Life, Love, and SELF!!

Moved Blog!

2008-12-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Folks, my blog is now at www.shawnpeters.com. Please check me out over there and get your RSS feed on.

Cheers,

Shawn P

Ron Saint Germain, Sebastiao Salgado and the Music Business.

2008-12-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

Ron Saint Germain is a rock music legend. He has produced, mixed, or engineered 60 Gold and Platinum albums including four “Diamond Platinum" (10 million +) awards with sales on the better side of a quarter of a billion units. His albums have garnered 18 Grammy nominations with 12 being winners. With 35+ years in music under his belt he has worked with the likes of 311, Muse, Tool, Bad Brains, Breed 77, Mos Def, Living Color, U2, Red Hot Chili Pepers, Soundgarden, The Cure, Creed, Sonic Youth, Kraftwerk, The Cult, Killing Joke, Adam Ant, Lou Reed, Keziah Jones, Kashmir, and many more. I have had the opportunity to work with and befriend Ron Saint Germain and watched his mastery of production and engineering at work. Ron is an audiophile, his ear and attention to the details of music arrangement isn't matched by many, however Ron has a problem. His problem is that he is a master of the process of making music in a time in the music business when the process is no longer very valuable. You see you will find Ron bragging about the Neve 9098i that he just moved into his basement, or you will hear him describing the DBA scale and the wave vector differences of digital and tape recording. The majority of music consumers listen to MP3 files on iPod headphones. These files are so compressed that only the most genius of audiophiles could possible tell the difference between a recording on the 9098i that costs $150,000 or a protools based home studio set up that has a good mic or preamp compressor. It seems easy to gather that Ron Saint Germain could and maybe should become a dinasour in todays music market. Making music is so much easier than it used to be and many people have access to the technology to make professional sounding music. The problem is this, Ron Saint Germain knows what the hell he is doing and they guy who makes beats on Fruity Loops doesn't . He knows how to tune a guitar for a certain effect and which guitar amp to run it through. He knows how the guitars should be arranged for the highest emotional effect for the song and so that it uplifts instead of clashing with the tone of the singers voice. He knows how to mic the drums to either give you a tight hip hop sound or a roomy Led Zepplin sound depending on what the tune needs. he knows how to arrange vocal performances around musical performances. This is the most simple explanation of his very skilled, very nuanced process that allows him to make great music. The greatness isn't always obvious, it's etherial. Somehow the soul can hear a deep process and for those of us who still love music and recognize it as art, the process is appreciated.

Sebastiao Salgado is a master photographer from Brazil. He began his professional career as an economist, but after taking pictures on a business trip to Africa he realized that he had found his real passion and talent. Sebastiao's approach to photography is all about process. First of all he (still) shoots film on a Leica 35mm camera and uses a small selection of wide angle lenses. the film that he primarily shoots in a 3500ASA (super fast, super grainy) film that allows him to shoot at pretty much any light level without the use of intrusive flash bulbs. I once read in an interview with Salgado that will visit town or community that he is documenting and live with the people for 30 or 40 days before he starts photography. He likes to become invisible and get very close to his subjects (remember he primarily uses wide angle lenses). He also said in that interview that his photographs are not taken but given to him from his subjects. He rates his 3500 ASA film at 1600 and sometimes 800. In his minds eye he knows what he is trying to achieve in terms of grain structure and depth of field in the negatives that he will receive from the lab weeks after he has shot the images. For Salgado, his film choice, the way he rates it, the lenses that camera that he chooses and the way he interacts with his subjects is a part of his process. Of course Salgado has an incredible eye; but that's only a part of how he creates the outcome of the images that he makes. We must also keep in mind that shooting film limits him to 36 shots per roll on 35mm film. The Leica is a manual focus and manual shutter camera. He has to be selective with what he shoots and he can't roll off 35 shots at the press of a button like you can with digital photography. He doesn't have the luxury of seeing what he has just shot instantly so that he can adjust composition or camera settings; all of that has to be done in his mind. When I was getting my MFA and I was reviewing his work for the first time I used to be baffled at how he was able to make his images look and feel like that. He was a magician to me and no other photographer that I have studied made images quite like his...maybe just as great but not like. He had a signature style that was nearly impossible to reproduce. There is magic in his process. The other day I dusted my Mamiya 7 range finder camera and took in on the road with me. I was contemplating selling all of my film cameras and buying a new digital. After a day of shooting, and guessing the right exposures and being very selective of what I chose to shoot (the Mamiya 7 is a medium format camera which only shoots about 11 exposures per roll) I realized that I enjoyed that process. I can't wait to see the negatives of what I shot, and get into the dark room to interpret them in the print. Now, the film process is ridiculously expensive and isn't really practical anymore, unless you are Sabastiao Salgado and can sell an original print for $10,000, or you are a famous advertisement photographer who has the luxury of huge shooting budgets. Art is never practical. The process that it takes to make great art is always intricate, involved, and time consuming.

Art contributes to the beauty of the world, it makes living, worth living. I am not bitter; I understand that times change and I am young, but I realize the difference between something that is art and something that is not. I believe that other people do too. I believe that the painstaking process of experiencing something great from someone who has perfected his/her craft is still valuable to people even if they don't realize it in theory. There is an etherial recognition of beauty and greatness. Maybe since the music business can no longer pedal it's wears, it will have to revert back to the days creative great music and sell more of less. Then maybe Ron Saint Germain will get called for work again.

Killer Machines!

2008-12-28T12:58:00.001-08:00

Here is a new song that we recorded this year for the new Martin Luther project to be released 2nd Quarter 2009. This is a preview, let me know what you think.

Outliers

2008-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I finished the audio book (because I don't have the attention span to read) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Before going into detail I would like to emphatically recommend this audio book. Malcolm Gladwell is an excellent story teller; so beyond the fact that the major premise that he proposes is profound in it's wise and detailed simplicity, the audio book narrated by him is enormously entertaining.

Malcolm Gladwell's simple premise is that reasons for the achievement of successful people; leaders and industry superstars are complex and that success may be more based upon historical, cultural, and circumstantial chance than the persons intelligence and hard work. Gladwell states that it is a wrong choice to personalize success and make it exclusively the result of someone's personal attributes. He speaks of the 10,000 hours rule, which essentially says that it takes 10,000 of practice in order to master any certain skill. He uses the example of Bill Gates and Bill Joy; the two bills are by right on the top five list of the most influential men in today's technology world. The story details the fact that these two men being born in the time that they were and by chance going to schools that had access to a type of computer that enabled the first generation of quick computer programming and coming of age on the cusp of a personal computing revolution allowed these men the 10,000 hours necessary to master their fields. Of course, both of these men are also brilliant. But it doesn't change the fact that the computer that they both had access too at the time they did was as rare to the common man as having access to your own satellite in space today.

