Tell us about this new album, where did the idea come from?

The idea came from me making my decision to no longer be a Soldier. It was an extremely hard decision to willingly give up a steady paycheck, and a job I enjoyed doing for an uncertain future of possibly having to live with friends or family and have pretty much no income. It was a huge risk I took and it caused a lot of stress. So I started looking into meditation, and later the chakras. During all that research and practice I saw meditation as a great way for me to get back to being me when I was feeling down and out. However, I noticed there was a more therapeutic feeling involved in just zoning out and becoming one with whatever beat I was scratching to. With that being said, it’s somewhat common knowledge that talking about your issues or concerns can help you through troublesome times. My problem is I’m not good at sitting down and talking to anyone about my feelings, but when I make music it all just leaks out and I need to share it so I can get feedback so I can continue to grow.

Happy New Year, 2015 is here! First want to extend congrats to the winners of the recent battles. For the 1 Click Prizm battle, the win goes to Collin. For the Fade battle, we have a tie - and since the top 2 entries each received the same amount of comments from other students, they've each won: congrats to Akiko Luv and Collin! You're winning demos will live on to inspire students to learn these skratches far into the future! 

Now for the next announcement: The Battle for 2014 Valedictorian is on! This is your chance to submit a 1 minute video of your craziest best skratching and become the next QSU Valedictorian. The winner joins an elite group of past winners: Zeke (2010), Primo (2011), DJ IQ (2012), Mr Cerdan (2013). 

To win, you gotta pull out all your best combos and cuts - but also be sure to have a clean video that has a good camera angle, good sound, and please limit your video to 1 minute! Here's a hint from Qbert, "The Valedictorian should have some kind of melodic stuff" in their skratching, so keep that in mind when you practice. 

Remember, the challenge is to have the best overall video - just give it your best shot and submit it to the Battle Category with the title "Valedictorian 2014". The deadline to submit is Monday, February 23 - don't sleep! 

At last, we're ready to share DJ Grotask's experience at the Red Bull Thre3style World Championship which was held in Baku, Azerbaijan back in September. This was many months in the making - Grotask had contacted me about covering this event over a year ago when he first found out that Thre3style finals were driving distance from where he lives in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since Qbert was on the judging panel, I got Grotask and his film crew media passes to the event to interview to whoever they could which included the winner Eskei83, Krafty Kuts, Skratch Bastid & Z-Trip, Qbert, Shortkut, D-Styles and more.

The Crew: 

• Unis krilov (aka Ne100): Director/Camera man
• Gocha Khukhuni (aka DJ Grotask): Reporter
• Levan Khurtsilava (aka DJ Juno Q Beat): Reporter/Camera man
• MC Samory - Dope MC from Georgia !!!

Three new lessons have been posted in the Skratch Theory section:

• Scales
• Seeds of Skratching
• Rhyme Placements

Make sure you check 'em out!