In the music and even in life you find a lot of people that are pretty fucking talented, but a lot of people end up squandering or wasting their talent. As I found out in A Bronx Tale “nothing is worse than wasted talent”. It only seems right to follow up that illustrious quote from one of my favorite quotes with another great quote from another one of my favorites movies The Departed directed by my favorite director Martin Scorsese. ”A man makes his own way. No one gives it to you. You have to take it. “Non serviam.” Quick tangent, I wish more filmmakers and actors or really any filmmakers or actors that I like were on twitter instead of every fucking rapper in the world. Also Casino is one of my favorite movies and probably my favorite Martin Scorsese movie, I like it more than Goodfellas too…I just love the characters. Anyway, I personally think those last two quotes don’t apply to any other industry more than the music industry, but that could also be because everyone wants to be in the music industry. Some of the best advice I have ever gotten…and this definitely isn’t verbatin, but “explore all your options, and take advantage of your opportunities and listen to anyone or anything that may help you or help make you successful.” By far some of the best advice I ever received from multiple people I combined into one long piece of advice to pass along to you all. I always hear about people, especially rappers talking about they want help or they want an opportunity, but a lot of them…not all of them can’t seem to get out of there own way. Whether it’s because they are stuck in their own world, jail, or just because something seems too outside the box as a result they often end up following on their own sword so to speak. The one thing I have found, especially from my own experiences is the people that take advantage of even the smallest opportunities or utilize their resources are the people that become successful. Which is one of the things that is great about events like The Get Your Buzz UP showcase and some of the other events and people like Mike Trampe from Hip Hop DX/MAAD Management and J Hatch from iStandard put together. They aren’t perfect just as people aren’t perfect, but they go a long way towards actually helping artists and producers. Similar events and people can help you get your music out there and help you grow as an artist. However, if you got your head in the sand you would never know that. So I’m looking forward to actually attending The Get Your Buzz Up Showcase tonight, every time it comes along i’m either sick or out of town. J Hatch and I are pretty cool these days and I know a lot of the other people performing or that are going to be at the event. What’s funny though is the first conversation J Hatch and I had was pretty terrible before The iStandard Showcase in July, where Data finished 2nd, cheap promotion I know. He definitely didn’t get my censor of humor at first, but he has told me a couple of times these days i’m always cracking him up on Facebook. So it’s a good to know, i’m at least a funny douche bag. Mike Trampe, I run into all the time we haven’t talked at length, but he comes highly respected. Dilemma and Chris Cabott i’ve never never met before, but i’ve heard Dilemma’s music before. Last, but not least Mr. Walter Jones, before we move onto more exciting things…you know like music. I’ve never met Walter, I hope he doesn’t mind if I call him by his first name, however we have a mutual friend. While I didn’t quite seduce her as I had intended, I did impress her with my musical prowess. She told me she had a friend that was an A&R at Sony and gave me his number, but i’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to call him. It would nice to talk another A&R’s and pick their brain, so as you might have guessed that A&R that i’ve been meaning to call is none other than Mr. Walter Fucking Jones…I hope he’s ok with me replacing his middle name with Fucking. Anyway, i’m looking forward to meeting him and some of the other artists I haven’t met, along with the usual stalwarts, and some of the other artists and people. Let’s get onto the music.
Lucci Loner was the winner of showcase back in August which I missed because I was sick as fuck. Then, I missed his appearance on our show because I was out of town. So i’m looking forward to meeting him, haven’t heard his music so my first introduction to him will be seeing him perform at the showcase.
I recently met Chic Raw when he was a guest on our show, and a post about him is one of the many unfinished posts that I have intended to finish writing. Dammit, I was hoping that post had some of my thoughts so my lazy ass could just copy them over to this post. I truly am lazy as hell, but anyway I had pretty high expectations when I first heard Chic Raw on that Rated Raw mixtape. I had always heard great things about him, but that was my first time actually listening to his music. As I have said before it’s always best when I have no expectations at all about an artist as oppose to them trying to live up to my lofty expectations because they almost never do. Upon listening to his music and hearing him freestyle on show the talent was easily apparent, but on the mixtape something just seemed to be missing. I think hearing him talk on the show I understood a bit more, because the one thing that I noticed during his interview was he seemed kind of conflicted. I can always pick up on those little things when I listen to music, I can tell when a rapper is kind of just going through the motions or making music that really isn’t true to them. This is in no way a shot at Chic Raw, I think like Hy Speed, fellow Shotta, they are two of the most complete rappers in Philly. However, the thing that is always difficult is finding that balance between making the type of music you want to make and the type of music you think the mainstream public wants to hear…or you can always just say fuck it and stay in your lane. Honestly, I prefer the latter, mainstream fans are fickle and what some rappers fail to realize is you can be pretty successful catering to your fanbase and staying in your lane. You will probably never get on MTV and shit, but you’ll have loyal fans that will lineup to support you where ever you go and whenever you put music out. Either way i’m looking forward to meeting Chic again, seeing him perform, and also checking out some of his older music. I think when Chic and Hy Speed for that matter put together an album or mixtape that is true to them full of music that they really love it will be fantastic.
Is it wrong that I hoped this guy didn’t have any mixtapes online? Yeah probably so…well at least I don’t have to go to this listening session tonight so I can take my time and finish writing this. I’m still posting datpiff links so as always I can’t be held responsible for any datpiff fuckery. Never met or heard of this guy or Big J, but it looks like he has an exorbitant amount of mixtapes. Ultimately, I decided to go with the one DJ Envy hosted, I’ve had some good experiences with DJ Envy no homo.