Why should you read Outliers? For me it allowed an opportunity to look back at my own life and the chances that have been afforded to me to get to where I am. It allowed me to evaluate my talents and to look at them in the context of both ability and opportunity. It's a great wake up call in my mind to seize your life's mission and to personalize your own success and build upon it with more clarity.

VOTE!

2008-11-04T05:48:00.001-08:00

This morning I couldn’t sleep; I woke up at 5 AM and figured I would get to my polling office by 6. To my surprise the line was bananas!! I would guess that more than 800 people on line before me at 6 AM. The lines were so full of black people, it was amazing!!

Okay, I must admit; and I am not sure how I feel about it, but a friend came up to me and let me know that there was another entrance that was designated for handicapped voters that no one is checking. He said that he went right into that entrance and voted. He walked me in and boom, I was in; it took me 20 minutes. I cut the line to vote for Barack Obama; was that shady? Should I feel bad? Nah, I got my vote in and I feel wonderful.

The Times

2008-10-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

In a time of so much flux, insecurity, and economic depression; I wonder how popular music and entertainment will shift to meet the times. I would like to use urban music to illustrate my ideas. In the late 60's and early 70's, during a time of tremendous political upheaval including the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement urban music, was and still is defined primarily by the black male superstars of the day. I make the black male stars distinction not to diminish or exclude the tremendous contribution of our female stars of then and now but to try and make the point that when outsiders analyze urban/ghetto culture it is usually defined by the actions of the male population of that community. I will continue this discussion within that framework. In the late 60's and 70's in America at any given time you could have had 8 to 10 black males, all from primarily impoverished urban communities. These communities suffered many of the same problems of crime, drug and alchohol abuse, single parenthood, and joblessness of poor urban communities of today but the difference of cultural expression of the urban males of then is strikingly different from the expressions of today. In the late 60's and early 70's on any giving week you may have had, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green all topping the charts at the same time. If you go back and listen to the message of the music of these products of the urban environment you heard a clear message of redemption and over coming obstacles to become a better loving human being. Granted those times were the times of revolution and free love, it was the time of LSD and Marijuana. If you look at the beginnings of a latest musical genre invention from the urban community, hip hop; it started in the late 70's as an extension of the sentiments of the black men who where influential in the lives of the Black and Puerto Rican men who were fathers of the genre. When did it shift?

In my opinion the greatest shift in urban music after the 70's was the advent of crack cocaine's arrival in the urban community in the early 80's. Crack cocaine took historical urban issues and put them into hyper drive; at the same time crack created a hyper urban economy. So you had hyper violence, hyper materialism, hyper childhood neglect, hyper moral decline, and a hyper rich criminal youth. Not even heroin would take a mother from her child, but crack did. Crack caused urban blight unlike anything else in urban history, in my opinion. It was said that crack was first introduced in Oakland California around 1982; I don't remember crack hitting the east coast hard until around 85, 86. On the east coast, crack culture didn't start entering into the musical lexicon until around 87. The west coast had experienced it's affect for much longer and combined with gang culture it had seeped into the urban music dialogue faster than it did any wear else. I'm showing my age, but I remember when I was a senior in High School in 1988 and I first heard NWA "Fuck the Police," my friends and I couldn't believe it. The use of hyper violent imagery and the free use of the word nigger was completely startling and new to us. 1988 in NY was the year of Public Enemy's largest success and the introduction of the Jungle Brothers and later De La Soul and the Native Tongue movement, it was Big Daddy Kane and LL Cool J. It was Rob Bass. Later that year in the fall I started my freshman year of college at Morehouse in Atlanta and NWA and Too Short was blasting through the dorms from our West Coast peers. I also remember that first week a kid from Oakland jokingly called me a nigger; and I remember being almost provoked to violence. In New York at the time if someone called you a nigger that was a huge insult. 20 years later, things are a whole lot different. I find myself using that word all the time now, like a filthy habit that I love but need to break.

10 years ago we were experiencing the height of the benefits of post crack epidemic culture in full bloom with the most hyper violent, materialistic, and misogynistic musical content in urban music history. Now that the crack epidemic is long past and we could possibly be moving towards the end of a hyper gangster black male cultural aesthetic (noticing the skater and rock star aesthetic taking off in the urban community prompted by Lupe Fiasco, Pherrell Williams, and Kanye West and the arrival of Barack Obama as a cultural icon largely promoted in urban fashion), I wonder what the next movement to be created out of the urban community will be. We must acknowledge that we are running into some very interesting financial and political times. I wonder what the urban response will be. Here is an interesting documentary trailer that I found recently that I think brings up some interesting points.

2 Trees

2008-10-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic animation series that my friend Pierre Bennu does. Enjoy!

The Visitor

2008-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Thank God for Netflix; what a brilliant business model. The way they are able to make data mining associations with your film renting history in order to make suggestions of films that you may like is what makes it such a brilliant sucessful company. Netflix recently suggested the film The Visitor and I took them up on their offer. I finally watched the film this morning and though it was largely predictable it was amazingly charming and visceral. I’m not embarrassed to say that I found myself welling up with tears several times and began to delve into the relationships between the characters and suspending my disbelief very easily.

The Visitor is about Walter Vale, a divorced economics professor from Connecticut who struggles with feelings of lonliness and frustration due to an inactive non-inspired life. A lecture that he is forced to make at NYU brings him back to New York City where he lived with his deceased wife and the apartment that he owns but virtually abandoned in Greenwich Village. When he arrives at his apartment, to his suprise a couple is living there illegally. The couple reacts in absolute fear that they of this instrusion and we learn that they are illegal aliens so they fear that this man will call the police, so they quickly leave the apartment. The couple is Tarek from Syria and Zainab from Senegal; Tarek is a purcussionist and Zainab makes hand made jewlery and vends on the streets on NY. Walter ends up inviting to stay for a few days until they get themselves together. A few days becomes weeks and Walter finds himself staying in NY for a while and involving himself in the lives of these 2 young illegal immagrants. An unfortunate mistake gets Tarek arrested and sent to immagration and Walter is wrapped up in this immagration drama and a new found friendship that changes his life forever. I recommend this simple charming film, its subtle and beautiful.

Nigerian Wood

2008-10-09T22:18:00.001-07:00

I have only listened to Keziah Jones’ new album Nigerian Wood one full time; but I must say that I am fully enjoying it. I must admit though that the album starts off a little bit slowly for me. Normally artists pack there best songs at the top of the playlist, the first 2 songs of the album are not my favorites. Normally if the first 2 songs of an album aren’t cool I never get to the third song; but I really wanted to dig this project. First of all, Keziah and I in the last 4 years have become friends and second of all for me Keziah’s last album Black Orpheus is a classic LP. I first heard Black Office after taking a meeting at Atlantic Records with an A&R about an artist that I manage. The A&R gave me the record and asked me to get back to him and tell me what I thought. My business partner Jeff and I but it in the car stereo on the way back home and we remember remarking about how great the mix of the album sounded. I learned later that it was mixed and Engineered by Russell Elevado; who also mixed D’Angelo’s Voodoo album.

