Enjoy Hip-Hop Responsibly

While I am not a father myself, I can speak to the great influence my father has had in my life. I’ve learned many things from his direct teaching and also indirectly by watching him. The value of a father and father figures in young peoples lives cannot be measured. It’s critical in my opinion.

Tony Dungy (the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts) runs and organization called All Pro Dad. He’s an awesome dude and a man of God. Check out what he is doing.

If you’re living under a rock… you don’t know about the Sphere of Hip-Hop Podcast. It’s hosted by Cas Metah of the Scribbling Idiots and features music from people you need to be listening to.

In the event you missed an episode or even all of them… you need to fill up on these.

Sphere of Hip-Hop Podcast episodes: 25 – 26 – 27 -28 – 29 – 30 – 31 – 32 – 33

Tell a friend or 517 and even subscribe via iTunes.

I was recently interviewed for Rap Fest Radio. Check it out.

You’ve added me to your email list. I ask for a quick update to my email address and you give me a hard time.

Say what!?!

The moral of the story is to provide help to someone that you have inconvenienced. Especially since you went through the trouble to add them without their permission or without them otherwise opting in to receive your emails in the first place.

Keep a clean list by allowing people to opt in and opt out as they wish. If they need help removing themselves, help them.

I’ve begun to notice a disturbing trend amongst many indie artists on social media websites.

On Facebook you can “tag” people in photos. Upon joining Facebook a while back, I enjoyed the feature. When I received the email alerts “Oh cool. I’m in this photo.” Now I pretty much loathe them. Why? Because 90% of the time when it’s from an “artist” it’s spam. I’m not in the photo and all you did was tag everyone on your friends list. Not a best practice at all. If the shoe fits you here… you may want to reconsider the practice.

What if you were on the receiving end? For real. How would you feel?

ILLECT Recordings and JustMe want to share this track in celebration of this special holiday where we all remember our mother.

The first song recorded for JustMe’s new album, Before The Twilight, was self-produced. As a matter of fact, “How I Met Your Mother” is the only song on the album not produced by North Carolina native Commissioner Gordon. With that said, it is all the more personal and touching. Like “Latenight Lullaby” from his 2006 release, One Man’s Trash, “How I Met Your Mother” is a song sung directly to Justin’s son Jake. It is a beautiful story about a man changed by love, in more ways than one. Enjoy!

Download JustMe “How I Met Your Mother” MP3

Purchase “Before the Twilight” at iTunes or cop the CD and bonus stuff at Sphere of Hip-Hop

Make sure you engage people in your marketing instead of just shouting your message at them. Put yourself in their shoes. How do you want to be marketed?

GMA 2009 was a great event for me (for a change). Normally I refer to it as “the darkest week of the year” to those close to me because of how pretentious the event is with people not really living up to the call. Running in to people who have done people wrong, myself included, tends to cloud the week for me. This year I decided to go into it with a better attitude and to not let those things drag me down. Here is a day by day recap…

Friday April 17

Today was the travel day and my day started early My buddy Chris drove me from Rochester MN to the Minneapolis airport. We stopped for breakfast at this mom and pop diner that has incredible bacon plus good breakfast food. I arrived at about noon and waited for my flight that was to leave a few hours later. Getting through security was actually quick and I had no problems.

A few days ago I found out that Jae Choi and I were sharing a flight from MSP to Nasvhille. After arriving at my gate I called him to let him know where I was. He was eating lunch (Subway – eat fresh) after succombing to all those stupid $5 footlong commercials. Finally we met up and started to talk with Jae laughing really loud as only Jae can do.

About 45 minutes prior to our flight a familiar face shows up. Paul Wright (aka Pauly Paul aka Kid Ryze) and his band were also on our flight. We’ve known each other since we were teens and got to catch up for a while. He’s dominating as an independant artist right now and touring a grip.

Flight was cool. Paul and friends were across the aisle. A few hours later we arrived in Nashville.

