NEWS

07.31.07 UPDATES AND VIDEOS!

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PERFORMANCE OF "SUPERSTAR" (Hustle Hard TV)

HUSTLE HARD TV INTERVIEW

PERFORMANCE OF "THE WEEKEND" (Hustle Hard TV)

Below Tha Surface in the Studio

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AOL TV KAROAKE "WONDERWOMAN" PROMO

Group Members: Mala (pronounced may-lay) and C-Rel

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CLICK THE PIC TO GO STRAIGHT TO "BAD CHICK" ON iTUNES:

GET OUR DIGITAL ONLY RELEASE, "HIDDEN SONGS," DIRECTLY ON iTUNES. 1O NEW SONGS, ONLY $.99 A SONG. CLICK THE PIC TO GO DIRECTLY TO OUR STORE.

GET OUR DEBUT CD "PUSH PLAY" ON SALE FOR ONLY $8.49 (+s/h).

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04.11.07: THE EVAPORIZATION OF BTS.... If this is the only place you go to get updates on Below Tha Surface, you probably thought we disappeared. Not the case, we just rely on folks to to check us out on MySpace. Our other page was hacked and deleted after we had over 115,000 plays That was the one that had "Sooner Bounce" and "Sooner Girl." We suspect it was probably some UT fan that did it, but who knows!!

NEW FEATURE TO THIS PAGE: YOU CAN BUY MUSIC DIRECTLY FROM THIS WEBSITE. CHECK OUT THE MUSIC PAGE TO BUY THE SONG YOU WANT. THEY'RE ONLY $.99!!!

We're still working on the new album, only got about 4 more songs to record for it. We'll save some of the details on it for later. Here's a lil video of us in the lab, CHECK IT OUT!!

Below Tha Surface Intro

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Who knows when the next time we'll be updating this joint, so check us on MySpace in the meantime!!

11.09.06: YA'LL ARE THE GREATEST!! In case you haven't heard, "Sooner Girl" has been a huge success! It was a Top 100 song on commercial Pop radio as reported by Mediabase. Give us a call and book us! THANKS YOUs: Much thanks to 106.9FM in Tulsa and 102.7 in Oklahoma City for playing our music. Big thanks to University of Oklahoma's newspaper for the full page coverage, and also to The Guthrie News Leader for the front page story! Fuzzy thanks to all the fans downloading our music and adding our songs to your players on MySpace.

To avoid any confusion, we do have 2 MySpace pages, THIS ONE and THAT ONE. Save us as a friend on both, we try to do something exclusive for each page.

The first single for our new album is DONE! We're recording the second song for the single, then we'll be hitting the streets and internet with it. Look for that in mid-December or early January. Check back with us soon...

09.18.06: WE'RE HITTING RADIO AGAIN!! Hello world! We got a new song that is burning up the radio charts in the state of Oklahoma. As our dedicated followers know, we did a song lil while back called "Sooner Bounce" that did well on radio, but now we have "Sooner Girl" and it's already starting to make waves. Thanks to Tod Tucker, PD of 106.9 K-HITS in Tulsa for reaching out to us on MySpace. He said our song was in the Top 5 the first day they played it. You can download "Sooner Girl" HERE!

Thanks to all the exposure, we're the #1 INDIE HIP-HOP GROUP ON MYSPACE IN OKLAHOMA!! Make sure you support our other music as well and get our 2 releases "Push Play" and "Hidden Songs" from your digital retailers. Other than that, catch us on MySpace and save us as a friend! Oh, and today is my brother's birthday, so Happy Birthday broseph....

07.04.06: Happy July 4th! Along with celebrating our freedom and independence, we are celebrating the release of our new project, "Hidden Songs." This time around we're doing it a little different. THIS ALBUM IS DIGITAL ONLY, which means we didn't press up any CDs. You can check out and buy "Hidden Songs" (and all your other digital music) exclusively from 10thPlanetDownloads.com. If you need a CD of it, just download it, burn it, and bump it in your ride.

Notes about "Hidden Songs:" This is the last Below Tha Surface project that features Sev-Leven, and the material was recorded before our debut cd "Push Play" (classic material). This release doesn't include the newest member of BTS, C-Rel. The album is mostly uptempo, party-oriented songs, but also has some songs that display our more lyrical side (Open Arms, 99 MCs). Some folks who got an advanced listen of the album also like our ode to Lesbianism called "She Don't Like Balls." Please support it and keep an eye out for news on the NEW NEW below tha surface dropping early 2007.