I first met Keziah Jones in LA in late 2004, a friend of mine tipped me to a solo show that he was having at the Temple Bar. I thought that Black Orpheus was a beautiful sounding and very interesting album before that, but after being blown away by his live show; I mean Keziah is a “bananas” rhythm guitar player and performer. I paid more attention to his music after that show, and after a conversation with he and his manager after that show we kept in touch and we would hang whenever he came through New York.

I would Nigerian Wood a 6.5 out of 10 overall and would suggest that if you haven’t listened to Keziah’s Music before that you start with Black Orpheus. If you are an audiophile and absolutely love music, you will dig the audio tapestries of Nigerian Wood, but don’t expect “typical” or melodic progressions, this is a music lovers album. Stand out songs for me are My Kinda Girl, Pimpin’, Lagos vs New York, and Uninteded Consequenses.

Bathroom Sign

2008-10-08T07:52:00.001-07:00

This was in the bathroom of my local Bedford Stuyvesant Laundromat.

Sunday!

2008-10-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was a wild day; it started by photographer friend of mine from Montreal calling me and saying that he was going to drive to the city because he wanted to meet with me. Now that's a 6 hour drive. I told him that I was considering using him as a part of the event series that I am curating in Amsterdam. I wanted to let me know that he was serious about working with me so he drove all the way to NY, met with me for a couple of hours and then drove back the following morning. Big props to Neil Mota; www.neilmota.com that's the kind of person that inspires me to work with them.

While I was meeting with Neil, I get a call from my boy Dan; asking me what I was doing. I told him that I was in the West Village in a meeting. Dan says "I'm on my way to the studio to meet up with DJ Quick and Rakim, do you want to come?" "Hell yeah, where and when, I replied." So after my meeting with Neil, he and I walk up to 17th and 10th to meet with Dan. Neil and I part ways and Dan and I head to the studio; a long walk to 50th street and 10th Avenue, on the way there we see this sign in a store window made out of flouresant lights that said CHANGE, I thought that was cool. We get to the studio and we hear this bananas beat that Quick was working on, I was in heaven. Unfortunately, I waited for hours to meet Rakim, but I was exhausted and left before he showed. Anyway, it was cool to kick it with DJ Quick and his folks from La La...and so the day went. On the way out Dan asked me to manage him; he wrote an amazing script about his amazing life and has been shopping it in LA, I've never worked with a writer, so I need to think about that. Oh, we also stopped by Billy's bakery on 21st and 9th Avenue on the way up; craziest cakes in town, trust me!!

Chop Shop

2008-10-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

I watched this movie last night and am watching it again as I am typing. My apologies; I called it a movie and I meant to call it a film, there is a difference. I always felt that if I were going to make a film; that it would feel like this one.

Chop Shop is a simple story about Alejandro, an orphaned 10 year old in Queens, NY who lives above an
Auto Mobile Chop Shop where he works. Alejandro’s story is typical of New York City’s street kid culture, a culture of selling candy on the train, hustling bootleg movies,and snatching pocket books. Alejandro is by all accounts a grown ass man. He negotiated a place to stay above his bosses Chop Shop for he and his homeless 16 year old sister Isamar who joins the story about 25 minutes in. Ale (Alejandro) finds out a dirty secret about his sister that he decides to accept but it strengthens his goal to buy a food vending truck for he and his sister so that they can start there own business.

Chop Shop is brilliant in it’s realism; the camera never gets in the way of the story and the acting is amazing. I highly recommend this film.

De La Soul

2008-10-03T21:16:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe that the VH1 Hip Hop Honors are just getting around to honoring De La Soul this year, its almost criminal. How do you honor Snoop Dog, Outkast, or even A Tribe Called Quest before De La? Is there any understanding or respect for history? What criteria do they based their decisions for honoring bands on. It cant be based on the impact that a band has had on the genre or the aesthetic of the Hip Hop community because there are very few Hip Hop bands that did more to impact the genre than De La Soul. I know because I was there, in fact me and the youngest member of the group Maceo are the same age; I actually went to his high school graduation party in Amityville, Long Island; because we had mutual friends. I’m not from Amityville but I am from Suburban NY; the same suburb that Brand Nubian and CL Smooth are from, and as suburban kids we had a different sensibility towards Hip Hop because we grew up in a quieter, safer, more friendly place than our urban peers.

De La Soul gave birth to bands like A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School, Brand Nubian, the Pharcyde, Hieroglyphics, Freestyle Fellowship, Blackalicious, UMC’s, Main Source, and a host of others. They ushered in a whole movement and a different sound; a sound that had less to do with urban blight and more about the expression of youthful life discovery of sex, culture, and growing up. And the expression was wrapped in a competitive lyrical style that was based on who could be the most original. It was a time when it was embarrassing to be wack; what ever happened to that? If you listen to Three Feet High and Rising you never heard the word nigger, maybe once; and that was in the context of a parody of the word. There wasn’t one song bragging about inner city violence or drug trafficing. There were songs about diasies though, and potholes in lawns and about getting laid. The subject matters were universal and human, every kid; black, white, asian, indian from Long Island to Boisee could relate. De La Soul gave Hip Hop freedom, freedom from James Brown and Funkadelic samples; freedom to sample Steely Dan. It was fun to be young and black again and it for a minute Hip Hop was inspirational. Who the f*ck makes these decisions about who should be honored. If it was me De La Soul would have been on the first show with PE and Grand Master Flash and the Furious 5; they were that important.

King of Soul

2008-10-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Got a call from Cody ChesnuTT last night; it was brief, he wanted to tell me that he just saw an ad for Robin Thicke's new album which highlighted a quote from the LA Times calling him the new King of Soul music. The New King of Soul Music? Have I died and gone to hell? I've listened to the Robin Thicke album and unfortunately its not bad; it sounds like a Marvin Gaye tribute album, but its actually listenable. Is he the new King of Soul? Well, I think that's a ridiculous notion since there are people like Al Green still alive and making music but I understand marketing spin. The fact that his marketing folks could say that without being boycotted is a testament to where black music and artistry is today. Where is D'Angelo when you need him? D'Angelo please come back and shut this dude down; this is embarrassing.

My friend Josh sent me a link to this an old Omar video from 1994; I remember when I first found Omar. It was at a record store in Atlanta, I was in my first year of graduate school in South Carolina but I used to make several trips to Atlanta to see friends that were still at Morehouse and Spelman. Anyway, I think I was at Best Buy and I saw the For Pleasure album; being featured as a new release. I don't know why I bought it, I can't remember if it was in a listening station or not. What I do remember is that after one listen, he was my favorite artist at the time and I told all of my friends about him. Now Omar had already released 2 albums since 1990 in the UK, but it was his US debut that turned me on to him. It was For Pleasure in my opinion, even though it was not a smash hit sales wise, that spawned the Neo Soul movement in America. D'Angelo is often given the credit with his 1995 release Brown Sugar, because it eventually hit the mainstream in 1996 with the hit song Lady. But in London, Omar and his crew were dubbed the creators of what was called neo-classic soul before D'Angelo had a career. Well as fate would have it; Omar and all of his genius, never translated here in the US and D'Angelo is a legend. So here we are today and this discussion about two modern day soul geniuses doesn't matter because Robin Thicke is on tour with Mary J Blige and is the reigning "King of Soul," go figure.

