Holidays & One Dumb Rapper
It was a pretty fun holiday weekend for me. This past Saturday I hit up a friend’s barbecue that featured not only some amazing chicken, but also some amazing, vodka soaked and infused, watermelon. The health pyramid on the side of the Cheerios box recommends we eat a lot of fruits and veggies so I felt it was my duty as a healthy individual to have as much of the watermelon as possible.
Later that afternoon one of my boys come through from NYC to chill for the weekend. He brought with him Gang Warz, a film starring Coolio and Chino XL. Apparently Coolio won some sort of film festival honor for his role in the film but Lord only knows why. The scenes jumped at a rapid pace and it seemed like a new character was being introduced every thirty seconds. Thankfully, we also caught the end of The Vampire Effect on Starz Edge. As far as I could tell the end of the movie is a giant half hour fight scene and it was off the hook. We later went to the mall and saw a guy selling martial arts DVD’s, asked him about The Vampire Effect, and he not only knew of it but also informed us that there was a sequel.
Yesterday was an especially eventful day. In the early afternoon I hit the city for a job interview. The job sounded perfect and I was thrilled when they called me in for an interview. I left the interview, however, not feeling very confident in my chances. That might actually be a good thing, though, as most of the time I leave an interview thinking it went well and then later find out that it didn’t so maybe this time, with me thinking it didn’t go so well, I’ll get a call back for a second interview. Regardless, I’m still working on completing my home office this month. I’m not about to count any chickens before they’re hatched.
I was pretty bummed out after the interview, but got to see an old friend and talk for an hour since his office is only a block away from where I interviewed. It was great to catch up and he even provided me with some artwork for my office, which is always a plus. I was telling him about the magazines I was writing for and The Cut in July and he noted that I’m a lot further along in my career now than I was a year and a half ago and the growth has been rapid. That, I must say, perked me up a bit.
After visiting my friend I made the long(ish) walk to my Dad’s office to say hi to him and a few people I know there. I couldn’t stay very long, however, since I had to catch a train that would get me home in time to cook dinner, eat dinner and get my ducks in a row for the radio show. Hushh was in the house to talk about their appearance in this month’s XXL (article written be yours truly) and we were all looking forward to a fun night at In Da Mixx.
Hushh was awesome once they made their way to the station (who knew Boston Market could be someone’s directional undoing!). The freestyle session was off the hook and we took some fantastic pictures. One of the pics includes a gorgeous chica that DJ Halo brought with him and since he always comes early for his show we ended up incorporating his friend into our show.
Yesterday’s edition of In Da Mixx also featured a fantastic example of how to sabotage one’s own career. DJ Cue was handed a CD by a local artist, something that’s not only an everyday occurrence, but at times seems like an hourly occurrence. The artist came recommended by someone so even though we weren’t necessarily feeling his music we were going to give it a chance thinking maybe someone else out there would be feeling it. The artist called in, gassed himself up like he was something amazing, but when we hit play on the CD player it was pretty weak, lots of cursing with below average production. We faded out of the song after around 45 seconds saying we were giving people a taste. Well, homeboy called in to the show, talked with Cue some more then asked to speak with me. I, reluctantly, picked up the phone. It was hard enough to get this guy off the line when he was on air, I couldn’t imagine what he would be like when he was off the air.
Apparently this aspiring rapper was listening to the show and heard that Hushh, our guest, was in this month’s XXL and I had written the article. He wanted to know how I could get him into XXL. Was this man ultra confident? No, turns out he just didn’t know much about the media side of entertainment. His pitch to me was that he had two albums out. I politely told him a lot of people have two albums out and there had to be more of a hook than that to get a story in a publication like XXL. I suggested he try some smaller local publications and develop a clip book. He kept asking and asking about XXL. It was like he was ignoring everything I was trying to tell him. I explained to him that Hushh was in the magazine because of their extraordinary circumstances and because of who they’ve worked with. He still wasn’t budging. He wanted to be in XXL and nothing else. I didn’t just offer help, I outright told him the right path to go on, but he wasn’t hearin it. Finally he said "so what you’re sayin is you can’t help me," and hung up the phone. Bear in mind, this is a person who wants his songs played on the radio show I’m working for and he’s hanging up on me. I’m the person he’s soliciting help from and he’s hanging up on me. If you’re an aspiring artist take note, this is a perfect example of how NOT to have a career. His CD was immediately thrown out and we put his name in our memory banks as someone to not work with. There are too many good, hard working, artists out there to deal with someone who’s a problem in any way shape or form.
