Things I regret buying: Novation Remote SL midi controller
Instead of talking about a piece of musical gear I own and love, I thought it would be more interesting to dedicate this post to a purchase that I absolutely regret making.See, artists have to have gear to make music, so there is almost an endless search for the right setup. The right recording space, mics, keyboards, midi controllers, recording software, etc. All of it has to be right for you so that when you get in there to make music your creativity isn’t interrupted by technical problems.
So you scope out gear, make lists, and demo things, going back and forth to Guitar Center making sure it’s what you what. And then one day, when you’re money is right, you finally make that purchase. Most of the time, it’s a great experience. You get a great piece of gear that compliments what you do, and your music benefits because of it.
But every now and then it goes horribly wrong.
Blueprint on the cover of The Columbus Alive Magazine
If you live in Columbus, OH or the surrounding areas, please check out this weeks Columbus Alive magazine. It’s free and it’s on newsstands all over the city. Once you find it you will see a familiar face on the cover of it–that’s me. It’s a huge honor and privilege to be selected to be on the cover of the biggest free publication in the city, something that not many artists can claim, as well as being on an issue that is so well done in it’s assessment of the local hip-hop scene in my hometown. The piece is about the past, present, and future of the Columbus hip-hop scene and how far things have come over the years. Had to grab like 10 copies of this for my moms yo.If you would like to check out the on-line text of the articles, check out these links:
Hip-hop in Columbus: Key moments
Hip-hop in Columbus: Rap renaissance
Hip-hop in Columbus: Where it’s atWord is blog
Also, if you live in Columbus or the surrounding area, I’m headlining a show at Skullys on Friday July 29th. Playing with my friends Nick Tolford & Co. and Time & Temperature. If you don’t know about this show, now you do. This will be my last show in Columbus before going on tour for a couple more months so I hope you will make it out.
So I’m gonna direct a music video…for myself
If you’ve been reading this blog for the past year then you know I’ve developed an interest in video/film. It began last year when I stopped drinking and picked up a ton of books on video production and movie making. Basically all I did last summer was read and ride my bike all over the place, two things I rarely did while I was drinking. Shortly thereafter, I borrowed a friends camera and decided to get my feet wet by working on some projects for my friend and fellow artist Latimore Platz. The first was a series of videos called “Who is Latimore Platz?” and the second was a music video for his song “10 Stone”.
After those I felt a little more confident in my work, and decided to put together the concept for what turned into The Adventures of Blueprint. I pitched it to Rhymesayers as something that I would direct and produce and they liked it enough to use as the main on-line component for Adventures in Counter-Culture, which to me was a huge confidence booster, especially knowing how critical they are. It made me feel like maybe I could take on more and more ambitious things, but once the campaign for my record started I found that I didn’t have nearly as much time to work on video projects as I initially thought I would. I started touring in February of this year and prior to June I had only been home a combined 2 weeks. While I was on tour in Austin I found somebody on craigslist that was selling the camera I had my eyes on (canon t2i) for super cheap, so I picked it up and started taking pictures again, in hopes that when I had time to sit back down with video I would have a better understanding of photography and therefore be able to capture better images.
Well, it’s time to get busy.
Documentary Recomendation: The King of Kong
This documentary isn’t new by any means, and there’s a chance that you may have already seen it. But if you haven’t, I would highly suggest The King of Kong: A fistful of quarters. I’m not gonna even write a review of it. I’m gonna post this description and trailer and hopefully you’ll check it out. If you do, please come back here and let me know what you think in the comments section of this post.The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters follows a middle school science teacher as he battles a hot sauce mogul for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic Donkey Kong.
Word is Blog
Please vote for one of these logos
While working on various video projects this summer, it dawned on me that I should probably have a production company with an actual name. Not that I’m I’m really a fan of formality and shit like that, but I guess if I’m going to be doing stuff for more people than just myself or my homies I might want to think a little bigger, you know? So I decided to name it Grand Griot, and I asked my guy to put together some logos for me. I was having a hard time choosing one so I decided to get some feedback from yall about it.
Please take a look and vote for your favorite one.
[poll id=”14″]
I’m going back to Europe, Europe, Europe
To all my fly Europeans who have supported me for so long, your boy Printmatic is coming back around your way this November in the form of the first ever Rhymesayers European tour. A tour that has been talked about for quite a while is finally coming about in Europe, hitting various major countries and cities. I haven’t been to Europe since summer of 2008 when I was out there with Louis Logic and Paul Dateh. I love Europe and have been trying to get back there ever since, but having a new album like Adventures in Counter-Culture gives me a great opportunity to get back over there and bring the music to the people. Of course I will not be alone. The tour will feature Atmosphere, Evidence, Brother Ali, and Grieves & Budo. The line-up is crazy and I’m just happy to be a part of it.So, peep the dates below, mark your calendars and come see me in November and say whatup:
the downside of giving up on yourself
Several years ago I used to live in Cincinnati, OH. At the time I was working as a computer programmer and was just starting to get my feet wet in the local hip-hop scene. There were some one-of-a-kind characters in the hip-hop scene then, and while most of them never made it out of the Cincinnati hip-hop scene, they contributed in a big way to what made the scene special at that time. There was a weekly hip-hop night at Topcats that was the spot that pretty much the entire scene congregated to back then, and battling was how you earned your stripes and respect, so I was there pretty much every Wednesday night. I didn’t battle as often as other cats but I definitely did my part to hold it down.
