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My directorial debut: Latimore Platz “10 Stone” music video
A couple weeks back I mentioned I was directing a music video.Well, here it is. My directorial debut:
Download Latimore Platz free EP here: http://www.divshare.com/direct/13124250-8ad.zip
Here’s some notes about the video and a summary of some of the lessons I learned:Quote of the week – Jimmy Carter
“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God–too many of us now, tend to worship self indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things, and consuming things, does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose ” – President Jimmy Carter (1975 Address to Nation)Word is Blog
I’m gonna direct & shoot a music video
There’s a scene from the movie Clockers that always stuck with me. It’s when the main character Strike tells the little kid Tyrone that “everybody needs a hobby”, then reveal his expert knowledge of trains and an elaborate train-set that he keeps hidden away in an apartment that none of the thugs he sells drugs with know about.
I never really thought about it much until I was trying to stop drinking and realize that like Tyrone I didn’t have any hobby. Kinda hard to stop drinking when you don’t have shit else to do with your time, you know? Music was my hobby until it became my job, and since then I never found anything to replace it with. So six months ago I started reading anything I could get my hands on. While I didn’t have any specific topic in mind, my hope was that something would jump out to me and peak my interest, and from there I would dig deeper into the subject. I settled on video and documentaries.
Bon Iver “Woods”: Kanye sampled this
Every time Kanye West puts out a new record people rush to expose all the samples he uses. At this point I’m not sure if the purpose of publishing these lists is to discredit him, demystify the production process, or to give him props. All I know is that every time the list is revealed I’m always impressed by how eclectic his music selection is. Even for a hip-hop producer the range of what he listens to is pretty impressive, particularly in regards to the time periods. He’s one of the rare cats that is equally aware of both new and old music.While there’s a youtube video floating around that details all the samples on Kanye West’s new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, I noticed that there was one song missing from it. This song is called “Woods” and it’s by Bon Iver. Posting a song that somebody sampled in itself is kind of boring to me, unless the song is really dope, and this song is really dope. In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never heard a song that sounds like “Woods”. It’s some one-of-a-kind shit:
http://www.divshare.com/download/13397528-461
Word is Blog.
How to make the Columbus Library a better place
I go to the library quite a bit. Maybe once a week to pick up or drop off books. A couple other times a week I go just to get some quiet time in away from home. I think it’s safe to say that I like the library. I like the library for many reasons. One reason I like the library is because they care enough about the comfort of their visitors to create a suggestion box so we can share our ideas for improvement and better service. As great of an idea as this is, it’s even greater that they actually read our suggestions for improvement and post up the most noteworthy ones on their bulletin board in the lobby. And even greater than that is this actual suggestion that is currently hanging in the lobby, which will probably make your day. Here’s an image of the letter and the transcription:
The Groove Shack movie
In 1995 I was just beginning my exploration into actually making hip-hop. I grew up in Columbus, but was living in Springfield, Oh at the time going to school. Inkwel and I had formed Greenhouse Effect during late night freestyle sessions, been to the studio a couple times, but had yet to put out any recorded material or even do a real show. It would be quite some time before either of those things happened. At that time our main focus was to just be a part of it in any way possible, which was easy in Springfield since we lived there, but easier said than done in Columbus, which was 45-minutes away. As far as Columbus went, we were strictly observers.
Part of our experience at the time was visiting Columbus every chance we could get to catch shows and learn about the scene. Everything was so new then and the Columbus hip-hop scene was the closest any of us would get to being at a New York park jam. The scene was so raw; DJ battles, emcee battles, shows in weird places (because venues didn’t really allow local hip-hop in the doors in those days). I would come to Columbus to visit my family almost every other weekend and find time to dig for records there as well. One of the record stores I would visit was The Groove Shack.
Around that time, the public access channel started airing a show called The Groove Shack, a 30-minute show that featured the record stores’ monthly open mic. If you were just getting into hip-hop around 1993-1994 and turned on your television and saw a room of 100 people packed wall to wall, freestyling at a high level, and battling I guarantee you it would be something you would never forget. I know this was the case for me so I made up my mind then and there that I had to visit one of these open mics.
Who is Latimore Platz? Part Three
Latest promo for my dude Latimore Platz. Check it out…
Smokey Part 2 is available now. Download directly HERE or via bandcamp:
One trip to the Library
Earlier tonight, I was headed out the house to run some errands. I needed to return a book to the library and pick up a box from U-haul that was big enough to mail a keyboard in. My gas tank was on empty so I stopped at a gas station a few blocks from my house. I live near a lot of factories, and this gas station isn’t really a real gas station, since there’s no attendant and no store connected to it. It’s in-between a bunch of industrial buildings and there’s just pumps and a shelter over top. It’s one of those barebones stations that truckdrivers use that you usually see right off the freeway.Off in the distance I saw somebody running towards me.
I bought a van
After much debate about whether it was a justifiable expense or not, I went ahead and bought a van. It’s not a new van, in fact it’s pretty old and needs a good amount of work done to it before it’s road worthy, but I feel confident about my decision. Next year I plan on doing a lot of touring so it makes sense. My goal is to get it fixed up little by little and have it road-worthy by spring. I will tell you one thing: parts for one-ton vans are way more expensive than what I’m used to! Sheesh. I had a muffler put on it already and that was around $200, which is way more than I’m used to spending. At any rate, I’m gonna blog about it from time to time, just in case people are curious about the experience, or want to share their experience fixing up something like this.Recommendations for a name are also welcome.
