Heem: The new 'From The Cradle To The Game' album hits from start to finish

Is Upstate New York in the building? Well, how about on the site? Regardless of your physical location, it’s all about the Big Apple vibes and why not take it a few hours up north with Buffalo’s own Heem coming through with his new From The Cradle To The Game album.

Heem’s new studio album has officially arrived

Whether you’re intrigued by the artwork or need to hear the LP from start to finish, Heem has you covered with the jam-packed studio effort and solid collaborations from everyone including Benny The Butcher and Styles P plus Conway The Machine.

Life begins at birth and ends at death.  In between, we play its game.  Buffalo-born, BSF member, Heem, documents life in the trenches, with an acute attention to detail, unfiltered honesty, and a sharp sense of humor.  Heem depicts moments of pain, transformation, and triumph with his sophomore BSF project, and new full-length LP, From The Cradle To The Game, (BSF/MNRK) which is now available. 

Thriving in his closer role, Heem put a bow on BSF’s 2020 with his Long Story Short project with Green Lantern & DJ Shay.  Curated and championed by the late, great DJ Shay and Hosted by DJ Green Lantern, Long Story Short featured appearances from Benny The Butcher, Rick Hyde & Boldy James, along with production from DJ Shay, Jansport J, and DJ Green Lantern.  More recently, Heem appeared on the standout track from BSF’s Long Live DJ Shay project, “Times Is Rough,” which also featured Benny The Butcher and Rick Hyde and was produced by DJ Premier.   

From The Cradle To The Game features appearances and production from Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Stove God Cooks, Styles P Jansport J, DJ Green Lantern, and the Black Soprano Family.  “My life is music” Heem explains.  There’s so much truth.  I’ve gone through a lot, and the title of my album is named after these real-life experiences.”  Along the way, Heem assembled what would eventually become From The Cradle To The Game.  “I came up a good child, went over the line, and jumped into the game” Heem observes.  “I went from the street game to the rap game.  I’m a little more seasoned, and this is ready to go.  Now, it’s all over” he grins. 

“Heem is the heart of BSF; when you hear him spit you automatically believe it” Benny The Butcher adds. 

More than just an album drop, how about a fire music video, too? Hang tight.

To celebrate the release of From The Cradle To The Game, Heem also released a new visual for “Mob Business,” which features BSF Capo Benny The Butcher and Styles P.

In addition to releasing From The Cradle To The Game, Heem is also on the road supporting his BSF family member Benny The Butcher and his Thank God I Made It Tour; and will also be supporting on the International leg of the tour as well; with stops in Ireland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland and more. 

Here's 4 key quotes from Styles P talking mental health, Black men embracing therapy and losing his daughter

The LOX’s Styles P has a lot to talk about these days. The hip-hop veteran stepped forward with filmmaker Hezues R to talk with Apple Music 1’s Ebro Darden on the latest episode of ‘The Message’ celebrating World Mental Health Day.

During the chat, they discuss work with the S.I.C. Film School platform, empowering young creatives and focusing on the importance of mental health and power of therapy. Kick back and check out four quotes from both Styles and Hezues.

Styles P on Why He’s Not Afraid To Be Emotional and Why He Encourages Black Men To Embrace Therapy…

I wake up, most of the times I get, it's from my community too, I'm in a juice bar, and most of the time it's women, sometimes it's older Black women too, sometimes it's men and younger people, but I always get, "I like how you're not afraid to be emotional." And it scares me because we are not supposed to be afraid to be emotional. You're really, especially speaking of mental health, you holding in your feelings and bottling them in, being scared to cry, yell, scream, laugh, share pain, thinking you're weak for handling a problem, Black men thinking they can't go to a therapist, you're just building shit up inside of yourself and you're kind of hurting yourself. So it's not about how someone else judges how you are a man, it's about how you judge how you're a man. And being an emotional man doesn't make you a weaker man, that makes you a stronger man because you're more in sense of your weaknesses. When you try to be strong all the time, and you may not have adapted to what your weaknesses are or even be knowledgeable of them to strengthen yourself up. So it's okay to reach out to a therapist, get on the phone, call your brother, call your sister, call your homie, tell him how you're doing. I think that should be the norm now.

