Back to Work (No Football For Me Sir)

I woke up early this morning, well not exactly early . . . "We can call it hangover time." But I didn't have a hangover. Damnit! Why did I drink though?! Nobody is ever going to believe me again. I swear I can't keep this up.



I'm listening to The Layover EP. This song called "So Fresh - Step Brothers" is dope as fuck. There is a reason why Evidence is one of my favorite rappers. I've just been inspired to go to work today. Like I gotta go in the stu' and get some serious grindin in. I love my craft too much not too. Not mac' & cheese, only homemade pussies! I've got three hours to kill so I need to find a place to eat some wings, hangout, and come back straight to grind mode.

What I do wanna note is how last night me and Flo sat in the car with three of my other friends and spat over all my instrumentals and basically made a fucking mixtape. That shit was crazy. That shit was finna go around twice. We had to stop it. Hahahahaha. Aye you know how on mixtapes or albums they have the same instrumental for the intro and the outro? Like Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor? That's how that shit went. But it was very cordial. That is why we decided to do a mixtape. I'm not always trying to gas myself but I am that nice. We are that nice. The fuck you mean I can't rap? Stop smoking crack and adjust to adapt. We aint wack . . . Hold on it isn't time to go in. LLS.

I don't even feel like watching football today. My Raiders suck this year anyway. Wtf!? They can't win a game on the fucking East Coast. And I saw enough football from Monday through Friday.

Sober Minds Think High

I'm not saying that I'm done forever. Who knows . . .

I just know that I am for the time being. I'm trying to enjoy life right now without doing anything to my body. I stopped smoking (everything) and I stopped drinking also because that makes me want to smoke Black & Milds and also because I know by not smoking I'd only wanna drink more. I guess Thanksgiving week was my last time doing those things.

I really had an intervention with myself thanks to a good friend of mine who really didn't even persuade me just gave me insight basically without saying too many words.

Right now I've been very very relaxed and focused on some things I've kind of let slip away. Really thankful for my fam, friends, and music and thats all I care about right now. Anything else is a distraction.

[Side Note]



God knows I better not have a session with Method Man anytime soon because if I do, I'm pretty sure all bets are off! And we share the same two birthdays! April 1 & 4/20!

:-P

Hip Hop Junkie (808s & Heartbreak, Theatre of Mind, XXL, Eminem)

This is actually from Monday, November 24, 2008.


(Description from Right to Left)



[Eminem's Auto Biography, The Way I Am]

This is the best thing I've ever read in my life. After reading this I feel like I understand Em a million times better than I did before. I really recommend this for my homie Trey who despises Marshall. Whole time though I can't wait to hear what he has to say on his new LP. The page I'm showing is just one section of the featured original shots of the handwritten rhymes of his. I thought I was the only one who had chicken scratch handwriting.



[XXL, December 2008 Issue]

This is the magazine that everyone is talking about right now. It includes the Top 10 Freshmen, according to XXL. My favorites just happen to be on the edition I have.

Wale - I remember the first time I heard Wale on WPGC 95.5. Like all artists I was very skeptical. I think I started fucking with him when I heard him on a song with TCB, but then once I heard him on some mixtape shit earlier this year and he automatically became one of my favorite unsigned artists. I was so happy that someone from the DMV with talent actually got a deal (Interscope), a serious buzz, and has actually proven to be worth the hype thus far. Big ups to this man!

B.o.B - Again, another person I was skeptical about when I initially heard him. One night I go to my usual Tuesday night spot, Apache Cafe. And who's featured? B.o.B. I think a lot of people felt like me when they saw him at the spot. These are some true fans of Hip Hop! So you really have to win these people over at this venue. So I hear his material and I'm suddenly blown away! This dude is mad talented!! I'm talking about the way he spits, sings, produces, and how he just whipped the guitar out and fucking killed it. Grand Hustle is in good hands while T.I is locked up. Now I understand what type of haters he was speaking on in his prematurely released single! I'm with you! Much respect and admiration.

Charles Hamilton - I don't remember who it was that put me on to his music. I'm like this dude is weird... Then I just kept hearing shit and I'm like, this dude is weird but his music is fucking dope! He's a raw, ill, Sonic the Hedgehog driven MC and producer that I really fuck with at this point. About a year from now people at my school are going to feel very bad about booing him at our homecoming show.

I haven't really heard too much or know too much about the rest of the bunch but three others who I've heard something from that I think you should really watch out for are Kid Cudi, Asher Roth, & Blu.

I had a very hard time reading this issue because I really felt like I should have been in it. But that just means I have to work 10x harder. My man Flo said we're in there next year! Does anyone wanna make a bet? I'm willing to bet he's right!



[kanYe West, 808s & Heartbreak]

I'm not going to lie. I have been feeling every single song leading up to the album. When I heard the whole album for the first time I kind of had mixed reactions. But after a second listen I was really feeling this CD. Mainly because I've never heard anything like it. It's hard to accept something new but I really think this CD is dope. And even if it's not considered Hip Hop, this is a contemporary masterpiece. "Let 'Ye do 'Ye."

What really won me over is when I opened up the booklet and saw the picture of him and his mother (R.I.P). Any person who is achieving something and has or has had a supportive parent should be able to understand where he's coming from. Never forget who you are!



[Ludacris, Theater of the Mind]

I personally think "What Them Girls Like" is Ludacris' worst single ever. But this album is fucking bananas! The presentation is the best-fit for Ludacris thus far. He just lyrically goes in throughout this whole album and after hearing this, I have no choice but to consider him in Top 5 conversations from now on.

The big scope. Ludacris was able to collaborate with more big names than DJ Khaled but for once, THAT WAS NOT A BAD THING! Every single collab makes sense and Ludacris doesn't let anyone take his shine on this album. From a Hip Hop standpoint I'm fucking with Luda right now because of the unity he was able to pull off by collabing with T.I, Nas & Jay, Weezy, Common, my man even brought 9th Wonder in on this. Not to mention the great voices of Spike Lee, Floyd Mayweather, Ving Rhames, and my favorite Chris Rock.



(This is why I'm still a Hip Hop Junkie. I'm gonna have a little review for Evidence's The Layover EP tomorrow.)

About Me (Briefly)

I'm from Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Grew up there for the majority of my life. Always known to be shy when I was younger. I would say everything changed when I started playing football.

Football was my heart and soul for the longest. I went to DeMatha Catholic HS in PG County when I left middle school and I got hit in this drill and suffered a concussion. When I was finally cleared to come back there were only 2 two-a-days left. And I guess I didn't prove enough to my coaches because I got cut. That was probably the hardest thing I had to deal with around that time period. I'm sitting at lunch at an all boys Catholic School with the football players and I'm not even on the team. I begged my parents to take me out of that school so I can go to Meade with all of my friends. I would play football there my Freshmen year but after that I just lost interest for whatever reason. But that's when I really started taking music more seriously.

I think everything happens for a reason and I'm glad I was able to feel music more because I think that made me a lot more social and I met a lot of people doing it. HS was cool (lemme keep this as short as possible). Did track & field and football (blah blah blah), graduated, moved down to Atlanta and here I am now: Seriously passionate about music, doing everything I can to improve and to be heard, going to school in the AUC, interning with the Senior Director A&R of Urban Music at Jive Records and still trying to find the line that separates David J. Benson from DeuceZ (Not a T.I vs T.I.P gimmick).