Afro Punk Cringe

2008-09-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

My friend and photographer Dwayne Rodgers sent me this dope image that he made at the AfroPunk after party this summer; look at my weak ass straining to keep James Spooner up in the mosh pit. Damn, I'm getting old!!

Muxtape & Francis and the Lights

2008-09-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Found this band after reading the letter that Muxtape creator Justin Ouellette wrote about how major labels and the RIAA with their bureaucracies and non communication caused him to shut down what would have probably been the next big idea in digital music distribution. Well, if you get a chance to read the letter; its a good lesson for those of us in this industry that both love music and are challenged with finding new and interesting ways of distributing and marketing it. The Muxtape story is a telling one; what it says is that major labels still feel like they can control the sharing of music and instead of finding creative ways to profit from the culture of music sharing they continue to fight for the outdated notion of copyright. As one who is in the business of selling music; I am all for getting paid for that which I have invested in, but there are a million ways to skin a cat. I believe artists and labels will get the long dollar from creating movement based brands based on individual artists, label brands, or associated movements that are defined by types of artists and music. Grow the brand and everyone from the fans to other corporate brands are going to want to patronize it. Anyway, thanks to Muxtape.com I found Francis & the Lights. Francis and the Lights are a mixture of Prince, Fine Young Cannibals, Roger Troutman, and Cold Play. You can download both of their EP's A Modern Promise and Striking for free here
After listening to both EP's all morning, I can say that they are officially one of my favorite new bands, check them out for yourself.

You ever heard of?

2008-09-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that there are certain personalities that are only famous in the black community? I don't think anyone outside of the black race knows who Melba Moore, Stacey Lattisaw, Evelyn Champagne King, Lavar Burton, The Sylvers, Kashif, Flip Wilson, Tina Marie, Peabo Bryson, Alexander Oneal or Della Reese is. If you are over 30 and non-black and you know who most of these people are; then you probably wear cufis and guayaberas and you are a purcussionist or guitar player in a neo-soul band. When you get around a large group of black people you often sound like Huggie Bear from Starsky and Hutch. If you are black and over 30 and haven't heard of these people then you are either in denial, were adopted by white people, or weren't born in this country. Either way you have no black friends have never dated a black person and you are basically Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Like it or not, if you know who these folks are, you can not escape your blackness, no matter how bougeousie you have become, what college you went to or what neighborhood you currently live in. I don't know why but something tickles me about this. I'm kinda proud to know who these people are. Somehow these folks were able to have careers based solely off of the patronage of black folks and even after they are no longer relevant in even mainstream black society they can still make money doing chitterling circuit plays at the Beacon Theater. Now that's self reliance, maybe.

The Apes

2008-09-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Every time this band comes up on my iPod on my shuffle I get excited. If you haven't heard this album you should head to your local digital download retailer and cop it right away.

Freedom!!

2008-09-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

My good friend Christian Ericson has been going through a lot of changes due to a recent surprise pitfall in his romantic life. Sometimes the most insensitive of moments clash with very sensitive people and the explosion of emotions is volcanic. With Christian this is the case and he is dealing with it in his own way. He recently went to the Bahamas to unwind and be with friends. I have always admired Christians passion and his wanting to know himself in deeper ways through his relationships with others. He sent me this picture that he took of himself jumping into a pool with all of his clothes on. Now that's Christian, I hope that this one set back doesn't make him hesitate to jump in with his heart first once again, when the right thing presents itself.

The Moment!

2008-09-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

As I was walking home today from my morning swim I realized once again that all I have in this life is the moment. Who I am and how I view myself can often be swayed by those moments. My circumstances in life change rather quickly it seems; one day I am in the studio in Atlanta and soon after I am in Amsterdam. Sometimes like right now I am in a space where my life slows down and I have the opportunity to really ponder myself. By self I mean the many thoughts that I have and choices that I have made. I also mean the continuum of self love and hate that I may travel through from moment to moment subconsciously. Now that may sound extreme, but I have realized in my own self study that the ego is in a constant battle with your higher purpose and it is within that battle where love and hate reside subconsciously in regards to self. I am learning this, however the subtleties are so intricate that it is hard to recognize which end of that continuum I am on in the moment. The realization often comes in a moment of reflection. It's a beautiful struggle. The more and more I understand that I am evolving the more I can accept myself right now and the more faith I have in a higher power. The design of life and consciousness is so interesting to me. Anyway, in this particular moment I am battling fear which at the end of the day is a lack of faith. So there it is, and here I am; taking it all in.

Get your numbers up!!

2008-09-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

The fact that influential bloggers can make a gang of money is not exactly breaking news; however I found this really interesting.

And the answer is....

2008-09-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Many urban black kids are picking up instruments again and expressing themselves without the stigmas and outside of the box of "urban" music. These kids are the Afropunkers and the ghetto metals; they are the blipsters and are creating a new sound in soul music. It's alternative, it's multi-genre and it's free. My friend Shawn Hewitt from Toronto is dropping an album called Spare Hearts on the 30th; but you can listen to the entire album streamed on My Space music. There it is, a case for My Space music. Maybe I was wrong, check the album out here; I highly recommend you a listen.

Next?

2008-09-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

What ever happened to the days when it was embarrassing to be wack? When musical quality was competitive? I guess that still exists in many genres, but it urban music that has all but disappeared. What ever happened to being fresh? What's the next hip hop or bebop? What's the next fresh thing out of the urban community? Have poor people lost their imagination? We are moving into the next economic depression, that may create less distractions. When people are really poor again, will they regain that hunger for new expression. That's what hip hop was born out of.....what's next?

Silent Pitch

2008-09-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

My little point and shoot can take video but without audio so please excuse me for this silent clip but I ask you to use your imagination. The guy on the left was pitching a new tune to singer Gregory Porter, the guy on the right. I decided to film it, just being a bit nosey; because I loved the rhythm of the conversation and I thought it befitting to watch that rhythm without the distraction of sound. Check it out.

MySpace

2008-09-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

So all of the hype this week and last has been about the arrival of My Space's new Music store. There has been debate after debate conjecturing over My Space's model and whether or not they will include independent artists. First of all, iTunes still does 90% of the legal digital download business, why the iPod and it's Apple. Granted the Amazon digital music store is doing well, but amazon is a retail destination that sells many products; it's kind of the digital version of Wallmart without food, so buying MP3's from them is logical. People are used to doing business with Amazon. My Space is social network that has never been a retail destination and doesn't have a Zune like answer to the iPod. Infact My Space is chasing Facebook as a social network and is associated with 30 something year old cornballs. I can't remember the last time I checked my MySpace account but I use Facebook everyday, it's a better tool. In my opinion this move is too late, they could have competed 3 years ago when they were at the top of the digital food chain. So why do we need another digital music store, all of the same labels have their music up on Amazon and eMusic DRM free. People aren't going to start using their credit cards with a service they have habitually used for free for the last 5 years. I don't see the point or buy the hype.