Styles P Reflects on Losing His Daughter to Suicide…

I've lost a daughter to suicide. And thinking about mental health, I probably look at it different from most people. She didn't have signs, didn't see it, didn't know, she never had no attempts, no anything. Most people don't know how other people feel. Really, at the end of the day, even mental health specialists, even the experts, a lot of people don't go around asking people how they feel or expressing how they feel. And with understanding that, like you said, I'm pretty sure most mental health experts have to go through some sort of specific training or class to keep their mind state intact. I think the average individual doesn't look at their own life, what they're going through and measure it on their own scale without comparing it to someone else and how they feel and what's going on and what they should do, what they should not do, and what makes them tick. A lot of us aren't in touch with ourselves to even be mentally healthy.

Filmmaker Hezues R on How His S.I.C. Film School is Helping Kids Trade Violence for Cameras…

I’ve known Styles maybe 20 years now. I had the opportunity to film him in 2001 for one of his album release parties at Club Cheetah back in the day of a show I had called Eye On It. Eye On I.T., I.T. stands for inspirational television. So the progression over the last 20 years, I've done different nonprofits and organizations like Guns for Cameras to now this year we're doing the S.I.C. Film School. And S.I.C is the Evolution of Eye On It. S-I-C, which stands for Social Impact Content. So we're opening up a campus facility in Yonkers in New York. It's at the largest sound stage development in the Northeast. 15 stages, a million square feet of production space, and we're providing a lot of opportunities for the youth in the community. Beyond an education platform, we also develop community programs and partnership with other agencies. So we have an organization called Glocks for Ocs. We have Guns 4 Cameras. An Oc is a Oculus headset. So Styles has been super supportive throughout the years, everything we've done, he's always been there for the community, for the youth, introducing me to other people, being very vocal about his passion and commitment.

Filmmaker Hezues R Tells Styles P How His Song “The Life” Influenced Him To Turn His Life Around…

I do want to say that the first song in our playlist, “The Life” by Styles P and Pharoahe Monch, I was just telling him in the green room how much that song meant to me. And we've been friends for years, but I don't think he ever knew how much that song meant to me. When I was 22 years old, I was shot at 22 times. I got hit by three different guns, a nine, a 45, a 22, still got a slug in my stomach. It was 2:22 in the morning. But when I heard “The Life,” it made me question and readjust my perspective and to try to understand, "Am I a product of my environment, everything that I'm going through and what my friends are going through, my peers are going through?" And I started to realize... And this is why I'm so passionate about The Message because at that point I started to realize nobody was going to come in and fix this for us, nobody's going to change this or the conditions that we lived through, what's going on.

Styles P has a massive Good Times 2.0 concert going down next month

The LOX’s Styles P really has been doing this for a long time and next month the entire rap game is going to put major respect on his name. Ghost is slated to celebrate his A Gangster and A Gentleman 20-year anniversary with everyone from The LOX to Harlem’s own Smoke DZA with his Good Times 2.0 concert.

Styles P’s Good Times 2.0 concert is happening

You can pencil in August 18 as the official celebration date for Styles. The event is set to go down at the legendary Irving Plaza in New York City.

D-Block legend Styles P is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his single “Good Times” from his album A Gangster and A Gentleman. On August 18th at Irving Plaza in New York City, Good Times 2.0 will provide a natural and literal high off the memories of the successes from that song. The celebration will consist of a variety of performances, DJs, strain releases, an NFT release and much more.

Performers include Styles’ fellow teammates of The LOX; Jadakiss, and Sheek Louch. Smoke DZA, rapper and Sidetalk NYC celebrity Nems, and Havoc of Mobb Deep will rock the Irving Plaza stage alongside the trio. The Heavy Hitters Pretty Lou and DJ DP One along with Roc Nation’s Statik Selektah are on the 1’s and 2’s for the event.

On the 20th anniversary of the song “Good Times,''  Styles will release his own cannabis strain with the Strain Gang and Terp Hogz. 

Sponsors include VEEPS, WeedMaps, Strain Gang, High Times Magazine, Compound Genetics, Bklyn Reserve, Astor Club, Happy Munkey, Live Nation, and Magical.