Straight From The Gray Matter

Quick Hits Of Knowledge

2010-01-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

1. Fuck John McCain. It's funny how one side gets pissed when the other does the same shit they been doing. Politicians, as a rule, can go fuck themselves. They all suck, and to varying degrees, they're all disgusting human beings who lie for a living.

In case you're too lazy to click the link, Harry Reid (a Dem), back in 2008, said that Obama could win because he's light-skinned and doesn't speak with "Negro dialect." Use of the word Negro aside (seriously who the fuck still says Negro), Reid didn't say anything that isn't true. If Chris Rock had said it nobody would give a fuck. Cuz we all know that a light-skinned (half-Black even) bruh who "speaks so well" is the best chance Black people could have to get in the White House.

So anyway Republicans are pissed cuz Obama pretty much doesn't seem to care that Reid said that, and it seems that Reid will keep his job and position as Senate Majority leader. Really I could care less. Obama knows that cats see him as Black before anything else, so this revelation really didn't open his eyes to anything. I'm sure Reid will be punished in some other, stealthier way. Issue deaded as far as everyone but Republicans and other stick-uptight-in-their-ass people are concerned

2. Black Rob needs to get outta jail and stay outta jail. Today I rediscovered his two albums, and my feeling is hip-hop needs Black Rob. Real good story, realistic thug-rap.

3. Fuck my job. That shit has ruined my creative mood since TPRH was finished. Gotta find something new, VERY fast. For various reasons my writer's block is crazy, and I'm sure the job is a part of that. Fuck real life in general, in college it was much easier to get inspired.

4. Go download Da Vinci's mixtape!! Don't just listen to it, download it. Post comments with your thoughts on it

New Mic=New Songs??

2009-12-10T22:35:00.001-05:00

Not yet, but we're working on it. Me and Da Vinci are still working on Kick In Ya Speakers, and we got a bunch more coming. He's got a mixtape aaaaaand ...an EP and a ...book coming soon? Whatever I get confused trynna explain his plans, he's got way too much going on. Anyway there's new music from him, coming like next week. And there's our mixtape. And I got a couple songs I'm working on. No idea how I'll release em, but they're coming in some sort of way. And of course we're still working on setting up performances. This shit is not nearly as easy as it looks.

But back to recording, I had a terrible time trying to record earlier this week. See back in September I moved to a new spot. I had been done with TPRH, and was taking a break from recording for a while. So even thought I set up my studio during the move-in, I didn't test everything for a while. By the time I came back to it, I forgot what settings were best for my audio interface (presonus firebox). Long story short, this week my recordings were either too loud(static was doing my overdubs and ad-libs), or too damn quiet(damn firebox doesn't route its preamp for it's stereo inputs). So I'm trying to get a new mic sometime in the next week or two. I'll finally get a compressor mic and use the full power of this firebox. In the meantime everything I record is just for me to reference and practice, you guys will hear none of it. The new mic should sound so much better than what I got now, it doesn't even make sense to take my current recordings serious.

Until then, keep listening to our old shit(to the right), keep giving our music away, and keep supporting other good artists. Snoop has a song with Brandy on his new album that sounds so good I'ma have to download the album despite the trash that is I Wanna Rock. Also, the four songs I've heard off the Clipse' album were nice as hell, minus one that features Keri Hilson (further fueling my ire for her.) And go download Freeweezy's The Beat Made Me Do It, this joint knocks!

~Knowledge

2009-11-25T08:42:00.002-05:00

Last week I reviewed Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx 2, this week is Ghostface's Ghostdini the Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City

Ghost's fans know that dude is one of theee greatest rappers of our times. He's the dinosaur from yesterday who still stomps today. He's this age's Kool G Rap, the emcee from the past era, who nobody today still can't touch (funnily enough, Kool G Rap is still that guy, now 2 or 3 ages displaced.) Soit's a given that everything Ghost does is at least a 7/10. It's also a given that he's a true artist who can change his style to always stay fresh. Case in point: this album.

Son has been doing relationship-songs for his whole career. Since Camay, Ghost has always made songs about the opposite sex that were never sappy and always real. This album took that talent and put it on blast, 12 tracks and 2 bonuses, all about relationships. Now if you're like me, you hear that and get worried that Ghost will run out of things to talk about by limiting himself so much. Or that the album will reek of saccharine because it's all about women. And surely, some people are gonna hate the album for these exact reasons. The same people who skip Camay, Killa Lipstick, and ¼ of The Pretty Toney Album are gonna hate this album. For better or for close-minded worse, the album is truly limited to relationship. This isn't a half-ass theme/concept album where half the songs don't fit the theme. No, no, not Ghostface. Every song about relationship, most featuring soul samples and today's hot R&B singers.

Exposition completed, let's get to the album. It's opens semi-weak IMO with a track ft Shareefa. I didn't know who this broad was, but my girl explained she's that “I-I-I-I-I-I” singer(apparently the song is named Need A Boss.) Anyway the song is about how ill Ghost's girl is. Decent-enough song, but the opening coulda been stronger. The next two joints feature Raheem Devaughn, who in cornball-fashion is calling himself “Radio” nowadays. Decades-late-nicknames aside, the two songs are ill. Do Over pleads for a second chance after effing the relationship up, and you guys already know my love of Baby(couple posts ago). Raheem does his thing on these songs.

Stapleton Sex is a disgusting-in-a-good-way song about...you guessed it...sex! If you liked Wildflower(“yo bitch I fucked ya friend, yeah you stank hoe”) from Ironman, then this might be right up your alley. We're 5 tracks in(I skipped talking about one), and about here is when I realized that there's a lot of different ways to attack the relationship angle. Humans are social beings, therefore it's only right that there'd be many aspects of our relationships to discuss. Luckily Ghost is smart enough to hit a lot of these different topics.

Paragraphs of Love features Estelle, and despite her ugly accent, dvd-sized teeth, and weak voice's combined attempt to ruin the song, it ends up being one of the best on the album. Ghost is a guy at a party who sees a pregnant chick, on some love at first sight shit. So he has to approach her. Sound retarded? It is. Irregardless, it's dope as hell, from the beat to Ghost describing why she's beautiful, right past Estelle's rap/talk verse, and onto Estelle singing with the help of some guy named Vaughn Anthony.

Other highlights are Guest House with Ghost finding out that his girl Shareefa boning Fabolous, and Ghost and Lloyd pledging to do whatever's necessary, including blasting cats, for their girl on Goner. The whole is at least decent, most of it is great. The wackest songs are Let's Stop Playin with John Legend, and I'll Be That, ft Adrienne Bailon (who???). Both songs sound weak as a chemo-patient. But they're still not terrible, just skippable.

Overall, this album is like a 9/10 or something, just a fucking awesome display of lyrical dexterity. A whole album relationships that rarely disappoints. Ghost takes the rapper-with-a-R&B-hook-and-bridge formula that's so commonplace today, and does it better than EVERYONE. The album isn't selling very well for some reason, I blame the choice of singles. Baby is the only choice I agree with. So go buy it, like me:

(notice the much calmer face lol)

PS. Back Like That Remix ft Neyo and Kanye is one of the bonus tracks. The song is like 3 years old, Ghost gets the gas face for including it. Thank God for the next track button!

~Knowledge the Ghost-Junky

Wu-Tang Is Back!

2009-11-16T23:13:00.001-05:00

Years ago Me and Da Vinci had a conversation with a Baltimore emcee named Dre The Beloved (hey Dre sorry if I spelled that wrong) about music. It was after an open mic show called Season The Microphone Mondays, hosted by one of my favorite Baltimore emcees, Tislam The Great. According to Dre, the Wu-Tang sound was over, and he couldn't even listen to Enter The 36 Chambers anymore. Blaspheme!

As a Wu-head from birth, it brings me much joy to say that Wu-Tang has come back with a vengeance. Of course they never really left. But you can't deny that they fell back for a while. The only members still consistently putting out albums were Ghostface and Gza, and I've neverz been huge on Gza. He got too cerebral for my tastes after Liquid Swords (Killa Hills and Cold World are still my shits tho). But I've liked every Ghost album ever made. Now in the span of like a month, both Ghost and Raekwon drop two very different albums that show that the W is definitely not dead.

Raekwon's new joint brings him back to square one, in the best way possible. Only Built For Cuban Linx 2 just may be the only rap sequel to stand up to it's predecessor. I won't waste time going track for track, but I will say that there's only 3 joints on it that I skip sometimes. If you know my pickiness, you know that that's a great accomplishment for a 22-track album.

So I'll start with the bad: Some tracks have annoying singers. Meh, it's the classic Wu sound, you gotta take the bad with the good. Sometimes the untrained voices work, sometimes they don't. So I liked Blue Raspberry on Have Mercy, didn't like (uncredited) singer on Mean Streets. And I can't stand Busta Rhymes on About Me. His new not-so-hype-at-all gravely voice and lazy flow annoy the fuck outta me. Why do good still-new-ish rappers retire (Lupe!) yet his ass continues to poison my ears?

Now the good. Raekwon has paradoxically and inexplicably succeeded in channeling the old content and sound without sounding old. He's completely on the drug rap tip, and he does it this go-round better than the last time in my humble opinion. I'll admit that I didn't listen deeply to the original Cuban Linx when I first got it, as Raekwon's style was hard for me to get into. He doesn't really rap per se, at least not like most rappers. He always tells stories. Even on a song about bragging, the way he brags is just, well, different, like he's telling a bunch of micro-stories about how live he is. I've since absorbed Cuban Linx, and I still gotta say I like this one better. The content is much more cohesive this time around. I feel like his songwriting skill has grown like crazy. And the beats are better because they vary more. Raekwon used a lot of guest producers, but he purposefully chose beats to fit the mood of this album. The Dilla and Scram Jones beats steal the show, but all are good.

The whole thing plays out like the drug movie Hype Williams wishes Belly was. Not with any real narrative that I can perceive, but more so that each song is a scene from the hypothetical drug/hood movie that Raekwon made the soundtrack to.

I'll end my ramblings here, and talk about Ghost's album in my next post. If you haven't already, go buy Raekwon's album! He sold around 150k so far, and the album is independent (up until distribution and some radio promotion, which is handled by EMI). So you can rest assured that more of your money will go into his pockets.

~Knowledge the Wu-Fanboy

Ghostface ft Raheem Devaughn - Baby

2009-11-05T20:43:00.002-05:00

At the risk of sounding gay, I'm in love with this song:

Ghost's new joint is the first cd I copped in ages (gotta get outta the downloading habit now that I make real money). He decided to make this jawn all about romance, from heartbreak to sex to love songs like this one. This experiment is exactly why I fux wit Ghost. Son understand that creativity has to be fostered, damn the formulas and "sticking to the script." Even if I don't like this album, I'm happy to have bought it just to support a real artist. Expect a review soon after I get it (bought from amazon, a place that sells Thru Playin Round Here)

Absenteeism

2009-10-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

Lately I havent felt that I've had any words worth putting online. Well that's not entirely true, I've had a few thoughts but mostly while I'm at work. Life is cool, working my album still. Trynna get a show lined up. Trynna get some blog love for TPRH(review my album you bastards). All the normal music work.

...Really not interested in blogging right now. But I will say this:

Get OFF Obama's Dick! Let son live! As was said on this jawn I was reading earlier today, nobody gave a shit about the Nobel Peace Prize selection process until my nig Obama got one. You weren't bitching about last year's winner, you can't even name last year's winner!

People compare him to MLK and Mother Theresa and say he doesn't compare to them. NO ONE FUCKING DOES YOU DIPSHIT! Therefore your argument is asinine.

This irrational hating on Barack is clearly prejudice/racism in sheep's clothing. And it's disgusting. Colorless society? Colorless nuts in ya mouth!

Next week somebody is gonna slip up and instead of socialist they're gonna say nigger. Granted Obama is far from perfect, in fact he pisses me off pretty often. But at least he pisses me off for real reasons, like his refusal to focus on a few things instead of trying to change the entire world everyday.

So much for not having any thoughts to blog about. Peace

~Knowledge aka Big-Head Rico

Thru Playin Round Here at DatsDope.com

2009-08-18T07:29:00.000-04:00

Got a write-up in my boy's blog. Check it out and see what someone else has to say about my EP. And support his blog. Maybe write a comment?

Best line from the write-up:
My boy Knowledge keeps the classic Hip-Hop feel the whole way thru.

Do You Remember Sarah(Making Da Band) Being This Sexy?

2009-08-11T11:35:00.000-04:00

Original article

Apparently she stabbed her man. The lawyer's explanation of this ish is insane! But at least this stabbing resulted in me finding this:

Where those always there? (not the bruises you idiots)

~Knowledge Le Back-Breaker

Malice Of The Clipse Admits To Lying?

2009-08-07T09:58:00.000-04:00

The Clipse have always been one of my favorite newer hip-hop artists, new as in they came towards the tail-end of the 90s golden age. Their east-coast flow, true lyricism, and great beat choices all sucked me in, since The Funeral (how many of you new jacks remember that song?) If I had decided to be a cocaine-rapper instead of the semi-conscious lyricist that I am now, I'd probably sound exactly like them.

I'm sure it surprises a few people that I fuck with The Clipse so much, but don't let the music I make typecast my tastes. Just like back in the 90s when I remember gangsta rappers saying how much they liked Soundbombing 2, and just like Talib Kweli signing Jean Grae and Strong Arm Steady to his label, don't be surprised that I fuck with some drug/gangsta ish. Good music is good music, period, to be enjoyed by all who can appreciate it. Gangsta music is like watching a mob movie or Paid in Full, so I drive home from work looking business casual as shit with a button-up and dockers on, playing Fabolous' There Is No Competition mixtape.