Ravi Coltrane

2008-09-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to go over my boy Michael Weintrob's studio in Williamsburg today and kick it with him before he left town. I figured I could get out of my home office and get some work done in another environment. When I get there he's all excited; he says "Ravi Coltrane" is coming by to pick up some photos. Apparently he took some photos of him and his family during an Alice Coltrane tribute recently.

Ravi finally arrives and checks out Michael's images and loves them. Dude has a lovely demeanor. As time passes somehow we all get into this deep conversation about the loss of parents. His father John died when he was a baby and his mother Alice died about a year an a half ago. He admitted that he hasn't been able to compose any new music since his mother died. I told him about the loss of my mother 10 years ago and how I was crying on the floor of the hospital before she went into a comma. He was able to articulate the connection between a mother and son in a way that I haven't heard before, it was beautiful. I told him that if he could translate that same emotional concept musically, he may have a break through. He said he had not thought of that, and thanked me.

Nokia Call Me!

2008-09-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

So when we were in Atlanta recording his latest album; Martin Luther recorded a gang of video from his Nokia phone. The idea is to use these crude phone video shorts as a video blog diary from his point of view of the recordings. We could widgetize the episodes, podcast them and partner with Topspin to release them as episodes to his fans. We could also distribute them for free download to other mobile phones. If we only had a sponsor; Nokia are you listening? This is a no-brainer. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about.

VC Pitching

2008-09-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

This lecture seems to over simplify the process of VC pitching a bit; but I think it's worth a listen.

Amazing!

2008-09-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

What's wild about the Internet as it relates to music is that you can find endless drafts and versions of songs that are being developed by artists. This particular odd case is of someone covering a test version of one of Martin Luther's new songs that had yet to be officially recorded at the time. Since then this song has been recorded and the lyrics and arrangement have changed a bit, so not only is there a first draft acoustic version of "Amazing" on You Tube, there is also a cover of that first draft version. Makes you wonder which version people will find first once the album is released and which version will move them more to cover. I guess we shall find out soon enough.

The Grocery Report

2008-09-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

My friend Richard Rodriguez sent this to me last night; it's an entry from his amazing blog entitled Everyone's In Love With You. He has a post called Food Corp that details the types and numbers of grocery vendors in Bed Stuy, from Bodegas to Organic Markets. It's amazing how those of us that live in "urban" which translates into "black and latino" neighborhoods in this city have to leave our neighborhoods to get good, healthy, food. Let me start the body of this post by stating that I am for the most part a humanist who would eventually love to live in a world where the construct of race is irrelevant. We are not there yet.

It's not until neighborhood's gentrify that organic and green markets start coming into a community. Gentrification is an interesting word and topic because black and latino neighborhoods often go through a class gentrification before a racial one. Young black and latino recent college graduates and artists usually move into these neighborhoods because the rent in cheaper and they feel more comfortable (somethimes) around their own. They take it upon themselves to open up coffee shops, bookstores, bars, and small restaurants in order to have places where they and their peers can meet. Once the word gets out more recent college grads and artists move in and eventually the neighborhood that was once a hardcore hood becomes a new young vibrant middle class black scene. That was Ft. Greene in the 90's when it was at it's height, that scene spawned Saul Williams, Erykah Badu, Mos Def and a host of others. There was some tension between the classes but at the end of the day it was all black folks so there was at least an understanding kind of like cousins who went seperate ways but still love eachother. So you have it; a community full of negros that are smart, working, and culturally open, white folks love these negros. Stage two, culturally astute white folks start to pioneer the neighborhood and easily blend in because they are usually very similar in sensibilty to the black kids that live there. They are politically left and have taken African dance classes and minored African American studies; they have huge jazz cellections; they've read Morrison, Fanon, and Bell and listen to Fela and Omar, so they are cool. And they are cool and the culture of the neighborhood thrives and black college grads from all around the country start moving in; even the really conservative corny one's and they bring with them good incomes and the young black entrepreneurs are able to open juice bars and more coffee shops and bars to service them.

It's awesome until stage three happens. Somehow the neighborhood gets features in Time Out New York as one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city. Well...that's it; they start moving in. And when I say they I mean "regular" white folks; and they don't mean any harm, they want to be around the "good" blacks in this funky little neighborhood that was created out of a former ghetto. "I live in Ft Greene" "I live in Red Hook" it's cool to say when you are originally from IOWA. All it takes is a few pioneers from "them" and within a year the neighborhood has been completely gentrified. Ft. Greene today is neighborhood or cornball blacks and whites, it has completely lost its culture and flavor but it has more fine restaurants and gourmet and organic grocery stores than you can count. I was one of those black college students that class gentrified Ft. Greene and once it started to flip a bunch of us moved to Bed Stuy and did it again; that was in 2001 and now Bed Stuy is moving into the begginings of Stage Three. I wonder how long it will take for this grocery map that Richard has sent me to change? Where do we go next once this isn't cool anymore? I guess we flip it and move to the suburbs, maybe "they" will chase us there and we can have our ghetto back.

Mooji!

2008-09-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Thorma Crawford told me about this man Mooji and I thank him for that. It was perfect timing!

Datacrats!

2008-09-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

I found this great article about data mining and the future of online advertising. Check it out yourself, click here.

Rotterdam

2008-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have to admit something; I really did not love Amsterdam. I mean, i didn't hate it; but it was kind of hollow to me. I really can't explain it, I just don't think the energy of the place agreed with me. Don't get me wrong I loved all of the little novelty attractions like the "coffee shops" and the red light district. I don't smoke nor have sex with prostitutes (poor me, huh) but it was cool to see others with the ability to freely partake. It could have also been the fact that I only had fleeting moments of meals and scrambling tourist excursions in the city; like visiting the sex museum. Although I have a few friends that live there; my schedule never permitted me hooking up with any of them. Rotterdam however is another story.

Two years ago I met this woman from Rotterdam who's mother was dutch and father was from Ghana. It was the 4th of July and I was at a roof deck party at the building in crown heights were 3 of my Morehouse brothers, Tahir, Malik, and Scott live. That party was one of the absolutely most drunkard moments of my life. We were drinking Hatian rum, lots of it and what I forgot was that I had taken a Benedryl earlier. I was fractured!! Anyway, I was laying on the roof top and in walks in these three woman, 2 from holland and one was Tahir's cousin. I struck up a conversation with one who oddly reminded me of my mother. I offered her a drink and she said blankly that she didn't drink. I was intriqued so I asked her why; she said "because I don't need to drink to be myself." I looked at her drunk as hell and said, "do you want to get married?" She laughed and said no, and I immediately passed out. I woke up 3 hours later in Tahir's apartment and everyone had left the party, including my new friend from Holland.

