The b-Rabbit EP

The b-Rabbit EP is the second extended play by American hip-hop artist b-Rabbit. It was released on April 4th, 2012. The self-titled EP is a concept album that tells the short story of how b-Rabbit gave his life back to Jesus Christ and the various stages of re-birth he went through.

Background
The EP was first announced shortly after b-Rabbit debuted online as a hip-hop artist. The first song was annoucned as "Things Are Beautiful" which featured a sample from the song "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. The second song Rabbit announced was a collaboration with long-time friend and singer Libby Christensen on a track entitled "Born Again". The first song to be released off of the EP was a freestyle titled "TV". Rabbit then went quiet about writing the album as he worked on and released his debut extended play, b-Rabbit Presents: The Perfect 2. After the release of The Perfect 2, b-Rabbit again went public about writing lyrics for the EP by announcing yet another track, this one a 'keep your head up' type of song entitled "(Stay Awake) Tonight". After dropping "Born Again" from the track list due to creative differences, b-Rabbit annoucned the remaing tracks on the album being "Intro", "Monster", and a cover of tobyMac's "Made To Love".

Musical Style and Themes
b-Rabbit has described the sound of the EP of being similar to Christian hip-hop artist tobyMac as well as American hip-hop artist Macklemore, who is also from Washington State. His style is a slow and informed way of rapping, although he says there is one song in which he attempts a faster rapping style.

The album has been described as a concept album although b-Rabbit said that originally that wasn't his plan. Every song follows the same central story line with the exclusion of "TV (Freestyle)". The record takes listeners on a journey through the past year and the changes in b-Rabbit's life as he gave his heart back to Christ. The first song, "Intro", represents the sermon he heard when he first returned to the church. He learned that everything God made is beautiful no matter what.

The second song and first single, "Things Are Beautiful" continues the story from "Intro" where b-Rabbit realizes how beautiful everything God made really is. Using a sample from the song "Beautiful Things" by Gungor, b-Rabbit shares his new found appreciation for life.

"(Stay Awake) Tonight" shares how God opened up b-Rabbit's eyes to how bad people in the 21st Century need religion. Described as political hip-hop, the song tackles subject matter such as the war in the Middle East, the Occupy Movement, and the recession while saying if people would turn to God, the United States wouldn't be in the situation it is.

The fourth song, "Monster" samples the Meg & Dia song of the same name. The song was the last one written for the record because b-Rabbit was constantly re-writing it to include more recent events in his life. The song is a plead by Rabbit for people to forgive him for the monster he has liviing inside of him. Even though he became a Christian, b-Rabbit admits in the song that he's still not perfect and still gets upset at people thanks to his alter-ego, Travis Smith, who is first introduced in this song.

The sixth and final track, "Made To Love (Remix)" brings the album to a close. When b-Rabbit chose to cover this tobyMac song, he didn't realize how much meaning it could have to the record. Continuing the story, the inclusion of this song really is the perfect end because through out all of Rabbit's learning the past year he finally realizes that no matter what, he was still made to love God.

Recording
All of the recording for the album took place at the BranFlakes Records Main Studio in East Wenatchee, WA. b-Rabbit utilized the cheapest programs for the production of the album including the regular "Sound Recorder" that came standard with his personal laptop. The first few demos of the album were recorded simply by blasting the beat over speakers and then b-Rabbit would lay his vocals directly over the beats. He then began using a free version of the program "Mixxx" to make more professional sounding mixes. He accomplished this by playing the beats over headphones and rapping the lyrics a capella with the "Sound Recorder". He would then go into "Mixxx" and could overlap his a capella with the beat and come out with a better sound quality of his music. Unfortunately, since BranFlakes Records does not actually own a professional studio, every track on the album still has a poor sound quality unless listened to with headphones.

Cover Art and Title
The picture used for the cover art was taken in Tracey Arm Fjord, Alaska during the summer of 2011. b-Rabbit chose to use this photo of himself because he felt it was a good representation of the album's overall theme. The track list was added on the front of the album as an homage to the cover art of his 2011 extended play b-Rabbit Presents: The Perfect 2. The original cover art for the EP was supposed to be b-Rabbit standing alongside a highway wearing sunglasses, a sleeveless shirt, and making two intersecting peace signs with his hands.

The album's title was chosen as an homage to Eminem's Slim Shady EP and was set to be the predecessor to The b-Rabbit LP whose title was another homage to an Eminem album, this one being The Slim Shady LP.

Release
The release date was officially announced as April 4th, 2012 on January 15th, 2012. As of February 10th, three songs had already been released. Rough mixes of "TV (Freestyle)" and "Made To Love (Remix)" were released on YouTube and ReverbNation as promotional singles. The first official single was released on February 10th, "Things Are Beautiful". The single included two songs, "Things Are Beautiful (Single Version)" and "Things Are Beautiful (Original Demo)". On March 28th, "(Stay Awake) Tonight" was released as the second single. The album was officially released at midnight on April 4th on Mixconnect.com.

Singles
The first two promotional singles released off of the EP were rough mixes of "TV (Freestyle)" and "Made To Love (Remix)". They were released and promoted simultaneously on both ReverbNation and YouTube. The first official single was "Things Are Beautiful" featuring the band Gungor. The single was released as a free download on February 10th and contained two versions of the song, "Things Are Beautiful (Single Version)" and "Things Are Beautiful (Original Demo)". The official album version of the song has been announced as only being available on the EP itself, and will not be available for download as a single track nor will it be released prior to the rest of the album. b-Rabbit revealed on March 3rd that a second single would be released sometime after the EP's release on April 4th. He also offered a 13 second preview of the new single on the first episode of his semi-weekly video blog, b-Rabbit TV. On March 26th, it was announced that the new single would be "(Stay Awake) Tonight" and include four different versions of the song, the Album Version, a Dubstep Remix, and the instrumentals for both the Album Version and Dubstep Remix. It was released on March 28th.

Music Videos
On April 2nd, b-Rabbit announced on Facebook and Twitter that he would be releasing "unorthodox" music videos for the two official singles "Things Are Beautiful" and "(Stay Awake) Tonight" alongside the EP on April 4th. The official video for "Intro" was uploaded on YouTube on April 2nd as well.

Shortly after the album was uploaded on Mixconncect.com, b-Rabbit uploaded the music videos for "Things Are Beautiful" and "(Stay Awake) Tonight" on his official YouTube channel.

On April 21st, b-Rabbit uploaded promotional music videos for the songs "Monster", "TV (Freestyle)", and "Made To Love (Remix)".