Word is blog
Professionals vs Amateurs
I had a conversation with a friend about the difference between professionals and amateurs the other day, and was inspired to write about this.In every persons’ life there is a point where on their path to be whats considered a professional, they’re considered an amateur. Whether that be by their own definition or by those around them. They work hard at their craft and feel like they just haven’t made it yet. Maybe because people aren’t taking them seriously yet, or because they haven’t made any money from their craft yet, or maybe they aren’t getting the opportunities that others around them (i.e. professionals) are getting.
Sometimes people feel like they’re not professional because they still feel like their skill is developing.
Nothing wrong with that I guess.
But I tend to look at the difference between what separates an amateur from a professional as something completely different.
Mike Hankinson: J-Dilla Sampled this…a lot
I’ve had this album for a while, maybe since 2002 or so, but recently rediscovered it. The record is by Mike Hankinson and it’s called The Unusual Classical Synthesizer. It was released in 1972, which was back when synthesizers were the new thing to experiment with, and everything on this record is a synth version of a classical song. For those that dig for records you know these types of records aren’t really hard to find once you find them, but this one is cool to me because the very first song on it was sampled by J Dilla like 2-3 times. Even with him hitting it up so many times, it’s still got a ton of parts that can be used. Check it out. Download it if you like it.
Word is blog
R.I.P Eyedea
eyedea & abilities Yesterday I got news that my good friend and fellow Rhyemsayers artist Eyedea (Michael Larson) passed away. I’m still processing this and very much in disbelief that he is gone. This was my dude and I’m kinda fucked up right now. I’m not at the point where i can even really reminisce or do shit like that yet. I’m really just mourning the loss of one of my dudes who died way too early. He wasn’t even 30.
Here is a star-tribune piece on him: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/105151444.html?page=1&c=y
Quote(s) of the Week – Dick Gregory
“…when you young kids burn them draft cards, you’re saying to us ‘old fools, one day old fool you gonna get this country in a war and we not gonna fight for you, which means you’re gonna have to fight it yourself!‘ But we old fools got news for you youngsters, before we ever have to fight our own wars we’ll quit havin em.”- Dick Gregory (from the Light Side: The Dark Side)”
“You youngsters got a big job today. You gotta ask a lotta questions. The one question you gotta ask loud and clear is a simple question. That question is, if democracy is as good as we tell you it is, then why in the hell are we running all over the world trying to ram it down peoples throat with a gun? And the day you youngsters work to make this democracy work right for the first time, that’s the day we can bring the guns home. Because you see, anything good you dont have to force on people–they will steal it.” Dick Gregory (from the Light Side: The Dark Side)
Word is Blog
To Drink or Not to Drink Part Three: The Meeting
During the first month I stopped drinking, the most overwhelming feeling I had was the need to talk. I’ve got plenty of friends that drink a lot, but I didn’t really feel like any of them were at the same place I was at with it, so I felt cut off; almost as if I had drawn a line in the sand that I couldn’t cross out of respect for them. The last thing I wanted to do was to come off preachy or like I was better than anybody else just because I had managed to stop drinking for a few weeks. Hell, everybody that drinks has taken time away from it, so what made my time away any more significant than theirs? I couldn’t decide either, so I kept quiet, and just wrote about it here, still not talking to the people around me much about it.
After a while I realized that not talking about it might not be healthy and I decided that maybe I need to go to a meeting. It was the only option I could think of that pretty much guaranteed that everybody in the room would understand what I was going thru. So I made the call. I described what I was feeling to the lady on the phone and she told me since I was going on my own and had stopped on my own that it would best if I just went to a meeting where I could sit and observe first, just to see if it’s for me or not. She asked what side of town I lived on, and when I told her, she told me there was actually a meeting going on about 2 miles from my house in about 45 minutes. I wrote down the address, and thought about it for a few minutes. Then I decided to go.
Paypal problem with Blueprint Who
Some of yall have pointed out that Paypal issued you a refund for your purchase of the digital version of Blueprint Who. It’s a pretty confusing situation so here’s the explanation: When I setup the album on Bandcamp (the company that allows us to sell/give away digital downloads), they have a place where you enter your Paypal ID. Unfortunately, when I entered this i forgot a letter, and therefore my Paypal ID had a typo in it for the first day or two that the album was for sale. I noticed it and contacted Bandcamp, who told me that Paypal could fix it. Paypal told me that all those transactions are unclaimed and out there in limbo, so i had the option of either a) contacting my ISP and creating a e-mail address that matches the typo or b) contacting everybody who bought it and telling them to cancel their order and re-order it. The first option isn’t gonna happen because my ISP is too strict, and the second option seemed like a bad idea as well. I didn’t want to contact everybody that bought it one by one and tell them to cancel and rebuy it because I fucked up, so I decided to just take my loss like a man and move forward. I asked them if they could cancel all the transactions and they told me they couldn’t. Paypal also told me that those transactions would be out there in limbo forever, and I was definitely kinda bummed about it.
