“Goodbye, Sticky Rice is the funnest, messiest, most honest, nastiest, non-stop going away party I can possibly throw. Everyone’s invited, but bring a toothbrush. I’m gonna miss ya’ll,” says rap legend LYRICS BORN about releasing his final album Goodbye, Sticky Rice today October 25, 2024 via Mobile Home Recordings. Deciding to shut the door on his notable music career to explore other entertainment realms, Lyrics Born leaves a big void in his wake. “I’m saying what I want to say, and then I’m boogie-ing my ass out the door.” Leaving behind his musical career that stretches over three decades from his start as part of the iconic Northern California hip hop collectives SoleSides and Quannum Projects in the ‘90s to his solo joints in the ‘00s and onward. Goodbye, Sticky Rice is his final musical farewell.
Featuring the recently released bass-heavy, funky focus track “Can We Still Be Friends,” Lyrics Born describes the song as “Dedicated to everyone caught in that messy gray area while crossfading from a relationship into a friendship… is it possible?” During the song’s explosive release on Instagram, the track went even more viral than previous single “Take It 2 Far,” with views in the millions.
Celebrating the excess and indulgence of leading a dionysian lifestyle, his first single from the album, “Take It 2 Far” revels in enjoying life to the fullest. “I’m already fun but we can get funner / Every bottle upside down all summer,” he raps, popping corks and partying past eleven. The track was also approved by Snoop Dogg, who posted about the track twice on Instagram! The follow-up groovy track “What Dreams Are Made Of,” imagines a technicolor and funkadelic future. He describes, “Wellllllll, it’s the year 2082 and this is your brain on roller skates in a fictional Venice Beach amusement park I inherited from George Clinton, where it’s always summer.”
Planning to hit the road for more live dates in 2025 as a sort of sayonara tour (he played a handful of West Coast dates earlier this month), Lyrics Born will be announcing more shows in the coming weeks, including the recently announced February 1st gig at San Francisco’s The Independent. “We are gigging, we are indulging, we are naming names, we are crying in the middle of the room, and somebody might end up pregnant,” he says. “Come say good-bye to the kiddo one last time!”
Lyrics Born is an entrepreneur who has expanded his realms out from music to mediums like film, (he had a cameo in Boots Riley’s 2018 sleeper hit Sorry to Bother You and starred alongside Ali Wong, Daniel Park and Keanu Reeves in Netflix’s hit streaming film Always Be My Maybe), he also launched a cooking series Dinner in Place on YouTube that has been a runaway hit. “The series has received millions of views across platforms and Season Five is on the way! It’s really been rewarding to use all those other sides of my creative brain,” he says, excitingly. The series has been so successful that it won a coveted 2024 Telly Award , which honors excellence in video and television across all screens. Crowned as the Silver Winner in the “Food & Beverage – Online” category, it is proving to be a very exciting prospect in his future. “I’m so honored to have received the Telly for Dinner In Place: Season 4,” he exclaims. “WOW! We had so much fun and cooked up some delicious meals with friends. WAIT TIL Y’ALL SEE WHAT WE GOT COOKIN FOR SEASON 5!”
Lyrics Born began his career in the late ‘90s as an important part of the intensely influential Bay Area hip hop collective Quannum Projects that spawned DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lifesavas and Latyrx, of which he was half with Lateef the Truthspeaker, Lyrics Born broke countless “first” barriers as the first Asian-American solo rapper to perform at Lollapalooza, Coachella, release a greatest hits record, to name a few firsts. There was never a glass ceiling that he wasn’t able to break.
Going out with a bang on the new album and reflecting back on his incredible music career, Lyrics Born concludes, “I’m gonna take an indefinite hiatus from releasing albums,” he says contentedly. “Goodbye, Sticky Rice will be my 16th. I think that’s enough for now.”
Focus track “Can We Still Be Friends” can be streamed HERE.Lyrics Born’s new and final album Goodbye, Sticky Rice is out today on October 25, 2024 via Mobile Home Recordings.