Well, one of the cats that was the most popular was a cat named Unseen. Unseen was from Dayton but moved to Cincy right around the time i moved there and was a part of the crew that hosted the night, the Animal Crackers. He would host the battles and battle pretty frequently, especially when new heads would come there from out of town and think they could run thru everybody; it was customary for one of the regulars to show them what time it was. At any rate, Unseen was a great host and a pretty dope rapper that pretty much everybody loved. He was a sweetheart that as far as I could tell was probably incapable of having enemies.
Unfortunately, Unseen was a troubled kid. His problems with drugs and depression were well known among those that knew him, but he always seemed to manage it and keep his head up. There would be periods where you saw him all the time for several months, and then he would kind of disappear for a couple months. But he was such an honest and good-hearted dude that you would always be happy to see him again.
Well, in 2006 while I was on the road I got word that in Unseen had died.
Selling some beats, guest verses too
While on tour, I bump into a lot of people who ask me about buying beats or guest verses. Being on the road I don’t have time, but since I’ll be home for another month or so before heading back out again, I can dedicate some time to it. That being said if you’re interested in buying beats or guest verses please e-mail me at HERE for prices and details or hit up the contact page.Serious inquiries only! In other words, don’t e-mail me asking for free beats.
To everybody else. Hit me up.
Quote of the week: Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third by experience, which is the bitterest. – Confucius
Word is blog
Blueprint to appear on Atmosphere’s Family Vacation tour
See yall in August!
Tour Dates:
08.05 – Chicago, IL @ The Metro
08.07 – Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
08.09 – London, ONT @ London Music Hall
08.10 – Toronto, ONT @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
08.12 – Bangor, ME @ KahBang Festival: Buy Tickets | RSVP
08.13 – Clifton Park, NY @ Northern Lights *
08.15 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
08.16 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
08.17 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
08.19 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater: Buy Tickets | RSVP
08.20 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Grand at The Complex
08.21 – Eagle, ID @ Eagle River Pavillion
08.22 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
08.24 – South Lake Tahoe, NV @ Montbleu Resort
08.25 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Civic Auditorium
08.26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre: Buy Tickets | RSVP
08.27 – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheatre
08.28 – Albuquerque, NM @ Convention CenterPress release below:
Blueprint featured on hiphopdx.com
I posted this earlier this week on Twitter and Facebook, but some of you may have missed it. Please check out this excellent feature that hiphopdx.com wrote about me and Adventures in Counter-Culture. Covers everything you need to know about the album and the story behind it.Please take a second and check it out HERE.
Here’s a quick quote from the piece:
“Back in the day, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, [and] tons of people would kind of draw lines in the sand, where [Hip Hop was only if] you were sampling and you were rapping, but if you were actually playing something or you were singing, it wasn’t real Hip Hop. But I think it was just like a set of rules we had. Hip Hop is just being creative. It’s taking something out of its context and being creative. I think that’s the more important rule of what Hip Hop is. It’s all these genres that from the beginning were a part of it and expanding it, but I think at some point Hip Hop just became, I don’t want to say a parody of itself, but it definitely started becoming really insular, where like it was defined by everything that was before it as opposed to branching out and becoming something new and creative like it should have been, and I think I was subject to all those same rules that everyone else was – trying to quote unquote “keep it real” when I think that as an artist, I was always capable of doing more.
I also want to thank everybody that rated Adventures in Counter-Culture so highly on hiphopdx.com. They are one of the largest hip-hop websites on the net, so it’s great to see them show me some love and support!
Word is Blog.
Blueprint summer tour dates
Here’s some upcoming tour dates you may or may not know about:
July
Sunday July 3rd – Helena, MT @ Independents Day Festival
Wednesday July 6th – Casper, WY @ The Venue
Thursday July 7th – Rapid City, SD @ Dublin Square
Friday July 29th – Columbus, OH @ Skullys
Saturday July 30th – Milwaukee, WI @ Stonefly Brewing CoBeats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
I’m gonna have a booth at Soundset – come see me
This Sunday May 29th is the Soundset music festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I will be performing there along with a host of other talented artists like De La Soul, Big Boi, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Edan, etc. Long story short, it’s going to be a huge hip-hop festival, that I’m already sure many of you already know about.Well this year, I’ve decided to setup an official Blueprint booth at the festival, where I will be hanging out all day, meeting people, signing things, selling Blueprint things, and enjoying the event. Because I’ll have my own booth I can now bring a bunch of merch items that I wouldn’t normally be able to bring with me.
Here’s a list of the new t-shirt designs I’ll be bringing (and pictures):
“Automatic” Live from Edmonton, Alberta
Live footage from the Canadian leg of The Family Tour.
Adventures in Counter-Culture is out NOW!
CD + Poster: $12 Add to Cart
Limited Vinyl (picture disc) + Poster: $30 Add to Cart
Digital Version: I-Tunes===
