Attempt #2,476 At Having A Regular Blog

I have a great new girlfriend, I'm in college, I own a Mac, I'm a writer, a musician, my life is relatively boring, and I enjoy voicing my opinion. WHY AM I NOT ADDICTED TO WRITING BLOGS?! I have no idea, I find it tedious.

So lets try this again.

Okay, I have nothing interesting to say. I'll try to come up with something soon, I hope you enjoyed wasting your time.

Crappy Mixtape Artwork

Just as a warning this blog post is pure personal opinion. Thank you.

Scrolling through the Trap-A-Holics website I decided to write a blog about my personal feelings concerning EP, LP, and mixtape covers. For so long now I have noticed truly horrid examples of graphic work, clutter, flash, and tackiness.

Covers littered with currency (often floating around), half naked women "photoshopped"(pasted) into them, smoke everywhere, even the artist themselves "photoshopped" onto some "hood" background. Now I'm not insulting anyone, I myself am no Adobe Photoshop genius...honestly I'm probably terrible but I at least understand basic marketing and design.

This is of course my opinion and I am very much in love with minimalism but I think most can agree album artwork should be clean and not trashed with as much BS as possible.

Many Hip-Hop/Rap album artworks are great examples of good graphic design, i.e. the best selling Hip-Hop/Rap album of 2012 - Nicki Minaj "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded". Elegant, clean, and minimal. But then your faced with this:

While there are no women you see guns, cash flying, fireworks, the U.S. flag, etc. etc.

Yes it catches your attention but I think there is just to much going on and I'm instantly turned off from even listening to it. The creator obviously shows talent in graphic work; I just think she/he should research good marketing and design. /endrant

Television Is Dying

I am not friends with anyone who pays for Basic Cable and only one who pays for DirecTV (This is excluding the countless 40 years old and older group). On the other hand I know 15 people off the top of my head that pay for Netflix or Hulu, and many more who torrent what they want. Personally in my household we have Netflix and Hulu.

With Netflix originals now in full swing with Arrested Development, House of Cards, Bad Samaritans, and more, not to mention the slew of other content, the foreseeable futre is ripe for the youth to turn eighteen and say to hell with paying for cable, everything I want is right here on my laptop, smartphone, and/or tablet and it is significantly cheaper.

 "But nothing beats the 40+ inch screen in your living room."

Which is easily fixed with HDMI cords or another form of adapter that can be purchased even in gas stations nowadays. But beyond the middle man you have products such as Apple TV, Roku, Boxee, and WDTV Live HD which can pull from iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, MLB.TV, even live TV, and more.

The point I'm getting to here is a question with no clear answer: who is supporting basic cable/satellite/digital cable services? The older generation? Rural communities without broadband?

With nearly every aspect (plus some) available through these internet based technologies what is the point of having some annoying black wire running through your home?

Inspiration vs. Motivation vs. Dedication

Recently certain aspects of my life are becoming more and more conflicting. Hip-Hop is taking, receiving  and demanding more and more of my time, typically because I instigate it to do so. This is isn't such a bad thing because I love this life more than anyone could comprehend but there are other things I love. My lovely lady, my friends, and I like money.

So far in less than a year I have had seven big shows (that's based half off crowd numbers and half by artists and connections I've made) which is by FAR a huge jump from any previous year. I'm now working with a tight knit crew (COUCH LIFE!) and working on multiple music videos.

With that I struggle to find time for my women, and I have to pay bills so I have to find time to work. I have no time for my friends and rarely hang out unless it's Hip-Hop related. This is the "shit end of the stick" where I need to make decisions.

I honestly can't live without my girlfriend, my friends mean the world to me, and if I don't work I'm on the streets. What does that leave? Hip-Hop. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I gave up video games for it already and apparently that wasn't enough.

The hard part is that I can see just over the horizon, if I can keep increasing my network I can finally see a future where Hip-Hop is my "job" and while I won't be famous I can maybe pay bills with it. The perfect life. Hip-Hop + Christie + Friends = Happy.

So what to do?

P.S. This is the most unorganized blog post ever, more or less me typing my thoughts in and trying to sort them out and find a conclusion.

Technology Can Be Essential To Artists

Recently I purchased the over-priced, hipster logo, consumer garbage iPhone 5. I love it. Going from TracPhone's and Boost Mobile this phone is beautiful and fast. But the point that I'm getting to is not only is it fashionable when I'm taking "selfies" to show off my six-pack, it has proven to be an amazing addition to my life to relieve some of this weight.

The main feature I see is the flawless sync between my iPhone 5 (iOS 6) and my Macbook Pro (OS X 10.8.2). Calendars, Reminders, Notes, Email, and Chrome. Almost anything I do on my Mac or iPhone will appear on the other. No hassle, no issues, and no time wasted.

