CAEN Project

Cimer Amor and Equinox are CAEN Project; a Philadelphia team that is not new to the game, but definitely has something that many would say has been missing from Hip Hop for a minute: passion and artistic versatility. Equinox's loyalty to his crew, QD and Poynt Blanc, and career is like a coin: two different sides joined by a single alloy. Each side comes across in the mix-tape Where We Came From, and other works created by him and Cimer Amor. Where We Came From is a collection of unreleased tracks from their past, remixes, as well as some new tracks.

In Nox's own words, ?I don't look for beef, but if you stand in my way you'll get annihilated. I'm not always hard; in some of my songs I give people a piece of my heart and pain, because they can relate to it.? His cousin Jay, a D.J., introduced him to Hip Hop and kept him up with the latest acts. Nox was drawn into rhyming in middle school when he was only about twelve years-old. He never imagined getting paid for his words. Nonetheless, Nox fed his hunger for rapping and created notebooks of songs while in high school. Acts such as Run DMC, Gang Starr, Rakim, Nas, Big L, Tupac, Kool G Rap, and Cannibus have informed his style over the years. The moment of clarity that opened Nox's eyes to his own talent came when he gave a speech in rhyme form for a class. The experience also helped him break free from performing jitters; so, by the time this young bol met King Syze, Nox was ready to hook up with a group of similarly minded Hip Hop heads bring his own heat. King Syze put him down with the QD click, and he began to frequent Footworks's open-mic nights. Before completing the recent tracks with Cimer Amor, Nox appeared in the Hip Hop documentary True Heads.

In fact, the streets of Philadelphia are the stomping grounds of Cimer Amor and Nox. The two met at Footworks, but many years passed before Jedi Mind Tricks front man Vinnie Paz reintroduced them and they realized that they could work together to bring their vision to the meandering Hip Hop genre. Like Nox, music producer Cimer Amor's genius mirrors his soul. Beats ranging from gritty underground bangers to potential commercial hits reflect the multifaceted, chameleon-like persona of their creator. ?We're not into making Hip Hop music; we're into making music which expresses our feelings in the tradition of Hip Hop,? Cimer explains. Back in the day, he started out as just a kid around the way that did graffiti. It was in 1994, while in college, that Cimer decided to cross over from art to music and become an Emcee. When Cimer transferred to Penn State's main campus in 1995, the future beat-wizard found his own core of aspiring Hip Hop moguls, DJ's, Emcees, and producers with whom he continues to network and hang with today. He went in on an MPC player with his friend who was into producing; although he would call this guy brother, the aspiring musician was simply unfocused. So, Cimer bought his producer's share of the machine and started laying his own beats in 1997. He didn't officially hang up the microphone until 2000, when it occurred to him that his production skills were, according to him, ?ten times better? than his rhymes. After graduation, this eclectic beat master got a quick lesson in the music industry, buying, selling, and distributing American Hip Hop music to local record stores across the U.K. with Vinyl Convoy. Among his influences are DJ Premier, The Alchemist, Timberland, Neptunes, and Soul and Jazz greats like James Brown, Miles Davis, and Quincy Jones. Cimer is kept busy with making beats for a long list of local artists, polishing and marketing his own music, and promoting the commercial sneaker web-site sneakeroddyssey.com. It is the combination of business savvy, years on the grind, and true dedication to the future of Hip Hop that make the music of the CAEN Project real, dynamic, and possibly even classic.