I don't know why but this woman intriqued me, I am always attracted to blunt....sort of unaffected woman, and that was her (she shall remain nameless). I asked my boy Tahir to call his cousin and find out if I could contact her. Tahir never got in touch with his cousin and I was SOL....until. About 2 weeks later there was a Little Brother concert in Ft. Green park, Tahir and I were watching the band and I happend to look behind me and BOOM, there she was; and her friend Bibi from Holland, NICE!! Tahir approached them first and then called me over. we ended hanging out with them that day and then that night at some Fader event. The whole night I was trying to strike up conversation with her and she was chestnut tight...I mean the cold mug and everything; no love at all. I almost gave up. Bibi gave me her local number and I got up the nerve a couple of days later to call her and check on her friend. I asked her to come and see a band that I was managing at the time named Earl Greyhound, she came out. We saw the band, then we walked and talked for about 3 hours. She ended up staying at my house that night, but I slept on the couch...but the next day right before she left, I kissed her and she kissed me back...everything else that happened is no one's business.

She and I kept in touch for a long time until the distance drew us a bit apart. 2 years later and I have this business trip to Amsterdam...of course she is mad busy for the first half of my trip and I didn't see her. It was a bit uncomfortable, because we had talked about seeing eachother but I didn't want to presume anything. Finally, she called as I was about to book another hotel in Amsterdam (I was staying in Hilversun) and offered me to stay at her place in Rotterdam for the last 3 days of my trip. Anyway, without going into details, I like Rotterdam and I really like her.

Holland

2008-09-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

It is 2AM Tuesday morning in Holland and I am both exhausted and restless. I came here on a consulting job for a fairly famous dutch rapper/musician named Postman. When I reached the airport in Amsterdam I realized that I my iPhone had not been set up properly to work overseas. I could not call or text or receive calls or texts, this situation sucked because I was supposed to text or call my ride when I landed. Luckily I found a pay phone and and Postman's manager's cell number and everything worked out.

Monique picked me up and we immediately drove The Hague where we hooked up with Postman for a meeting with a graphic designer for Postman's website. Needless to say I was exhausted. After the meeting we had lunch in The Hague and strolled around downtown a bit.

After The Hague we went Monique's office in LOOSDRECHT, which is a sleepy little town next to Hilversum, which is another; tiny bit bigger sleepy town where I am staying while I work. Not Amsterdam, 25 minutes away. I am a little bummed; but tomorrow night I hit the road and I party in the DAM. These photos are in ascending order.

Da House!!

2008-08-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

I decided to roll by Morehouse's campus today and low and behold it was freshman orientation day. This is the day all of the freshman move on to campus for the first time and move into their dorm rooms. It was a trip, I walked on campus and it smelled the same as I remember it. There were loads of new buildings, the campus seemed totally rearranged, and the freshman guides had on these weird outfits with straw hats and Morehouse polos; but amazingly enough, the vibe was exactly the same. I heard kids arguing about how the hoods where they came from are worse than those in Atlanta and you can see how proud the parents were while seeing their sons off. It was amazing!!! Made me remember how much my college experience influenced the man that I am, Morehouse is it's own, almost unexplainable experience and all of us who have experienced it...know it without words. There's a smell to the place; an old ethereal charge in the air. Dear Old Morehouse!

ATLANTIS!!

2008-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

So here I am, exhausted after 2 weeks of recording in Atlanta, Georgia with Martin Luther. This has been one marathon process of 14 hour days; exhausted musicians and triumphant music. It is coming down to crunch time and I am a little nervous about getting everything done before we have to get out of here. We had some remarkable musicians in the studio with us including Nikki Glaspie and Deantoni Parks on drums, Steve Wyreman on guitar, Kev Choice on keys and programming, Andre Bowman and Aaron Bellamy on bass, and Pascael Arceneaux on production and editing. We are also working with producer/engineer Don McCollister for the first time and that has been an awesome experience so far. These are the times that we have to step up big and make it happen. I am faithful that everything will turn out beautifully, but I must have gained 5 pounds since I've been here from stress eating everything that I could grab. Well, I miss New York; I miss the sunshine, I've been inside this cave too long. I think I'm going to go check out the Morehouse campus today and reminisce.

Father and Son

2008-07-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Edgar Hewett

2008-07-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

I just spent an interesting 12 days with my dad. He visits the states from Jamaica at least twice a year but he doesn't always make it to NY as he has a home in North Carolina. My dad and I have a long and interesting story. Let me start by saying that my dad's name is Ed Hewett; and my legal name is Shawn Peters. That alone tells a lot about my history with my father. In short I wasn't really raised with my father being around. He and my mom split when I was about 2. My name was Shawn Hewett until I was 5 years old. In fact I remember being Shawn Hewett in kindergarten; and then Shawn Peters in the first grade. It's weird, my dad just disappeared, I mean he was around; in fact he didn't live too far from me until the age of 14 before he moved back to Jamaica. This is all very personal but I feel like sharing. I remember as a child wondering where he was; after a while he became almost a myth, a phantasm. You have this weird psychological trip that you go through as a kid without a father in your life. For me there was this feeling of not being as valuable or protected as other kids. Even though my mom had six brothers who were wonderful role models; it wasn't the same as having a father claim you. The effect that my father's absence on my childhood is hard to really articulate fully. There is just a sadness that is there, an uncontrollable longing for to know that part of your life and yourself. As I got older, sadness turned into anger; I was so angry that when people would ask about my father I would tell people that he was dead.

Before my mom died, she asked me to find my father, that was a little over 10 years ago. When she first asked, I vehemently refused. It took a while, but I warmed up to the idea; funny enough I saw a day time talk show where Chilly from TLC reunited with her father and oddly enough it touched me. I broke own and started probing. My uncle Alfred's best friend Arnie; would tell me that he knew my father well. One day I called him and he was able to locate my father's daughter; my half sister, Tanya (My dad had 3 kids from his first wife, who I was aware of but never met) I got the nerve up to call her and we finally met. We gelled really quickly, and soon after I met my older brothers and my aunt Judes. Finally; a call was arranged between me and my father, we talked a few times and I finally planned a trip to Jamaica to see him (really to meet him for the first time). When I saw him the first time it was weird, he had this huge smile when I came off of the plane. He and his wife Joyce brought me to there home; we talked all night....and I was floored. I couldn't believe how much of myself I saw in him, I loved him immediately. After that trip, my father and I have taken a trip to Cuba together and he has stayed with me in NY many times. It hasn't always been easy. Usually, i can take about 10 days of my father before I am ready for him to go home. I was really sensitive to his personality, he can be really critical; and in many ways I didn't feel like he had a right. So here he was, in my house again this time it was 12 days....and it was actually easy, and I really enjoyed his company. I love my dad there is no doubt about that...its been and interesting journey; and I am actually glad that he wasn't in my life as a child, all things happen for a reason. The timing of my father in my life has been perfect!