Anyway, we all realize that there's a difference between reality and music. I write some songs about how ill I am, acting like I battle, all kinds of bragging and shit-poppin'. Then I sit in my living room and play Guitar Hero. Point is we know it can't all be true, especially not all the time. Music inherently presents a skewed view of a person and their life. Sometimes it's not about their lives at all.

On a dvd called The MC: Why We Do It, The Clipse claimed that everything they write is real. Not some things, not "this was inspired by a story I heard around the way", but EVERYTHING. That's a tall order! One that I'm skeptical about anyone fulfilling, let alone two rappers who only talk about selling drugs, money, and girls. But hey, they wouldn't be the first rappers to be liars. *shrug* Who cares? Rappers been lying for eons. Onyx, Mobb Deep, and Wu-Tang apparently are/were fake. I could give a shit less as long as the music is hot.

So I'm Malice's website today, and I see this. Is he admitting that his music is inspired by the streets but that he didn't do everything he says he did, and that his life isn't like that anymore? Seems so:

Malice Video Blog 1 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Right Now, This Is My Favorite Song

2009-08-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

I miss good posse cuts:

www.unionomics.net

2009-08-02T22:43:00.000-04:00

Cam'ron on Get 'Em Daddy(circa 2006):

Ain't no "a b, I see you"
why b? that'll get em up in ICU

Do you know what he's talking about? I don't know either. But I miss this Cam'ron. Th'fuck happened to him?

Best Sprite Ad Ever!

2009-07-20T20:58:00.004-04:00

If you're on knowledgethinks.blogspot.com, you really oughta be on the new website

EDIT: I refound the ad

A Very Interesting Article About Mike J

2009-07-14T09:39:00.000-04:00

The article, c/o hiphopdx

I can't this say this is as well-written as it could be, but it seems to make two points. Michael Jaskson never spoke about/for Black people, which was a wasted opportunity. And his career paralleled early hip-hop. I'm not sure that I care about the hip-hop parallels. And I don't know enough about the man to give him a position on the spectrum whose poles are Bill Cosby and Malcolm X. But it's an interesting read nonetheless.

A short update:

Thru Playin' Round Here is dangerously close to done. I know I keep saying that, but it really is. I've tweaked the master a few times (breaking the once-over rules of mastering, but hey I'm a perfectionist), and I'm happy with this latest version one but it's too quiet again. Didn't have time to fix that yesterday cuz of a Groove-Swing meeting. So tonight that'll be fixed, then I'm done!
The Union will hence forth and forever more be known as UnioNoMics for now on. We changed the name to avoid conflicts with other people, groups, and companies. And to always be at the top of the google search results.
Bookmark UnioNoMics.net. Right now there's nothing there, but I promise you a preliminary website will be there very soon, and our full site coming a little while after
Ron has a beat tape uploaded at theunion.bandcamp.com. It's called Gimme Da Base, check it out.

Drop It Like It's Hot Country Remix

2009-07-09T15:38:00.000-04:00

Trolling the internet today, I found this. I never would've guess in a million years that somebody would do country remixes of gangsta-ish hip-hop, and humorously enough it apparently took a German country cover band to take the plunge. Normally I'm not one to make "looka this dumb-but-kind-of-funny youtube clip" posts, but I actually found this to be funny (for the whole first minute that I could stand to listen to):

more info

Wale's New Single? Trid-ash!

2009-07-08T13:18:00.000-04:00

So, trolling the internets today I see that formerly-local DC rapper Wale has an album release date(finally), and a new single. The video for the single:

I gotta say I'm not feeling it at all. Wale has never been the most conscious cat on the block, but this song doesn't even try to be about anything. First off the hook is stupid and jacks that "nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye" melody (same as Jay-Z's Death of Autotune, I'll take horrible timing for $2000 Alex). Lady Gaga, who my head-in-the-sand fuck-the-radio ass is hearing for the first time via this song, sucks hairy donkey nuts. Add to that a boring beat and Wale talking about nothing in a completely UNspecial(boring) way.

I'm all for rappers having fun sometimes, but everything you do has to be ill in some kinda way. Either in sound or content. These lyrics don't even try. To be fair, I'm sure son is being pressured to sell x amount of records. Hopefully the rest of the album is better, in the meantime I'll be looking for more of his mixtapes.

I Used To Love This Song

2009-06-27T16:40:00.000-04:00

Back when rapcity was worth watching they played shit like this:

As We Enter The Mastering Phase

2009-06-23T23:54:00.000-04:00

Thru Playin' Round Here is really, honest-to-God, almost done!! I put the last song in the cd-project today. So far only Bobbi D has heard this incarnation of the cd, but pretty soon I'll put it online for everyone to hear. Now the only thing I have left to do is master the cd and finalize the artwork, which is damn near done anyway. Then I can send the thing off for manufacturing.

It's been a very arduous process getting to this point. The damn thing has taken forever in every phase, and I've learned sooooo much about the process of putting together a cd and what methods work best for me. For instance each song needs to be worked on until it's finished, as opposed to a conveyor belt process where I write everything then record everything then mix everything etc. Waiting so long to hear the finished product opens me up to losing steam.

TPRH has drained my energy, hopefully once it's completely done my creative juices can flow again. Right now I got about 5 songs that I need to write to, but I rarely get the urge to write anymore. I know part of that is the sad state that music is in lately. There hasn't been much to inspire me. Hard workdays don't help either. Neither does the fact that my most creative time of day occurs during my workday. Good times.

Anyways enough complaining. TPRH is almost done! Check our music page, download something, join the mailing list. Ron has a new cd up there that he completed in a week! Normally I'm very skeptical about the quality of music made in such a short timetable, but Ron did a commendable job. My main complaint is I wish the songs were longer. Check out Nefarious Snapshots Of An Arteest's Perspective

Music News

2009-06-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

Here's the rundown of the past few weeks:

3 weekends ago Ron came down. We went to a pretty good local show that Friday put on by Beatgarden Entertainment. Afterwards we had a real good conversation wit one Nico the Beast of Beatgarden. Overall a very good night, although some of the acts were wack as shit. But hey, nothing's ever perfect
The next day we went to a studio in the Far Northeast(of Philly) and met up with a talented group of emcees, a producer, and a manager/promoter. Shouts out to all of PaintBooth Productions, Kane, and HMD. We wrote and recorded a song with Untytled for a mixtape project that HMD was working on that day. So much props go to HMD for the look, and also to Sick Six for letting everyone use his studio. It was a real ill experience to write and record all in the same day. I usually take my time writing, then memorize the verse before I lay the vocals. But it was fun to challenge myself to try something different. I still strongly prefer my creative process though. I'm sure my verse coule've been better written and delivered if I got more time.

Regardless of time contstraints, the song is ill, as is my verse. Peep my last entry if you don't believe me.
The next weekend I went to an ok show. It was real underwhelming to me, only a few of the acts caught my ear. The highlight of the night was finding out that the host is a teacher. It's cool to see other underground heads talk about their dayjobs. It's encouraging, since I'm holding down my "real jizzob" too.
Thru Playin Round Here is damn near done! I just got one song to mix, then gotta master the whole thing. My art man is MIA but my boy Joe is gonna handle the remaining artwork needs.
This past weekend I hit up Big O about getting on some show bills. And it looks like we'll be performing at the end of August. Can't wait!!
Me and Ron recorded 2 songs this past Saturday. Both are for our upcoming mixtape, Kick In Ya Speakers. I'll post one soon

The Union is making serious moves. Peace people

All I Know

2009-06-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was one of the best I've had in a very long time. The highlight was me and Ron getting together with some Philly cats and wrote and recorded a new song, all in one day. The song is called All I Know, it's loosely about our love of hip-hop. I'll recap the whole weekend soon, but for now here's my verse:

and so we grind, destined to shine, in due time we'll find/
another rhyme to kick, but for now it's come-up shit/
never settling for second on the runner-up tip/
I'll command a kingdom, call me chief with the spit/
we been through struggles,but never no time for the humble/
call Satan a hater, we strike back like Vader/
get me down for a sec', I'm gunning for that ass later/
and I'll traverse the sky, droppin' rhymes on high/
mount up a sermon, spit with no reverance for ya preference/
now a PA resident, settin' it off, I'm hell-bent/
Knowledge of The Union got you open and fluid/
you niggas beat around the bush, I get checks and just do it/
audibly ill, fuck ya beef, pardon my grill/
enemies stagger away, flame-broiled for real/
and I'm the king, with the tempered-steel flow I show/
everyday this hip-hop shit is All I Know/

James Brown Need Not Talk

2009-05-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

Step Into My World For A Second...

2009-05-23T22:44:00.001-04:00

So nature calls, and you head to the bathroom.

There's 3 stalls, you pick the one closest to the door, as someone is in the farthest one and you wanna keep your distance. Cats be stinking like, well, shit, at ya job.

There's no one else in the bathroom 'sides y'all two, so you hear everything.

The other guy finishes, and you hear him walk by your stall towards the sinks. A faucet turns on, so far so good...

5, count 'em, 5, seconds later, the faucet turns off.

Ain't no way he coulda lathered, washed, and rinsed his shitty hands that quick. I know damned well this mufucka don't think he done!!

Sure enough, the sound of muthafuckin footsteps reaches your ear. Then the door opens, more footsteps, and the door closes.

...All's quiet on the western front. And you're left to deal with that (now) shitty door handle.

Fuck my life with a raging stone cock! I HATE this office!!

Sex Education Pts 2 and 3

2009-05-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Black Thoughts Music Video

2009-05-12T07:07:00.000-04:00

This is our first video:

I Love This Song

2009-05-08T12:18:00.002-04:00

Might the East Coast finally be creeping on a come-up? Peep this evidence:

A-YO REDMAN METHOD MAN

Vlog: Future The Union Releases

2009-05-06T22:52:00.000-04:00

Sex Education Pt 1

2009-04-29T08:52:00.002-04:00

Stay tuned for Part 2

Busta Rhymes Said I'm Bout To Cross The Finish Line

2009-04-29T00:49:00.000-04:00

The EP is almost done! Check the music player, it has 4, count 'em!, 4 new songs. Listen now! Go to the soundclick page to download the songs

This isn't what the title references, but I like this song better:

Everything Remains Raw (Explicit Version) - Busta Rhymes

Cheaters Pimp Edition

2009-04-23T17:54:00.001-04:00

I'm sorry this is the only post y'all have gotten from me in forever, I still don't really feel like blogging. But I have been reading other blogs, and found this one here. Which had posted this a while ago:

You Didn't Even Smash Wit' Yo Wack Ass

2009-04-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

An IM conversation with a friend today:

msumusiq86 (7:42:17 PM): and *bleep*'s gay

msumusiq86 (7:42:35 PM): and i know because he cheats just enough to lose his gf

msumusiq86 (7:42:39 PM): vut didnt get no ass

msumusiq86 (7:42:41 PM): lol

msumusiq86 (7:42:46 PM): but*

In case you couldn't figure this out, one of my friend's kinda cheated on his girl. All he did was hang out wit some broad from his job, and this chick cooked him dinner a few times. But that's still cheating in my book, mental cheating. Now onto the joke, how the hell you in trouble for cheating, when you didn't even smash. I'm talking serious trouble, like I might not have a girlfriend no more trouble! Sorry but that's funny to me, on some two-time loser shit! Yeah I'm an asshole, and what?!

The rest of the story...

So his girl reads his text messages and finds everything out. She proceeds to leave him, and seems to have moved out. I can't help but find some humor in this. First of all, I can't stand people who snoop. Just cuz you're insecure you gotta go FBI on my belongings? You can't talk to me about whatever you're worried about? Women can miss me with that privacy-challenged behavior, I can't deal with it.

But suffer me to play the devil's advocate (ie show how wrong/dumb he is, which isn't really devil's advocate cuz he is wrong). You been with this girl for like 1.5 years, y'all live together now. You shouldn't have "secret friends", EVER. It's just a bad fuckin idea. But if you insist, be smart about it: change her name in your phone, delete her texts and calls, KEEP YOUR PHONE AWAY FROM YOUR GIRL. Point is if you're gonna do illicit shit, try to be smart about it. OR JUST DON'T DO IT.

JUST DON'T FUCKIN DO IT! DON'T DAMNIT!!!

The Day I Fell In Love With Chrisette Michelle

2009-04-02T09:10:00.000-04:00

An Entry That Started Out About Nothing...

2009-03-24T21:08:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't done a real post in forever. I've been living real life for a minute. between work-travel, working on my EP, and a few dates(!), I've been busy. Not so busy that I haven't had free time, but busy enough that my mind isn't clear enough to blog. And that when I have time to blog, I don't feel like spending the time to make a real entry.

I did get a speeding ticket today. My first one ever. 5 years driving waaaaayyy over the speed limit, and now I finally get caught. These cops was just out chillin, 6pm on Tuesday the 24th. I know there's still a week left in the month, but I'm convinced that they were out there filling their quotas.

There was like 7 different cops out chilling at a stop sign where a small street meets a bigger street. All the squad cars and most of the cops were chillin like 40 ft down the side street, obviously to hide themselves from the main street. Meanwhile one guy is out on the main street flagging lawbreakers into the side streets to get their tickets. Now that I think about it, it was like a fucking ticket-factory. One dude flags speeders and non-stoppers in, where 6 cops take turns handing out tickets.

I rolled up thinking they were shutting the street down and I gotta take this other street as a detour, and then another 5 walks up and tells me I went 45 in a 25, wanting my license. My dumbass still doesn't realize I been trapped: now I gotta find my way thru this detour AND I got a ticket? This blows! I won't begin to describe how long it took me to realize me that there was no roadblock and that (pause) I'd just got fucked by the long dick of the law.

