I set it up because I needed a better site to list upcoming dates and something I could control more content on, as well as release more stuff. Of course the blogs will be there as well, PLUS, theres tons of pics, music, i-- well, you know what websites do- that's what I'm doing LOL.
Please, come check it out, sign in to the email list, spread the word, and stay abreast of what we got going on as we get stay on the road, and get this next project done.
In 1983, one of the greatest demonstrations of pure unadulterated vocal dexterity occurred, and one of the greatest musical injustices was waged soon after. In the studio that day,every major name in the music industry was on hand to perform the now classic tune, WE ARE THE WORLD. There's that infamous section of the song, where the key transposes from E to F. Quincy Jones, in his infinite wisdom, placed all of the more famous singers in that section, clearly to make sure the masses got to see their favorites improvise, and demonstrate their vocal prowess. The usual suspects were placed there, Stevie, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. But Quincy made a shrewd move that often goes overlooked, and to the worlds detriment in my opinion.
Quincy placed his artist at the time, James Ingram, in that F section, and James ripped the holy hell out of his part. From the time James came in with "WE ARRRRE THE WOOOORLD! WE ARE THE CHILDREEEEEEN!!" a gauntlet had been laid down that was not to be picked up. Sure, the great Legend, Ray Charles, came in with the response to the call, but minimally, and even he was forced to lay back, after he pronounced a flag waving "Good God!"- the song belonged to James at that point, and every one in the room knew it.
The only miscalculation made that day was the fact that James didn't come in until the 6:12 mark of the song-- not many people ever got that far along in the song, especially with radio's strict time limited formats, and Ingrams genius got lost to the world. This was a grave error on the part of Quincy, and the world paid for it. I mean, sure, the recording sold a million out of the gate, and countless millions since, but it could've done MOAR! There's lots of money still on the table as far as I'm concerned, and lots of Africans who didn't get fed because of it. Shame on you Q. Shame on you brother. If you are indeed a BROTHER. I'm being hard on ya Q, cuz you're supposed to know better.
Well, I've formed an organization to remedy just such an travesty. Please join JIRTSOWAT World, and fight to get James the recognition that he truly deserves. It's time to take a stand, and put James Ingram's part in that song where it deserves to be. Now I will admit, Stevie was kind of held back in his section, by Bruce Springsteen's sandpaper yelping, but that's neither here nor there, and The Boss needed to be there to bring in his crowd- another shrewd move by the Q, just to insure that James' would get his shine. If it wasn't for the damn late placement his plot would have been complete. Well dammit, as long as I have breath to breathe, Ingram will have his day!! Will you stand with me?
Download it here:http://www.zshare.net/audio/61128785d44f772b/
here ya go:
SO, being on the road with Eric Roberson most of last year and this year, we both discovered that we are ridiculous hiphop heads. Most listeners of our music can probably tell the influence, and really, who aint in this generation, huh?
But no, we're really kind of anal about it. Most people who have checked out some of my shows, acoustic or not, have heard me spit something at some point or another, I keep a 16 on deck, not to mention the AOL sessions. As for Erro, he's sick with the freestyle, but he usually keeps it in song form, making it melodic as well as rhythmic, making it doubly hard. I actually think he can take most emcees out off the top, definitely upper echelon when it comes to that. I don't do that well, I have to sit my ass down and write LOL.
But I knew it was in us, and I had this beat laying around that my man Dana Johnson had cooked up, when he flipped this African tune called "make it fast, make it slow" by a guy named Rob. I gave it to him in this compilation I had called Africa 100-chock full of gems, that thing! Eric and I were arguing about the merits of one rapper to the next, and I said, "nah, this dude right here is killing all of em!", then I put on my verse. He kinda lost it and said he wanted to get on it with me (which was the desired effect LOL), and I sent it to him ASAP. One morning I woke up, and it was in my inbox! when I heard his verse, it made me want to go back in and add another verse, sheeit! So now we have what you hear here, which is simply put, a hell of a lot of fun!
SIDENOTE-I also have a verse from my Chitown representative 4eyes, who is a MONSTER! I just thought it would be a nice treat for those who are down with the movement Erro and I have been cooking up this past year or so- stay tuned, we'll release the 4eyes verse for you as well.
And yes, we promise, we will do one where we are singing too LOL, I suppose. Music's supposed to be fun, right?
