Akira The Don
Akira The Don is a rapper, producer and cartoonist (amongst other things) c… Read Full Bio ↴Akira The Don is a rapper, producer and cartoonist (amongst other things) currently residing in London, England.
His debut LP, when We We Were Young was relased on Something In Construction Records in 2006. He's since released twenty five (and counting) mixtapes via his webiste, akirathedon.com, including May's acclaimed The Omega Sanction, the precursor to his second album, The Life Equation, co-produced by Stephen Hague and due for release this Summer.
Akira is one of very few artists to have bypassed traditional channels and built a direct relationship with a worldwide audience. His innovative and hugely popular blog/website www.akirathedon.com is a breeding ground for ideas and inspiration, as well as a direct link between Akira and his reader/listeners.
His production work includes two top fourty hits for Lethal Bizzle (Babylon's Burning The Ghetto and Police On My Back) along with Big Narstie's forthcoming debut LP, and he has produced remixes for Gonzales, The Crimea, Air France, Marvin The Martian, The Voluntary Butler Scheme and many others. He’s performed live collaborations with Neon Neon, Lethal Bizzle, and Gonzales, toured the UK with his ever-evolving band The Women and staged a zombie-themed Life Equation-completion party/gig called Dawn Of The Don.
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After years of misadventure and hedonism, Akira The Don began to focus his energies on creating perfect pop songs.
The resulting debut album, When We Were Young, was released in the UK on Something In Construction Records in late 2006 to raptuorous praise, but only after a bizarre series of events (touring the East Coast with a Billy Idol backing track and a plastic sword one moment, being chased by bears while escaping from a Masonic lodge in Woodstock the next) saw him being signed by US giants Interscope and jetting between studios in New York and LA to record the thing.
In the next few years there were shows in the UK & Ireland with his band, The Women (featuring Boo Radleys songwriter Martin Carr on keyboards) and collaborations with artists in London where Akira put his production and song-writing skills to use to nurture emerging talents like Bashy, Envy, Narstie and Marvin the Martian.
Akira made his name as a producer on Lethal Bizzle’s 2nd album, contributing 3 tracks, 2 of them going on to be top 40 singles, notably ‘Babylon’s Burning The Ghetto’; the Ruts-sampling slice of inspired pop introduced Bizzle to the NME / Download Festival crowds and spawned a punk/hip hop crossover in Bizzle’s later collaboration with Gallows.
Ever-eager to stretch his talents, Akira turned his hand to remixing for the likes of The Cribs, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, Air France and Gonzales.
As well as a selection of unique and often extraordinary one-off gigs/parties, The Don also performed live collaborations with Bizzle, Gonzales, Neon Neon and Andrew WK, amongst others.
Meanwhile Akira has pioneered a series of online mixtapes: sometimes free downloads of themed genre-defying mash-ups and remixes, sometimes coherent and polished albums in their own right – self-produced and manufactured with accompanying T-shirts and (recently) footwear.
Notable releases include Stunners International 130, 2007, pioneering the electro-rap crossover that would come to dominate the airwaves in 2010, and Thieving, 2008 – ostensibly a sample-themed mixtape, but really an album in its own right; the record was a huge success: self-released and unmarketed, it overshadowed his Interscope-funded debut in creative scope, radio play and sales alike.
In 2009 Akira found his creative partner in seminal pop producer Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Robbie Williams) and spent the next year hopping on trains to the South Coast, crafting a massive pop album the likes of which has probably never before been contemplated on a budget of… well, nothing.
Everyone involved, from Hague himself to the many musicians recruited along the way, has worked on album #2, The Life Equation, because they believe it’s awesome (and that it’s going to be huge). Past collaborators have been eager to get involved too; Gruff Rhys (Neon Neon, SFA) recorded vocals (with his brand new daughter tied snugly to his chest) for two tracks (‘Broke’, ‘I Am Not Dead (Yeah!)’): Mancunian maestro Envy duets on the heartbreaking ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ and Chilly Gonzales came out of rap retirement to spit on his remix of one of the forthcoming singles. Watch this space.
Not content with leaving his fans to twiddle their thumbs, though, Akira knocked out another few mixtapes in 2009, including the (un)official album precursor, the yang to The Life Equation’s yin, The Omega Sanction.
When The Omega Sanction dropped in summer 2009, with its iconic Jack Kirby-inspired artwork, pushing Akira’s musical boundaries into never-before-charted realms of (sort of) alternative computer game soundtracks, romantic balladeering and all-out prog rock, BBC Radio’s Adam Walton was so impressed he opened his show that week with no introduction, just the first 15-minutes played back uninterrupted. Later that Akira was anointed “The King of the Mixtape” by XFM’s The Remixes’ Eddy Temple-Morris after he broke the world record for most songs mixed into 10 minutes (220).
