U-Warrior Brings Berlin and American Hip-Hop Together with ALWAYS BELIEVE

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For more than a decade, U-Warrior has traveled throughout the United States with a simple goal: to experience the hip-hop culture that has influenced the group since childhood. Those years of exploration eventually became part of the foundation for ALWAYS BELIEVE, an album that connects three Berlin producers with artists from across the American hip-hop landscape.

The project began taking shape long before its release. When U-Warrior traveled through the United States in 2021, roughly half of the album was already completed. Traveling provided an opportunity to meet artists, shoot visual material, and gather new experiences that would ultimately influence the finished record.

A Road Trip That Influenced the Album

The trip itself was anything but predictable. At one point, U-Warrior planned its route around the belief that Slatt Zy was based in Tallahassee. While in Los Angeles filming a video for August and Maxo Kream, the group realized the mistake. Slatt was actually from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Nevertheless, rather than canceling their plan, the members of the group adjusted to it. The producers traveled from New Orleans to Detroit, passing through Chattanooga along the way. Thanks to this change of itinerary, the members were able to execute their initial plan and record with Juvenile in New Orleans and Obie Trice in Detroit, with an addition of one more stop in between. This change of plans turned out to be characteristic of how U-Warrior approached the album creation. The road trip did not involve simply traveling to the studio, recording a feature, and moving on.

From Collaborations to True Connections

The process used by U-Warrior also influenced how the team related to the artists they met along the way. They visited Obie Trice at his residence and got to know his father during an encounter that made the Detroit shoot possible. In Chicago, they dedicated an entire day to Chris Crack, and the relationship turned into true friendship. The relationship they formed with DaWeirdo and his people also did not end there.

What is important about ALWAYS BELIEVE is that it is different from just an album of songs with collaboration from U-Warrior. The collaborations were formed out of real love for the artists and their culture.

Connecting East Coast, West Coast, and Southern Hip-Hop

The album reflects the same open-mindedness towards other cultures. The song “Warrior,” featuring Obie Trice, RMR, and Kelvyn Colt, comes together as a motivating track that brings together three unique vocalists. Kelvyn Colt is the one and only artist on the album who was born in a country other than the United States.

“2 Sides” presents another idea in collaboration, when producers decided to pair Los Angeles-based G Perico and Sham1016 with a legendary New Yorker, Masta Ace. According to U-Warrior, the goal of this song was not only to connect the East and West coasts, but also two generations of MCs. Sham1016 became the link between them, resulting in a collaboration that producers believed sounded quite natural. This idea is also presented on “Last Porn,” when U-Warrior paired a Cash Money veteran, Juvenile, with an underground artist, The Musalini, giving the producers the chance to work with two generations of artists over a production that pushed them out of their comfort zone.

The producers’ knowledge about the music in question is based on long years of listening to it, studying it, traveling through America, and being a part of its culture. It is their opinion that all this allowed them to create something special that sounds like they are respectful of what they heard, but still stay true to themselves as Berlin-based producers.

Ultimately, ALWAYS BELIEVE documents more than U-Warrior’s musical influences. It captures the relationships, unexpected moments, and creative connections that developed along the way, turning years of engagement with American hip-hop into a project distinctly shaped by the group’s own perspective.

Listen to ALWAYS BELIEVE out now: