Marcus and I began working on this album at the end of 2009. My twin brother gave me the idea to work with Marcus because he was the only artist to take a beat I made and turn it into a song. A perfect example is "The Realist" off of his No Hit Wonder album or The Rise of Marcus Arrilius Ep on my youtube channel FaT TrAk. Once we locked into the studio I let him go through every beat I had tracked out or in my Mpc 2500. The first version of what he originally picked is different from what "The Meditations of Marcus Arrilius" became. All of that was due to him and I growing together from me as a beat maker to a producer and Marcus bringing his total self in every song; taking the time to write for a couple weeks, study what he wrote, breathe control, etc to make sure when the record button was on he did a take or two and the song was done. Marcus challenged me because some of the songs he would write to other beats whether it was produced by Dj Premier, a song by Erykah Badu, or the Crooklyn Dodgers I studied those and made something that I felt would have that feel with my own twist or bounce. As long as the beats per minute remained the same and the sounds he wrote to had the same elements we were on track. We got to a point that Marcus told me to stop showing him new beats because we would never get the project done. Every new beat I made he wanted because it was better than the older ones he'd picked in 2009. Some beats that Marcus picked I've made in 2006 such as What Up or The Way I Roll. Marcus "Arrilius" Hayes was a humble family man. He had a drive that could help inspire anyone. Marcus was a very humorous individual always cracking jokes and always laughing. His laugh was one that would make everybody full of smiles and laughter. He could imitate different accents with his voice that would get a laugh out of everyone he was around as well. I will always remember his Australian accents he and one of his best friends Jones would do together. He was very smart and tactical with every move. He was a leader (The General) who was always open to hear an opinion but also state his opinion that was honest back, even if it sounded assertive. That assertive "real" opinion could inspire growth for not only myself but for anyone in my point of view because nothing was ever sugar coated. He was a hard working individual as well as a savvy business man. Marcus had a militant mind and calculated every step he did. Put Marcus in the kitchen or on a grill and I guarantee you he could cook a full course meal worth taking a picture of before you eat it. A simple handshake would turn into a hug when I would hang out with him because he was that type of person. His heart was kind and full of love; he would give anything he had. He also liked to have thoughtful conversations about life over a few drinks. 
 Marcus would take his time and make sure that his delivery and word clarity was on point. He had an open ear for constructive criticism and could take that advice and turn a song from just a song to a classic/masterpiece. He was one of Denver's elite artists that was actually saying something instead of your everyday songs about money, clothes, and b****hes. He was the first person to take my beats and transform them into a song. He would pick the beats out of my arsenal that every other artist would overlook. He definitely helped to make me a producer instead of a beat maker challenging me to produce music that I would have never thought of making. In the recording booth it didn't take long for Marcus to record songs because he would take at least two weeks to get everything right. He would always have fun but when work (music) needed to be done (as soon as the record button was on) he could get right back on topic and finish the job and have a blast and laughing at the same time. His vocabulary and lyrical ability was intricate. His album Meditations of Marcus Arrilius was almost complete before he passed and is being put out the way him and I both described it. 
 Overall Marcus was a superstar with an open mind and a friendly attitude to all. One day I will see him in Heaven and his music will forever live on. 1. Thoughts of today
 I started making beats for album #2 with Marcus because we thought we had all of the songs ready for The Meditations album. At the time Marcus was asking for more ideas to write about and the easiest way, in my opinion, was to title the beats I was making something meaningful. I titled this beat in my mpc “Thoughts of Today” and it sparked something in Marcus after hearing the beat and the title. I remember getting a call from Marcus stating that he had been listening to it for a couple weeks day in and day out and had something big for that beat. Little did I know, he wanted to use it for the album intro. We originally had an intro from the movie Gladiator before this song came on but for sample issues we went with just the song. 2. What Up 