05.08.06: BELOW THA SURFACE BREAKS UP, REBUILDS! Quite a bit of updates since the last time we posted on here. To answer the mass of questions I’ve gotten lately, YES, Sev-Leven has left the group! Below the Surface as you’ve known it, is over. An ongoing fued between Mala & Sev-Leven resulted in the breakup. A few fists were thrown, and some people were rushed to the ground. That’s really all I can speak about it due to the legal system’s “hush hush” approach to these types of things.

Good news for you die hard BTS fans though. Coming soon to iTunes and Burnlounge is the digital only cd, “Hidden Songs,” recorded before the break up. It will be 10 new, unreleased songs that you can pop in your mp3 players and hit the streets with. Be sure to check back, and we’ll let you know when it’s available.

More good news!! Please take the time to shoot us an email or visit our official MySpace page to welcome the NEW member of Below Tha Surface, C-Rel. He brings leadership, dope rhymes, and keen business sense to the table. The group’s feel will not change, and we’ll continue to give you that HOT music you’re accustomed to from us. We’ve already started on the next BTS project, which we’re looking to drop in September. Trust me when I tell you, this NEW NEW project is going to blow your mind! We’re about to do some things you haven’t seen in mainstream Hip-Hop. Let the countdown begin.

To update you on the promo we were doing for the network, well, things fall apart. They took the promo, but the network got bought out before it hit the air. They still paid us for it, so it’s partially cool. Just missed out on some exposure.

Speaking of promos, click the play button below to check out the promo we did for AOL. This is also your first glimpse at the newest member, C-Rel. We’ll be updating the website over the next few months to reflect the changes in the group. See u soon!

3.04.06 Fresh for '06 you suckaaaaaaz! Long time no hear from. We always mean to update this page, but both of us are too lazy to take the 10 minutes to do it. At any rate, we do have the OFFICIAL Below Tha Surface merchandise available for u. Click on the banner on this page to get u some! Don't be lame and not get it. Trust us, your friends will think you're much cooler rocking a BTS shirt or laying on a BTS pillow.

Thanks to ALL the folks that came out to support us in Lexington, KY last week. The show we did with CunninLynbuists and Dungeon Family's Witchdoctor was off the chain! Ya'll showed us MUCH love and we truly appreciate it.

So, the big news that we talked about in our 11/9/05 posting...yeah, we're still waiting for it to finalize. I know you all are dying to hear what it is, so here's a hint: We're doing a promo for a major network. They're picking up one of our songs to promote their shows and stuff. That's all we can say for now. More info to come when the paperwork is signed. Oh yeah, new BTS is album coming soon.....

11.09.05 Back in the mix for November, here's what's happening.....We got a couple of shows coming up, so if you live in the Atlanta area check us out! If you don't live in the Atlanta area, catch a plane or make the drive to come see us. That would prove you are a dedicated fan. Let's see...well, we are now part of the Myspace craze, check out our page! Right now, that page is kinda lame for us. We are too lazy to keep up this page and that one, so one of the pages has to suffer.

MAKING MOVES: Below tha Surface ringleader, Mala (that's me), officially has his new company up and running! The company is 10th Planet Productions, LLC and specializes in services that cater to independent musicians. Check out the website @ 10thPlanetPro.com. Stay tuned, we have some BIG news coming real soon!

09.20.05-WOW, has it really been 3 months since we updated this thing?! Obviously, looking at our shows page, we haven't been busy performing. Does that mean that we aren't promoting our cd? Absolutely not. We recently inked a marketing and promotion deal with 3 Wisemen Entertainment here in Atlanta. They have six months to make BELOW THA SURFACE a household name, so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks to all the DJ's across the country who have embraced our song "Southern Belle!" That song has charted in several record pools across the U.S. of A., and was actually #5 on the Indie charts in a Pittsburgh pool. Out in Los Angeles, we were a "Pick Hit" with L.A. Resource Pool. Who woulda thought? If you thought that song was obese, we're currently in the studio with Witchdoctor (from ATL's Dungeon Family) and Fish Scales (Nappy Roots) again with another heater called "Good For Ya." It's not on Push Play, but you might be hearing it soon.

Also, we keep all the people personally affected by Katrina in our thoughts and prayers. Below Tha Surface has donated our time and money to help with the relief efforts. Currently, we are donating 100% of profit from PUSH PLAY sales on CDBaby.com to the American Red Cross.