Later that afternoon one of my boys come through from NYC to chill for the weekend. He brought with him Gang Warz, a film starring Coolio and Chino XL. Apparently Coolio won some sort of film festival honor for his role in the film but Lord only knows why. The scenes jumped at a rapid pace and it seemed like a new character was being introduced every thirty seconds. Thankfully, we also caught the end of The Vampire Effect on Starz Edge. As far as I could tell the end of the movie is a giant half hour fight scene and it was off the hook. We later went to the mall and saw a guy selling martial arts DVD’s, asked him about The Vampire Effect, and he not only knew of it but also informed us that there was a sequel.
Yesterday was an especially eventful day. In the early afternoon I hit the city for a job interview. The job sounded perfect and I was thrilled when they called me in for an interview. I left the interview, however, not feeling very confident in my chances. That might actually be a good thing, though, as most of the time I leave an interview thinking it went well and then later find out that it didn’t so maybe this time, with me thinking it didn’t go so well, I’ll get a call back for a second interview. Regardless, I’m still working on completing my home office this month. I’m not about to count any chickens before they’re hatched.
I was pretty bummed out after the interview, but got to see an old friend and talk for an hour since his office is only a block away from where I interviewed. It was great to catch up and he even provided me with some artwork for my office, which is always a plus. I was telling him about the magazines I was writing for and The Cut in July and he noted that I’m a lot further along in my career now than I was a year and a half ago and the growth has been rapid. That, I must say, perked me up a bit.
After visiting my friend I made the long(ish) walk to my Dad’s office to say hi to him and a few people I know there. I couldn’t stay very long, however, since I had to catch a train that would get me home in time to cook dinner, eat dinner and get my ducks in a row for the radio show. Hushh was in the house to talk about their appearance in this month’s XXL (article written be yours truly) and we were all looking forward to a fun night at In Da Mixx.
Hushh was awesome once they made their way to the station (who knew Boston Market could be someone’s directional undoing!). The freestyle session was off the hook and we took some fantastic pictures. One of the pics includes a gorgeous chica that DJ Halo brought with him and since he always comes early for his show we ended up incorporating his friend into our show.
Yesterday’s edition of In Da Mixx also featured a fantastic example of how to sabotage one’s own career. DJ Cue was handed a CD by a local artist, something that’s not only an everyday occurrence, but at times seems like an hourly occurrence. The artist came recommended by someone so even though we weren’t necessarily feeling his music we were going to give it a chance thinking maybe someone else out there would be feeling it. The artist called in, gassed himself up like he was something amazing, but when we hit play on the CD player it was pretty weak, lots of cursing with below average production. We faded out of the song after around 45 seconds saying we were giving people a taste. Well, homeboy called in to the show, talked with Cue some more then asked to speak with me. I, reluctantly, picked up the phone. It was hard enough to get this guy off the line when he was on air, I couldn’t imagine what he would be like when he was off the air.
Apparently this aspiring rapper was listening to the show and heard that Hushh, our guest, was in this month’s XXL and I had written the article. He wanted to know how I could get him into XXL. Was this man ultra confident? No, turns out he just didn’t know much about the media side of entertainment. His pitch to me was that he had two albums out. I politely told him a lot of people have two albums out and there had to be more of a hook than that to get a story in a publication like XXL. I suggested he try some smaller local publications and develop a clip book. He kept asking and asking about XXL. It was like he was ignoring everything I was trying to tell him. I explained to him that Hushh was in the magazine because of their extraordinary circumstances and because of who they’ve worked with. He still wasn’t budging. He wanted to be in XXL and nothing else. I didn’t just offer help, I outright told him the right path to go on, but he wasn’t hearin it. Finally he said "so what you’re sayin is you can’t help me," and hung up the phone. Bear in mind, this is a person who wants his songs played on the radio show I’m working for and he’s hanging up on me. I’m the person he’s soliciting help from and he’s hanging up on me. If you’re an aspiring artist take note, this is a perfect example of how NOT to have a career. His CD was immediately thrown out and we put his name in our memory banks as someone to not work with. There are too many good, hard working, artists out there to deal with someone who’s a problem in any way shape or form.
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