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By Kate Magoc. Source: JenesisMagazine.com. The hip-hop paradigm has come to reflect omnivorous tastes and polycultural trafficking. One of the best examples of this paradigmatic shift from the basic elements to ethnic and cultural transgression can be heard in the many collaborative efforts of Dutch producer Nicolay. Over the span of his career, Nicolay has worked with the likes of Little Brother, Supastition, Masta Ace, Strange Fruit Project and Zion I and he has remixed tracks for Roy Ayers, Bob James, and Cindy Dulfer. He is best known however, for being the producing half of The Foreign Exchange (with Phonte Coleman of Little Brother). His most recent project is called TIME:LINE, which is the first full-length release on Nicolay's label, Nicolay Music.

Dutch Soul singer Moon Baker, who's 2007 critically acclaimed debut album ABC of Romance is largely produced by Nicolay and features renowned Dutch artists such as Candy Dulfer, Alain Clarke and Pete Philly of Pete Philly & Perquisite, has been asked to join the aforementioned Candy Dulfer's upcoming tour of Europe and Japan. Moon will have the opportunity to perform at least 4 of her own songs, of which 2 are confirmed: the singles ABC of Romance and Shot Deep, both produced by Nicolay. Check out Candy's website for tourdates, and if they come to your area make sure you go see them. Keep your eye on Nicolay Music, too, as you'll soon be able to purchase your import copy of ABC of Romance right here through our online store!

Congratulations, Moon, and knock 'em dead out there!

The internet is truly a wonderful thing. In addition to seemingly having an endless wealth of information at your fingertips, it has also been responsible for bringing people together. Not in a creepy eHarmony sense per se, but the web united North Carolina-based producer Nicolay and Houston-based MC Kay. The two met in 2003 on the OkayPlayer message boards. Being mutual fans of each other’s work, they began to exchange ideas, concepts and eventually music, setting the stage for what would become their newly released project Time:Line, which dropped in late April. Utilizing the web to create what Kay feels is a “new-school classic,” the two are set on giving hungry hip-hop fans more than enough food for thought.

“He’s always been extremely polished to me,” says Kay of his musical partner. “He pays a lot of attention to detail.” Creating a perfect match for his substance-over-style delivery, Kay found a home on Nicolay’s layered productions, creating a sonic relationship that oozes through the speakers.

“I always do best with people that have a lot of musicality about them,” says Nicolay. “A lot of MCs are just concerned with their verse, but people that can think conceptually – hooks/verses, not just tracks – those are the people I like working with, and Kay definitely has that.”

Used to creating music beyond geographical barriers from his 2004 Foreign Exchange project with Little Brother’s Phonte in which the Dutch-born Nicolay sent beats from the Netherlands to a North Carolina residing Phonte, the seemingly minor gap between Carolina and H-Town was no problem.

“It never played a part as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never really did it any other way,” explains Nicolay.

“Even though we weren’t in the same space, I talked to him a lot about what I wanted to do conceptually before we started,” adds Kay. “When I got the production, how they were styled and could hear all of the influences, as a writer I just wrote, no frills. I’m not into saying things in the most complex way they can be said. I’m into saying it in a way people can understand and touch on things average people can relate to.”

The result is a sound that Nicolay coins “millennium soul,” a type of music that is hard to categorize and even harder to deny. A hybrid of new era hip-hop infused with ‘60s and ‘70s soul-influenced backdrops have helped the group create a fresh, yet vintage sound.

“It sounds honest. I always try to come across as an extension of the music we both like and if you sit down and ask us the things we think are important in life, you’ll hear that in the music,” says Kay.

“It’s hard to put a tag on it,” says Nicolay. “ We just tried to be creative. Hip-hop is the foundation of what we’re doing but we never wanna restrict ourselves to what we can do.”