San Jose blues duo records ode to hip hop music
Tyson Amir (right) and soul artist Tracy Cruz make up illa Street Blues . CONTRIBUTED
SAN JOSE, California—Hip hop artists Tyson Amir and soul artist Tracy Cruz are sharing their ode to hip hop with a new collaborative effort and the founding of illa Street Blues in November last year.
To symbolize their love of hip-hop, they want to represent their neighborhood, society and the world by singing their struggles and creating music through that struggle.
Amir was born and raised in San Jose and has been recording and touring both nationwide and internationally since 2003. Throughout his career he has worked on various group projects and produced three solo albums to date.
Cruz was born in Quezon City in the Philippines but grew up in San Jose. Growing up and singing, she competed in several vocal competitions–her voice and talent success led her to a thriving music career not only as a recording artist and performer, but a vocal instructor to many young and budding musicians.
“We’ve known each other since college. We’re both active artists with mutual respect for each other and through the years we’ve remained in contact,” said Amir.
Cruz adds, “We’ve mentioned it would be great to collaborate before and now we finally are in this duo—we’ve written an entire album and now we’re just working on recording it. It’s definitely been a fast process.”
Cruz contacted Amir in 2010 while he was away touring in Indonesia. Upon his return, he reached out to Cruz to feature on one of his songs, which was the first of many future songs they would perform together.
Their first event performing together was this past Martin Luther King Day at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, which was hosted by 102.9 FM KBLX and the NorCal MLK Foundation. They were able to try out their original songs with the audience that day in preparation for many events leading up to the album debut.
The inspiration that Amir and Cruz draw from is their own experiences. They have a variety of themes in the album—love for music, struggle, justice, peace and unity, to name a few. Their goal is that when they pass on, their music would still be played to change life.
The album is a vibrant mix of ten songs. It will be released followed by videos and other efforts to keep the momentum of illa Street Blues. The release date for the album will be in late spring or early summer.
To follow illa Street Blues, check out illastreetblues.com and find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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