He upped his own ante in 2010, releasing a swarm of excellent mixtapes, incluing one recorded in 24 hours with the whole process broadcast live via 3 webcams, and the insanely successful ATD23: The Street Fighter Mixtape, hailed by giant gaming site Kotaku as “The Best Gaming Mixtape You’ll Ever Hear”. That project also spawned the song Be Brave, which topped the Hype Machine charts in June.
Now, after three years of soul-searching, axe-grinding, hard graft and a furious rate of productivity, akirathedon.com 5.0, AKA The Best Artist’s Website In The World, and album #2, The Life Equation, are finally ready. Having spent years building up his web presence and gaining a network of reader-listeners worldwide, maintaining a direct relationship with fans through his blog way before it was the done thing, Akira is now ready to step up and claim his rightful position in the pantheon of pop.
His debut LP, when We We Were Young was relased on Something In Construction Records in 2006. He's since released twenty five (and counting) mixtapes via his webiste, akirathedon.com, including May's acclaimed The Omega Sanction, the precursor to his second album, The Life Equation, co-produced by Stephen Hague and due for release this Summer.
Akira is one of very few artists to have bypassed traditional channels and built a direct relationship with a worldwide audience. His innovative and hugely popular blog/website www.akirathedon.com is a breeding ground for ideas and inspiration, as well as a direct link between Akira and his reader/listeners.
His production work includes two top fourty hits for Lethal Bizzle (Babylon's Burning The Ghetto and Police On My Back) along with Big Narstie's forthcoming debut LP, and he has produced remixes for Gonzales, The Crimea, Air France, Marvin The Martian, The Voluntary Butler Scheme and many others. He’s performed live collaborations with Neon Neon, Lethal Bizzle, and Gonzales, toured the UK with his ever-evolving band The Women and staged a zombie-themed Life Equation-completion party/gig called Dawn Of The Don.
________________________________________________________________________________
After years of misadventure and hedonism, Akira The Don began to focus his energies on creating perfect pop songs.
The resulting debut album, When We Were Young, was released in the UK on Something In Construction Records in late 2006 to raptuorous praise, but only after a bizarre series of events (touring the East Coast with a Billy Idol backing track and a plastic sword one moment, being chased by bears while escaping from a Masonic lodge in Woodstock the next) saw him being signed by US giants Interscope and jetting between studios in New York and LA to record the thing.
In the next few years there were shows in the UK & Ireland with his band, The Women (featuring Boo Radleys songwriter Martin Carr on keyboards) and collaborations with artists in London where Akira put his production and song-writing skills to use to nurture emerging talents like Bashy, Envy, Narstie and Marvin the Martian.
Akira made his name as a producer on Lethal Bizzle’s 2nd album, contributing 3 tracks, 2 of them going on to be top 40 singles, notably ‘Babylon’s Burning The Ghetto’; the Ruts-sampling slice of inspired pop introduced Bizzle to the NME / Download Festival crowds and spawned a punk/hip hop crossover in Bizzle’s later collaboration with Gallows.
Ever-eager to stretch his talents, Akira turned his hand to remixing for the likes of The Cribs, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, Air France and Gonzales.
As well as a selection of unique and often extraordinary one-off gigs/parties, The Don also performed live collaborations with Bizzle, Gonzales, Neon Neon and Andrew WK, amongst others.
Meanwhile Akira has pioneered a series of online mixtapes: sometimes free downloads of themed genre-defying mash-ups and remixes, sometimes coherent and polished albums in their own right – self-produced and manufactured with accompanying T-shirts and (recently) footwear.
Notable releases include Stunners International 130, 2007, pioneering the electro-rap crossover that would come to dominate the airwaves in 2010, and Thieving, 2008 – ostensibly a sample-themed mixtape, but really an album in its own right; the record was a huge success: self-released and unmarketed, it overshadowed his Interscope-funded debut in creative scope, radio play and sales alike.
In 2009 Akira found his creative partner in seminal pop producer Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Robbie Williams) and spent the next year hopping on trains to the South Coast, crafting a massive pop album the likes of which has probably never before been contemplated on a budget of… well, nothing.
Everyone involved, from Hague himself to the many musicians recruited along the way, has worked on album #2, The Life Equation, because they believe it’s awesome (and that it’s going to be huge). Past collaborators have been eager to get involved too; Gruff Rhys (Neon Neon, SFA) recorded vocals (with his brand new daughter tied snugly to his chest) for two tracks (‘Broke’, ‘I Am Not Dead (Yeah!)’): Mancunian maestro Envy duets on the heartbreaking ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ and Chilly Gonzales came out of rap retirement to spit on his remix of one of the forthcoming singles. Watch this space.