 I made this beat in 2006 around the time I had first met Marcus. It's crazy because I lived with my close friend and mentor in sampling and beats Solomon Vaughn aka Boonie Mayfield. The day I made this beat I showed everyone who came through to our apartment and everyone, except my twin brother, didn't like the beat lol. I believe because I had changed the bit rate of the sample down to 8 bit which I hardly ever do. Marcus and his girlfriend, now wife Joanna Hayes aka Mama Jo, came through that night as well. Everyone went to Boon's studio/room and was vibing. Marcus just stayed in my room and was like untuck the new stuff I know you got some. I showed him the beat which I titled “Pretty Tony” because it reminded me of Ghostface Killa and he went nuts over it like that sh*t is crazy! (In the future I would later find out that Ghostface actually used the same sample in a song when I was listening to Pandora, which blew my mind. Great minds think alike). This song was always a show opener because of the energy and was originally supposed to be the intro to the album. When we started the album in 2010 I let Marcus go through almost every single beat in my Mpc and pick whatever instrumental he liked. The first version I may release in the future for the What Up song had a different beat to it which is on my YouTube it was recorded on my blackberry so the video quality and sound may not be the best but people can still get the picture. When Marcus spit that verse at that session it was the kick off for this album and he actually called me once he recorded a rough draft verse to the original beat and was like "I wanna use Pretty Tony for the What Up song it has more energy and this song needs it" so we ran with that. Marcus' brother in law Dj Motto did the scratching at the very end and I think that put the icing on the cake. Once you hear the intro to the song, you can hear that Marcus was super excited to record the final version six years later. I remember our engineer Mike Jones having Marcus stand far away from the mic to let Marcus scream the What ups for each hook because he was that amped up over this song. 3. Fool Me Once 
 At the time I made this beat in 2010, I was listening to Accordian by Mf Doom-Madvillian and once I had the main part/melody chopped on my Mpc it reminded me of that song. I ended up making the beat with a bassline I played off of my Yamaha motif rack. I remember the studio session I had with Marcus, his best friend Jones, my brother and one of my best friends, producing collaborator and mpc eye opener/teacher Tyler aka Tylaw. It was the first time Tyler had met Marcus and we had a great session that evening. Once showing Marcus this beat he started writing for about an hour. He came up with the hook on the spot and just kept going with the song. Once he left he had the song finished and I told him I'd get a different bassline on the song. The one I played felt too rushed and didn't have much flare to it. So Boonie Mayfield came to the studio and we jammed the whole night however once he left my clumsy self accidentally hit don't save on the pro tools file so the recording was gone. It took nearly a year to get up again and this time I gotta chance to hum some of what I wanted and some of the bassline that I remembered from our previous session. The bassline on the song made it great and I am grateful to have Boonie Mayfield on this as a feature and really feel like this song was a journey to accomplish (saving is my best friend now whether I am doing beats or mixing/recording). 4. No Blindness This was collaboration between Tylaw and me. I was over at Law's spot and he played a new beat he had made on the road for his construction business. At that time Marcus was looking for a couple more beats to complete the album and I knew that I wanted Law to have at least one spot on the album for showing me some ideas on the MPC. Once he played the beat immediately I called Marcus and told him about it and that it just needed a couple more sprinkles to make it pop. Law allowed me to hop on his MPC 1000 and chop whatever I heard in the song to make the beat what it is today. I will never forget tracking the beat before a flight I was taking to California and the lyrics Marcus had written. He rapped acapella over the phone three weeks before he passed. The reason why Marcus isn't on the song is because the day we went to record Marcus couldn't find his lyrics on his notepad or composition notebook. Hustle Man was originally supposed to be featured on this song with Marcus. But what I do know is that his lyrics were mind blowing for this track and the way he rapped over the beat. He started to re-write to the song but passed before he could finish the recording with himself and Hustle Man. I am blessed that his wife sent all of the lyrics he had in his phone and this is what No Blindness was supposed to be on Marcus part: If in the land of the blind the man with one eye is king
Try to fathom what my third could bring
I understand why the caged bird
Yearns to sing
Cause tryna take away its freedom
Only strengthens its dreams
You could hold closed its beak
You can break its wings
It hurts
It stings
But even winter turns to spring Hope will always survive through the worst of things n
true winners never quit if they don't know what it means to My vision triple twenty
All y'all niggas is see through
My senses on that see hear and speaking no evil
 oppressing positive in life
there's really no need to
That's why we stand unique