In the meantime, you can also purchase PUSH PLAY from our site (only $8.99), or you can download us on iTunes, Napster, MSN Music, and some other spots. Sorry for the delay in the updates, we'll try to get 'em up more frequently. Later crackaz.....

06.22.05- So what are the critics saying about Push Play? Read a review on Kaffeinebuzz.com As a result of the review, we've decided to lower the price on our cd for a week for those that have been sleeping on us. Get it from our music page now!! You're still here? Go get the cd!

05.23.05- BELOW THA SURFACE NOW ON iTUNES!! Don't feel like waiting a couple of days to get your cd in the mail? Go to and download it! Of course, if you don't have iTunes software, you can download it for free by clicking:

As for our legal woes...we finished our community service at Oakland Cemetary in downtown Atlanta. They had us cutting grass, raking leaves, and shoveling dirt!!! It's time to get back out on the streets and promote some more! Thanks to all the radio stations and DJs that have been playing BTS, we truly appreciate your help in getting us out there. Buy our cd here.

05.03.05- What’s the biggest thing to hit America’s courtroom since Michael Jackson? That’s right, Below Tha Surface! The sentence handed to us as a result of our arrest the week before was…..16 hours of community service! Yep, we have 30 days to complete it, or we go to the slammer for 30 days. Being that the cd just dropped and all, we can’t afford to take off 30 days wondering if we’re going to be violated by other, more muscular men. So please pick up your trash and don’t litter, that way we won’t have as much to clean up! To think it was all in the name of self-promotion. We still gotta hit the streets to promote, so we may be appearing in a courtroom near YOU! If you haven’t done so already, please show your support and purchase our cd on the Music page. Lastly, please sign our petition to help us get radio play in Atlanta RIGHT HERE! We truly appreciate all that you do for us...keep on keepin' on....chuuuch

04.22.05- Below Tha Surface in Atlanta jail? Not quite, but we did get an Arrest Citation from the City of Atlanta. Note to independent artists in Atlanta: It's against Section 138-60 to put up your posters to promote your album! We're still waiting on our thanks from the Def Jam promoter for bailing him out of his cuffs (he was on his way to jail for doing the same thing as us). If you're feeling up to it, come out to picket at the court house April 29, 2005 @ 2:00pm. The address is 170 Garnett St, S.W. Atlanta, GA. Next time, we'll be more slick about it, they can't stop us from promoting!!!!! This may be the last update for a while, in case they decide to be petty and put us in jail. Just in case, we're collecting bail money in advance from the sales of our cd, so make sure you buy it!

04.15.05- Since the cd is now available, we decided it's time for the official album release party! Make sure you come out this Sunday (4/17/05) at 8pm to Copeland's in Buckhead (across from Tower Records) to join the mayheim. They've run some ads on 97.1 Jamz for it, so we're expecting a lot of folks in the house! Yes we are buying free drinks for all the ladies in the house. Keep telling your friends about Push Play, then tell them to buy it here. We just got back from an incredible promotional tour in Florida and got Push Play in stores all throughout the Orlando area. In Atlanta, you can scoop it from Backstage Records, Tower Records, Criminal Records, and a CD Warehouse here and there. Thanks for all the love and support, and keep us selling out at the stores!!

03.31.05- BELOW THA SURFACE CD NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE!! Have you heard the new Below Tha Surface cd, “Push Play,” booming out the stereo of passing cars? So have we….and I know WE didn’t sell it to them. We knew our product was hot, so we should be flattered by the bootleggers getting it out there. However, we now have to release it a few days early to beat the cd pirates to our little pot of gold. Click here to preview the music before you purchase it. "Push Play" features Scales (from Nappy Roots) , Ryan Cameron (from V-103, Atlanta), and production by Vision (produces for Badboy’s new group B5). Yep, we spent a lot of money getting you the hottest cd of the year, so we hope you’ll love it and embrace it! All transactions are completed securely through PayPal, so you can be confident in your purchase. If you’re in the Atlanta area, you can purchase it at Tower Records, Earwax Records, and Backstage Records. More stores are adding it everyday; you might even see us on the corner somewhere selling them! Say hi to us if you do.

03.08.05 Just figured we'd put some tidbits up here for March. You'll be seeing some updates to the site, the closer we get to the April 5th release date. We'll be adding the track listing and snippets of all the songs on "Push Play," as well as all the lyrics. If you're interested in being a part of Below Tha Surface's street team to promote the cd, email us. We're looking for folks to help get flyers distrubuted anywhere that people might be!!

