Drummer extraordinaire Daru Jones, who regularly tours with Jack White, has dropped a new mixtape with Antonio Eyez called CoverSOUL Meditation. Drawing from R&B, soul, jazz and Hip Hop, the kaleidoscopic project swells with nods to Erykah Badu, Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie, among many others.
"The project pays tribute to Urban Soul, Funk, Rhythm & Blues, Neo Soul, Alternative and Spiritual Roots," Jones tells RAPstation. "Over my raw Boom-Bap-Soul-Hop style of drumming, we cover a wide range of classic music; from Erykah Badu to Al Green to The Pilgrim Jubilee to Steve Lacy."
Antonio Eyez, who's co-managed by Grammy Award winner and Oscar-nominated songwriter Van Hunt, was the magic sauce Jones needed.
"In early 2023, I started seeing posts on Van Hunt's instagram that were reposted performances from Antonio Eyez. I was like, 'Yo, am I trippin'? This kat is super dope and versatile,'" Jones explains. "After I heard the D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq 'Be Here' flip, I was floored. That's not an easy record to pull off.
"That led to an idea of me picking a bunch of tracks from Antonio's Instagram and going to BarnFire Creative, whom I consider one of my main studio hubs, to track with engineer and friend, Ben Sanders. Major props to Caio Carvaho of Pinch Studios who did the additional mixing and mastering. Also, thanks to the fam, jRockazz, for creating mind blowing visual creation with VFX, featuring choreography and dance courtesy of Grounded View."
Ultimately, Jones hopes the CoverSOUL Meditation Mixtape "pumps positive flow and good vibration back into the music to inspire and preserve the culture of those who came before us." Listen to it below.
