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Renowned for seamlessly merging hip-hop beats with yogic wisdom, musician and yoga teacher MC YOGI has always been on a mission to spread good vibes. His 2016 release, Ritual Mystical, was a collaboration with East Forest and quickly became a “set it and forget it” album for yoga practitioners everywhere. His latest release, Sound Patterns, emerges as an inspired addition to his signature exploration of what he refers to as “downtempo, electronic, chill lo-fi, and ambient music.”
The mission to spread good vibes stems from MC Yogi’s early experiences living in a group home for at-risk youth. Having grown up immersed in hip-hop culture, MC Yogi (née Nicholas Giacomini) says that as a kid dealing with ADHD, depression, and anxiety, “Hip-hop really helped me to channel my emotions. It helped me focus and direct my energy toward something positive, unifying and uplifting.”
In this tender turbulence, he began honing his rapper skills. He later merged his love for hip-hop with his newfound passion for yoga. “Meditation and yoga help us to experience everything as a threefold wave of love,” he says. “Music is a beautiful way to express and communicate that energy so that it can be shared and celebrated in community. Yoga and music have taught me that if you tune in, everything is connected, everything rhymes.”
As his eleventh studio album, Sound Patterns expands on the artist’s signature exploration of what he refers to as “downtempo, electronic, chill lo-fi, and ambient music.” In the following glimpse into his recent album’s genesis and intricate layers, MC YOGI shares some of his favorite tracks, reveals how he incorporates them into his yoga practice, and explores its fusion of rhythm, spirituality, and artistry.
Can you share what inspired the unique musical blend of Sound Patterns? How do you envision listeners incorporating it into their yoga and meditation practices?
Everything is made of patterns. Everything is made of sound. That was the basic idea and inspiration for the album.
When I got together with my good friend John Pattern, an amazing composer, therapist, and yoga practitioner, we both decided to make music that would lead the listener back into a deeper, more calm presence, creating healthier patterns through sound.
We wanted to produce a collection of yoga-infused songs to bring the listener into a more healing and receptive space. Sometimes repeating a song, instead of getting lost in all the mental chatter, can help to reroute the mind back into the moment, back to the breath.
You’ve mentioned that meditation and yoga help you experience everything as a “threefold wave of love.” How do you infuse this perspective into the album?
Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. My wife, Amanda, says the aim is to experience grace in the beginning, grace in the middle, and grace in the end.
We crafted the songs to flow with some easy, mellow highs and some easy, mellow lows. Some songs have lyrics–poems for contemplation–and others are more spacious. We wanted to create a feeling where you can soak it in at times and then just let it breathe.
Since this album is the culmination of a quartet of EPs, can you take us through the creative journey from the first EP to this full-length album? How did each EP contribute to the overall sound and theme of the project?
I had the idea of each EP being a different color. We started with blue to represent the upper levels of the mind, consciousness, and space. Gradually, the gradient went from green for the heart, representing nature, into golds, yellows, and oranges for energy and vitality, and finally into red to ground it into the earth, back into the body, back into the present moment. The spectrum of color, from ultraviolet to infrared, has always fascinated me. Both John and I love how color represents different moods and feelings and how that energy can be felt in the songs.
The fusion of yogic wisdom and hip-hop beats is a hallmark of your music. Can you share insights into your creative process when blending these elements and how you balance the spiritual and rhythmic aspects in your tracks?
I came of age as hip-hop was ascending, sneaking into the train yards, writing graffiti, free-styling, writing rhymes, beatboxing, breakdancing, and running around with different crews of kids who were building and creating. I lived in a group home for about three years, and when I finally graduated, I found yoga thanks to my dad. At that time, mainstream rap dominated, and hip-hop was morphing into many different sub-genres, from Trip-Hop and Drum and Bass to Downtempo, Lounge and Chill Electronic Music, House, Dub, etc. It was an exciting time for experimentation, cross-pollination, and creative innovation.
Being in the Bay Area, a lot of turntablism and DJ music was being pioneered. I started rhyming around 13 or 14. By the time I began practicing yoga in my late teens, it all coalesced, and the music became an outlet for everything I was studying and putting my love into. Making beats and writing rhymes became my meditation.
When not touring, you teach yoga. How does teaching influence your music and vice-versa? Do you find that your experiences in one realm inform the other?
For sure. Music is all about timing, rhythm, cadence, and flow. Being a musician definitely makes my classes more poetic and more musical. Yoga reminds me that it’s not about me. It keeps me grounded and present, connected to something bigger, something deeper, something more mystical and cosmic. Both disciplines and practices, music and yoga, work really well to offset each other. I’m always coming up with little repetitions in my head, like “Relax, breathe, let go, drop in, and be aware. Relax, breathe, let go, drop in, and be aware.” That’s what I’ve been repeating to myself lately. “Relax, breathe, let go, drop in, and be aware.” That might be a good song, actually, another good sound pattern.
How do you personally use the tracks from Sound Patterns in your own practice? Are there specific songs that you find particularly powerful for a vinyasa flow or a track that especially resonates during Savasana?
You could play the whole album from front to back, and every track would work well. I particularly love “Buddha Prayer” for practice. Sometimes, we chant along to it, and the energy of the mantra feels so good. “Meditation Horizon” continues to be an amazing addition to all the classes. It’s a great ambient track to begin or end any class with.
My collaborator, John Pattern, did a masterful job bringing the energy felt in deep meditation into sound form. It really crystalizes the way I feel when the heart is slowly opening, the mind is softening, and bliss is emerging. It’s that beautiful moment when the mind touches spirit and everything unfolds without any effort or feeling of personhood.
About Our Contributor
Sierra Vandervort is a writer and modern witchy woman living in Oregon. She’s been practicing yoga for nearly a decade and completed her teacher training in 2018. She writes and teaches about connection—connection to the body, to nature, and to the powerful energies of the universe. In 2017, she founded her media brand, The Local Mystic, an educational hub devoted to mindful, mystical living for women. Sierra loves to guide people to their witchy side by helping them deepen their spiritual studies and ritualize their lives. Through The Local Mystic, she’s written books, plus hosted women’s circles and wellness retreats worldwide. For free yoga and witchy wisdom, find Sierra on Instagram @thelocalmystic and on YouTube. And check out her book, Your Year of Magic.