You can't compete with no equals 5. The Way I Roll This was one of the last beats from our first session that I showed Marcus. I made it back in 2006 and kept it in my Mpc because I thought it wasn't finished. Marcus came through the studio with Jones and he asked for more beats. I was going through my folders and he was like what's Batman? I told him the beat wasn't finished. I loaded it up and as soon as I pushed play he got “the face,” which producer likes to see upon showing a beat to someone. This face looks as if he ate a sour lemon or the ugly face of approval. He left that session with that beat and a couple weeks later he had “The Way I Roll.” This song was a song that Marcus knew like the back of his hand from performing it all the time. It reminded him of something old school because of the simplicity of the beat. It's crazy because I never thought Marcus would’ve picked this beat but you never know what an artist will like until you actually play your beat for them. Something I value to this day is to always play all my beats to an artist. 6. Perfect ending /Trill For Real I thought that this beat would be a good ending for the album so I titled it “Perfect Ending” Marcus ran with the title. Once we sat down to go over the track list we decided to put it in the beginning of the album because it doesn't make sense and that's the beauty of it. After listening to Kanye's College Dropout "five beats a day for three summers,” I got inspired to make three beats in a day. Perfect Ending was the last beat during that session, I also made a beat titled “Ether 09” and I didn't have a title for the other beat. It ended up being “Bad Dream Beautiful Day.” “The Trill for Real” beat I made is the 1st interlude on the album. My idea for the interludes was to have 3 of them on the album each 30 secs long then open them up to 3 mins on album number 2 as a full song. We could be continuing the same concept for album 2 going into 3. Sometimes there's music or songs that last for a minimal amount of time and you wish it was longer and that was the thought process behind attaching our 30 sec interludes. 7. Be around This was another beat I was making for album number 2. Marcus wanted this song to talk about people being around in life but never got a chance to write to the song. We had a feature on the song named Ricky Noble and Marcus was going to write after hearing Ricky's verse and hook. We had a version with content and subject matter that was fine but Marcus wanted it to be faster. He wanted to A and B between the two versions. Ricky never gotta chance to finish the re-recording with the delivery and speed so I kept the first version of the hook he had on the song. During the time of Marcus death we had 2 more features that never got a chance to record a song with Marcus. One was Jay Son aka Buttaz and the other was Justin aka Hustle man. The 2 songs they were going to be on was "No Blindness" feat Hustle man and "Movie theme pt 2 " feat Buttaz. I had to keep the integrity of the track list because some of our close people involved with the album wanted to delete the original track list with songs Marcus never recorded to. Some of those have different things on them like a speech or some audio clips with a DJ scratching over etc but I wanted to give the listener exactly what Marcus and I spoke of for the album. The features that didn't get a chance to record were featured on this song to still be a part of Marcus and I 1st album together. Thanks to Mama Jo (Marcus wife) this beat made the album. This beat had to grow on Marcus; after a little while of hearing it he ended up liking it as well. 8. All The Time To Try
 This is one of my favorite songs off of the album. Marcus wrote his lyrics to "The Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" and when I heard him rap what he wrote in person to that beat it inspired me. I went home and make something with that same bounce and feel. It took me about a month to figure out the dark pianos that Marcus was into from the Crooklyn Dodgers beat. As soon as I laid those down in the beat the rest was history. I wanted to make the drums less east coast-ish as I could so I stuck with a drum pattern that reminded me of Dj Quik. I had the bass come in here and there and once Marcus heard it we went with the song. The studio session during this recording I remember like it was yesterday. He did this song, Spanish Harlem and Perfect Ending in the same session. We took breaks to cook chicken and beef and had a fun time. At every session we had our trusty Corona in hand. You can really hear how much he practiced in this song and every one after. He set the bar after this song was recorded and to this day almost everyone I show this song to has this in one of their top songs off of this album. 9. Natt Natty Marcus gave me different songs to listen to during the time we first started working together and I got inspired to create the Natt Natty. We never discussed the direction of the Natt Natty song or planned what you hear. I just worked and showed Marcus what I created for this one. The beat had the zoot suit forties feel to it. One of Marcus favorite movies was Harlem Nights so he took that movie for inspiration and wrote a song around that. This song talks about shooting but if you've seen that movie people will understand where he was coming from. He wanted Turner Jackson a fellow MC apart of D**e game on it and together they made a great story telling track with the Natt Natty. 