Family and Friends

2008-06-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am passionate about people; I have come to realize that it is a attribute of mine that is both a strength and a weakness. As I learn more about the nature of life and spirit and the mysteries of myself I realize that the people in your life that are closest are your greatest teachers about SELF. You learn who you are in the way you respond to and interact with those close to you. Many Buddhist traditions teach that the people in this lifetime that are you are drawn to most whether they are friends or family have often reappeared from past lifetimes. A sibling could have been a lover or even an enemy or a best friend a sibling in a past life. The point is that certain energies attract one another and we interact in this life, in my belief mainly to evolve the soul. So even though I have had many rough times with my friends and even some family members; I must say that for the most part, if I have attracted you to my life then you are for me in some way. You could be in many moments a vehicle for me to suffer enough to learn to make a change in myself and who I desire to be around. You may reveal in me an understanding of my own selfishness, or my own beauty. Either way, I appreciate and love you all.

After a meditation the other day I had this overwhelming feeling of love in my whole body. Love for my life and the experience that I have had so far being me. Love for the people in my life that I have been so lucky to be on this journey with. I walked out of my house soon after my meditation and ran into some friends of mine that I haven't seen in long time and they were carrying there new born son. Big up to Pierre and Jamyla Bennu (www.exittheapple.com) and there beautiful son Osse (I hope I spelled that right.) I want to take this time to acknowledge all of people who are close to me. I love you all!!

Shawn

Floss Scandalous!

2008-06-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Brooklyn, well Manhattan at the moment. My trips to LA have always been really really productive. I actually really like LA for what it is. I had a great time kicking it with Sol, Rayzak and Donray. I went to a couple of cool parties and made some outstanding connections. One stand out was a really cool pool party that I went to at fashion designer, Lotta's crib in Hollywood. I had a blast, that party reminded me why folks choose to live in LA.

The reason I flew out to LA was to meet with this famous producer (who shall remain unnamed like a Harry Potter villain) to talk about possibly running his label that he has under Interscope. I have to say; I was really impressed with this dude. For one, I liked him and that's rare for me with music biz types. Second, dude is really really smart, and the new stuff that he is working on is going to surprise folks. He's not making millions producing records for nothing; I got it!! Anyway, we shall see how things progress with our conversations. It's seems like it's going to take a herculean effort to close this dude; cause it seems he has a lot of folks pulling on him. I really like dude and the challenge has me motivated to go after it.

I also had a chance to hang out with a really talented producer named Marshall Altman that we are considering for the Martin Luther project. Marshall was a really warm and thoughtful cat and I'm glad that I met him.

S

Amy Winehouse, Lil Wayne, and K'Naan

2008-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

I am here in LA trying to stay out of this sweltering heat chilling with my boy Rayzak the Somalian Don Dadda and Sol Guy; for all of you Canadians you may know Sol from the 4 Real series on MTV canada. Anyway, Sol manages an artist named K'Naan from Toronto via Somalia.

Last summer Sol was doing an episode of 4 Real with Cameron Diaz in Peru (when you get a chance go to www.4real.com to learn more about the series.) and he needed someone to fill in as manager on K'Naan's european tour while he was away. I got the call and was pleased because one of the dates was at the Glastonbury festival in England; I've always wanted to go to this legenary festival but never had the opportunity. Well, I have a few memories of that day and let me just say that all of them are bizaar. First of all, I will never go back to that freaking mud pile, rainy, crazy ses pool of a festival again unless I'm working with Fuking U2 and they helecopter our asses on and off the stage for soundcheck and performance. We ran into Amy Winehouse back stage; this was before she really blew up and even though her buzz was crazy, I had never seen her in person. Let me just say, without any exaggeration; when I saw her, I was stopped in my tracks at how deathly sick and crazy she looked. It literally jarred me; the feeling I had was; someone's gotta save this chick or she's going to die. The other weird moment was walking from one end of the festival to the next to go see this hoola hoop artist perform at a gay dance party. Well, it was bizaar, because here I am sludging through knee high mud in the middle of like mid-fck England under moonlight with a Somalian rapper and a half German half Somalian hoola hoop artist (by the way this chick was one of the hottest woman of all time) both probably being the only of there kind on earth.

So here I am in LA a year later with Sol and Rayzak (K'Naan is in Miami and I won't be able to see him until Tuesday and I leave that night, drats!) band listening to demo's from K'Naan's new album to be released on Octone/Interscope (Maroon 5). I must say; I am sooooooo happy that a somewhat major label is going to invest in promoting music like that. Many of the sounds on K'Naan's new album were recorded in Bob Marley's Legendary Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston Jamaica (K'Naan is the dude in the picture with the guitar and Rayzak in sitting in front of him with the cheesing), with Legendary Jamaican session musicians and Damian Marley and the legendary Track and Field team out of Toronto on production. This sound that they came up with (a mixture of Hip Hop, Pop, and East African Folk music) is brilliant and infectious. K'Naan also raps and sings about the truth of poverty and the struggle for liberation. Certain songs actually brought tears to my eyes and others joy to my heart. All I could think about while listening to him was Lil' Wayne. Now, I'm not really hated on Weezie, but I just find it a little crazy that this dude has the fastest seling album in year of any genre out right now (Platinum in less then a week) and I can't really say that anything that he does really moves me. I mean at this point he has become a pop star and image wise he's just kinda, let's admit it fucked up and kind of tragic. Kind of like the person I mentioned earlier who blew up this year. It makes almost wonder if we have become Jerry Springered as a cultured and are voyeuristically obssessed with the tragic lives of others. What happed to liking beauty for beauty's sake. I don't want to over hype K'Naan's next album it because it's not coming out until next year, but if you aren't hip to him check out his last album the Dusty Foot Philosopher; it finally gets released (after 2 years in Canada, Australia, and Europe) in the US on Tuesday.

Well, that's all i have to say about that!

Cheers

WONDERFUL!!

2008-06-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Went to DJ Spinna and Bobitto's Wonderful (A Dance Party Tribute to Stevie Wonder) party last night! This party has been running for about 10 years and I think I went to the very first one back then and hadn't been to one since until last year when I went and left early after becoming sick from something I ate earlier that day. Anyway, I'm 38; which isn't that old by today's standards but I always think I'm too old for everything; so I wouldn't normally go to the wonderful party, but my boy Barry Cole gave me tickets for my birthday. Boy am I happy that I went. First of all that party has GROWN; the first on I attended was crowded but there may have been 200 people there; last night they hosted a crowd of over 2000 and it was at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The crowd...was about 65% woman, incredibly gorgeous woman! I was like a 2 headed cat in a fish market. I danced my ass off and had a great time until something incredibly wonderful happened. I heard to crowd scream I looked up on the stage by the DJ's and low and behold the man himself was there. F*cking Stevie Wonder came to the wonderful party and did a freestyle, 5 song, off the top of the dome concert. Get the heck out of here. Every body went crazy!! It was one of those nights that I would been vexed to hear about and not have been there, but I was; thanks to Barry Cole!