Today was soooo good before the bacon brigade ruined it. But I'm bout to record one of the 2 last songs for Thru Playing Round Here! After these there's a little more mixing, then I gotta put the Boondocks skits in and I'll be done! Almost there! I'll put the latest songs on here soon. Will alert y'all when I do. Peace

Ebony Experiment aka FUBU

2009-03-20T14:42:00.002-04:00

Interesting Opinion Piece About Dick Cheney

2009-03-17T12:22:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/16/cheney.government/index.html

Yeah there's bias here, but a lot of truth as well

H-A-T-E-R (that's me)

2009-03-13T17:52:00.000-04:00

sucks but I have to stifle my thoughts so that I'm not so negative all the time. But there's so much to dislike in this world!

This was part of a twitter convo from earlier today. Shorty asked me about public access tv in Philly, and I had to admit that I had no clue about it because I barely even watch tv, cuz I hate most tv shows. Then she asked if my crew The Union, was the same as DJ Self's dj crew(same name), which only served to make me pissed at the world. So I'm like nah we're not the same, I never heard of this DJ Self cat. She says he's really popular in NYC, he's on 105.1 and does net radio too. So here we go again: I don't fuck with the radio pretty much at all. lol @ you making me see how disagreeable I am.

Except, I wasn't laughing at all. No one wants to be the "negative person," the one no one wants to talk to cuz they always got something unpleasant to say. But every once I get caught in a convo/situation where everything that happens or is said is something that I disagree with. It only happens when I meet new people, after this meeting I know to avoid this person and their apparent utter lack of good taste.

New Person: Did you see Ray J's show last night?
Me: Are you fucking kidding me, who gave that c-list dickhead a tv show?!!!
New Person: VH1. It's like Flava Of Love! It's stupid but so entertaining!
Me: My God it never stops does it? **begins to cry inside**
New Person: Huh? I can't hear you over this Beyonce that I'm blasting!
Me: **dies**

I really do try hard not to be so negative but it's hard sometimes. I don't walk around looking for shit to hate, but there's just so much of it. American society is so anti-intellectual, that thinkers get exhausted because there's so much stupid shit to notice and dislike. It probably doesn't help that I planned on chilling today since I had worked so much earlier this week (don't ask and I won't remember the frustration) but worked popped up and basically ruined my Friday afternoon.

The post title comes from this song:

Two-Fold - Heiruspecs

PS, if you like Beyonce or For The Love of Ray J, know that I do not hate you. But I do like you a little bit less...

Enter The Stream of Concsiousness

2009-03-09T00:06:00.000-04:00

There's a decent number of things going on in my life right now, I guess so much that I haven't felt like blogging. I'm probably not spending enough time relaxing, letting my mind wander.

Thru Playin' Round Here is coming along very nicely. It's about halfway mixed now. Every song is sounding very good. And I'm still learning more about mixing. I've learned a real cheap way to use compression effects, which amounts to me running a preset. But hey it's a start right. And apparently I'm the absence of apathy is a great way to start a verse.

I've decided to stop putting off my other forms of expression. So I'm gonna learn to make beats, and I'm gonna stop putting off practicing dj'ing. In the spirit of these two objectives, yesterday me and a friend went out to Old City and I bought mad vinyl records. 13 records for $53. Including this joint:

If you don't fuck with these niggas here, th'fuck outta here! Get off my blog. Knowledge ain't for you. Not till you educate yourself lol. This joint has At Your Best on it! I'ma find a way to sample a piece of that one day, I just gotta!

I hate to rant so often but I gotta say something: If you don't know about a subject, what gives you right to talk about it?! I don't debate whether R&B cats should keep on singing or not, cuz I'm not huge into R&B. Sometimes you can just tell when cats' are running their mouths just cuz. Like I'm gonna talk cuz I want to, regardless of me knowing next to nothing about this subject except catching a 30-second news brief everyday.

Get this mixtape however you can, it's Blue Magic I swear:

Some More Of That Old Bullshit

2009-03-04T16:00:00.002-05:00

This what I be telling cats, that "make love all night" myth has got to go. Remember Sugar in Harlem Nights? How bout we make love real hard for 45 minutes, then fall into a coma-like sleep? Eff that all night trash, and all these singers filling women's heads up with false expectations:

Props to VivaLaVoiz for making my day by showing me this.

Nas=Why I Write

2009-03-03T19:55:00.003-05:00

I have a song that's gonna be on my EP called A Moment That Died. It's about a cat that used to rap then got bored with it once he found a good job and put it away. A spirit comes to him in a dream and convinces him that he needs to rap to "save the world" from the trash music that's popular and other various societal ills.

It's a cute idea, but I don't believe anything like that about myself. It's too arrogant, because it implies that the world depends on you. Granted, in my estimation, every artist who gives their art up for public consumption is arrogant to some degree. Imagine the audacity:

Hey I do this better than you, and all these other cats out here doing it. In fact, I'm soooo sure that I'm better that I believe you want to watch me do it. You probably would pay me money to see this, and would even pay me money for reproductions of my performances.

That's the arrogance that in my opinion every artist needs, to some extent. Rappers like me need it in spades. But to think that the world needs you, is arrogance of a different magnitude. You're saying that not only are you better, but that you're someone's savior. That's where I'd pump my brakes, my humility won't let me do that. But for one song I thought it'd be a fun idea to explore, what might give a person that level of hubris.

But for me, my motivation is to simply make the best music I can, and to be better than everyone else. Specifically Nas. Somehow he became the object of my motivation, my finish line in this race to greatness. It doesn't make sense because we rap differently, and I believe in terms of pure lyrical skill I'm already ahead of him by leaps and bounds. But early on, he was who I listened to for writing inspiration, and around the time of It Was Written, Phone Tap, and Nas Is Like he was the pinnacle of ill hip-hop in my young eyes.

So I rap to be better than him. Not often does it cross my conscious mind anymore, but he's still there motivating me. Not the Nas of today, who still makes good music despite falling the fuck off. I'm competing with the Nas of my childhood lol.

Slapboxing with ghosts...

First Philly Open Mic

2009-02-27T11:55:00.001-05:00

Mixed feelings like a mulatto - Jaz-O on Jay-Z's Bring It On

I'd been itching to go to an open mic out here, and finally found out about one. So I attended last night and I'm real iffy about how I feel about the experience.

First off I was there alone, and having fun people around can sometimes make or break a night. Second the joint was full of college kids. I got nothing against college kids, but when an event is mostly college kids I start to get worried. I hate to say it but younger crowds do attract more drama and bs, and just aren't as fun sometimes.

So there's mad bboys around. I was impressed to see so many young people breaking. At first they were faking, no one dancing, all standing around. After a while they got into it and were rocking the entire night! I mean the featured act (a DC rapper) came on about to do his music and cats started krumping stealing the show. Everyone was watching the krumping and not him.

But in true emcee fashion he appreciated the moment (people dancing to his music) and kept going. His ish was pretty good too, but too chill for that crowd. I guess just cause he came with a live band he decided to go in that direction, because I bought his mixtape later and it sounds way different from his performance. After him was the open mic. Which I signed up for, which ended up being a freestyle cipher, freestyling being something I ain't good at yet. So I opted to step off rather than embarass myself. Say what you want but I care too much about this art to half-ass freestyle.

So after the open mic the show was over. And I felt gipped. Yeah I saw a decent local mc and cats breakdancing. But coming in expecting to perform then having the idea snatched away sucked. And it doesn't help that most of the night I was alone, 'sides seeing a few cats I know but don't know.

All in all, I know a great spot to see breakers at, and a possible to feature at later. And that I need to get good at freestyling like yesterday. But I'm kinda blown about the night nonetheless. Ah well. Peace

Several Things That I Need Explained To Me

2009-02-24T00:41:00.000-05:00

1. One of my bruhs posted on facebook John Legend's response to the NY Post dead chimpanzee/stimulus-bill-writer political cartoon. John took em to task for the shit, and some people expressed their agreement. Then a person says Black people are too sensitive about racial shit, and this is one example (in so many words). As evidence, this individual compared the recent cartoon to older ones that depicted Bill Clinton as a donkey and idiot, wondering why no one got mad about the Clinton cartoons but we're up in arms about this chimp one.

Now of course, this argument is flawed for various reasons. I could list them all but I ain't got time plus it's all already on facebook. Just explain to me with a coherent argument how this chimp shit could possibly be us overreacting.

2. I got back on my myspace game a few days, requesting random folks to get the name out. And one requested chick sends me a message like "How do I know you? Or how do you know me?" It's obvious that I'm a myspace musician, so if you can't recognize me from the million face pictures I got posted online, shouldn't it be obvious that I'm just trynna promote my music to you?

3. Some cats get on twitter or myspace or facebook or blogger and only wanna promote their business. Little do they know they whole alure of social media for business is that it can create a personal connection between the business and customer, if used correctly. What I find especially funny is q-list cats (eg a couple rappers I see) who can't seem to do anything but promote their website. The only people who get away with doing that are people who are truly famous, cuz they're actually busy. Yo local ass ain't busy nigga!

4. Why isn't this guy signed to Purple Ribbon:

Ill Be In The Sky - B.o.B
Seems like a much better fit than Grand Hustle. Fuck it, it seems like a match made in heaven!

The Onion - Reality TV Skankage

2009-02-20T08:17:00.000-05:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_are_reality_shows?utm_source=embedded_video

props to Bunni06 for showing me this

The Danger of Being An Adventurous 2520

2009-02-18T00:21:00.001-05:00

1. A white lady got the shit beat out of her by her friend's pet chimpanzee!!! White people, c'mon now, th'fuck are y'all thinking? Y'all taking this pet shit too far! I thought it was wild enough when my boss got a dog for his birthday/Christmas (I forget which), then when the dog proceeds to shit all over his house he keeps the damn dog! But y'all know that grown chimps got the strength of 4 men, yet you wanna keep one as a pet? Shorty walked in the door and the chimp started fuckin' her whole shit up! (lol @ my vocabulary.)

What I also find insane about this story is that the cops didn't shoot the fuckin monkey until he ripped a squad car's rearview mirror off and tried to get at the officer in the car. So him mauling and biting a women isn't enough to kill him?!! Chim-chim woulda been shot soon as I saw him had that've been me

To add insult to injury, this simian lacking anger management skills apparently "wreaked havoc" on the neighborhood back in 2003. And yet he still lived to maul this woman.

Honestly, who in tarnation keeps a chimp?

The Union TV: Herpes on Craigslist!!!

2009-02-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

Don't get offended, it's just coooomedy

A Union Weekend

2009-02-09T20:19:00.003-05:00

This weekend was a very good one for The Union. On Saturday Ron came down, made effin late might I add. Ah well, husbandly duties and shit... So since the day before was his birthday, we went out to Center City lookin to trip the light fantastique! Get down there about quarter after 11, looking for a bar to post up in and have a good time. How bout we tried 3 different bars, all wack:

First we try The Khyber, which is usually my go-to spot. That's where the past New Year's good times happened at. But there was some show going on on the main floor, so we had to go upstairs. The upstairs of The Khyber is mad gross, and small, and always wack. Like I'm sure you'll catch the germ fuckin around using the upstairs bathrooms. Like the walls, floor, ceiling, and the bar are all black. And not a smooth polished black, but black like a old-ass unfinished basement. To top it off mad white folks were just crowding around the bar, no one else was even up there besides the throng at and on top of the bar. So we promptly bounced
After that we walked around for like 20 minutes looking for another spot. We saw mad Black people going into a spot that reeked of wannabe club to me. You know the bars that wanna pretend to be grown n sexy on weekends? So Ron says let's try it even tho we know we won't pass dress code. We almost get in until the doorman...doorman...DOORMAN! (Knocked Up) notices that I got a tee on under my hoodie. Gotta have a shirt on. Fuck you mean a shirt?! Bitch this is a shirt, a TEE-shirt! Then he says $20 extra for the both of us then we can get in. Th'fuck you thinking?! We goin' pay $20 plus cover to get severely overcharged for liquor and to get shut down for dances wit ya stick-figure patrons who can't fathom dancing wit a nigga without a murse on his arm?!!! I'm like "Ron I told you we wouldn't get in." The weird thing is I thought my timbs and his sneakers would prevent our entrance, but in the end it was just my shirt. (I didn't cuss out the bouncer, I'm not that gangsta gangsta, that was all internal monologue on my part :)
We walk around some more, and stumble upon some spot that seems mad cool besides the techno they're blasting. But I used to like techno so it's all good on a desperate night. We walk in, looks around, it's cramped but looks cool. Except for the lack of Black faces. Now we can be the tokens at the bar, it's been done plenty times before. But we wasn't in the mood for that. So we go downstairs, and see MAD Asian people. There had been a party down there, so we assumed it had been for some Asian person, as most of em seemed to know each other. Ron wasn't feeling the vibe of the spot and I wasn't too big on it either so again we bounced.
We leave Philly and come back to Norristown. Hit up a bar called Wee Daddy's. And finally we find the right vibe. There's mad Black people, most of em hood boogers (hahaha Ron's words not mine,) but still negroes I don't mind chilling with. So we post up there for an hour till they closed. Watched one Black guy lose his mind dancing with his white girl. She was trynna sit down and he kept pulling her up to dance, at one point he picked her up while "dancin", not a good look cuz her jeans were being gregarious in a "crack kills" kinda way. And this girl wasn't sexy, sooooo not a good look. Also we got harassed by a booger when Beyonce's Diva came on.

Still overall good times. Even the wack bars were still fun. And the whole we was geekin extra-hard, pause. So we had a fuckin ball. I'll tell Sunday's story tomorrow, this post is dumb-long already

Beef With No Broccoli

2009-02-07T18:45:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been paying mainstream music any attention lately. I already barely watch tv, and I haven't even been keeping up on the hip-hop news on hiphopdx.com and the sites like that. My only updates on current hip-hop events have come from other people's blogs and gossip on twitter for the most part. Come to find out everybody and they mama was out dissing each other in my absence.

