The Los Angeles rapper and founding member of Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku D’Etat and Project Blowed, Aceyalone returns with Aceyalone & The Lonely Ones, which draws on Phil Spector, 60s girl groups, the J.B.s and a slew of raw, dirty funk for sonic inspiration.


“I’m not from that era, but this is my ode to it,” says the emcee of the album’s feel. “I’m just putting myself into that character as a showman and bandleader. But I can still rhyme with the best of them. Artists are going to experiment and go different places and I love that whole era anyway.”

Aceyalone & The Lonely Ones is a tribute album to the doo-wop, blues and funk genres that have been so inspiring to the MC. The second in a series of genre-specific releases, this album is a follow up to his 2007 Lightning Strikes, an ode to his love for Jamaican music. Full big-band sound is coupled with finger snaps, falsetto choruses and Rickenbacker guitar that is a look more towards Motown & the Wall of Sound than today’s by-the-numbers beats. Along with producer Bionik, each song was painstakingly produced to re-create the sound and feel of a long-gone era and augmented with modern flourishes. The result is an album that simultaneously looks forward and back for inspiration.

mp3: Aceyalone (featuring Bionik) - The Way It Was