Quote of the week: Robert M. Pirsig
“When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts. Mark Twain’s experience comes to mind, in which after he mastered the analytic knowledge to pilot the Mississippi he discovered the river had lost its beauty. Something is always killed, but what’s less noticed in the arts is something is always created too.”
Is 50 cent really smart or really lucky?
Regardless of how you feel about his albums or his current releases, it goes without saying that 50 cent is a successful artist. Aside from his obvious knack for beef, he’s always had something about him that stood out amongst his peers, and most of the time that wasn’t even the music he made, most of the time it was his personality. For years, he’s stirred up just enough controversy, and exposed just enough of his personal life to stay relevant and keep us tuned in. He does charity work, movies, gives great interviews, and always has a well thought-out strategy for developing his artists. While the music he’s been making since his debut album has left a lot to be desired, I’ve always thought this cat was pretty entertaining, and pretty much chalked his success up to his personality and story.
But lately I’ve started to admire him for another reason, that has nothing to do with his personality. The fact of the matter is that 50 cent is a pretty damn smart dude, and his personality is just a function of that intelligence.
Blueprint announces the “Sunshine State of Mind” Tour
Hello Friends. Although it’s officially winter I would like to announce the Sunshine State of Mind Tour, a week-long headlining tour that will be brought to the sunniest of sunny places, Florida. If you live in the state of Florida, I would like to officially invite you out to one of the shows.
Thursday December 15th – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum: details & RSVP
Friday, December 16th – Orlando, FL @ The Social: details & RSVP
Saturday, December 17th – Jacksonville, FL @ The Phoenix Taproom: details and RSVP
Sunday, December 18th – Orlando, FL @ Blank Space (Producer Showcase): details and RSVP
Tuesday, December 20th – Lake Worth, FL @ Propaganda: details and RSVPThanks for the support,
Printmatic!
I’m working on a new album
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say. In fact it’s the opposite. I’ve had a lot to say, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and say it.
But I do want to say this: I’m currently knee deep into working on my follow-up to Adventures in Counter-Culture.
It doesn’t have an official title yet, it doesn’t have any guest appearances on it yet, but trust me that it’s definitely underway and could possibly be finished by the end of this winter.
“Keep Bouncing” Remix
A fresh “keep bouncing” remix done several months ago. If you’re on Soundcloud, follow the kid. Enjoy.
KEEP-BOUNCING-REMIX by printmatic
Alternate link: http://soundcloud.com/printmatic/keep-bouncing-remix
Columbus Producer Community
To all my friends out there that do beats and are from the Columbus area, as the winter approaches we start to get close to that time that is typically the most depressing yet the most productive for us. Since we can’t go out, we make beats. If you are one of those people, and would like to get out of the house and share your work, I have an idea. I would like to build a Columbus Producer Community. Nothing even very formal, but just a place where we can all meet up and share our work (either weekly, biweekly, or monthly), at a spot with a nice PA, probably during happy hour or something. If there’s enough interest I will get the spot.
I think it would help build community and inspire us all, two things that are always needed. I’ve never been one for beat battles myself, because I always felt like the beats had to fit a certain type of sound or style for a producer to be successful in that format, and also because they don’t really build community. So I would like to try something different. I’ve got a lot of cats in mind already, and you probably already know who you are. If I don’t know who you are and you’re interested in participating in this please e-mail me at info(at)printmatic.net and send me the links to your work.
Thanks in advance.
Eyedea: One Year Later, Before and After
I just woke up and realized that it’s been one year since Eyedea passed. It really hit me today that my dude is gone. Not that I didn’t feel it before but I would be lying if i said there wasn’t a decent amount of denial going on. It’s just hard to believe that somebody who did so much and was such a big part of my hip-hop experience is gone, and that I won’t see him again. The past year I’ve been so many places and talked to so many people who he has touched with his music. He touched people in the way that you wish you could touch people as an artist.
I was at a show recently and a cat asked me to tell him the story of how me and Eyedea met, how we became friends, and the story behind the song “Before and After”. He said he’s always wanted to know because we never really spoke about it in public.
Last year I wanted to write something but his passing was too fresh and hurt too much so I never did. I kept putting it off and didn’t want to be throwing our personal stuff out there in the public realm. But now I realize that sharing stories about people we love and have lost is part of celebrating their lives, and part of the healing process; and because I never allowed myself to take part in that I had never allowed myself the opportunity to mourn and heal.
So here it goes.
Artists that have influenced me: Bjork
More than ever, since the release of Adventures in Counter-Culture, one of the questions I get asked the most often is who my favorite artists are and what artists have influenced me. I guess back when my album 1988 came out it was pretty obvious, but now its not so clear since adventures is such an eclectic album.