Case in point: Etta fuckin-old-ass James said she'd whoop Beyonce's ass for singing her song, At Last at our president's (not her president but our president, th'fuck she got against my Obama?) inauguration. I feel what Etta's saying, remakes/covers can be a touchy subject. But "she goin' get her ass whooped"? Really tho Etta? You gotta take Mrs. Carter to the streets tho? Y'all goin slug it out in a Louie Vitton store? O wait, that's already been done...

Ne-Yo is chillin wit some guy halfway related to Jay-Z at the Louie store in NYC. The one on 5th Ave so I assume it's a flagship store or something like that. Jim Jones walks in, and Jim and the Jay-Z relation start fighting, cuz Jim hates all things Jay-Z. IN THE FOCKING STORE!!! And during the argument before the fight, Jim tapes himself, on his celly, insulting the Jay-Z guy. What kinda girly preteen bullshit is this?! Next people goin start taping private convos to start/further their beefs. O wait 50 and Jadakiss already did that.
This beef shit is so out-of-hand, that rumors are flying that Ne-Yo got stomped out by Jim Jones at the above incident. So out of hand that every comment a nigga makes is being taken completely out of context and twisted pretzel-style into a beef shape.

But not only doth the beef cup runneth over, but it's not even full of good beef. Cats aint makin Ether-quality songs no more! The net has made it too easy for people to make rapid responses to darts from others. So Joe Budden and Saigon can have a full beef play out in less than a month, complete with homemade videos and 40,000 diss records. My point is when the turnaround time was longer, cats put out better diss records. And new events in beef just didn't happen as often a few years back. We had to wait for a Street Wars or Kay Slay mixtape. Now a Charles Hamilton freestyle goes online, and to soon after, Rhymefest is dissing him for what was said, wackly might I add. Rhymefest disappointed me with this joint, I know he rap circles around this song. Maybe if he'd've took more time instead of writing and recording and releasing in one night, the quality would be better.

And so my plea to rappers worldwide goes like this: beef if you so choose, but make it worthy of me paying attention. Take your time, simmer that shit lol, stop trynna flash-fry it. And stop taking your beef lessons from your middle school-aged daughters. You niggas is actin like desperate housewives
In conclusion, my all-time favorite beef song: Nas - Stillmatic:

One "New" Song and a New Version of an Old One

2009-02-04T01:00:00.013-05:00

I just *finalized* the mix on two songs from Thru Playin Round Here, What's Ya Name and On The Outro Tip. I'm happy about how they came out, and it only took my mixing them on like 4 separate occassions and recording each at least twice. Anyway you may not even hear the difference between these versions and the last, but I do. Whatever, just check em out on the music player o'er yonder

Gotta Go Extra-Hard

2009-01-31T16:10:00.057-05:00

So lately I've been thinking about TPRH deeply. I get the feeling that the EP close to finished, and that idea is really sinking in to me. Like my debut cd may finally be close to completed! It's electrifying. Following the ill sense of accomplishment that comes with that realization, I realize that I have a lot of other shit to get together for this EP. Finalize the tracklist, get artwork done, decide who I'm gonna get to master the music, decide who's gonna manufacture and package the cds.

I already got an artist lined up, and I'm really excited to see how this joint turns out. He has a real ill style, this cover will be definitely be way different from average album cover. Funny cuz this almost didn't happen, price negotiation type deal. Still got my broke-emcee mentality, and why shouldn't I? I ain't making money off rap, it's all for the love right now and that means making the most out of the least. Here's an example of Arek's work for another artist:

The song list is near finalized, I just need to spend some time deciding what order the songs will be in. Mastering and manufacturing I have no idea about tho. And it's lookin like them shits are gonna cost, not huge money, but way more than I've ever spent on anything before besides my car and apt. But I got a plan for this EP, where with UnioNoMics it was mostly internet-promotion(and we half-assed that cuz we didn't know no better), this time I plan on hitting the internet hard and the streets, so to speak.

It's almost shit or get off the pot time. I'm real excited to put the plan farther into motion, and to get something tangible from all these months of work. There's also the worries about the million things that could go wrong too, but I just plan as much as I can and leave the rest to fate. I feel like I've had so much time to plan this process out, that most possible failures have been mitigated. So I'm not worried much. I'm just stupid-excited to get this joint finished, to finally start building Knowledge, Gray Matters, and The Union. Every release is just the beginning...Peace people

...

PS: What's with the 25 Things About Me meme?! Shit is spreading like Herpes!

Fuck Am I Goin Blog About?!

2009-01-26T21:37:00.071-05:00

Ron says blogs get more love when you post regularly, like everyday. And who don't fuckin love love right? Even when love disappoints (werd to my Moody-ass 53), you still can't hate it. Not forever at least. And definitely not this nigga here. But anyway, I ain't got a damn thing to talk about. So this'll be another random thought post.

behold the What-The-Fuck-Ever Comes to Mind post

Me and Ron have talked about combining our blogs. I gotta get on with starting that process.
Ron needs to update his fockin blog.
Yay for Mary almost graduating. Last semester thuggin, I see you nigga!!!!
Yay for Ron almost graduating. After so much stress,you still won't be shit bahahaha!
Yesterday was the first productive night I've had in forever. I previously recorded all my vocals for Thru Playing Round Here in stereo, so now I gotta convert all those tracks to mono, for about 8 songs. Not fun. And not as easy nor quick as it sounds. But I finished it for 2 songs last night, and wrote a verse and a half. The full-length verse is for a new song that might really surprise my fans, and it's on one of Ron's beats! It's not something crazily out of the ordinary, just not my usual style of beat or content. Enough about that until later, sinister laugh
Friday I caught food poisoning offa dumb decision. PSA: just cuz you eating with white folks don't mean eat the pork like they reccommend. Baby don't do it! (werd to Freeway), get it cooked like you know it should be. I regurgitated my heart and soul that night! Woke up all stiff, achy, cold and shit. I'm still battling whatever viral stragglers is biting my cells' asses. Missed out on ice-skating Saturday night, and then a friend called about going out drinking. Nope couldn't do that either! So when I'm sick is when all the fun shit happens, ain't this bout a bitch.
For some reason I feel like yesterday's productivity points to my being close to finished with TPRH. I may send a possible single off for early mastering. Then start pushing that to college radio stations and blogs and mixtapes. Gotta decide what the single will be first tho.
Netflix may beat my DVR for being my most sacred form of media. I ain't even played my xbox in 2 weeks. Poor thing only gets used to play dvds.
And I leave you jokers with a song, referenced earlier. Both rappers did their thing, but really listen to Scarface's verse. It's simple but poignant, sorry I couldn't find an embeddable version

Thoughts on Love

2009-01-21T23:54:00.001-05:00

So me and Ron had a serious-ass conversation today. To the point that now we're both rethinking some past thoughts and decisions we made in the past. Then me and Mary had a related convo. I don't have the energy to summarize the convos, but here are the highlights:

just because you want a relationship to work doesn't mean it will
there is really no definitive way to describe love, you just feel when a relationship is worth working really hard for
compromises can often need time spent apart to make the correct changes before you two can get back together and enjoy the better relationship that hopefully results
one thought I have about love is that a sign of it is not minding a person's faults
self-awareness entails honest, critical thinking about yourself, and sadly a lot people older than 2 decades still don't have the seeds of self-awareness
with romantic self-awareness comes having an idea of what you want out of a relationship
women communicate too much, men don't enough
too many people base their lives off of assumptions that aren't always true. Just analyze the decisions you make because you think you "have to", determine if you really have no choice
I still have A LOT to learn about love, relationships, listening to people, and giving advice

Thoughts? Then leave a comment. And if you're gonna lurk, at least click the buttons under the post. That's what they fuck they're for, you lurkers. Lemme know how you feel about my posts with those buttons please!!!

Inauguration Day Chillin?

2009-01-20T09:05:00.000-05:00

A comment I just left on this blog here:

I can't get hype about this day like some people, and my theory is that that's because I'm so pragmatic. It's silly to think Obama can fix everything, and it's especially silly to put so much on today when today is really only the beginning. And I too wasn't alive for any of the civil rights movement, so that angle is all bust lost on me as a reason to be hype. I'm happy about today, but it'll take great things in the future to make me hype. I just can't get excited yet, this is way too early IMO

Thoughts?

A Few Wrinkles in the Gray Matter

2009-01-13T19:57:00.000-05:00

1. I can't help but dance when I play Common's Universal Mind Control (the song). And I can't dance, so I'm sure it's pretty comical. Then Punch Drunk Love starts, and now I'm dancing and singing the hook. No one shall every see/hear this phenomenon. Then Make My Day comes on, and I either take the album off or if I'm in a good enough mood I let it play. If I let it play then afterwards I skip to Inhale. Then the album gets turned off. Shame on Common for making half a good album, he musta learned that trick from Kanye. Tricking me into liking an album, then pulling the rug out from under me with wack trash like Sex 4 Suga.

2. I looked at my old roommate's myspace page. He was from the dark ages when all my roommates were freshmen (aka my senior year, don't cry for me argentina). So dude has pictures up from a night at the club, and I couldn't help but notice how him and his peoples were dressed, cuz the pictures were obviously taken to put their "freshness" on display. How you aint got no pictures of anyone dancing, but 15 pictures of yall negroes posing lol? Anyway it's sad how some 19yr olds can make me feel so geriatric, but I really don't get what kids are wearing these days.

The wild color shit makes some sense, as it's a throwback to 80s gear. One cat had grey, black, yellow, and red on. And a few of these items were plaid. I'll let that go, it's not for me but to each his own (rainbow). Some gen-x'er is mad as fuck that he threw all his old cross colours gear out, he coulda been in style again! But this grown and sexy shit makes absolutely no sense to me. They take it too far! Nigga had a thick plaid flannel button up under a pea coat, with a wool-looking scarf on. In the club! Don't that shit get hot?!?

When I was big on clubs, which was a while ago, I went to dance (with girls! Don't get me started on cats going to clubs to dance with their boys). We tried to look good in the most comfortable shit possible. So you know what my club outfit was? Jeans and a fuckin tee and some sneakers. Maybe boots. Maybe a thin button-up if I was feeling extra-fly. I just don't get this new generation. Shit me and Da Vinci was bout to hit up a lounge/club Saturday, but good thing the evening got canceled cuz of Jersey snow, cuz I bet we wouldn't have gotten in anyway. Dress code was, wait first of all what the fuck is a dress code? I'm trynna dance with a girl on me, why I need to look so clean just to fuck up my good clothes gettin sweaty?!? Anyway, the dress code was no baggy jeans, no sneakers or boots, and no tees. No way I coulda got in, I don't even have non-baggy jeans. And rarely am I in the mood to dress up (button-up with casual shoes) to hit up a damn 21-over club. I ain't 30! Why I gotta dress like I'm going to a 30-over club just to dance with corny girls my age?!

I'm need to go hang out wit my G's, my bruhs. Peace

Union Reality TV-Film-Video-Thingy: Christmas Drive 08

2009-01-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Just Shut Up Got-Damnit!

2009-01-09T18:17:00.000-05:00

Some cats just talk entirely too much. I've written about this before in a facebook but a few recent events are making me speak my mind again.

WHY CAN'T SOME PEOPLE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm the type person who cherishes quiet. Like why you gotta talk all the time??! Silence isn't an invitation to blab got damnit! And it especially sucks when cats wanna jaw-jack about nothing! Anyway I'm done ranting, peace

Post-Racial America My Ass

2009-01-09T12:06:00.001-05:00

http://essence.typepad.com/news/2009/01/post-racial-ame.html

Link Time Mu'phukkas!

2009-01-09T11:36:00.002-05:00

Tell me this shit ain't funny:

http://www.break.com/classic-clips/cheerleader-gets-knocked-out-by-bad-shot.html

I try not to say "Booooosh" when she gets hit, and I fail every time no matter how many time I watch this joint. Yeah so I might be going to hell...

Also, skim this and tell me how many of these songs you know:

http://www.verysmartbrothas.com/10-songs-all-black-people-should-know/

I know all but 1, and 1 I only kinda know. So I guess I'm 8/10 (4/5 for the math-heads) Black. Eff slavery. Those are songs that Black people really can't get away from. And don't wanna.

Expect a real post later, and more videos from Christmas. I'm finally home for a few days, and I plan to make the most of it before work slays my life again next week.

Jazmine Sullivan's Wack A Little Bit

2009-01-05T15:25:00.001-05:00

Yeah I said it got damnit, to all the Jazmine stans out there, eat your heart out. Before you write me off as a hater, hear me out.

Shorty can blow, no one's denying that. I love how earthy and soulful her voice is. Her voice is so good it literally turns me on sometimes (tmi? get over it).

But good voices don't aways mean good music. There's way more to it. Now Jazmine can write pretty well when she wants to, and can make compelling music. But with this joint, she either didn't try as hard, didn't really write it (all my research says she co-wrote it, which can mean a million things), or made it for a wider audience (read: the lowest-common denominator.)

I'm convinced that she made this album primarily to get famous, hence the simplistic writing and instantly recognizable instrumentals. On first listen, I swore I'd heard half of the damn album before. Joints like Lions Tigers and Bears are as dope as r&b can get, then there's wacktastic Dream Big (which only succeeds in making me long for the Daft Punk song that this jacks).

My biggest problem is the lack of consistency, and that someone can display crazy potential and turn out such tired uninspired songs all on the same album. Clearly this album had too many cooks in the kitchen, pulling it in too many directions. When/if Jazmine decides to just make "her music" and not try to please folks, and cuts out some of these bad influences, then I'll fuck with her. Till then she's wack a lil bit

Luchini Bikini!!!!!

2009-01-04T16:07:00.001-05:00

First of Many Christmas Videos: Timeout?!?

