The first album cover that I co-produced with Brian for the Moore Foundation featured a blazing phoenix on the front - a symbolic rebirth of many things. It represented a fresh new breeze in the local music scene at a time where "everybody is starting to sound like everybody else." It also represented a new direction for a family full of local talent. Rather than just being the hometown favorites, Brian felt that it was time to re-organize all of the creative talents and energies within his brothers and sisters into an empire, a force that even the music industry could not ignore. It sounded a bit dramatic at the time, but it seemed like only Brian could envision the success and achievements the group now enjoys. Even now, rather than resting on the surprising success of the MOEOLOGY album, the family has enthusiastically pursuing higher ambitions, which leads us to the forthcoming LifeStyle CD. I am fortunate to have been along for the ride so far, again designing the album and promotional artwork. When most people think The Moore Foundation, MOEOLOGY immediately comes to mind. The CD. The music. "Hustle Hard" and "Got To Be MOE". What most people don't realize is that there's much, much more to the story. TMF is an organization dedicated to breaking the mold and ignoring the status quo. They are trailblazers of philosophies and technologies. During the millenium change-over, when everyone else was happy their computers and microwave ovens were Y2K-compliant, the Moore Foundation began dominating the few online music charts available at the time. In a very few cases, we had to contact the site developers to insist that an urban/hip-hop category be added. On the independent music scene, most of the "music" were uploaded by computer-savvy garage-band musicians, with little regard to overal quality. It didn't take long for the Edible Sounds polish to shine like a floodlight through the scattered mess and monopolize listener requests and hit counts. We had learned to adopt Quicktime and MP3 standards when everyone else felt they had no choice but to use WIndowsMedia files. Listeners appreciated quick downloads and high-fidelity sounds on their little computer speakers because we learned about bit-rates, compression methods, joint-stereo mixing, and other concepts not covered by the "default" save button. By the time MOEOLOGY was released, fans the world over was listening to "Hustle Hard" on their portable music players long before iPods were the fashion, and long before the iTunes Music Store saw daylight. I myself had to attend the very first PayPal Developers Conference to ask the software engineers about accepting payment in different denominations as our international fanbase spread. A big thanks to Patrick and Alan for their patience and enthusiastic assistance that lasted long after the conference. In the tradition of innovation that we keep establishing, we proudly present to you another cutting-edge piece of the 21st Century - this website. Instead of stopping by once a year to check out old announcements and poor-quality audio samples, you will be exposed to the ultimate fan experience. We're updating the music catalog to let you enjoy the evolution of that Moore Foundation sound. Soon, that will expand to ring-tones that you can actually recognize the song, videos made exclusively for online browsing, dynamic eCards that go beyond a template photo and plain text, and much much more. In the meantime, check out our message boards and share your opinions about hip-hop culture, the latest CD, or anything you'd like to see on this site. Check out the bio pages, as the artists themselves will regularly update them with the latest developments in their personal and professional lives. Until we introduce photoblogs - not just for us, but for you as well. In order to accomodate such a broad range of technologies and to deliver them to you in an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand way without waiting forever, we're using a ground-breaking piece of software, SoopPortal, that was developed by a community of developers and programers, who, like Brian & myself, got tired of the status quo and started from scratch. I'm proud to say that this website will be one of the first commercial runs of Soop, and everybody's watching, again. Big thanks to monloup, MaddKat, OT, fireau, Dr Rasc, and all of the developers at SoopPortal, ScriptGecko,SkinGecko, and SoopNation for taking time out of their busy schedules to help us achieve what many thought would be impossible. Just wait til we launch the new audio player. Or the photoblog. Or the eCard. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't let all the secrets out of the bag, just yet. Yep, there's more, plenty more. It was amusing four years ago when other independent artists and labels spent thousands of dollars in a hurried attempt to "match" the newly-launched TMF site. Rather than feeling ripped-off, we feel very proud to help raise the bar of a culture we have much love for. And I'm heartfelt that Brian, Junior & the gang are allowing me to take great risks to keep this organization ahead of the curve, again. Guys, if you thought the album cover is tite, just wait til we break the website in! Much love to all y'all.