P.S.S.-- That's really ME in that military pic- Ahhh, those were the days- I fought for YOUR FREEDOM SO PICK UP MY ALBUM- ACEY DUECEY IN STORES NOW- LOL
I'm late on getting into the nuts and bolts of this issue, but I'm on it now, and I have to say my piece real quick.
I don't actually listen to the radio, but the buzz that came around recently was this whole thing about how personalities were making a big fuss on "urban" radio stations, hollerin about how "they are trying to destroy Black radio stations". It was presented as some ol "fight for your rights" scenario, and me being in the music industry,and well, being Black, I decided to look more into it, wondering how it would effect me as an artist.
Well, lo and behold, it's a total lie. There IS a bill out there, proposed by Rep John Conyers, that proposes that broadcasters pay a performance royalty to artists and labels. Different personalities in many cities, got on the air and pushed it to the public as a "tax", which is a total lie.
A tax goes to a government entity of some sort. This royalty goes to artists and record companies. Let me explain:
You ever wonder if Luther, or his family get paid, every time "Superstar" gets played on the radio? Well, NO. That song was written by the Carpenters back in the day. It was a minor hit for them, but because of how Luther arranged it and sang it, it was a huge hit for him. It plays all the time, and the only people who get paid for it are the publisher and the writer. Luther's voice made the difference, and people tune into the "classic soul" station, in whatever city to hear Luther sing it. This bill proposes that he gets some change for that. Many artists are not writers, but if they are the "performers" of a classic, they should be compensated, maybe not as much, but somewhat like the writers are. This has been on the table since at least 1979, and America is the only industrialized nation to not support this-- well, China, North Korea, and the CONGO agree with America, so that counts for something huh?
What makes it worse is that in countries like, Canada, UK, and Japan, where our music is played-- American artists don't get paid performance royalites from them, because they refuse to pay if the US won't reciprocate, so American artists get cheated Worldwide.
We all know that many artists who performed classic songs, may not be fortunate enough to have lasting careers. Not many do. It's good that writers, like myself, can continue to make money, for as long as we control our copyrights. It would also be nice to know that the singer of an epic tune, is seeing SOMETHING for their work.
That's what this bill proposes. The only reason it hasn't passed in all this time is because of the power that lobbyists for the Broadcasting companies have been exerting.
The broadcasters would have you believe that the evil record company's came up with this idea yesterday, just because they aren't selling many records any more. A total untruth. Again, it's been issue since well before the boom they all enjoyed in the 80' and 90's. I have issues with labels, no question, but that aint one of em.
What I find even more despicable about their message is this whole thing about how it's really for the small independent stations, like that's who they are really fighting for.
Check this out. I need to mention that there is actually a segment of radio that DOES have to pay this performance right already. A segment who isn't covered by the lobbyists so they had to pay outright. Satellite, Internet, and digital radio- the real independents, who are the enemy of the am/fm stations. Funny how that bill passed a few years ago, yet no one shouted about it on the radio- yet they claim to be fighting for the "little man".Really?
Look, it probably looks like I may be cutting my own throat by bringing this up, because afterall, I'm supposed to get played on the radio for you to hear my song, know who I am, and maybe buy my music right? Well, I'm not the only artist who agrees with this proposal, matter of fact, I'm extremely late in getting hip to it, and more than likely the smallest fish to fry in this. The seeds for this HR were sown by artists much more famous than me, including the Dixie Chicks, Brian Wilson, Aimee Mann, Los Lonely Boys, Judy Collins, Don Henley, Tony Bennett, and John Legend.
With this blog, I'm just announcing my support for such a cause, and I have the radio stations to thank for bringing the matter to my attention. Whaddyaknow? They are useful in disseminating information.
I don't even wanna get into what I like or dislike about radio. That aint even important, and like I said, I've found so many other ways to get new music and info, I'm not even mad about that anymore- I just don't like the lie they are telling folk, and the racial spin, which is irrelevant in my opinion. If you wanna know more about the bill and what it actually is, I suggest a quick google search on HR848 or the term "performance royalties".
I wish all radio stations, whatever the genre, the best of luck in surviving when they have to start paying performance royalties.