Not content with leaving his fans to twiddle their thumbs, though, Akira knocked out another few mixtapes in 2009, including the (un)official album precursor, the yang to The Life Equation’s yin, The Omega Sanction.
When The Omega Sanction dropped in summer 2009, with its iconic Jack Kirby-inspired artwork, pushing Akira’s musical boundaries into never-before-charted realms of (sort of) alternative computer game soundtracks, romantic balladeering and all-out prog rock, BBC Radio’s Adam Walton was so impressed he opened his show that week with no introduction, just the first 15-minutes played back uninterrupted. Later that Akira was anointed “The King of the Mixtape” by XFM’s The Remixes’ Eddy Temple-Morris after he broke the world record for most songs mixed into 10 minutes (220).
He upped his own ante in 2010, releasing a swarm of excellent mixtapes, incluing one recorded in 24 hours with the whole process broadcast live via 3 webcams, and the insanely successful ATD23: The Street Fighter Mixtape, hailed by giant gaming site Kotaku as “The Best Gaming Mixtape You’ll Ever Hear”. That project also spawned the song Be Brave, which topped the Hype Machine charts in June.
Now, after three years of soul-searching, axe-grinding, hard graft and a furious rate of productivity, akirathedon.com 5.0, AKA The Best Artist’s Website In The World, and album #2, The Life Equation, are finally ready. Having spent years building up his web presence and gaining a network of reader-listeners worldwide, maintaining a direct relationship with fans through his blog way before it was the done thing, Akira is now ready to step up and claim his rightful position in the pantheon of pop.
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Akira The Don Lyrics
42 Rules for Life Tell the truth... or at least don't lie Do not do…
94 Nicks People try to win like the '94 Knicks 79 to 76…
A River The body and it's parts are a river "Everything is just…
Accountability You can't blame it on the Steward or the stewardess You can'…
Always Hoping There is no hope in time Everything is gonna get worse…
Always Look for the Helpers You know my mother used to Say a long time ago…
An Apple Pie from Scratch If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch You…
Any Dream You Wanted I wonder, I wonder what you would do If you had…
Any Dream You Wanted 2 That means in practice then That when you hand over your…
Atman Is Brahman The Hinduism speaks of the Godhead as As you uses the…
Babydoll You've been gone for a little while now I've been here…
Back in the Day Believe it not I wasn't always this massive I didn't haved…
Be Humble I've been free to do whatever I want To make the…
Best in the World (Keep redefining what you do Until this is true, until this…
Beware of Virtue What seems a good thing today Turns out tomorrow to have…
Build the Biggest Building As the pressure grew how do you As an international speaker …
Capital A powerful form of leverage is capital Is capital is capital…
Catalysts Catalysts to say, what has never been said To see what…
Clones - Yes! This is yet another rapper Yapping over other p…
Clouds and Dirt Something I've been thinking about a lot It’s just this noti…
Cosmic Mail Parent The Chinese looks upon the Universe as an organism As we sha…
Crooked Nothing ever last forever in the end, well you've changed th…
Debts & Lessons Akira the Don He's got clout ay, ay, ay My grandfather Veru…
Discipline Equals Freedom If you could have billboard anywhere With anything on it Wha…
Discipline Gets Things Done The one thing that discipline definitely Does help you with …
Divine Human What is divine deserves our respect Because it is good What …
Doing on the Job Business to me is bottom of the barrel There's no actual…
Don't Do It Monks used to keep skulls on their desks And people nowadays…
DON'T WORRY The question, I guess That keeps coming up to me was What…
Either You Love Someone Or You Don't So, what instead, therefore, if we see That you can't outwit…
Everybody Can Be Wealthy Overall capitalism is intrinsic to The human species Capital…
Everybody Is God Now of course as I intimated earlier The Hindu is therefore…
Everyone To Everyone Let’s look at this next tweet Which I thought was cryptic An…
Extreme Ownership Pt. I War is a nightmare, war is awful It is indifferent, and…
Fight Does complacency come with age And do I have the urge…
Food Sex Power So in the same way, we Find that the watching self Or…
Freedom of Speech I don’t mind the denunciations frankly I mind the lies well,…
From the Trees to the Starship History is just a 25, 000-year dash From the trees to…
Fully Symbolic Creatures After 6 million years of boredom The evolutionary ascent of …
Generally Miserable Uh, do I feel happy in life? Um Um, let's see Let's…
Give Me a Lever Fortunes require leverage Business leverage comes from capit…
God in Disguise If a beautiful lady should say to me I love you…
