_Grand Master Chu has released his debut 22 track solo project entitled: Yung Monk: The Mixtape.  One of the highlights from the mixtape is Track 17 Trapped In My Mind featuring Vancouver Scopez.  Its a very cool lyrical and laid-back track.  One major flaw about the mixtape is that Grand Master's vocals is that doesn't come out very strong.  It sounds like he's whispering in many his tracks and many of the instrumentals actually drown out his vocals. 

Press Release:

A well-thumbed holy text in one hand and fresh Jordans tucked under selvage denim, cap slightly askew. He wanders the world by plane, subway, and foot, a 22nd-century global nomad.

Grand Master Chu’s lyrical journey through high school, an undergraduate career at Yale University, and the Beijing underground rap scene has culminated in Yung Monk: the Mixtape. Through its 19 tracks, he demonstrates his years of lyrical growth and personal and spiritual contemplation, laying crisp verses packed with meaning and choruses with smooth, memorable hooks, both sung and rapped.

For hip-hop fans, a strong dose of lyricism is present on songs like “I Need a Savior” (“I need some medicine, penicillin for penances / Pennin the pages, diagnosis: I lack adrenaline”) and “6’7” (Master Version)”, a hijacking of Lil Wayne’s recent single. On “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Sons,” he joins his Model Minority partners in a thoughtful ode to their parents, while he holds his own on “Chinatown Connect”, even paired with Brooklyn street rapper SK.

Still, even the most pop-oriented listeners can enjoy songs like “Café” - a K-pop Big Bang cover featuring Asian-American singer Melloe (with a soon-to-be-released music video)- and “冰红茶 (Iced Red Tea)”, a tongue-in-cheek club song dedicated to the ubiquitous Chinese soft drink (“waiters try to bring me bottle service / if it ain’t cold and red, it got me feeling nervous”).

Between freshness and materialism, joy and greed, exuberance and reflection: the Yung Monk.

Yung Monk: the Mixtape was recorded in Beijing, China; Yale University, Connecticut; and Newark, Delaware. It is now streaming and available for FREE download at bit.ly/fZ2Ddo (http://grandmaster.bandcamp.com/).


Visuals:

Track Listing:

01 Airplanes (ft. DK Choi)
02 I Made It
03 Cafe (ft. Melloe)
04 冰红茶 (Red Iced Tea)
05 I Need a Savior (ft. Hannah Magee)
06 Battle Hymn of the Tiger Sons、
07 Why The Yung Monk
08 Yung Monk
09 Bring Me Down
10 Chinatown Connect
11 Tell Em
12 Trapped In My Mind (ft. Scopez)
13 Bad Verses (ft. Sheemo & Ca$h)
14 Kung Fu (Skit)
15 6'7- (Master Version)
16 Bust Out
17 60
18 Hard in Da Paint (Asian Streets) (ft. MC NG, Al Rocco)
19 Mechanical Music (ft. Mustafa Kweku)
20 Bustout 4 Life (ft. Paco, Slim Paul)
21 Morse Code (ft. Sheemo)
22 Payroll (ft. Grand Master Chu) -Snippet-