How Do You Respond to Failure?
About six weeks ago, I was contacted about teaching two workshops on writing to a group of High School kids. The person who contacted me had originally reached out to me a couple years ago, but for whatever reason we weren’t able to make it happen. It looked more likely this time around since my schedule was clear; I had been at home writing my book for several months straight and had no plans to be on the road for a while.After giving it some careful thought, I confirmed the date and started to prepare. Admittedly, I was nervous about teaching, but since I had more time to prepare I felt confident I could put something together that the students and I would be happy with.
E-book version of “The Making of Adventures in Counter-Culture” now available
For all my friends who have Kindles (or Ipad’s with Kindle Reader apps), the E-Book version of The Making of Adventures in Counter-Culture is now available on Amazon.com for $5.99. Click HERE or the cover to purchase. Audiobook version will be available later this month.
Thanks for the support
Chip Away At Your Goals
In the spring of 2010, while I was on tour with Killah Priest, I had the idea to write a book about the making of Adventures in Counter-Culture. I started jotting down thoughts and memories, emptying my head of everything that I could recollect about the process and everything that went into the creation of the album. I wasn’t sure if I would ever finish it, but It was a cool activity to keep me busy during the long drives.
The album itself wouldn’t come out for a year, so my initial idea was to finish the book before the album was done so it would be available on the album’s release date. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I was able to write up about three or four pages of notes but that was it. Sadly, the initial idea for The Making of Adventures in Counter-Culture book was filed away along with all the other ideas that I used to talk about but never finished. I had a bucket list just like everybody else, which included items like sky diving, write a book, and make a movie, but during the two year period that I was drinking heavily nothing really seemed to get checked off of it.
Things started to change shortly after that 2010 tour with Killah Priest.
The Adventures of Blueprint “Go Hard or Go Home: Behind The Video”
It's been a while since since I've aired an episode of “The Adventures of Blueprint,” but have no fear, I'm back. Brand new episode, baby! This one talks about the upcoming video for “Go Hard or Go Home” and the circumstances that inspired its creation. Check it out!
The official music video for “Go Hard or Go Home” will debut next week, on the one-year anniversary of the Adventures in Counter-Culture album.
Word is Blog!
How to Cure Writer’s Block
For those who write, writer’s block is the antithesis of expression. As unseen as the common cold and as paralyzing to our creativity as any sickness that attacks our bodies. Those unfortunate enough to catch it are forced to carry on their lives voiceless in a world that barely gave them a voice to begin with.As writers, we tend to beat ourselves up over it. The longer it lasts the more we start to question everything that made us unique, how we got this far, and if we’re really cut out for this field of work. We worry that maybe we just ran out of “stuff” to write about. Maybe our lives are just boring and we have nothing to offer. But following that line of thinking only leads to the most obvious solution, which is to go do something interesting so we’ll have interesting things to write about. This sounds good on the surface but don’t be fooled.
I’ll explain.
What I Learned From A 30-Year Old Drum Machine
Yesterday I bought a used Roland TR-606 drum machine from craigslist. For those that don’t know, the Roland brand of drum machines are synonymous with most of the music released in the 80’s. You would be hard-pressed to find a record from that era that wasn’t made using one of the Roland drum machines; the most popular being the TR-808 model. This model is so popular that people just refer to its sounds as the 808 kit, and an “808” is now slang for the really deep bass kick that’s used all over the place. Even if you didn’t know what it was, you’ve heard it a million times, especially on southern rap records and 80’s music. The TR-606 I bought originally came out in 1982.
Even though I experimented with the 80’s sound on Adventures in Counter-Culture, I never owned any vintage gear, so I had to work from memory and studying those styles more than actually owning the gear they used to create it. I would’ve loved to own some vintage gear in the past but it’s usually pretty expensive, and I didn’t know if I would be using it enough to justify the purchase. Luckily, I saw the 606 on craigslist for a price that was in my budget, so I went for it. I spent a few hours last night going through the user manual and learning how to use it, and while it hasn’t even been 24 hours since I brought the TR-606 home I’ve been reminded of something that was starting to get a bit lost.
AUDIO: Blueprint guest appearance on MMA Uncensored Show (1/16)
For all my MMA fans out there, I did my second guest appearance on the MMA Uncensored show last night. We talked about UFC on Fuel and the upcoming UFC 144 Fight card. If you missed me last night during the broadcast, I’ve attached the audio of the program last night. Check me out:http://www.divshare.com/direct/16817130-01d.mp3
Shout outs to Chi Town Luke and the crew for having me on again.
The Struggle of Getting Music Out
2012 marks the tenth year that I’ve been a full-time artist. Without a doubt it’s the most rewarding career I’ve ever had. It’s also the most challenging, although in completely different ways than my previous jobs.
I remember when I was considering resigning from my job back in 2001, I went around getting advice from other self-employed people, in hopes of getting encouragement or advice before I made the leap. One of the people I spoke to was named Todd Buck and he ran an in-home studio on the west side of Cincinnati that I would routinely use for mastering the first few albums I ever released. He had just made the decision to move his studio and business out of his basement and to a larger one on the opposite side of town. He had only been self-employed for a year at the time so I asked him for some advice.
Talking MMA tonight on MMA Uncensored show 8pm Mountain Time / 10pm EST
As many of my friends know, I’m a pretty big fan of Mixed-Martial Arts (MMA). I think I started watching it about four or five years ago, and have been into it pretty heavily ever since, as proven by my MMA-related tweets whenever there’s a big event on. Hell, a lot of my time in the studio is spent watching classic fights that I missed before I was a fan of the sport.
Blueprint feature in the Orlando Weekly
Last week when i was in Orlando, their weekly paper The Orlando Weekly did a great feature on me and Adventures in Counter-Culture.Please check it out here: http://orlandoweekly.com/music/under-the-radar-1.1245038
Here’s an exerpt:
In 2005, Al Shepard stopped by the headquarters of Power 107.5 FM, a radio station in his hometown, Columbus, Ohio. Shepard had ties to hip-hop, and so did the station, but each had a vastly different idea of what makes the genre great. Traditionally, Shepard raps over self-made beats as Blueprint, keeping his work low on coolness and flash, and heavy on honesty. Slang doesn’t play into his verses much and he’s consistently willing to experiment with different moods and sounds in his beats. (He’s had albums issued by stately indie hip-hop label Rhymesayers.)
“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
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 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.
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 Hallthe 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.
