Vermilion is a hip-hop & rap album by Moka Only on Urbnet Canada. This is the CD edition. This edition was released on April 24, 2007.
Moka Only - is a dynamic artist with a career that spans over 10 years, 26 LP's and 400,000 records sold independently. He has won three Juno's, seven Much Music video awards and is a former member of the west coast super group Swollen Members. At an early age Moka Only discovered his love for hip hop culture entering the scene as a graffiti artist. He later began displaying his skills as a MC rhyming at house parties and then later moving to San Diego in the early 90s where began his illustrious career as a MC/ Producer. Moka Only has since established himself as one of Canada's most well- respected and hardest-working talents. He has also gained the admiration of his peers, industry professionals and fans alike. He has collaborated with the late great Jay Dilla, Ace alone and Oh No. In the spring of 2007 Moka Only released his album 'Vermilion' on URBNET Records. REVIEW To many, Moka Only is notorious as that guy on the hooks who ruined Swollen Members with the disaster that was Heavy, or something like that. But more importantly, Moka Only is hip-hop's most prolific, having released a slew of solo cassettes, CDs and vinyl both on his own and through a variety of indie and major labels. Vermilion, his latest, is the best of them. Moka returns to his roots with a greater concentration of samples and raps rather than keyboards, synths and singing. Sure, there's still feel good tracks like So Kona or Cheeka Cheeka but Vermilion contains more anger and venom than usual, like maybe Moka has experienced the ugly underbelly of the industry. For example, on I Don't Give A..., Moka opens up about compromising with Nettwerk over the schizophrenic, poppy The Desired Effect, which was released in 2005 during the recording of Vermilion. He also looks back on some of the music-based decisions he s made ( God Bless and When...? ), stakes his claims on rap stardom ( Do ) and attempts to Raise the Bar. Whether ballad, boom bap or experimental, Moka does it exceptionally well. Unfortunately, he also offers up a few short teasers of beats that really should have become songs. Still, it's good to have the filthy old Moke back. --Thomas Quinlan - Exclaim! Magazine