2009-01-04T02:16:00.000-05:00

Absolute Hilarity!!!: Ice Cube - Today Was A Good Day Flowchart

2009-01-02T19:33:00.001-05:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickenbone/2125243181/sizes/o/in/set-72157594286653785/

Lyrical Exercise Pt 1: The Union - Been A Long Time verse 3

2009-01-01T16:00:00.003-05:00

Lyrics are an integral part of The Union's music. If you wanted to boil what we do down to some real simple and basic description, we put dope, hardcore, complex, non-gangsta rhymes over the best beats we can get our grubby mitts on. And a couple days ago, December 30th to be exact, I wrote this verse below, really trying to take my shit back to my college days, lots of references and literary devices and especially wordplay, more complex than the stuff I'd been writing lately. I'm really proud of the verse, and I figure I'll break it down for you cats

second round, third verse is the Charm, I stop time/
this verse starts the second round of back-and-forth spittin, hence its the third verse. There were three girls on the TV show Charmed, one has the power to stop time, this verse has the same power
niggas reminisce, my bars outfoxed ya lines/
on the double you be, getting got, we never shot/
cats reflect on my illness while I freeze time with this verse. Double you be phonetically sounds the same as WB, the channel that showed Charmed. Fox is another TV station
never set for downfall, suits tight like Trump/4
we bang the high post, on boards, no need for a bump/
how could you not discuss, every fuckin line we bust/
shot, set and bump are all spades terms for overbidding, suits and trump also relate to spades. Each entry in a message board is also called a post, when a thread starts to die you make an empty post in it to bring it back to the forefront, bumping the post
you cats pre-serve ya sexy, we stay with the bubbles/
that never go pop, the whole game's in trouble/8
in the Proactiv commercials Puffy would say the shit helps him preserve his sexy, zits are like face bubbles, and can be popped. Going pop is something The Union never plans on doing. Also there's a bubble in the middle of the board game Trouble, I used a similar reference before in another song
we steady rise, and effervesce more than hot air/
setz to fizz, I'm so sick, the shit ain't fair/
emcees try to breathe easy, I infest the populice/
with more germs than bumpy lipped-chicks in hospitals/12
like (some) bubbles we rise, and we don't just let out hot air, we efferversce medicine like alkasetzer does, which can clear sinuses, then I flip it and say I'm sick. Bumpy-lips is a reference to cold sores (Herpes)
[gasp] peep the blood-stains, pro-ceed with caution/
con-cede victory when I'm flossin, get lost son/
I'm spittin, you sing wit RL and got no spine/
you RL Stines don't scare kids, peep the next in line/16
the gasp is like "Oh my God did he really just say that?!" Did those Goosebumps books scare anyone as a kid??? If so and you're harboring a dream of being gangsta, give that shit up RIGHT NOW!!!

I'm sure you would have picked up on a good percentage of these hidden meanings on your own, but I'm sure no one would have caught everything. No one is meant to get it all but me, as I figure each listener will catch some stuff and miss others, and each will understand what I say differently. So except for instances like this where I explain everything, each person will have a different idea about my verses, like I'm giving each one a different version.

Christmas in South Jersey

2008-12-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

This year has been full of newness and change. I finished school, moved to a new city in a new state, and started a new job. It's actually been a great ride, 08 treated me very kindly. Not that it was perfect by any means, but as far as years go it had enough big things happen to be a very memorable year.

So in the spirit of newness, 08 is also my first year not spending Christmas with my biological family. Christmas is a kind of weird time for me now that I've severed Christianity's iron grip on my brain. I still believe in Christ for the most part, but I know that for most people this holiday has nothing to do with him, and I know that he probably wasn't even born on this day. So there's a lot of jumbled thoughts surrounding this day, but I didn't focus on that stuff at all this season.

Sorry for that tangent. I guess I said all that to say that since Christmas doesn't revolve around religion anymore for me, I am open to spending it differently than I used to. This year I spent Christmas with Da Vinci and Bobbi Digital and Bobbi's family in South Jerz. Highlights:

Get to Bobbi's sister's house on Christmas Eve and wait for 2 hours in my car for someone to come let me in the house. An encouraging start that is...
Meet the sister's boyfriend and see that he's not a good look...for the planet hahaha
Argue with Bobbi about who should get the air matress going
watch Bobbi's nieces open their presents, one acts ungrateful and gets the hell beat out of her
get a gift of my own from the boyfriend and sister, which includes some candy, which was later stolen and eaten by someone in the house (either the boyfriend or the sister, how you gonna give me a gift and then eat it! Lol)
next morning eat breakfast with the whole family at the asscrack of dawn
experience the futility of watching tv/movies at gramma's house. Just like my family, put on a movie then talk all up and thru it
eat the most glorious meal anyone not named Janice aka Arien's mom could attempt to make. Besides the seafood, which I'm just not that into. Best part was when I picked up my cornish hen and it shitted out its stuffing. Surprised the fuck outta me!
took mad pictures, highlights to go up later
made friends with Bobbi's cousin and a lil baby who now smiles WHENEVER SHE SEES ME. Told yall I'm that dude
perfected annoying Da Vinci in the same way that he annoys me
learned that the boyfriend is somewhat connected in a 6 degrees of standom way to Rodney Jerkins, claims he'll get our music to Rodney and get us in a show in Atlantic City, ends up completely bullshit. Good thing we saw that coming or we'd be PISSED
watched this nigga get banged on TWICE on the phone, o the hilarity of slippin-ass niggas!!!
got all of our monkey-asses handed to us by Bobbi's cousin in various WiiSports. Lil nigga wouldn't even tell us how to play, and yet kept gloating when he won like he accomplished something. What a biggity-biyatch
went to a dusty ass 30-and-up-crowd bar, cheap drinks for everybody! Got eyed by every cougar on the prowl that night
hilarity ensued, video explanation coming shortly
of course there was some drama but that's all I'm saying about that

Now How About Some Fuckin Pics!

Bobbi showin off the smell-goods we bought her

Fuck was I laughin so hard at?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hoodie? Check. B-Boy Stance? Check

Looking brolic as fuck

Do you see the muthafuckin boots [she's the jugganaut bitch]

Abusing my camera

He probably just said something stupid. I'm 80% sure that's what happened.

Bobbi Digitastic hip-hop album coming Summer '09 on Gray-Definition Music Group

Knowledge not scared of no lil-fisted women

This Is Funny To Me At Least

2008-12-30T23:30:00.000-05:00

http://blackmanwithblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/fat-albert-in-da-hood-part-2-whos-baby.html

I'll have a Christmas recap up tomorrow. Already wrote it all out, just gotta edit it and add some pictures. In the meantime have some fun with this.

New Music From Me

2008-12-23T09:20:00.002-05:00

New, at least, for the cats who don't religiously check my myspace (for shame...) I've been working semi-dilligently on finishing this EP. It's starting to come together, and so far I'm pretty happy with the results. Here's two finished products so far:

Eventually this music player will mosey on over to my sidebar, and expect it to be updated often as the EP gets closer to finished. I'll accept any and all comments, I'm decently thick-skinned. Speaking of that, funny story.

The Union went to a show one time a couple years ago. And one of the featured acts of the night was *bleep*, but I'll call him wannabe-Bilal-without-the-talent (wBwtt). Dude did some really weird music, and danced to his songs more than anyone else in attendance. We also performed at this show during the open mic portion. We ripped it, as usual. So myspaces were exchanged or something like that. A few days later wBwtt is on our myspace saying our song Ride Tonight is crazy. So I respond on his thanks, what'd he think of the other songs. He says, get this, our other songs are mediocre at best, just not his kind of hip-hop. Lmao, I was kinda hurt of course, but mostly just flabberghasted at how blunt that was. Most cats woulda just said it's not my thing, but this dude called us mediocre at best lol!!! I swear we goin have a cd named that at some point!

Moral of that story is I/we can take constructive criticism.

Men vs Women

2008-12-20T15:16:00.001-05:00

The dating game is hard at (all) times, so many signals to miss and misinterpret and such. And there's so many pseudo-experts trying to spit game on what you should and shouldn't do. Most of the media I've seen that attempts to help cats untangle the jumanji that is the opposite sex have been for women. This imbalance can't be attributed to women being easier to understand, so why the hell don't we get books that fail at explaining why we can't get girls to come upstairs "for (hot teehee) coffee" as often as we'd like? Lucky for the handsomer sex, there's this joint here: one of the most on-point dating guides I've seen

I coulda used this guide back when I was simping for pubescent tarts, foolishly thinking that doing what they wanted was the way to get with 'em. Silly rabbit, girls like being told no, and guys who don't like 'em or give 'em the time of day. And guys who cheat, guys who in general do the exact opposite of what you would expect a person to want.

Ok maybe that's a bit harsh, but for a while that was the world I knew. Now ask me why I don't miss middle and high school. This post is mad emo now, that wasn't the plan. Anyway here's another article about dating from a male's perspective, just as true as the previous link but much funnier

NERD - Sooner or Later

2008-12-17T12:57:00.002-05:00

Remind me to get this album

My Name Is Knowledge...

2008-12-14T20:21:00.001-05:00

What the fuck is a Slick???

Lol it's all jokes Josh. This week has been all about hip-hop and this shit here:

I've been recording like crazy, and funny enough, only got 3 songs done. And they were all redoes of past recordings. But I feel a lot better about these vocals than the originals.I've always had issues with my voice, since childhood. When I was little kids said I sounded white. Now it's hard for me to get used to how I sound in recordings because what I hear of myself in my head is very different, much cooler sounding.

So when I started, I either sounded half-past dead or like a high-pitched caricature of myself. But recently I got this epiphany: fuck trynna sound differently from what I am! My voice is my voice, and it shall sound however it feels like sounding. Mu'phuckas who don't like it can kick rocks.

So I've been re-recording everything in my own voice. Makes keeping breath control much easier. So yeah, work on TPRH has officially restarted. Maybe this time for real. The whole EP is written, I just need to record and mix it all. And get the couple features I need.

This hip-hop shit is hard. Recording verses over and over and over, lungs bursting and shit to make sure every word comes out right.Took me 4 days of working to get On The Outro Tip right. But I think I finally got it today. After all that rapping I'm not even in the mood to mix tonight. May write today tho. Me and Ron got another song we're working on now. We've been knocking em out, like 3 songs in the past two weeks. Right after TPRH works starts on our mixtape, and the way shit is going it looks like we'll have that all written before recording even starts

The Economy Stupid

2008-12-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

So the government bailout of the three US auto companies has failed in the Senate. And this is basically why: (it's old data but the point still stands, and peep how Detroit was destined for failure):

No company can survive while paying it's workers 40% more (note this includes benefits like retirement and health care) than its competitors AND producing an inferior product! Republicans wanted this inequity in overall wages to be fixed in 09, Dems/White House wanted it fixed by 2011 (when the auto workers union's current contract ends.) Seems to me Democrats are in bed with the union (haven't they historically always been in bed with unions?), and so wanted to ease into this transition. Or put it off, depending on how you look at it.

Republicans wasn't having that, and now this $15 billion bailout has failed. YET, the finance industry got $700 billion, and doesn't have to deal with such stringent restrictions (say that 3 times fast). Banks have been taking the money from their bailout loans, and instead of getting back to loaning money to people (which is what the fuck banks DO), some have been buying up other banks! Foreclosures are still happening left and right!

So my point is this, yes the auto companies severely need to rethink their business plan. And the Republicans are most likely right about the need for immediate reform of the auto workers compensation packages. But why the hell is Congress being so careful about $15 billion, when it was tossing 700 around all willy-nilly just a little while ago? That's not a rhetorical question, I really don't get it

PS. The old figure was that US auto workers on average made $75 an hour (again with benefits and shit). Some recent new accounting procedure (or something to that effect) took that down to $40/hr. Let's assume the new accounting is worthwhile. That's still $83,200/year. And all you need is a high school diploma.

I Got A Feeling I'ma Blog My Ass Off Today

2008-12-12T08:52:00.001-05:00

Didja know he made a video for this, and if so why THE FUCK didn't you tell me?

PSA's

2008-12-07T15:22:00.001-05:00

In Case You Never Understood the Bosnia Situation

2008-12-04T10:30:00.000-05:00

A really good summary of what went down there, and why the US waited so long to end it:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/20/sbm.bosnia.holbrooke/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Notice that Bush (the older one) was fine with doing nothing, and that Clinton wanted to help but didn't at first (decently valid) political reasons. Don't get it twisted, I'm disappointed in both presidents, but at least Clinton eventually did something.

Holiday 1 Over, Back to Work

2008-11-30T23:26:00.000-05:00

So Thanksgiving this year was exactly what I cracked it up to be. Loads of fun, but ultimately uneventful.The biggest attraction was having all my brothers in the house, and their families with them. Damon had his how-long-does-it-take-for-common-law-to-kick-in? girlfriend and her Damon-might-as-well-have-adopted-me daughter, and Antoine brought his wife and 2 seeds. So that was the big shit, seeing the 3 lil girls. Sad to say, but Camille, the newest one at 13 months, was the most exciting. It's hard not to show the youngest kid the most attention. Good thing is we all played with Camille together, no one was left out. I'll post some pics once I get all of em from my parents.

I don't really have any stories, at least none that translate well to text. Moreso the you had to be there type shit. It was cool to drink with my dad and brothers tho. Wednesday night me and dad drank MGDs and watched The Departed (awesome fucking movie btw, sorry for saying awesome I work with nothing but palefaces. Hopefully they say "yo" or "heem" because of me). Thanksgiving night we all had wine outta some lil fancy glasses my parents had stashed away with the good china. And the whole time my dad had been suggesting this cognac, like I got some cognac if you wanna drink that. So on Friday I'm like dad what kinda cog-nack you got?, cuz mispronouncing words is the spice of life. And we all drink some kinda 'yac called Salignac, the father and his sons. And after the first glasses are poured he toasts to his three sons. It was obvious that he was real proud, and was a really nice moment to be a part of.