Godhead It is a basic proposition for the Hindu That only the…
Good Akira the Don He's got clout How do I deal with Setbacks, f…
Grace You want grace? Well, ask God, maybe he'll give it to…
Grateful to the God When you wake up in the morning Tell yourself the people…
Great Things in This World We squander our time with the Death of a thousand cuts We…
Haunted Planet One scenario for solving our problem Is a mass migration int…
Heaven And Hell Part 2 I think that Heaven exists and that we can produce…
Heaven and Hell Pt. 1 I think that you can get glimpses of Heaven and…
How Dark It Can Get First I wanna thank you Because I am a stage four…
How Do You Know We white Anglo-Saxon Protestants British, German, American, …
I Don't Want To Know About Evil Here is Jan van Eyck Who paints the eschatological picture O…
I Saw My Dad in a Dream I was just thinking that Jocko's kind of A lot of…
I Vow to Love Myself You know what's funny? I never used to think about The fact…
I Wake Up Early I wake up early I wake up at 4:45 I like to…
Idea Muscle I realized this way back First everybody says, "Oh Ideas are…
If If you can keep your head when all about you Are…
If You Don't Make Stuff There Is No Stuff Yeah, my opinion is that if Somebody wants to stay home They…
If You Were God If looking at it from another way We push technology To it's…
Inspiration Is Perishable Inspiration is perishable When you have your inspiration Do …
Intelligence Energy Integrity People who work with that Have high intelligence high energy…
JUST KEEP MOVING Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel You can't always see…
Kalpa The Hindu theory is very odd Every Kalpa in the Manvantara…
Lament of Hermes Do you know, Asclepius That Egypt is an image of heaven? Or,…
Life Is Good Gratitude On that 400 trillion to one thing, I’m grateful St…
Live In The Day Believe it not I wasn't always this massive I didn't haved…
Liverpool Morning of my fifteenth birthday Shoplifting celebratory …
Living in the Future Well I'm a man called Adam Living in the future I make…
Look Away It's very easy to smooth it all out and say You…
Love In 1985, me and Michelle – we used to sit…
Loving Indifference Do you mind what happens not? I don't care what happens…
Luck Is the Residue of Design People say things like I do this in a kind of…
Luck to Destiny I think it's pretty interesting that the First three kinds o…
Lunchbucket Men don't struggle for power That isn't what men do, not…
Making Money Is Not About Luck Obviously, we want to be wealthy Then we want to get…
Meme Magic I should make it clear, you know I don't believe this…
Mind over Mind You know when people think of The word mind control They thi…
More Than You Value Yourself No one is going to value you More than you value…
Mother's No Good The primitive and Traditional initiation rites Have to do wi…
Music What would be the forms of culture that we would…
My Dream I was just thinking that Jocko's kind of A lot of…
Nearly Infinite Leverage We are now living in an Age of nearly infinite leverage Near…
Network Effects Network effects, network effects Free leverage Network effe…
Never Been Better You know, I mean, of course we've gotten soft As a…
O What a Glorious Thing I woke about nine, opened up my eyes Figured, it's time…
Offense Defense You're either on the offense or defense You're either on the…
Oh We have specialized In a certain kind of awareness That mak…
Oh! I woke about nine Opened up my eyes Figured it's time to…
On The Other Side Is Greatness You once said that if you were Growing up in this…
Optimistic Practical Gary Vee! Hey Three words to give me inspiration For any day…
Ordinary Everyday Consciousness The web of life let me try, from the first To…
Our Revels Now Are Ended The fact that life is transient Is part of it's liveliness T…
Patrick Patrick, 17, 1997 Akira The Don, 16, just moved from livi…
Play! Play The self has thus the capacity to Abandon it'self to f…
Playing at Being You This you see is not a pessimistic attitude Therefore, at all…
Rational Optimism "Don't partner with cynics and pessimists Their beliefs are …
Read What You Love Until You Love to Read The foundation of learning is reading I don't know smart per…
Reduce Effort But by this means of effortless effort The individual change…
Self Control Hard work and persistence Self-reliance, always Strength, pe…
Self Transforming Elf Machines I encounter self transforming elf machines Which are creatur…
Set for Life The five most important skills are Reading, writing, arithme…
Society Always Wants New Things You're not going to get rich Renting out your time But you…
Some Kind of Disinformation Project So, then we came with a Yet more elaborate theory Which I…
Sound of the Waves There's a myth There is in the beginning the divine Bird whi…
Speak Publicly I find like, i have some beliefs that are Too inflammatory…
Specific Knowledge If you want to make money you Have to get paid…