Calendars of course I use to plan recording time, shows, writing sessions, and more. I'm never lost with my commitments and I'm never forgetting what I had to do that day anymore.

Reminders allow me to well...make something to remind me to do something. It's useful so you don't create a hundred Calendar dates of small things (which is what I use to do). For instance: if I'm at my nine to five and I see an email come through from a producer I can't reply right then but I can quickly set a reminder so when I go home I remember to address it.

Notes is the best feature to me, I use it throughout the entire day and basically have all my little ideas or thoughts on it. One of my recent weird technology endeavours involved writing a whole song while streaming off of SoundCloud and typing the lyrics into Notes...on my phone. Of course not the best way and less convenient than on my computer but as a writer/rapper the use if it is enormous. My only issue with Notes is the lack of organization so far, I hope in the future they allow categories and things of that nature.

Email is more self explanatory than the last three so I won't waste a bunch of time explaining to you what email is. Basically I have my iCloud email, my personal GMail, and my Poetik Gmail all heading to the same place. Lovely.

Finally I want to talk about Chrome, the iOS mobile browser version. It's amazing and it can sync with your computer version and you can have all of your bookmarks wherever you go. I find this useful because some Hip-Hop websites still do not have any apps or their app is complete trash (XXL). This forces me to use the mobile site and thankfully Chrome delivers GREAT performance.

I could probably write about this all day but I can't. In conclusion I have found how much technology can be put to good use as a musician, rapper, or writer. Remember to choose similar products, if you have a Mac get an iPhone (if you really don't want a iPhone then of course Android is next best), if you have Windows get an Android phone, and when it comes to Windows Phone 8...Ain't Nobody Got Time Fo' Dat!

Tsk Tsk Apple

So earlier this week my two and half month old Macbook Pro decided to flip me off, scream fuck you and your couch life, and crash. I was furious, confused, and a little dead inside. My entire life I was told "What happens to PC's doesn't ever happen to Macs, it will be years before it start's show real aging." Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

It was nearly a dream of mine to own a Mac due to it is unmatched in audio engineering and music creation. When it was purchased and I finally sat down to go through it I was ecstatic, it lived up to everything. Then in crashed.

I came home one night and spent hours wondering why it couldn't boot up, it would just freeze on the Apple logo. I gave up, went to sleep and woke up the next day ready to contact Apple support since I had until the end of December before my free phone support ran out.

I was on the phone from 2:00 P.M. until 6:00 P.M. FOUR HOURS. But hey, at least I got it fixed up...right? No. They wanted me to go out a buy a $60 thunderbolt cord, big surprise. I said fuck that and got ahold of my cousin in Columbus and being the computer genius he is got it fixed up for me in twenty four hours with no files, programs, or even unsaved work lost.

But this made me realize the importance of saving, organizing, backing up, and backing up again somewhere else. I may even adopt backing up on a cloud and paying for extra storage. The thought of losing my two most recent songs made me want to vomit but luckily I was saved.

Amazing. Here's to you cuz, and Apple...I lost a little faith that day.

Lessons From Blueprint, Mad Dukez, Fresh Kils Show

I'm still trying to discover exactly what this blog will be. So I'm going to try something new and post when I go through great experiences, lessons, success, and failures.

Recently I was honored to play the same show as Blueprint (of Rhymesayers), Mad Dukez, and Fresh Kils. I have to admit that it was the best show I've seen, from Journey to OFWGKTA I prefer this hometown awesomeness. I learned big lessons that will follow me throughout my life.

To begin Mad Dukez and Fresh Kils killed it, truly great music and stage presence. Fresh Kils gave me a first hand look at how the MPC can be used live effectively and how much energy it can bring. Mad Dukez flowed over it so well, I can only imagine how much practice they went through.

Blueprint rocked it of course, just having a Rhymesayers artist in Huntington was crazy enough but the fact it was Blueprint seemed unreal. His live set was so flawless, no awkward silence between tracks, utilizing a DJ, a midi controller and a keytar! There was so much energy and he kept the crowd mesmerized for what I think was two hours.

What I began to see was that I owned everything they had on stage, just in non-working condition so I'm in a rush to get this set up. Turntables (w/ mixer), MPC 1000, Macbook, midi controllers, and a eight person crew! I thought to myself "Why are we not owning Huntington, and beyond on that the fucking state!?" With B Stinky having the PA system, my gear, and things here and there from others we could set shows up anywhere and turn what usually is local dudes just rapping on stage into something that cannot be seen anywhere else in the state (or tri-state with the exception of Blueprint).

I honestly became a little depressed and upset with myself so I went home and over the past three days I have written two new songs, started into photography, delved into graffiti with more eagerness, have really started looking into production, and am re-inventing my entire live set.

So thanks to Blueprint, Mad Dukez, and Fresh Kils for coming to Slumington, WV. I know all who came to the show and some that couldn't make it are very grateful, hope to get you back here!