02.21.05 The contest is over everybody, and thanks for the tremendous response!!! We now know how Usher feels, because our fans LOVE us! Now for the skinny...the name of the new cd is PUSH PLAY!! The winner of the "Name Our CD Contest" is Gene from Oviedo, FL! Rock on dude. Yes, real people really do win. In our eyes though, all of you are winners (except for those of you that lost, of course)! As promised, the following is Gene's acceptance speech: "When Below Tha Surface announced its Album Title Contest I found my niche in life. Some people work, some people inherit, some people hustle. I enter. Encouraged by this success, I shall continue to enter. Even when the sign says “Do Not Enter”, I will enter." Hey, we didn't make that up. Right now the release date for the cd is April 5, but we reserve the right to change it if we feel like it. LATER!

02.08.05 Who's up for a contest? Below Tha Surface presents the "Name Our CD Contest.". This is for the fans, we want you to be a part of this! It's real easy, you send us an email with your idea for the title of our cd, and we pick the one we like best. Please include your first name in the email, we'd kinda like to know who u are. The grand prize, though isn't a new car, it is an autographed copy of our cd when it comes out!! So simple, even your grandmother can enter (ours probably will)! You must enter by 12:00pm EST Friday, February 18th. We'll post the winner's name and acceptance speech right here on Monday, February 21st. It's the least we can do for our fans. The CD is done folks, we've got a few guest producers and big shot guest appearances. Start saving your pennies now, we're still set to release this thing late March/early April.

01.06.05 Happy New Year folks! 2005 is starting out quite nice for Below Tha Surface. Thanks for all the love and support from the thousands of folks that saw us perform at the FedEx Orange Bowl Beach Bash and Miller Lite Tailgate Party in Miami. After sharing the stage with JoJo, Ashlee Simpson, Big Boi from OutKast, and the OU and USC marching bands, what more can two crackas ask for? A multi-million dollar record deal I guess. In the meantime, we're working on the album and looking to put it out sometime in the first quarter of '05. We'll be selling it exclusively through our website, so be looking out!! Also, this weekend check your local listings, our episode of Showtime at the Apollo is airing again. If you missed it the first time, this is your chance to record it and say you saw us perform before we were famous!

12.01.04 Sooner Bounce is back for more downloadable action! We apologize about the problems accessing the site the past several days. The response has been tremendous, thanks for all the love! Just another plot by The Man to hold some crackas down. Did you see the article written about us? You can also click here to download the song from our music page. Keep calling your local radio stations to request our music, we're trying to be REALLY RIDICULOUSLY famous one of these days soon!

11.23.04 Who saw Below Tha Surface on Showtime at the Apollo? We had our 45 second introduction to fame before we got "wop-wopped" by the adoring Apollo audience. It was still awesome to perform there and NYC kicked a$$. If you missed it, no worries. It will be airing again in January, so you know we'll keep you updated.

10.21.04 Sooner Bounce debuted this morning on KJ103 in OKC. Cool, we grew up listening to this station as young pups.

10.20.04 Our episode of Showtime At the Apollo airs on Saturday, Nov 13. Check local listing for time and channel.

08.02.04 Want to help get Below Tha Surface on the radio? Click here to vote for ATL's favorite hip hop group from July. The voting ends on 8/5.

07.23.04 We make our network television debut tonight on the Spike TV reality show called "On the Road with Sugar Ray". The show airs at midnight ET but be sure to check your local listings for time and channel. We haven't seen the episode yet so we have no idea how much air time we get but we heard that one of our songs is used as background music. We also added some MP3 snippets to our Music page so check em out.

07.15.04 Looking for some new heat? Check out our remix of "On Fire" on the music page. Send us an email and let us know what you think.

07.11.04 The first episode of the reality show "On the Road" aired on Friday. The show was pretty cool and lets just hope that we get some good face time. We will probably look like extras and have our voice's dubbed. The dude from OKC, OK got kicked off the show which was bull ony. Why do they have to hate on Oklahoma? At least the OKC dude held on to his laminate.

07.08.04 We performed last night to a packed crowd at Blues in the Alley. The venue holds about 20 people. We will probably be back there at the end of the month.

07.02.04 The first episode of the reality show "On the Road" airs on Friday July 9 at midnight ET on Spike TV. Below Tha Surface will be making an appearance in the 3rd episode which airs July 23.

06.29.04 If you hear rummors about a sour relationship between Below Tha Surface and certain industry professionals, don't believe the hype. BTS is dedicated to preserving all it's relationships, especially those with longtime supporters and friends.