin-cities native at his most charismatic, honest, sarcastic, and relatable. Unlike his previous releases that relished in experimentation and abstract narratives, Smiles takes a less is more approach with an emphasis on making every word count. In a time when the underground is much closer to the mainstream than ever before - Ecid, a lyrics first MC, is more concerned with making timeless music than songsthat bang in the club. Arsenic’s production is the perfect compli- ment to these every man ethics, providing psychedelic, soulful, melodic samples and digger circle drum breaks.

It was summer 2008, life was crazy, “Red Beretta” was
almost finished and after a four year period of non-stop
self producing, rapping, & mixing, a period in which he
recorded and released ten projects + another three or four un-released Ecid needed a break from his creative same old same old. So he flew to Phoenix, AZ to do some soul searching and recording with his good friend Arsenic on an un-released project called “Scorpion Killers”. It was during these intense sessions Ecid decided he wanted to step away from the boards to focus solely on writing and have Arsenic produce his next project. After a couple months of weeding through beats and gathering thoughts Ecid wrote “Beautiful Smile” a song showing us it’s okay to fuck-up and it’s okay to think you’re awesome. It wouldn’t be long before a good fourteen or fifteen songs had been sent back and forth via Gmail.

“Smiles” is an album about remembering who you are and how you got here. It shows us we can grow and rediscover the things about ourselves we forgot were great. It is an album built on the beauty in words with awe inspiring lines like “I live every day like a seven-ten split sweet talking good karma cuz revenge is bitch” and hilariously truthful lines like “As a kid you drink Coke, as a teen you learn to snort it. As an adult you learn to smoke it cuz you can’t afford it” Ecid is sure to bring lyrics back in 2010. So here we are “100 Smiles and Runnin” with no plans ofstopping until this album goes to the moon.