Here are a few links to articles that I enjoyed reading on the topic
SHOULD WE SAVE BLACK RADIO? http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=5711ed2dbf22abc8fd19e884ca4a77e1
Howdy! Just figured since I've seen this on so many other blogsites (which I love!!) I might as well add it to my own. This is a little jernt I did with the homie Algebra, and Phonte, who I haven't actually met in person, but I've been a huge fan of for quite a while. I will even go on record as saying he's in my top 10,and could possibly be the illest MC out right now! And he's sick with the singing as well, evidenced by what he's accomplished via FOREIGN EXCHANGE. I give you 4EVERMORE!!
and oh yeah, you can have it free right here: www.zshare.net/audio/602842340a594fdc/ Might as well give you some background on how this came together. My good friend, and favorite DJ, KEMIT, dropped me some tracks, as we've been planning to do something forever. He knows more of the hiphop side of me, cuz we've been hanging out for years now. Somehow this hasn't come out in many of my records, but I'm a hiphop HEAD, so one thing I want to accomplish with this new album, is to get that side out. I got into Soul Music because I wanted to know what many of the records that were being sampled were. Of course I grew up with it, but that's how I went deeper. But I've always been a closet rapper, and that's where most of my flow comes from as a singer. I even have some verses scattered around the internet, if ya care to look, and even more when I was with El Pus-- google em.
Anyway, this sample spoke to me right off, and he even titled the track as "4evermore". I assumed that that's how it spoke to him, but as it turns out, the original song is called 4evermore from what he tells me. I haven't heard it yet. Many people think it's a sample from the song I had previously covered from Level 42, "Something about you". Nah, it aint, that's just a fairly common progression in music, so hey-- it works out like that sometimes. I figured those less informed would accuse me of being limited in my writing vocab, but uh-- I didn't write the first song at all, and this one, I didn't write the music. They just have that one thing in common. Familiarity is a good thing in my opinion anyway, as long as it ain't corny, which I don't feel like this is. At the end of the day, the hook just came out of my mouth and on to tape, and I felt like it was pretty damn anthemic, and a testament to real love, which is to be aware of how hard it can be to stay together, but be willing to give it a shot. I think that's an aspect that gets left out of lovey dovey dreamy songs, and people can get disappointed when the day dream wears off. Not many songs speak to the work involved.
Another friend of mine, Jeff B(shout out Mama's mustache!!} came through to work on another tune with me ("Ghetto Tango", sick one in my opinion) and I played him this one to get his opinion, cuz I had just laid my part. He said it sounded like it could be a duet, and that Algebra should be the one. Her and I had already tried a few times, just hadn't gotten the chemistry that we wanted, but I really respect her as an artist, plus we have good chemistry in regular life, so I was determined to get that on tape. I agreed, and I hit her up- BAM- she killed it!! Her voice matched mine perfectly, and her sense of harmony came in just like I thought. Plus she wrote it in like 30 mins, laid it like a G, and bounced. I view Algebra as a Young Whitney Houston with a more hiphop Swag. I think that came out on here, especially with her ill runs.
Next up- I thought Phonte as soon as I heard the track, because some of Little Brothers stuff has this feel. I heard his whole flow, and at first I was just gonna channel him, and do the verse myself LOL. Then I decided not to play myself, and since I had been following him on twitter, I gave it a shot at hollering at him.
Syke, that shit sounds hella sensational, but in truth, I got my manager to hit his manager up, and talked some damn business LOL. That nigga don't know me like that LMAO!
He did however let me know via twitter that he got the tune and liked it, so he put his thing down on it. What I have to say about that is- we did not talk about what I thought he should say-- he just knew. And he NAILED IT. What I like about dude is, he does the rhyme style, where you think he's leaving a phrase, then he comes back and smacks you with another one. Plus he gave it the grown folk perspective that I was tryin to get at, but needed just that extra something to bring it home. Between him and Algebra, the concept came complete, and I'm grateful for that. Kemit flipped the sample for the bridge just to give the track a little variety, and it was signed, sealed, and delivered.
So that's that, and now you have it. This is sort of the direction I wanna take for the new album, in some places. I like to make each project somewhat different, and this is where I'm at now. I've always loved samples, so I wanna play with a few on this one. Of course, I will be employing the guitar, some of you have heard the title track "as above, so below" , so you know that's on deck.
Oh yeah the title- As Above, so Below-- the surface, surface, SURFACE meaning of it is - the fact that my music will have the same integrity and intention on a major, as it did on an independent-- that's a question many people seem to have. I've always had the theory that it aint about the title of "major" or "indy", but the individuals you deal with, and my experience thus far has verified it. So-- As Above, So Below.
Theres more to it in my personal chambers, but I'd rather leave it open to interpretation, cuz that rabbit hole goes DEEEEP. It's a pretty classic phrase- look it up. Wherever it takes you, there you are.