We got our rental car and picked up Theo (Theory Hazit). Then we headed downtown to get some food and ended up at this Sports bar. Nachos, wings and spinach dip. After that we went to get our honky tonk on and get an ice cream. Then we split to the hotel after Jae was forced to pay like $30 for parking haha.

Later that night the rest of the Scribbling Idiots crew arrived. We got the recording equipment set up and started making raps.

Saturday April 18

This was the big day for arrivals. I made 18,931 trips to the airport and managed to take about 25 wrong turns each time. Awesome fun. JustMe was really happy about it.

We had a bit of downtime planned to just hang out with everyone. In between this we did a bunch of photo shoots, recorded some more and waited for everyone else to show up. For lunch we destroyed some Jack’s BBQ. Brisket son!

More photos later on and throughout the day.

Sintax the Terrific and crew (Coach Kendrick and Biscuit) were running late and arrived after 9pm or so. We had our Illect Recordings dinner (all 15 of us) this year at a place downtown called Demo’s. Fantastic! I got a fillet steak and a side plate of pasta. The buttery rolls had some sort of addictive substance in them. Our crew polished off probably 10 baskets of them (or more).

Then we hustled back to the hotel for more time to record and hang out. Lots of impromptu meetings and talks about records and such.

Sunday April 19

The day was scheduled to be packed but the weather cleared up some time when the showcase preparation was put on hold. We went off for some lunch and more photos.

We had a ton of interviews scheduled with some media/tv friends and those were a lot of fun.

The showcase went off pretty well. The entire first hour was Illect Recordings folks. DJ Because, MuzeOne, Sintax the Terrific, Caramel Skillington and Scribbling Idiots all performed. Everyone ripped their sets. Loads of fun for everyone. We met a ton of people we had known from online including about 2 dozen Sphere of Hip-Hop heads. Some traveled 8+ hours just for the show!

The rest of the night was capped off by Propaganda, Odd Thomas, DJ Promote, Kaboose, Braille and RedCloud. Everyone dominated especially RedCloud when he busted out the freestyle flash cards. Always great to get to fellowship with everyone from Syntax Records. Thanks again for a great event. I and Illect Recordings were honored to be a part of it.

We tore down and just about every artist was helping put stuff away and load up the trucks. It was a nice display of service and unity.

Loads of great memories made on this day.

Monday April 20

Not much to say here except we did a GRIP of press. Loads of interviews and a nice meet & greet event. People started to leave later in the day. We all had a great time this day. It was about when all those sleepless nights started to take their toll on everyone. Give Coach Kendrick some furniture and dude will take a nap on it.

Tuesday April 21

A highlight of the day (for everyone except Cas Metah) was Pancake Pantry. Dope food! We’ll be back again next year.

More people leaving and a bit more press time. I had a meeting with the Christafari/GospelReggae.com guys to talk some business and marketing.

Theory Hazit performed at the PS21 hip-hop showcase so we went on over to that for a while and then went to dinner at Demo’s. We couldn’t stay away. The food was awesome. KJ-52 came over and shared the meal with us. Then we all met back at the hotel to record a bit more.

Wednesday April 22

Theory Hazit left stupid early (2am) for the airport to rent a car and visit family real quick before his flight left later that day. Then David Kelly left a few hours later. Almost forgot some stuff. He was gone at about 5am and I got about 2 hours of sleep before I went to catch my flight.

I ran into Zee and Tre9 from DaSouth.com and we had an impromptu business meeting. It was fresh to chop it up with those brothers and pray a bit together.

Caught my plane and learned I was sitting across the aisle from my old boss at Tooth and Nail Records, Brandon Ebel. We caught up a bit and talked for a while. Turns out the guy next to me was Shaun Groves. His wife, Sarah Groves, is a pretty fresh singer and they live in Minneapolis. Small world for sure.

Lately I have turned a corner in how I feel physically. I’ve tried to keep up with an exercise routine and eat better. Slowly I’ve started to cut out sugary drinks although I really like a root beer now and then.

My body feels better. Not sure what has happened but I feel less tired and have more energy. This is a welcome event since I’ve been frustrated with how motivated I’ve felt for about a year now.