10. Spanish Harlem This beat was part of the first batch of beats that Marcus picked. I originally made it for Ximi, an artist I was working with at the time. I remember making this beat within 30 mins before going to bed. I don't know if the original artist I made the beat for gravitated to it as much as Marcus did. This was one of Marcus’s favorite beat that he featured his childhood best friend, Martec. Whenever Martec, Marcus and I would collaborate we are known as Tri-Lateral Commission. Marcus and I had an idea that after this album we would start another project which involved The Tri-Lateral Commission. This album would feature either all of us producing while Martec and Marcus rap, or me doing all the beats. I like this song because it is the boom bap hip hop simplistic feel. 11. Movie theme 2/1 I started making part 1 and Marcus started writing to it. I wasn't as confident with part 1 and I felt like I could've done better. Part 2 was one of those beats that I made with the knowledge that Tylaw blessed me with. As soon as finished part 2, I told Marcus to stop writing to part 1. I didn't have it tracked out for him to hear. Buttaz was originally supposed to be featured in this song. Since Marcus didn't get a chance to record to it, I added DJ Moto and a vocal drop from our good friend Big Beats McCree. I would never forget the studio session when Marcus asked McCree to do a drop on the album. That was a fun time we knew we were gonna put it on the album but we didn't know where. This song was where it seems to fit the most. I'm glad I kept the voicemail you hear before this song plays. It embodies everything going on between the two songs. 12. Meditating with Marcus (TrAk’s groove) This along with “Movie Theme 2,” “Devil at Bay,” and “All Roads Lead to BK” was the last 4 beats I made Marcus picked to swap out from the original beat list. Basically these beats weren’t meant to be in this album however I felt confident in the production. I don't know if Marcus wrote to this because this was the only beat in the bunch where Marcus said there was something missing. I told Marcus I heard a violin in this song and a year after he passed away I kept my word. It was me, my twin brother and Chrissy Lee in the studio. Chrissy is such a musical genius with the violin. This is the only instrumental in the album with nothing on it. Marcus and I originally titled it “Piano Groove.” After Marcus passed, I wanted to title the song “Meditating with Marcus” because I wanted to give the listener and myself something to think to. Our engineer, Mike Jones, came out with the idea of “TrAk’s Groove” inspired by our favorite producer, DJ Quik. This is the transitioning point of the album where the feel changes. Marcus wanted the album to have different levels of feeling from song to song. 13. Full Circle We refer to this beat as the Badu beat because Marcus wrote to an Erykah Badu song. He kept bugging me about this beat for a couple months since he already had the lyrics written. It took me a couple months to make this beat because it was a bit more Neo Soul than I am use to. This song is different because Marcus was actually singing on the hook. The lyrics was definitely on point like all of his songs this one was a little more deeper with the message for the listener. That's the reason why I like this song a lot because of the challenge and the meaning of the song. It also made me go out of my comfort zone. 14. Bad Dream to a Beautiful Day I made this beat the same day I made “Perfect Ending.” This is the only song featuring a singer on the hook which contributed for a different dynamic of the song. I remember asking Marcus what did see when he heard this beat. He said it was kinda erie like a bad dream but also beautiful. As soon as he said those words he titled the song a Bad Dream to a Beautiful Day. Marcus was speaking the truth in this song and he wasn't the typical rapper talking about money, cars, and girls etc. 15. All Roads Lead to BK There's a lot of emotion in this song because there is a snip it of his daughter and son in the beginning. Along with his wife reading the lyrics he wrote and his brother in law DJing on the hook. I got inspired to make this beat because of two dogs that got killed in an inhumane way The last text I got from Marcus was a thank you for this beat and it's gonna be great. When Marcus passed away his wife allowed me to have all of the lyrics he wrote. As soon as I read his title and some of the lyrics, I knew that he was writing about a his daughter and those lyrics were meant for this song. 16. Devil a Bay This was one of the last songs Marcus recorded to before he passed away. I remember making the beat and hearing what Marcus recorded to like it was yesterday. I believe that this song is one of the deepest on the album. It reminds me of D’evils by Jay Z. At the time I made the beat I was listening to a lot of J Dilla for inspiration. At first the drums sound off, but once the rest of the instrumentation comes in, everything makes sense. I remember right after learning a certain technique from my very good friend Tylaw, I utilized what he just figured out a day before which inspired him and ticked him off at the same time lol. At the time I tracked the beat out I had just got a sixteen channel mixer to be able to utilize the full eight outs on my Mpc and to make my work flow easier. I had everything linked into pro tools and hit the record button. Usually I have a song mode sequence on my Mpc with all the drops in the song layed out. However, this time I just free-styled the entire song. If you listen closely there really isn't a song structure from verse to verse in this song and to me that's what made this song special because Marcus rapped a sixteen bar verse an eight then a twelve over what I had free-styled. He was able to get his point across within those parameters and that's what makes this song so special to me. I liked the way he switched his rhyming pattern in the third verse as well. Thank you for reading the stories of making the album. I had an amazing time working with Marcus and I am so thankful God has blessed me with an artist of his caliber.