I realized the other day that while the people who hang around with me know that my taste in music is extremely varied, the people who listen to my music may not, so I always thought it would be cool to actually write about artist or songs that influenced and inspired me.
The first artist I would like to talk about is Bjork.
Blueprint midwest tour dates announcement
Starting today in Grand Rapids, MI, you can see Printmatic himself over the next week at a number of stops across the Midwestern US. The quick jaunt ends with a what’s sure to be an incredible show in Print’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio, joined by Soul Position groupmate Rjd2, as well as local artist Envelope.
BLUEPRINT TOUR DATES:
10.02 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme: RSVP
10.04 – Fairborn, OH @ One Eyed Jacks: RSVP
10.05 – Peoria, IL @ SOP’s on Main: Buy Tickets | RSVP
10.06 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s: Buy Tickets | RSVP
10.07 – St. Louis, MO @ Gramophone: RSVP
10.08 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s: Buy Tickets | RSVPThe Fire Curtain
photo credit Irok Torres This picture was taken from our show Friday night in Miami Beach, Florida. It’s me with the Keytar and my bass player Bobby Silver on stage doing our thing. The thing that you don’t see in this picture is my DJ, Rare Groove. He’s actually there but can’t be seen because of this big black curtain behind us that’s covering him, which is where things get interesting.
That black curtain is called a Fire Curtain. Most really big venues have them installed so that in the event of a fire on stage a button is pressed and this huge curtain drops, cutting off the fire so that it doesn’t spread and burn the whole building down. The curtain is at least 40-50 feet wide and at the base of it is a giant metal rod that helps it fall faster from the ceiling where it’s held. It’s huge and impossible for the average person to lift or move by themselves once it’s on the ground.
The Last Five Albums I Bought
People ask me all the time what I’m currently listening to. Sometimes it’s easy to remember and share, but other times it’s hard to remember because i listen to a lot of different music sometimes. Then there’s also the dont-speak-about-other-rappers policy that I try to subscribe to. This policy keeps me from getting into arguments with people who judge me for what I might be listening to, as well as preventing me from accidentally saying I don’t listen to somebody’s favorite rapper. But I decided that instead of trying to summarize everything I’m listening to, it would be better to just list the last 5 albums I’ve purchased, because that says a lot more than anything else.
So here’s a list of the last 5 albums I’ve bought and my thoughts on each:
1. Nikki Jean – Pennies in a Jar
Before I share my thoughts on this I have to admit that I am a bit biased. Nikki Jean is a friend of mine. I met her about 3-4 years ago while I was working on Adventures in Counter-Culture and we became friends instantly. She’s a pretty awesome person and artist so I don’t feel bad about that bias at all.
Blueprint News Update – September 2011
Hey Friends. It’s been a while since I’ve written so I figured I would write one post that summarizes all the stuff that’s been going on. This will also be my first newsletter that I’m sending to those that subscribe to my mailing list as well.
Should I bring back the forum?
UPDATE: The forum is back! Register HERE
Many peoples first knowledge of me as an artist was thru the independent label that I ran for several years, Weightless Recordings, and the website weightless.net. Throughout the years of running the website, the forum was always a very prominent part of it, serving as our own community within the hip-hop community. Somewhere you could go and interact with some really interesting and funny people about a variety of topics.
Well, at any rate, since I’ve been touring so much in support of Adventures in Counter-Culture I can no longer really run Weightless, so I want to explore the option of bringing the message board/forum to printmatic.net. I realize that things have changed a lot over the years with more social networking sites like twitter and facebook, and that some people may have either never used forums before or have found other ways to communicate with artists, but there are still a number of sites that have very active forum communities, so I figure it’s worth asking and exploring.
So let me know how you feel:
[poll id=”13″]
Thanks!
September dates added to the Family Vacation Tour
More dates added to the Family Vacation tour in September. Peep the press release and all twelve addition tour dates after the jump:
You didn’t think the tour was only a few weeks long, did you? Just announced, Atmosphere has added MORE dates to The Family Vacation Tour. On the second leg of this tour, labelmates Evidence and Blueprint will be joining once again. The tour starts in Madison, Wisconsin and ends in Omaha, Nebraska and will travel throughout much of the South and Midwest of the United States.
Fan Pre-sale begins TOMORROW, Wednesday, July 27th at 3pm local time at ArtistArena.
09.13 – Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theatre
09.14 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
09.15 – Athens, GA @ New Earth Music HallQuote of the week: Chuck D
Ppl make the drug game look like a joke while the pimps exploit the youth masquerading it like freedom.Then the damaged are sidestepped...@MrChuckDMistachuckTell ’em Chuck!
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