My sleep patterns have improved. Where I used to get maybe 1 night of what I would consider quality rest a week… now I am seeing 4 -5. Sunday night was fresh. I slept through an entire night!

I know a few of you have been asking and others have been praying. Thank you!

Josh

First off I want to thank Sphere of Hip-Hop for this opportunity.  I’ve attempted to run a few blogs/journals during my life but I feel like right now is the start of something significant.  My love and compassion for the hip-hop community has been burning up inside of me (burning up in a good way) and I’ve been waiting for the proper outlet.  My goal with this blog is to dig deeper then just my own personal opinions, thoughts, emotions and experiences – but actually take time to look in God’s word and allow the Holy Spirit to set a higher agenda then my own.  It’s exciting to sit here and write this because God already KNOWS who will read this before I even finish typing it.  I pray for His will over mine, I give Him the glory and I thank all of you for tuning in.

This first blog is all about “weakness”.  It’s a word that takes on many shapes and forms in our lives.  For the men reading this, many of us grew up with a chip on our shoulder.  We were told that showing our weakness or exposing our weakness is a bad thing.  I’ve went through seasons in my life where I tried to hide my weaknesses or cover them up.  I’ve also went through seasons where I made myself very vulnerable and left my weaknesses out in the open.  If I was to compare those two contrasting seasons, I can honestly say that I’ve felt closer to God during those times when I was vulnerable.  When I confessed my weakness, when I realized I couldn’t survive on my own, when I became desperate for God in my life – that’s when my relationship with God was growing the most.  I also want to clarify that knowing that we are weak is not an excuse for sin.  Knowing that we are weak on our own should actually motivate us to rely on God more.  That is the intention of this message.

The truth of matter is, we should ALWAYS be desperate for God.  We should always long for more of him.  But sometimes we slowly distance ourselves.  We drift, we get caught up in our routines and agendas – and we don’t even notice how far we’ve drifted.  Then one day we wake up and say “God, where are you?” – but he didn’t leave us, we were drifting and he was waiting for us to notice and become desperate again.  Being aware of our weaknesses can help us stay desperate.  On the other hand, self righteousness and self reliance can cause us to drift.  When we feel like we got it all figured out and we feel like we got everything that we need – then we don’t have any motivation to seek after God.  Our self righteousness and self reliance isn’t based on truth  – because we could not  provide LIFE for ourselves.  Our existence, our eternity, our grace, our favor – all these things are gifts that were given to us.

I’m going to close out this blog by referencing a few passages of scripture that demonstrate what I’m taking about.  Paul mentions the “thorn in his flesh” in 2nd Corinthians.  Many people have thoughts on what that “thorn” might have been but I think it’s ok if that “thorn” remains unidentified as well.  We all have “thorns” and if I gave one specific example it would be easy for people to think this didn’t apply to them simply because their “thorn” is different.  The emphasis isn’t on what the “thorn” is – the emphasis is on how Paul’s awareness of his “thorn” kept him humble before Christ.  Look at the passage below.

2nd Corinthians 12:9-10
9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul says that he delights in his weakness, and then lists many other things we all face such as hardship and difficulty.  He delights in these things because when he comes to the end of himself, he’s able to meet with God and see God’s mighty hand move in his life.  He’s able to surpass what he’s capable of alone and be a vessel…

The passage below should make us all feel comfortable bringing our weaknesses to God.

Hebrews 4:15-16 (New International Version)

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

The high priest who can sympathize with us is Jesus!!!  Let us be honest about our weaknesses and lay them out before God.  Let our confidence and strength not come from a place of self righteousness or self reliance – but from a place of humility and faith.  That we would believe that God is capable to finish the good work he has started in us.  Don’t try to hide who you are from God, offer your life to him and allow him to make the necessary changes in your heart.  I am not a scholar or even a qualified teacher so please excuse any errors that might be found in my writings.  I am weak, but I am willing and therefor my hope is that God would be GLORIFIED through my efforts.  Feel free to leave comments and discuss this topic.

Peace and GOD Bless