I wished I’d have guzzled lots less alcohol and fucked lots more. I sort of wish I hadn’t bitch-slapped a promoter who cheated me. But what good would the crystal ball have done? The journey is the destination as they say.

Try not to take yourself too seriously. Try not to be terribly precious — but it doesn’t hurt to be obsessive and dogged. To have some inner drive to get it right.

“Take the time to get things right.” Ike Turner taught me that.

I was always a big Ike Turner fan. Especially his obscure solo records from the 70’s. In 1990, I saw an Ike Turner Soul Revue gig in San Francisco at the Last Day Saloon. There couldn’t have been more than 20 people there. It was gloriously unorganized. Ike and his band played Proud Mary like five times and then left the stage. Ike came out for the encore by himself and sang Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed at the Fender Rhodes. It was perverse, but oddly moving.

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Things to keep in mind:

1. Networking is about being genuine and authentic

2. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish so that you can select who can be a suitable candidate to help you get what you are looking for.

3. Focus on quality contacts as opposed to quantity.
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What are common mistakes artists make?

Something I always explain to artists is that they have to understand records. I always compare records or songs to babies. With a baby, there’s a natural development cycle. Just because you wake up one day and want that baby to walk, you can’t tell that baby, “All right, get up now. Stop crawling, we’re gonna walk today.” Nah, that baby is gonna walk on its own when it’s ready. That’s the same thing with records. One of the biggest reasons why people are successful is because they give these records the time that they need to develop. They nurture ‘em and feed ‘em and do the things necessary for that record to go through its organic development cycle. Everybody wants things to happen right away. Nowadays records are taking longer and longer to break. You might be looking at four to six months. You have to support that record and be patient. You have to have stamina to see a project through. That’s where so many people go wrong. Lastly, everybody’s so focused on developing a record, they miss the whole point of developing a brand. In order to have longevity and be successful in this business, they have to develop themselves as a brand and create their own movement.

caught here on emusician

Photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, etc. They have a special way for show their work: “Portfolio”. Okay, we have something similar, known as “Demo Reel”.

Sound Designer Kyle Vande Slunt published at the amazing Audio Cookbook “The Guidelines for making a Sound Design Demo Reel” with really interesting tips and things to consider for make a sound design reel.

“The first thing that I discovered was that making a sound design demo reel sucks. Sucks hard. I think its much more difficult to make an audio reel than a visual one. You can’t demonstrate your skills with quick edits of 5 second clips being backed up by a song by your favorite artist. You have to make more considerations in your edits because you’re dealing with audio as well. You also have to show longer clips to let the sound design develop and be heard in context. In my research I noticed a lot of similarities and tried to implement the ideas I liked into mine.”

Here are some simple guidelines to consider for your sound design demo reel:

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http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bridging-gap-radio-mix/id315850341?i=315850374&ign-mpt=uo%3D6

We worked hard on this one and I got 9 songs out of 13 on this one. Buy it, or Listen to It or Recommend it but let me know what you think of it people!

This is amazing! Just for the business card function…. I am amazed by Google!

4 Wordsmith and Chubb Rock: Bridging the Gap (Unruly)

When one of Baltimore’s most prolific verbal gymnasts teamed up with one of hip-hop’s golden age MCs, it wasn’t an effort to revisit a bygone era when the music and the message intertwined into an instantly memorable feel-good jam. Instead, Wordsmith and Chubb Rock offered a crisp reminder that such heady hip-hop isn’t gone, merely less pimped than its trap/thug kin. Bridging the Gap’s 13 tracks might recall the late ’80s/early ’90s with its jazzy vibe and casual attitude, but both MCs rhyme about the now with clear-eyed precision, never more so than on the witty “Clay Davis,” which turns Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s signature sheeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiit into a vocal hook around which the two MCs offer a verbal snapshot of today’s hip-hop nation: “We do it for the Browns, we do it for Simpsons/ We do it for Obama and Hillary Clinton/ We do it for the heteros safely screwing, alternative lifestyles and how you doing?” (Bret McCabe)

Full article here

It is officially a Frostclick record. 51,899 downloads per Frostwire in 7 DAYS!

We keep them coming!!!!!

HipHopdx x 2 Dope Boyz x Coast2Coast X Frostwire X Stradagized.com presents Wordsmith Overdue & Underrated Mixtape!!!

Of course joints produced by your truly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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