Aspiring rapper Antonio Aguilar, known as
Tone A, is impressive. He successfully raps over beats, other songs and
successfully layers these together to produce cohesive, flowing tracks. This
isn’t another guy rapping about drugs, partying and strippers. Tone A’s music
has substance, which is successfully demonstrated through his lyrics and
beats. Not too shabby for a senior here at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Aguilar’s interest in hip-hop began in fifth grade with the music video for the song “Triumph” by Wu Tang Clan. “I was so
fascinated with this video that I memorized the whole song, it was six minutes
without any choruses…I just memorized the whole thing.”

“That was when I
really got fascinated by it [hip-hop music],” Aguilar said. 

His most recently produced demos, 4ging
4ward and IV don’t sound like amateur attempts at
making music. This guy knows what he is doing.

When asked about writing his music
Eminem-influenced Aguilar said, “I’m really interested in the technical –
how words sound, combinations of words.” He continued, “Half the time I don’t
even know what the song is going to be about because I’m so technical that I’m
kind of random in the lyrics. It’s spontaneous.”

4ging 4ward begins with an introductory track named “Hi,”
which grips listeners instantly with its catchy, upbeat lyrics and mellow beat.
All the beats from 4ging 4ward
come from Pretty Lights, Gramatik and Michal Menert, all of whom are on the Pretty
Lights record label. The track starts with mellow backbeat with the initial
lyric “Do you feel like making dreams come true?” – perfectly fitting for this
album which does allude to Aguilar’s struggle as an aspiring rapper.

Aguilar cited
his music to be “aggressive” and “confrontational.” 

“I
feel like as an undiscovered, underground rapper you should have angst, should
have frustration because you basically don’t feel a part of hip-hop, you aren’t
recognized, you are nobody,” Aguilar said.  

He also said a
lot of his lyrics come from “battle rap.” “I look at it as fighting for the
spotlight, or fighting for attention, it’s competition,” he expanded, “Rap isn’t
like acoustic guitar, it is very competitive.” 

On the other
hand Aguilar explained, “I’m always trying to be funny in my songs, or ironic
at least.” Aguilar also does stand up comedy. 

 “Immersion,” the last track on 4ging
4ward, demonstrates some
hope, with lyrics like “my life’s a story and I’m the author” and a sure-fire
commitment to achieving his goals. This seems to signal that Tone A is ready to
move on from all the strife from the earlier tracks, into what seems like a
bright future.

“I’m frustrated
that I’m not where I want to be. [“Immersion”] is about being angry with
yourself, but just jumping in the pool, just doing it, immerse yourself in it.,”
Aguilar said.

On a personal
note, Aguilar explained, “That’s why I’m moving to LA, I’m just going to go to
100%. I’ll either fail miserably or make it. I’d rather fail miserably than never
have tried.”

For IV Aguilar made all the beats himself. first
track “IV” and “The Zenith” seem to be warning no one to try him with intense
lyrics like “those who try me end up with an IV. Tone A manages to make even
threatening lyrics like this appealing with another extremely catchy beat.

Aguilar
explained that Zenith is about being an underground rapper, being in hell, you
want what the rappers have and feeling disconnected from other rappers and the
rap world. “It’s kind of a joke too because I’m not in hell obviously, it’s not
that bad.”

The rest of the tracks are purely
instrumental. Aguilar says that he is still working on the songs for these
tracks. “They will probably be part of an album, I’m not sure where I’m going
with them yet,” he said.

With electronic beats, and almost a
futuristic sound in “Corpse” and “Magneto” these sounds like songs you would expect
to hear at a rave, or house party.

In the future, Aguilar hopes to put on
shows. He cites the biggest difficultly with this being memorizing his lyrics. Aguilar
said, “I wrote all these songs within a month and it is hard for me memorize all
the lyrics, to get them down without messing up at all.”

Although his
songs could use some development, which surely will happen in time, Tone A is
worth listening too. Listen to Aguilar’s music, and get to know him as well.
His music serves as a valuable life lesson for us all: just go for it.