Me and my brothers don't see each often at all, and don't talk much more often than that. So these holidays are always real important, and are always good times just cuz the family of yesterday is back together like we used to be for a little while.So nothing can fuck that up. Yeah Thanksgiving was boring, but just being with family for a minute was enough.

I Got Respect For P Miller

2008-11-26T11:18:00.000-05:00

Every Time I Try To Get Out...

2008-11-26T09:45:00.000-05:00

...They keep pulling me right back in. Soon as I get tired of mainstream music, something piques my interest for a while.

I'm semi-ashamed to say I love T-Pain's Chopped And Screwed. The beat is bananas, the vocoder was used well, and the content is great in a cute shallow song kinda way. My favorite part is the second verse, which describes falling for a stripper during a lapdance, then when making the move to get her home she takes a big sip of your drink and says that'll be $60.

First off, FUCK paying 60 for a lapdance! Them shit's was 20 last I checked. And fuck strippers touching my drink, let alone getting their smoky, cum-encrusted, herpes-having lips all over the glass as they suck my expensive liquor out. Drinks in strip clubs are too damn expensive to be wasted at all. So now you gotta either toss the $7-$12 drink, or play russian roulette with your esophagus. Shit don't get more high-stakes than that. That's some True Lies, Lethal Weapon, CB4 drama for that that ass! So that shit there, paying $60 for a lapdance and then drinking after a stripper, is the official Knowledge and maybe The Union (if Da Vinci cosigns), definition, of being chopped and screwed!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

First Of Many Video Blogs

2008-11-23T20:02:00.000-05:00

This was pretty fun to do, but I gotta admit I was nevous to just talk on tape for a little while. Notice how my furnace turns off a couple minutes in and then you can hear me so much better.

I pretty much talk about my night last night, andgive some quick album reviews.

Damn Missing Firewire Port

2008-11-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

I went to GuitarCenter today and splurged (most I've ever spent on audio equipment besides than this new computer) on an audio interface to replace my wack usb sound card, was all hyped to test the thing and found out that my computer doesn't have a firewire port, the only kind of connection the interface could have to my comp. So that's got me extremely blown. Hopefully tomorrow I can go to best buy and grab a firewire card for cheap
This week has been hell for me in trying to keep myself focused on music. I started playing The Sims 2 again and it's had its way with my work ethic. Like, it's been a serious struggle after coming from home from work to get myself working on music. I already don't like mixing songs, but it's especially bad right now because my setup isn't ideal. This new audio interface should fix a lot of that tho, soon as I get the sumamabitch working. I would actually think about outsourcing the mixing to someone who enjoys doing it, except that I don't trust most other people's sonic aesthetic tastes, and that'd be spending money needlessly. As of now my mixes come out pretty damn good, and as I get better I'll get faster and better, so why pay someone else to do it? I'll just deal with the frustration for now...

The song I've been working is Tomorrow Never Came. It's got a pretty long pause inbetween its two verses, and I've been working on something to fill that space. Didn't even realize that the space was a problem until a friend told me, then only after I brought it up did Ron tell me he agreed. And for that, he mustbe tarred and feathered.

I think my real issue with mixing is the fact that its a tedious process. And like being done mixing a song, being able to say that I mixed something, and hearing people say the quality of the mix is good. But the process of getting there isn't so fun. And what really doesn't help is that I've been working on this EP off and on for ages, and sometimes it's gets discouraging to realize that it's still nowhere near done. Don't worry, I'm not depressed or anything, least not yet...that's a joke

The Employees Of The Year Yeah We're Back To Work

2008-11-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

We took time off, while other rappers got jerked. That's EPMD, ju don't know then you need to get ya weight up.

This song is the truth, GFK is the truth, and it works with today something incredible. Case in point:

1. I checked my bank accounts today, paid a bill or two, and still got money on top of money. Sorry i'm braggin, but suffer me this happiness for a little while.
2. The other half of The Union, Da Vinci, aka Ron Browz, aka Rappin Potna, is moving into HIS OWN SPOT. My nigga moving up like a mu'fucka, and is driving his own car there. And son passed heem demo to an Atlantic Records rep yesterday. Big things poppin.

Movie Time

2008-11-08T23:17:00.001-05:00

I watched 2 old ass movies today, the first was Lethal Weapon. Don't ask me how I never saw it before. Then I watched Low Down Dirty Shame, and was converted into the church of Jada Pinkett. I never was really feelin her look before I saw this movie. Like I thought she was pretty cute, but now I understand why other cats worship her. Peep this lil ball of sexyness:

Watching movies and getting used to my new comp is about all I've done this weekend. I need to fix one of my new songs, it's sounding too empty, but I just really don't want to. This is why cats get producers and all kindsa other people on their records, and why they want beats with ready-made hooks (werd to swizz beatz and jazze pha), cuz making concept songs isn't easy. It's hard enough to write verses that do the subject justice, then you gotta figure out the rest, like hooks and junk. Can't just spit 100 bars like you could on an emcee-song. Need to be working on that song now. Peace

The Tragedy of Casino

2008-11-06T22:08:00.001-05:00

My last night in VA, for this week at least. Yesterday we worked like 12 hours, today was somewhere around 10. I'm fuckin beat. Good thing tomorrow is just a travel day.

Anyway I'm watchin Casino on tv right now. And remembering just how sad this damn movie is. I think I have some sort of fetish for good-man-destroyed-by-trash-ass-no-good-for-him-woman stories. Maybe I have a victim fantasy, or I like seeing guys who manage to somehow make worse romantic decisions than me. But I love Casino, the Sin City comics, and a lot of other examples of these type stories.

In case you've never seen Casino, its a great movie about a cat, Sam, who runs a, you guessed it, Casino. There's a lot more to the story, but I'ma focus on the wack broad he gave his life to.

This bitch starts off by stealing from his Casino. And when she's acosted for it, she makes a scene by tossing mad chips in the air for other gamblers to take, costing Sam who knows how much money. O, and she's a hooker. So Sam dates, and falls in love with this hooker. 3 months later he marries her and she has his baby. Meanwhile she's still in love with her pimp.

Her and the pimp hatch like 3 plans to get Sam's money, including kidnapping the baby for ransom and getting Sam killed. What gets me about the story is Sam is really smart about everything else and makes some really smart decisions. But for some reason he thinks he can save this hoe. Dumbest shit he ever did with his life.

And between her and the FBI investigating his mob connections, his life is ruined. For some reason I'm attracted to these stories. I probably see myself in these guys. And I hope they eventually wise up like I hope I've done but I still end up makin some bad choices. Every guy who's an asshole swears some girl in his past made him that way, and I'm definitely one of those guys. Can't end up like Sam Rothstein

My Weekend

2008-11-03T08:38:00.003-05:00

Posted up in Suffolk, VA right now. Down here for work shit, most of this week and the same for next week. I'll probably end up gettin drunk with coworkers most of my nights here. Hello per diem paying for beer.

Friday I did nothing but text people and worked on music. Mixed a new song called True Love. Saturday Ron and Meatball came over again to take my old car, which is now Ron's. We mostly just hung out and talked shit, didn't do any music work. I cooked for them and I'm proud of how decent it came out. Not sure what you'd call it, but it was basically a kielbasa sausage cooked with vegetables. Ron liked it so I'm happy. I don't plan on getting hitched for a long time, so being able to cook for myself is a must. And I think I'm ok, nothing gourmet, nothing complex, but I can put together enough easy stuff to feed myself without "cooking" easy mac (werd to 'Zay) or using a microwave.

Sunday morning they bounced, funniest part was watching Ron take 7 minutes just to back the car out of the parking space and start driving forwards. He's such a cautious driver! Better that than reckless tho. It's his first whip, so even though he's older than me I was kinda proud to see him drive off. Like he was proud of me when I joined Groove, and now I got something else to be proud of him for.

And, turns out the nigga drove the first 10 minutes in first gear, lol. Then later I flew to VA with my colleague Matt. An eventful weekend, but not much to talk about.

I'm still not satisfied with my song. It's one of the few songs that I have that has a hook. I normally don't like hooks, cuz I don't like writing them, and I don't like recording and mixing them. Mostly cuz I'm not as good at em as I should be. So I love the mix of the verses for this song, but the hook is blowin my nads. But I put it online cuz I like having new music up. Check it out, but be warned its a rough mix

Please Research Before You Vote!!!

2008-10-31T08:56:00.003-04:00

I'll be OT on 11/4 so I'm doing an absentee ballot today. I procrastinated researching the local candidates, and had just planned on going Democrat down the line. But it's a very good thing that I didn't. First position I researched was PA State Attorney General, turns out the Democrat wants to abolish parole for violent criminals and make gang membership a crime. In a different world maybe these could be ok ideas, except that abolishing parole assumes that jail can't rehabilitate people, and completely overlooks the fact that not everyone in jail deserves to be there, for whatever reason. Our justice system is far from perfect. And putting someone in jail just for joining a gang is a band-aid measure that doesn't actually work towards solving the problems that cause kids to join gangs in the first place. It's like jailing someone for smoking crack instead of treating their addiction.

State Attorney General? Libertarian it is

So please research before you blindly vote. And don't concentrate just on the Presidents, they're not the only politicians who matter. At least go here and read a bit

Homecoming

2008-10-30T23:05:00.004-04:00

I plan on this being a short post as I don't feel like talking about homecoming, but we'll see what happens.

beware the bear bitches

Friday Ron took FOR-EEEEEEVER to get to Philly. I ended up gettin off work dumb early that day, so I came home and chilled. Decided to buy some new video games while I waited for him, and please believe took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free sale at Gamestop.

Dude was later than I expected because he got his license. Which is probably one of the best excuses he could have. Now me giving him my old car can move along. SEPTA ended up shittin on his already-rancid schedule. Dude gets to 30th St Station in Philly like 4 hours late, I'm on my way to get him but apparently 30th St Station is not a place to be at 8 on a Friday night without the jamjam stickanigga.

Got to Bmore and chilled wit Murry. Saturday it rained like crazy, ruining my homecoming spirit. We had plans for hitting clubs and prowling the streets, ended up missing all the homecoming activities on Saturday. And our lateness screwed Mary out of the Friday pep rally(sorry!). Mary and Ron did make a beat tho, thats a really good thing even if the joint did take 4 score and 7 years to finish.

Saturday night we went out to Fell's Pt and ended up in a bar called Modo's. Had a good time dancin like a pack of buffoons. We had cats lookin at us and laughin, very good times.

Sunday was good besides a bout with emotional drama. The Union got our salon on, asian chicks rubbin us down and shit. Then we went to 1/3 Of A Good Time's house and chilled there. Her dog saw The Union was in the building and immediately went into heat! Had to rub her wop on the carpet to dry it some. At least thats what it looked like HAHAHAHA.

That was about it. Nothing really special, but a fun weekend nonetheless

Had To Do It

2008-10-27T15:02:00.000-04:00

I'm bored at work reading about video games and deciding what computer to buy to make my new Union audio recording headquarters. So of course I end up on youtube looking at the one song that has me excited for Common's new album:

The other singles so far aren't doing it for me at all. Too pop, too plain-old wack. But I bet the album cuts will be crazy. Especially this song. Props to one of my favorite old roommates, Josh 2 Slick, for puttin me onto this joint.

Common gets props for making another ill ass song about relationships that doesn't come off corny nor fake. Songs like this and The Light are the caliber of relationship-music I plan on making and surpassing with my own stuff. Common also gets props for having sloppy broads on-stage. Peep the light-skinned girl at the beginning.

New Cizzar!

2008-10-27T11:45:00.001-04:00

Weekend before last my parents came up to help me vanquish whatever sheisty car salesmans would try to get in the way of me getting a new(er) car for a decent price. And now I am the owner of a 2007
Honda Accord! The joint drives so smoooooooooth compared to the old whip its crazy. And I finally have a cd player and working speakers. Except one speaker is blown out already, I'ma try to get Honda to fix that, can't imagine I blew out a speaker that fast. And it has one of them remote-control door unlock keyless entry thingy-thing-things. Wait till somebody white walks by my car. I promise pics soon

Around the time my parents left Ron and Spaghetti's Best Friend(his girl) came by so me and Ron could work on some music stuff. It was cool to be around his girl and see her funny side. Shorty is mad shy around me most of the time. Me and Ron ended up getting a good amount recorded. Was trynna get a sampler done for last weekend, Morgan homecoming, but like I figured we just didn't have enough time for that to happen.

Next post will be about homecoming. In the meantime here's some shit to listen to:

A new song from me on my myspace: Tommorow Never Came This is my first song on one of my new beatmaker's works. You may remember me posting the lyrics a while earlier. In case you don't, the song's about a dude who has to get trashy drunk every time he goes out, on some macho I-drink-more-than-yo-bitch-ass type steez. And he drinks to forget his problems. This isn't the final mix, but its good enough to listen to and see where finetuning is needed. And in the meantime, why not put it out to see what my ten fans think of it? So I'd appreciate comments about the song if you haven't already told me how you like it.

Introducing - The Procussions

Dirty Girl - Felt

This last one needs an intro. I caught wind of it off a blog on hiphopdx.com. Dude's name is Lil Big Yung. Shorty who wrote about it said it was her guilty pleasure, and it's becoming the same for me. The beat is CRAZY nice and really laid-back. And the rapper is fucking silly as hell. Peep how he manages to mention tampons:

The Ups And Downs AKA Hi My Name Is Arien, And I'm Moody

2008-10-16T16:37:00.001-04:00

Today started off really wack. I had to do some performance self-assessment shit for work. Explaining if I met some generic ass objectives for the year that Lockheed made me use. Very bad times. I did that from home this morning, and it ended up taking longer than I expected. Making me late to a daily meeting we've been having this week right at 8 in the morning. Only 10 minutes late, but being the only person late, and the only Black guy on the team, is definitely not a good look.