Cheers. Hope you like the tune, look forward to more!
Special shout out to Nicole Adams, photographer extraordinaire for this pic, and Ovation guitars, for this beeeyoootiful, and crisp sounding VXT!! It's my road warrior now!!
shout out Detroit and Ceveland for awesome shows with Erro and ANgela Johnson this past weekend, we need to do more of those!
Hot week for the Acer Duecer- yes indeed! Good work, when you can get it!
First up, NYC with Melanie Fiona, check it!
This oughtta be fun! See you at the bar!
And next, we will be hitting up Houston, opening up for India, as she tours to promote her new album Testimonial Vol. 2/ Love and Politics. DOn't need a flyer for that one, you already know! It's gonna be a SOulbird/Universal/Republic celebration!
So we get a day off, then we make it out to Austin to rock out with her majesty,Carmen Rodgers!
As for the rest of the country- take a look here, and see if we'll see each other soon...
And oh yeah, I'm about to drop some new tunes real soon- mixing a few now, and I'll have some stuff for you to bump this summer- love and respect!
So, years ago, I had a neighbor named Jabari. Really cool dude, him and a guy named Tracy. Two cool cats, both struggling to start businesses of their own. I was on the road with India heavy, but I had yet to record an album yet, so we all had similiar dreams of making bigger things happen for ourselves. Jabari's deal was a valet service, and private transportation. He had his own town car and everything. I noticed that he knew A LOT about cars, which I really don't, but he had an infectious passion for them, so I would ask him about them a lot. Unfortunately, the two of them ended up having to bounce, and Jabari lived further out, so we kinda lost touch. I kept abreast of his whereabouts through Tracy, and our other neighbor, a girl named Sha Sha, who's one of the most awesome people ever- miss you Sha.
Anyway, I did noticed that when I DID see Jabari from time to time, that his dreams of owning fly rides had come to life. He would come by in really expensive shit, and it was pretty obvious that he had struck it rich somehow. We all know where fast money comes from around these parts, so my only advice to him one day was, "uummmmm, try to be a little less obvious homey." I didn't ask, he didn't tell, but we both knew.
One day I had heard, Jabari got caught. caught big time.
I've never had much dealings with the drug dealing world, never had to do it, never was an option. I didn't even realize that some folks get caught up in it so early, and as children, get consumed into the lifestyle so early that it seems normal to them. I have grown to know that that can be the case- not necessarily an excuse, just something that I eventually realized exists for some. For many others, it's just some glamorous shit to do,a way to live out rap lyrics, and who knows really just which case any one person is. For me, it's just that I didn't know that it was like that for anyone, thanks to my parents, I was sheltered from that. As crazy as the 80's were, I had NO clue how deep it was til later.
I don't know Jabari well enough to know which one he is, but I found out months later that he was in Waaay bigger than I thought. Creative loafing did a piece on BMF- the Black Mafia Family, which is a group of dudes, who had a ridiculously large operation that ran country wide. I don't know much about them, except what I hear, and it amounts to them being some badasses. They even used to have a billboard off the highway coming from the airport. What drug dealers do that? Oh yeah, they also had a "label", so I guess that was promo. I'll say as lit
SO, I'm reading the story on their rise and fall, and what part of the story talks about this one character named Jabari who was arrested with goo gobs of either drugs or money, I forget which. I chuckled to myself and said, "I know a guy named Jabari, but the Jabari I knew couldn't be this one". Turns out it was. I'll be damned, I actually knew a big timer in the flesh- whodathunkit?
Or maybe he wasn't? fast forward to a couple of days ago, as I'm thumbing through mail ..A letter from who? How the hell? Jabari?! He let me know that someone who actually sang backup for me was in there with him (Dayum!), and let him know where I was. The letter was mostly just a quick inquiry to see if I knew where Sha Sha was these days, but at the end there was a link to a website:
www.forlifepublishing.com
Of course I went STRAIGHT to my computer to check the link, and maybe you should too. Turns out, he wrote a book telling his side, and I'll be honest- I haven't read it yet, but the summary sounds interesting, given the effect these cats have had, and the unique perspective he may have. I can say that I've always thought of Jabari as a pretty good dude, aside from all that other stuff, but we weren't around each other during that episode, so it's hard to say that I even know that side of him. Honestly, from what I knew, I would not have believed it, aside from the fact that you just never really know anybody, do you?
I'm interested to find out that part, and maybe you will be. Hold your head Jab. Maybe there's redemption for you somewhere.
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