I’ve never heard Tone Trump’s music, but I definitely heard about him before…especially these days as he seems to be blowing up. I had that second mixtape on my computer for awhile but never listened to it. I’ll have to check it out now, along with his album Trump Life that came out last year. I was actually scouring the internet for it and then I asked Boss Lady J if she had it, and she’s like yeah I was executive producer lol. For whatever reason that killed me. Here is the Wifey video off of Trump Life…real quick little tidbit about the song. Nice little crossover song and decent low budget video…but i’m not a fan of the hook. I’m not really a big Auto-tune hater because I usually don’t listen to radio, but i’m still not really a fan of some of these Auto-tune hooks. I know a couple people have pulled them off like Royce and Wiz Khalifa, but in most cases I usually don’t like them and i’m going to need The L.O.X. and Redman TO NOT USE AUTO-TUNE OR HAVE DUDES SINGING HOOKS WITH AUTO-TUNE. I was so devastated by the recent use of auto-tune on the new illmind produced Redman song that I ultimately had to delete it from iTunes. Then, delete it from the trash and reformat my computer, at some point I even ended up crying in the shower like The Crying Game or the time I kissed a transvestite. WAIT YOU KISSED A TRANSVESTITE??? ….uhhh nooooo…just watch the video…but really just get a good singer on the hook and let him sing or just have my transvestite kissing ass sing the hook if you really want to use Auto-tune. It will be much cheaper and definitely not gay.
The first Squada I met was Prophy…and I use the term met very loosely because that guy is hard to track down…I mean really all rappers are though. In his defense he’s usually perfecting his craft at the Mixtape Factory. Which is like a dungeon where DJ Set works the Squadaz like slaves lol…just kidding but they are some of the hardest working people in the city. Which is why I thought it would be a great idea to have them on our show last week. All of that might not have unfolded in the same matter if it weren’t for my damn iPod and my car though. After we had some difficulty meeting and I pretty much decided it wasn’t going to happen because I’m notoriously impatient and…because rappers work on their own unique schedule. My damn iPod kept playing Proph’sy music, because one of his songs was like one of the first songs on it at the time. So for at least a week or two after I hadn’t talked to Prophy, every time I would sync my iPod one of his songs would come on. So I finally decided it was time for me to be a little more patient and as result I finally met Prophy and some of the other Squadaz. I haven’t listened to all of The Squadaz music, but up until this point Prophy remains my favorite member and not just because he was the first one I met. I didn’t write as much in that first post as I intended to about him found here, so i’ll just say in opinion he is one of the most complete rappers in the city, he can make almost any type of song, and his mixtape is a lot better than most people may know. I’m very much looking forward to his new mixtape whenever it finally drops and getting my Squadaz shirt. As for the rest of The Squadaz and the show really, since I didn’t get a chance to write about that last week. It went great like I thought it would, but I was nervous as hell at first. I mean there are what like 8 members and with that amount of people you never know how things are going to turn out. Ultimately, it worked out and the people that tuned in got to hear some of the most talented, hard working, and business minded rappers in the city. Those 3 typically don’t usually go hand in hand and I personally I think a lot of that has to do with DJ Set and Wily S…even if Wily S didn’t really talk. I’ve listen to the music of Allday and Charile Heat, but haven’t had a chance to listen to much from Dice, Rico Brown, and Drugz even though i’m looking forward to it. I like all of them, but Allday’s style really stood out to me the most after Prophy, plus if I heard him correctly he said he engineers as well. Which is another thing that is very rare. Charlie Heat is a very good up and coming producer and I guess we’ll find out if he is the best producer in the Tri-State area at the iStandard Producer Showcase in Philly next month like DJ Set thinks. I also liked the style and wisdom of the older statesmen of the Squadaz, Drugz, and Rico Brown and Dice make a nice group…I mean like Rico said they have been together forever…no homo. Some of Rico’s escapades and his favorite rappers were pretty funny, but he’s still ok in my book. I wasn’t sure if it was Dice or Tekneek that really reminded me of someone, but I did make the mistake of confusing DJ Omega for Dice over the weekend. It’s a formidable team that i’m sure we’ll hear more from in the future rounded out by Mr. Set It Off Himself, DJ Set. Squad Gang.
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Last but certainly not least, Dick Quick, lol I think i’m going to start calling him that or Richard Quick. My good friend, but you wouldn’t know that by the amount of his music that I actually have. Why is it I have the least amount of music from the people I actually know really well. Dick Quick, of Exponent Ent., can often be found 40 in hand wearing a scully no matter the temperature, but don’t be fooled he is a no slouch on the mic. We’ll have much more on him later…you know after I finally get his music, but even if that doesn’t happen once we get started on his new mixtape i’ll just steal it.
Dammit almost forgot about Push Montana, I’m such a dick. In my defense, i’m pretty tired and i’m writing this massive post in one day. I am a dick though, when I first saw Push Montana which I talked about here, I wasn’t thoroughly blown away by his performance but I talked about how he had a lovely chain on twitter. Then, he hit me up on twitter lol. I did go listen to his newest mixtape and I liked it though…I saw that coming, i’m always putting my foot in my mouth. The fact still remains like a lot of artists even our own, he needs to do a better job of showcasing the talent in his music when he performs. I’m looking forward to meeting him tonight and taking a picture with his chain on. Also I want to check out his older mixtape with the cool as cover, he also has a pretty cool looking website…much better looking than our website. BURN!!! See you all at the show. Doc out. Sorry about the formatting too, WordPress is being a little bitch today.