Add to that wack ass morning, the fact that last night I worked on mixing a song for TPRH that I've been working on for about a week now, and made NO PROGRESS. But as the day went on it got much better. First we all went to Dunkin Donuts around 10 and the bacon egg and cheese bagel I got brightened my mood. And Ron gave me some advice on the song that helped a bit. Then towards the end of my workday I finally got a piece of software working almost perfectly. I've been working on this shit for about 6-8 weeks, and had it working before but never this good!

Then to top it all off, on the way home, not only was traffic not as bad as it is usually, but 96.5 played Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby, one of my favorite r&b songs from that era. And right after that I switch to Power 99 and what song do they put on right then? SWV - Weak In The Knees. All praises to Allah

Now I've been called moody before, most recently by a certain nigga whose name starts with M and rhymes with scary. But I never believed it until today in the car, realizing that I was in a terrible mood this morning and now I'm all happy and shit, all cuz of external shit. So if external things and whatever's going on in your life affecting your disposition to a good extent makes you moody, then that shit's me. If I write a verse I like, I'm in a great mood afterwards, but if it comes out bad I feel like slicing somebody's Achilles Tendons.

PS. I saw a dude wit a "no bitch ass ness" shirt on today. Was in a good mood by then, and still wanted to cut him into a jigsaw puzzle. Fuck Puff Daddy for started that corny ass word

Mainstream Hip-Hop Temporarily Redeems Itself

2008-10-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

I think it's neccesary that everyone (who comes here) know that I LOVE this video. Some random guy made it, so its not official in any way. And if you catch most of the references, like Adam West from Family Guy in the beginning, then its side-splitting. And all that humor is on top of an already great song. At first I thought only TI did it justice, but now every verse is growing on me, even Wayne's(!). Once I get my video editing chops I wanna make a video like this for a Union song. Maybe Raw Life would be a good choice, or Transformers.

Now with that off my chest...I've finally gotten back on my music grind. Recorded a bunch of shit Monday. Just gotta keep it up. This shit is annoying and hard to stick with. In fact I need to be recording now. But before I go I'll say this:

You gotta like Wayne's verse in Swagger Like Us, for the simple reason that its funny at times. Dude says sharper than a swagger dagger all metal!!! What the fuck is he talking about?????

Race Matters

2008-10-06T20:06:00.000-04:00

So apparently this doesn't look like the cop tried to run son over:

Bastard just got acquitted. SMH...

And OJ dumbass got himself back in jail. As a Black man, I can't do anything but laugh. How the fuck you get off with a murder, then 13 years later to the day (peep the numerology) find yourself on the wrong side of the law again?!? How fucking retarded do you gotta be? That's like beating cancer then catching AIDS! His ass deserves the 15yr state-sponsored vacay for this stupid shit. Muthafucka was in court saying he didn't commit no crime cuz he was only getting stuff back that he rightfully owned. And that he didn't know his boys had guns. Like anybody Black ever gets to use that excuse.

Somebody explain to me how a dude is smart enough, aka has enough money to buy off a murder rap, but gets stuck with robbery? Johnnie Cochran will be sorely missed.

Funny shit is white folks is happy as hell right now. They finally "got that nigger." Cats like the jurors of the trial is all on cnn.com acting like joint aint retaliation for the murder. Yeah the fuck right, these palefaces (my new favorite word for gringos) ain't foolin nobody. Know why, cuz we expect it and would do the same thing. Bet, if Black people controlled the country, and the homos who sodomized Abner Louima caught a jaywalking trial, please believe they'd get the electric chair. Fool me once...

Myspace Filth

2008-09-27T07:57:00.004-04:00

So I'm on myspace, checking people's statuses and page changes, you know, wasting my day away second by second. One of my friends is a Engrish broad from across the pond, who always gotta new picture of her ass or something. Shorty is 19, and is always advertisin her page in bulletins and her status, on some white-girl-attention-whore please-look-at-me-momma-didnt-breast-feed-me shit. Today I looked at her video channel, didn't see no videos, but did see this comment left by a guy from Cali:

Sunday, June 29, 2008 7:42 PM

You know u got it lil mama, you just got to cum to da states to cum get what you want though or send me out there to cum get you...Its all up to you ya dig..

Mind you shorty is 19, this muthaphucka is 25! Let's forget that he's trynna get p***y on Myspace, how bout he's going after girls 6 years younger than him and 4000 miles away!

Funny shit is the dude is a rapper. Of the worst order:

Here's his wack-ass page

Been A Long Time (Since I Saw Writer's Block On The Corner And BUSTED HIS SHIT OPEN!!!)

2008-09-22T20:58:00.001-04:00

Props to whoever pushed the "boring" button on my last post. You get 5 anonymous bold/gangsta points.

Yeah so I've been in some crazy writer's block for like the past year and a half or some shit. Not complete writer's block, but definitely wasn't producing like I used to. Lotta things caused it, my partner in rhyme(and crime?) left, it was my last year of school, and I became the senior and only layout editor for the school paper. Its been slow going getting out of the slump. During this time I wrote a few verses, most of em straightforward story/introspective joints, as these are the only places where I'll lower my wordplay/complexity standards for the sake of accessibility/understanding.

Then last week I decided enough was enough. Something clicked, and I wrote a verse to a Rakim beat named, approriately enough, Been A Long Time, for the upcoming Union Mixtape. The verse isn't as ill as my old shit, but its much better than the shit I been writing lately. Then when I sent the verse to Ron, it apparently pulled him out of his similar funk, and he destroyed my verse.

So now The Union is back in familar territory, each member headhunting on every song. A very good place to be, cuz each person challenges the other to be better. Proof positive: today I wrote a verse to a new beat (since I didn't have his verse in front of me to write my verse 2 for Been A Long Time), and...let it hereby be known that I am officially BACK.

The joint came out real sick, and I can't wait to record it and the rest of the song. The funny thing is, I still got my EP to finish recording and mixing, but now I'm thinking about the mixtape. Now I know how Ron feels. The EP took and is still taking so long, It feels old to me. But I can't let myself outthink myself. Priorities and such.

Anyway The Union will soon be back Godzilla strong. That is all

Pissy Day

2008-09-15T15:54:00.000-04:00

HipHopDX Blog Post About Lil Wayne

^^^That sums up my feelings about Lil Wayne, it's completely baffling every time someone says he's the greatest. Shows just how dumb a lot of people are, explains how Bush got elected, how religious fundamentalism survives. Lil Wayne makes me fear for our species lol. I bet dolphins and chimps know he's not the greatest.

I woke up today in a pissy mood cuz of last night. See I tried to write for the first time in a long while, it'd been so long cuz I had to put off music to finish school, and that really threw off my writing rhythm. So months later, my rhythm is still thrown off, cuz only for the past maybe 2 months has my life stablized after school. But since I got all my lyrics for Thru Playin Round Here written already, writing new material has been on the backburner. So I tried, and just about failed miserably.

I mean fail like, I was in the mood to write, had new beats from Kalada that I loved and everything, and almost nothing came out. And what did come wasn't of the caliber as my last shit at all. So I was quite blown by the end of the night. Was thinking that maybe i lost my fire for writing lyrics (gasp!), a very scary thought. But then I realized that the beats had bpms that were way off from my normal range. So that's why I couldn't write to em.

Then to add insult to injury, I went to sleep and had a dream about smashin, and woke up to pee right before the smashin commenced. So yeah, today was just not meant to be a good day. It's turned out ok so far, and I plan to record tonight.

Just cuz:

The Underdog Rapper

2008-09-13T07:57:00.002-04:00

Yes I'm up this early on a Saturday. I get up at 5:30 all week, so 7:30 for today is sleeping in. I had made a post weeks ago where I said I'd explain why Big Pooh is the better rapper in Little Brother. And now I finally feel like doing it.

First a history: Little Brother is a ~~3-man~~ 2-man hip-hop group made up of two emcees, Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh, out of North Carolina, Raleigh or Durham I think, but don't quote me on that. They've had three albums, the first The Listening was fucking classic but underground so sadly most people havent heard it. For their second one, The Minstrel Show they signed with Atlantic Records I think, and it was great too but wasn't effectively promoted by the label. So they dropped from Atlantic to ABB(still not really independent, but a lot moreso than being on Atlantic.) On ABB they dropped Getback, which is the first album without producer 9th Wonder, who kinda quit the group to pursue other music business, making them a duo. Getback is a good album too, but much shorter and less focused than the first two, because the beats are from a lot of different people.

So that's that. Now you know who I'm talking about. On to our feature presentation. Out of every crew of emcees, there's always one/a few who aren't on par with the rest. Very rarely is every emcee good. And even if they are all good, you still always have the standout emcee, the one with the most charisma. So Wu-Tang has U-God on the bad end, and Ghostface and Method Man on the other. The Fugees had Pras vs Lauryn Hill. Tribe=Phife vs Q-Tip, The Roots=Malik B vs Black Thought, Blackstar=Talib Kweli vs Mos Def, Mobb Deep=Havoc vs Prodigy.

But sometimes the dark horse emcee is arguably the better one. Havoc can rap circles around Prodigy as far as I'm concerned, his flow is a lot less lazy. Malik B comes for Black Thought's head sometimes, Kweli beats Mos Def if for no other reason than because Mos Def doesn't even own a microphone no more with his actin ass. And U-God has stolen the show at least thrice on Wu songs. And me and Ron both like Phife's rhymes better than Q-Tip's.

So in Little Brother, Pooh is the dark horse. Niggas been talking shit about him since they started. Granted, he is the lyrically weaker rapper. He doesn't kick the ill punches or mind-twisting metaphors. He's much more straightforward, which is cool. One, groups are all about balance, and two, neither rapper is really that monstrous on the mic anyway. But since Pooh doesn't rap like 'Te, niggas swear that he's trash. FALSEHOODS! Sure, when they're next to each other on a song, Phonte stands out more, he has a more expressive voice, and he uses more punchelines and shit. But lets compare solo albums. Phonte dropped the Foreign Exchange-Connected inbetween their first two group albums. The joint was weird to me, blending hip-hop with neo-soul on some real sleepy beats, Phonte singing half the time. Left me sayin what the fuck is this shit, where's the beef? Meanwhile, Pooh drops Sleepers(the name a dig at his detractors) after Minstrel Show, and the shit is sooooooo fucking good. Just a plain-old good hip-hop album. Songs about how ill you are, the city Pooh grew up in, haters before talking about haters was the thing to do(werd to Maino for restarting that trend), real-life-type stories. Just fucking hip-hop, no weird shit. And with Sleepers, Pooh more than proved himself as a rapper, no he didn't all the sudden become Rakim, but he's been steadily becoming more comfortable with his style, and this album shows it. In conclusion, Pooh dropped the better solo album, and on Getback, is just as ill as Phonte, just in his own way. The underdog wins again.

I know my readers who ain't hugely into hip-hop prolly got lost with this post. So here's a question anybody can answer: Who's the underdog in The Union? Who's the charismatic one? I'll give my opinion after I see people's answers. And if you're gonna pussyfoot around the question, don't even waste time answering. Real niggas only (c/o Royce da 5'9)

That Bacardi Got Me Fucked Up!

2008-09-09T22:36:00.001-04:00

Lately all of my post titles have been references to other pieces of media, and I'm tired of preemptively explaining each one. So this shall be the last preemptive explanation. This is from one of the Juggernaut videos made by My Way Productions. Now our feature presentation.

I always end up getting ideas for blogs during times when I can't post. Like at work. I've actually had full-work days for the past couple weeks, so I've barely had time to surf the web and read the philly hip-hop message board I'm usually all over. So in my past 2 posts I said what my next post would be about. Prolly not a good idea, cuz its 10:42PM and I don't feel like making a long post. But I'm obligated to talk about that shit I said I'd talk about. Ya know, the "all I have in this world is my balls and my word" bit.

So the day after me and Mary Magdalene went to Kalada(one of my beatmakers, keep up people) to pilfer his beat stash, he sent me some texts asking about my musical background and shit. One was why do I write. A seemingly simple question, but for me its not something I think about often, at all. Like ever. Cuz I don't have a purpose like most cats. So I told Kalada that I write to be the best, to make the best music. Which is the truth, I do it to be ill and cuz I love it, all selfish reasons. I ain't one of them dudes saying I write for the new generation or some shit. If lil niggas feel it or the music does something good then ok, cool. But that's just the icing, the German Chocolate Cake underneath is all about good music.

See it's like this: I grew up listening to Wu-Tang and A Tribe Called Quest from my earliest days. Straight set-up huh? Then after them was Nas. It Was Written was my shit. And Nas got me into writing rhymes, cuz I listened to him and felt like I could do that. So it might sound stupid-cocky, but part of my reason for being in Hip-Hop is to make better shit than Nas, which I feel is mad possible. Even his earliest shit.

Anyway that got us into a convo about Nas and the 90s style of hip-hop. This is always a sore spot for me cuz I grew up on 90s Hip-Hop, and to see its descendant style of Hip-Hop nowadays fucking sucks. Cats aint puttin nearly the work and time and effort into music as they used to. For the most part at least. So Kalada said the 90s style is outdated, which is why Nas isn't as good now as he used to be. This was the first anyone ever said something like Nas is outdated to me, and the statement really caught me off-guard. I'm still not sure I agree, but I know its sad to see one of my favorite emcees wallow in medocrity. Fuck what you heard, Untitled (used to be Nigger) is boring. Nas still can't pick beats to save his life, and his songwriting since Stillmatic has kept getting worse and worse.