START WHERE YOU STAND Start where you stand and never mind the past The past…
Steal the Culture Because I’m talking with the Person who gave us The A and…
Studied Mediocrity It's instructive to go to A professional professors' meeting…
Suicide Ok well, someone, this is very serious and I don't…
Take Risk Embrace accountability and take Business risks under your ow…
Tarantulas This is from Friedrich Nietzsche You know, of course you pro…
Thanks for All the Aids White man went to Africa with rifles and bibles Came back…
That! So there's a line in the New Testament where Christ…
The Builder & The Seller Talking about combining skills You said that you should lear…
The Cosmic Circus From a distance You can hear the brass and the Drums as…
The Good Professor So, let's look at this thing From another point of view Whic…
The Good That I Would So you see, when you select an authority Who will help…
The Great Dictator I'm sorry, I don’t want to be an emperor That's not…
The Great Things That You Do Now, you see, if you do that You do at least…
The Greatest Year Let's welcome to the stage Mr gary Vaynerchuk All right, le…
The Power of Omnipotence When somebody in India Suddenly announces that he's God Nobo…
The Primary Fact of Experience So, I'm gonna tell you today about a Way of looking…
The Prize Is the Soul One thing I wanted to say is, um One thing I…
The Purpose of Wealth Is Freedom Everyone vaguely knows That they want to be wealthy But they…
THE REAL MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS Well it's that time of year again We start to feel…
The Robots I think of all the forms of leverage The best one…
The Sort of Story That I Myself Would Enjoy Reading One thing I might mention Most writers And I think it's an…
The Souls Of Others Concentrate every minute like a Roman Like a man on doing…
The Sound of the Rain Needs No Translation We've discussed the web from Three points of view as an…
The Truth Requires No Belief This is not a very scientific Part of the wrap Because it's…
The Voice How old was I when everything you Understood started to come…
The Wave "I've listened carefully to your Cain and Abel lecture But…
The Way the World Actually Is The way the world actually is Is an enormously complex Inter…
There Must be Discipline Akira hes got clout People look for the shortcut, the hack …
This Is It I've been lucky i've been blessed I've had a life that…
This Is Leverage The most interesting and the most important Form of leverage…
Those Who Have Everything Finding out what you’re doing wrong Is not a pleasant experi…
Time I fought from the time I was 15, and I think…
Tomorrow's on Its Way Take the contrast between the words we use Explicit and impl…
Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping I read this piece of work by Jung a long while…
Trees Come out of the Air The substance of the tree is carbon Where did that come…
Truth & Justice To love my family Love my family, love my family Love my…
Unbroken What do I do when I'm broken? When I'm broken, I…
Underlying Meaning Thousands of years ago Plato proposed that all Knowledge was…
Unfinished Language You wonder what to make of it I've thought about this…
Unspeakably Bizarre Now, people can say all kinds of things They can say,…
Using Machines Um, I was talking about that this weekend Thinking a lot…
WAGMI Every generation that came before The boys would have to go…
Watch What Is Going on You can't you know You can’t eat 10 roasts of beef…
Waves of Contempt I’ve listened carefully to your Cain and Abel Lecture but wa…
Waves Of Sorrow The fact is we don't really Have a cultural protocol for Wha…
We Don't Know Nothin' One of the reasons I preach DMT so Furiously is –…
What Is Going On? I think life is tremendously tenacious And has an immense ca…
What Is This Mystery? Many of you I’m sure Have heard the saying that Mythology is…
What the Hell Aleksander Solzhenit'syn You may or you may not know was a P…
what would you be like If you're feeling heroic and you want to do something…
What Would You Be What Would You Do? If you’re feeling heroic and you want To do something for…
Who You Work with and What You Work on So let's talk about hard work There's this battle that happe…
Why Have You Come Here So, it all comes down to this basic question That human…
Why Would Anyone Do Drugs When They Could Just Mow a Lawn? (Exhaling Breath) Why would anyone do drugs when they Could…
Wishes Genie is the root word for genius And it's a really…
You Can Say No I'm dead serious about this, it's like Sort yourself out Ab…
YOU COULD LEAVE LIFE RIGHT NOW In comparing sins the way that people do Theophrastus says t…
You Have to Come Down The Hindu life is related To this cosmology and the objectiv…
You Who Will Do the Improving You, who will do the improving Are the one who needs…
You're Not Going To Get Rich Renting Out Your Time Akira he's got clout The first point was about how you're No…