Dude may be outdated. But I don't wanna believe that, because cats like Rakim and Kool G Rap and Jay-Z can still make good music. And mad underground artists from that era can too. But don't think I'm worried for Nas, I'm worried cuz if Nas can be outdated, what says I can't? Several years after my first album niggas don't check for me no more??? A very sad thought. So the shit can't be write, Nas is just a bad-decision-maker.

Still lookout for that post about Big Pooh being a better song-writer than Phonte. Underdogs all the way. And remind me not to post so late anymore. Ran out of steam like shit. And it don't help that I spiked my green tea with some likely anti-antoxidant Bacardi Peach. Sleepy as hell...

Tsk, Tsk Akon

2008-09-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

Why can't this dude stop fuckin niggas up at his concerts?

Break Down or Be Clowned, Baby Doll Are You Down, I Get Around

2008-09-02T23:30:00.002-04:00

^^Tupac for those few who may not know

There's a reason why I don't fuck wit BET: tonight they're playing Soul Plane back-to-back. I gotta admit parts of that movie were funny, but overall the shit sucked and makes me ashamed to be Black.

Labor Day weekend back in Baltimore was great. I watched somebody get tattooed, making me want my first tattoo a lot more. And I met up with one of my beatmakers with Mary and we chilled out for a while. It's always ill to meet people who are as into music as I am. So to hear Mary and Kalada's talk about music and what they like, and then to watch Kalada play 8 beats, all nice, and Mary choose 4 she wanted was a very good experience. My first time feeling like a manager as opposed to just an artist in my own right, and a good manager at that.

It's been damn near impossible trynna find shit for Mary to write to and sing on, since her style of music ain't anywhere near in style, werd to Beyonce and Rihanna. But I just knew with the right direction and a good beatmaker we could get her some shit. Now she has some stuff to work on, as Against The Wall is gettin real lonely on her myspace.

After Mary Kalada and me worked on finding something I liked. We ended up arranging two beats on-the-spot, him listening to my directions to make something in tune to what I was looking for. Ended up with three beats and a redub of an old one I had from him. And one of these joints fuckin KNOCKS, like nobody's business, this shit is stupid good. Anyway a very good day, ended with me randomly seeing another of my beatmakers, Nickel N Diamond. Makes me realize that I gotta stay in touch with people better now that I ain't at school no more. And my boy AM opened for Freeway Saturday night in B'more. Twas a great time for hip-hop.

Kalada asked me some real crazy questions today, but I'm too tired to go into it tonight. Didn't get back from Baltimore till like 1:30 AM. Got up for work 4.5 hours later. So yeah, sleep is needed post-haste.

Wait A Minute That Was Racist!!

2008-08-29T14:35:00.000-04:00

So yesterday for the first time in years I encountered prejudice directed right at me. I went to WaWa for lunch, and parked next to a red van. As I got out my car, I noticed the van had a white lady on the phone in the passenger seat (and I parked on the van's right side, ie her side.) Now I always find these situations a lil weird, because some people (like me sometimes) like to think that they're untouchable in their cars, but of course once somebody walks close by you realize just how wrong you were.

Anyway guess how this paleface (lmao) handles it: she locks her doors a second after I get out my car! Hilarious. For anyone to think I'd attack them or rob them is comedy of the highest order! Apparently young Black men with button-ups and khakis on headed to WaWa for lunch might have something more sinister on their minds. I thought about making her feel guilty somehow, like say something smart to her to let her know that I realize she locked her doors cuz I was near. But fuck it, idiots will be idiots, so I just walked in and got my chicken cheesesteak chuckling to myself the whole way.

Late I been recording new music just about everyday, (I told yall cats that TPRH was coming tomorrow!) trynna stay focused and finish the joint quickly, but with the quality that a Gray Matters production comes with. But yesterday I chose not to record anyything, because my needles finally came in the mail! So let the journey to becoming a DJ begin. This shit is hard, counting beats by hand, trynna keep a smooth but firm touch on a record while the platter is moving underneath, scratching. This shit is definitely hard, It'll be years before anybody hears me do anything on these tables.

And Ron is selling beats semi-regularly now. Yay for him. Its been great watching him get better, and to have a hand in that. Don't forget to finish mastering that album nigga!

If you haven't heard of Jean Grae, or she doesn't impress you, shut up and listen to this:

Next post I'll explain why Big Pooh's album is better than his groupmate Phonte's solo album. Niggas need to quit sleepin on the "other mc" in emcee duos. Pooh's like the new Phife Dawg, not as flashy, but just as good and arguably better at times.

Still Reeling

2008-08-25T21:42:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was mad decent (Philly-decent, not normal-decent), and I'm still kinda high off it. I hate to bore y'all with a "here's what I did" post, but fuck it, yall love it. All 10 of yall! So here we go.

Thursday I went to a cat named 2ew Gunn Ciz's mixtape release party. Here's the mixtape cover, just cuz I love the color pops off of it.

Whoops that's the flier for the release party (very similar to the album cover). Not a good look, it being this hard to find the album cover for the mixtape. I wasted about 10 minutes googling it and checking his blog.

Anyway I went to this release party by myself, so drunk I had to be. Can't be out alone and not get drunk, there's absolutely no way to have fun alone and sober. But I got drunk, had like 3 vodka and sprites and 2 beers, and had myself a good time. The show started super-d-late. Which left a bad taste in my mouth. And of course the sound wasn't the greatest, cuz local shows never have good sound. But I did get to meet 2ew's whole crew, Beat Garden Ent, and got his manager's card. His manager actually recognized me off myspace and approached me, and ended up being really cool. That's encouraging. But here's what really made my night. I bounce about half past midnight cuz I got work the next day, and what do ya know I see a cipher.

So I walk up and listen, cipher ends, and me and one of the freestylers start talking about hip-hop. Some girls walk by, I look, then the dude goes and talks to them, exit stage right. A white(looking, might have been hispanic for all I know) guy walks by and I hear his name, B Mack. The co-founder of Foundation Magazine, a new magazine all about mixtapes, started in Philly. Cats was giving out copies of the mag back in the venue, along with mad other people getting their promotional stuff out, so I already had a copy.

So of course we get to talking, bout how hip-hop ain't what it used to be, how his advice for me is to put out 2 mixtapes a month like Lil Wayne. So hopefully when I email dude The Union's next mixtape he gets it into the next issue. And maybe I can pull some connects off him, especially NYC connects.

I network better when comfortable in my surroundings, and being surrounded by a slight drunken haze does the trick. When I start claiming Gray Matters on my taxes I should write off liquor as a business expense.

Don't worry the rest of my story should be short. Friday was an absolute furniture fiasco. A word of advice, dont buy furniture for your apartment without first being semi-sure they can get into your tiny-ass hallway. I tried to help Justin from work get a couch and sofa and it ended up taking all night. But he redeemed himself when me, him and Matt all played rock Band on sunday. Don't front on that game, it's maddeningly fun. Even the singing, which I am a beast at. I need to buy it so I can get some friends.

In TPRH news, I recorded a song and a half since my last post. I'm debating making a new sampler to put on the myspace, but part of me just wants to leave the shit I got up there up, so some songs can be new once it comes out. Maybe I'll make a sampler with just pieces of verses, to really tease cats without giving it all up. Ya'know, why buy the cow...

Plenty promotions plans floating around my head/the list I made on my comp. All need new music to be promoted tho. So I gotta get cracking. Hopefully I can be done this EP by the end of September. If all goes well. Gotta crack the whip on recording. It's so easy and tempting to just be lazy. Sloth killed the mc's career

Another Boring Work Blog

2008-08-19T11:24:00.003-04:00

I'm just not in the mood for programming today. Can't seem to concentrate on anything. And my team lead wants a short demo of my stuff this afternoon. Here's hopin I can get my head in the game soon.

As far as The Union goes, me and Ron made some plans for self-promotion, which has me feeling a little better about that situation. I was almost going thru a depression, feeling like we were hopelessly gonna be stuck in obscurity forever. All the lanes I could think of for promotion didn't seem feasible for some reason. Then we talked about the different lanes: my ideas and his, and our future projects, and that weight is lifted off me now. Having a plan for the future makes it so much brighter. Thru Playin Round Here is now priority one, Heatwave Vol II is scrapped indefinitely. After TPRH will be a group mixtape. In the meantime for fans its all about The Perseverance, hopefully physical copies and a remastered (not really "re") version will be out soon. I'm proud of Da Vinci for how well put together this joint is. Those who haven't heard it yet are in for a serious treat.

Hopefully this post cleared my head a little bit so I can get back to work. Check out my buttons on the bottom of the posts. Click em if you dare. And don't ask how I got em. Cuz the answer involves me being that dude. Peace

Public Bathrooms Suck

2008-08-13T14:50:00.002-04:00

I'm tired of going to pee and seeing people's hair all over the urinal. What gives?!? How is your hair getting in the urinal? My theory is we got lummoxes washing their balls in the urinals.

Another thing that pisses me off about public bathrooms is guys makin too much noise in there. Huffin and puffin, sighing and grunting as they pee like "Ughh! This piss feels so relieving!" These annoyances don't happen at The Throne, the single-person handicapped bathroom that I use sometimes.

For the past month I've been all over NERD's Fly Or Die. The songs about girls dancin in clubs and about sex suck, but the other songs make up for them. Here's one of my favorites from this album

Guess Who's Bizzack AKA The "Get On My Level" Post

2008-08-11T07:13:00.001-04:00

Still puttin raps in my prose/

don't make me have to relapse on these hoes/

Didn't post all last week cuz I was OT for work in Orlando. Should you get the chance, don't go there during the summer. Hot and humid as hell! My glasses would fog up when leaving an air-conditioned car. The trip was pretty fun, 7 of us were under 30, so goin out to eat and shit was mad fun.

Went to Medieval times:

Payin $50 for dinner, a show, and watered down beer makes you make that face. Thank God for per diem, that whole night will prolly end up bein reimbursed.

I don't really feel like describing the week. It was work, I think about work too much at work, fuck letting it take over my personal life too. Or even letting you guys think work is my life.

One more thing about work tho before I move on, for lunch I sometimes go to Burger King. I love the BK Lounge(werd to Dane Cook) because they don't front at all. Its big beef hamburgers that taste great and ruin all the weight-watchin and ounce-bouncing you did during the previous week. Lately they got this Indy Whopper, something that everyone should try to eat at least once. Its huge:

Get on that level

On to better matters. I bought some turntables 2 weeks ago. Been wanting to try DJ'in for years, but only now do I got the money to try. So I bought the tables for a damn steal from one cat who gave up DJ'in several years ago. Sad to see a hip-hopper quit, but the silver lining to that drizzle is me gettin some turntables 2-for-1.

get on this level. Technics SL-1200-MK2, bitches

Had to buy a mixer, and the needle went bad. So now I gotta buy some more needles. Still with no mixer and one broken needle I got a good ass deal. Bought some records from a local DJ today, so now I got a decent collection to play with. Can't wait

Apparently Da Vinci's punk ass is mostly thru writing for his next album. I'm annoyed with myself cuz I haven't even finished my first joint yet. I got some songs on it that I keep putting off finishing, like I know I won't do em justice once I record em. Now I just procrastinate without thinking. Gotta get out of that, at least try to do the songs right, and if it don't happen at least I went that far. MAde some progress today, just makin a sheet that details the album's progress. Done it before, but this time in excel, so hopefully I'll keep it updated this time. Goals make people more productive I hear.

Bought a bunch of books last weekend, one a cookbook. Made this cheese and vegetable soup:

get on that level. My soup is bangin!

Saw Little Brother at the Trocadero this Saturday. They really do have a great live show, but I wish Pooh woulda spoke up more instead of lettin Phonte run the show. Still an incredible show.

And one last pic of me, just cuz it cam out good

Gangsta Muppets

2008-07-29T19:33:00.008-04:00

Props to Josh for reminding me about this video:

Thicky-Thick

2008-07-29T19:33:00.006-04:00

Yesterday Murda Murry told me some cat ran up on her sayin some shit like (paraphrasing):

Filthy Excuse For A Guy: Excuse me, I just had to get your attention. You so phat I could see you from all the way over there(points across the campus yard).
Murda Murry: That's prolly cuz the campus is empty. And what the hell you mean fat?
FEFAG: Oh sorry I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't mean phat like big, I mean you real thick in the pants. So you wanna chill sometime?

Funny shit is this dude apparently didn't think he was being disrespectful. So thick in the pants is officially a real compliment thats works on women without one dollar bills in their underwear, and I just didn't get the memo. Fellas take heed, thick in the pants is now all the buttering up necessary to get a lady in your bed. Murry must be stuck-up or something, cuz she told the nigga no and bounced.

Speaking of guys hollerin at girls, I saw some construction guys barking at a lady walking past them on the street today. Nah for real, these cats was barkin at this sexy puerto rican walkin down main street. Gotta love Norristown and all its Ricans. Anyway...

The art of pullin girls must be dead. Cuz if dudes ain't like the types I described above, then they giving the girl too much. Bein so nice she can't stand you like that but she'll still take whatever you offerin besides you. Niggas eatin-to-beat. Wack-ass bastards

3 great fat/phat girl moments in hip-hop:

Fat bitches get scooped like hagen-daas! -Freeway

If you fat, I might take one for the team
But I gotta get drunk first knowhatimean, come on
-Ghostface Killah

I couldn't get the part I wanted, where he sweeps the skinny dancin broads away and some big girls take their places. But this part is the best part of the video anyway, and if you really need it to relate to the post, the girl is skinny, she probably deserved it. She probably makes her man eat-it-hopin-he-can-beat-it. What a bitch

This is Why Hip-Hop Isn't Dead

2008-07-28T10:31:00.002-04:00

Cats like Joell Ortiz keep rescucitating it. Peep this video:

Joell Ortiz - Memories/Letter To Obama