Cody ChesnuTT, Fela Kuti, and Barack Obama!!

2008-06-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Does anyone out there remember Cody ChesnuTT from his famed and heavily talked about debut The headphone Masterpiece released in 2004? The Headphone Masterpiece inspired the The Roots to cover Cody's song The Seed and there version with him singing the hook became an international hit for the band. Anyway, what folks don't know about Cody is that before that in 1999 he was signed with Hollywood Records with a band that he lead called The Crosswalk and in that year produced one of the best unreleased albums of the last 20 years, entitled "Venus Loves a Melody." Hollywood Records foolishly dropped the band and never released the album; the frustration led Cody into his home studio to produce the highly personal under-produced 4 track recorded album that is now fairly legendary. I must mention that Cody and I have an active business partnership and friendship, well our friendship is much more active as Cody hasn't been very active lately musically. I want to say for the record that those who have heard the Headphone Masterpiece would probably think that Cody is a masochistic, oversexed, pimp who yells at his kids and gets high all day. He is infact the opposite; The Headphone Masterpiece was a collection of short stories or observations of characters that Cody has met along the way during life. Alot of the characters are influenced by his own stories as well; like, the tune My Woman My Guitars is actually about his struggles at the time dealing with multiple woman and how it was breaking down his spirit. The pimp songs however are purely fictional observations of people that he has known. At this time in Cody's life he lives on a Farm in Florida with his wife and son and is a deeply pensive and spiritual man who is looking to find a space musically to communicate his new found learning and love for life and God in a way that people can receive and enjoy. With that, you can understand why it is taking him so long to come out with another album.

I have toured the workd with Cody and spent hours on the phone with him talking about Sprituality, politics, race, and the music business and he has come to the point in his life where he wants to release any fear of conforming and just release music that he feels in the moment and not wait for a deal, the industry, a particular genre, or audience to dictate his musical expression. As a manager and indie label guy that obviously defies the logic of my marketing plans, but I truely believe in Cody as a human being and as a miraculous talent so I'm riding. I told Cody soon after Obama announced that he would be running for the democratic nomination that I was going to start volunteering and contributing to campaign. Cody, at that time like many of my friends was very skeptical as he didn't really know his background and wanted to learn more about who the man was in his heart. I was actually skeptical in the very beginning as well; but a good friend of mine who happened to know Obama personally vouced for his character and I respected this particular friend's judge of character very highy, so I was in. After numerous converstations about Obama with Cody and his own observations, he eventually was in and in a big way. He was so happy when he clinched th nomination. I told me that he was working on something that he wanted me to check out. This morning I opened up my email and I recieved this Fela Kuti inspired track called Afrobama that I am now sharing with you. He wanted people to have it; so I hope that you enjoy it!! Peace!

Wild 4 Days!!

2008-06-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

My wild 4 days started with the M.I.A concert at Maccarren Pool in Williamsburg. 7500, freaking hipsters paid to see her. I've never seen so many Dr. Seuss characters in my life. I have to say though that M.I.A's branding is bananas. You can say whatever you want about whether she has credible talent or not, she may not be able to really sing or rap but her marketing talent is fucking amazing!! In fact her brand is way bigger than her music; I would even say that her music is the soundtrack to her brand. 7500 kids at $35 is $262,500 earned at the gate of which I'm sure her booking agent and management negotiated at least 35% of which is $91,875. She probably actually got more like 50%. But whatever she negotiated she had a good night. After her booking agent and management got paid, she walked home with $64,312 or so before overhead. Her production including crew, dancers, stage design and DJ may have cost her 20 grand. I would say that she walked away with a good check for a night's work. I have to say that I really enjoyed it was a big party and MIA and gang brought an awesome energy that never stopped. I went to the show with some friends of mine who were opening for her on tour; an off the hook new band out of Toronto called LET's GO TO WAR. Their manager Phoebe is a friend of mine and after the show we went to a Dante Fried Chicken party. For those of you in NYC who haven't been to a Dante Fried Chicken party; its a must, I don't want to diverse but for $7 you get a plate of gourmet eats cooked the man himself, a drink ticket, and 4 of the hottest bands that he seems to find before anyone else. Anyway Google Dante Friend Chicken and join the email list; the location of the party changes every month to and announced the day of so you have to get the announcement. Anyway, i didn't get home until 4 that night and haven't gotten home before then until those lunatics left my apartment last night to head home for the NxNE festival in Toronto. The good news is that I made some great connections with iTunes and Kobalt why they were here, and they are going to co-produce a couple of tracks of one of the artists that I work with. Good times!! I haven't really edited this at all so I'm sure there are plenty of grammatical errors but anyhow. There is is! Oh yeah, I forgot; I bought the new album from The Kills "Midnight Boom" on iTunes, it's really dope!!

Music 2.0 and Chamillionaire

2008-06-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone that has made such nice comments about my last post; I kind of feel under pressure to post things that will be appreciated at least as much. I hope that this post measures up.

As we all know these are very interesting times in the music business; all of us who make our living in this space are scurrying around trying to figure out the answers to developing and monetizing our content. This post is going to be more about independent music than particular songs or artists so I hope I am not outside of my jurisdiction here. As independent labels and musicians that are primarily self financed we must constantly think out of
the box as we approach marketing and we must continually seek out new low cost, new media tools that can help us and our content gain exposure. First thing we must do is set our expectations appropriately.

If anyone honestly believes that you are going to be able to out market the major label system by being creative or crafty online only, you are delusional. The latest PEW study on online buying trends states that (I'm not sure who they are interviewing) 56% of the folks interviewed use the Internet for product research, only 7% percent of those interviewed said that the Internet had a major impact on their decision to purchase (the operative word here being major). This same study says that 83% of music buyers find out about new music via radio, TV, or in a movie and 64% of those interviewed say they find out about music through word of mouth. Are these percentages accurate I don't know; I do know that while iTunes has recently become the second largest retailer of music after Walmart; digital downloads still only represent 10% of music sales.

There are some music futurists like Gerd Leonhard (whom I greatly respect) that say music and video content should be free and that we can longer control distribution so we have monetize our content based on user engagement via sponsorship or advertising. That's a lot harder than it sounds and most independents can't afford to experiment long enough with possible income from the Long Tail when they need to sell records to eat.

Today I went to the Advertising 2.0 conference in Manhattan, to see if I could gain some new wisdom on how to market and promote my content in a way that would attract possible sponsors and guess who there hanging out at the conference going to seminars; the rapper Chamillionaire! I was compelled to approach him and ask why he was there. He said, "hey man, I'm trying to get up on this advertising and technology game." Wow!! I was really impressed with this guy and his understanding of what he needs to do to separate himself in a marketplace that is saturated and many artists are marginalized as ringtone rappers or one hit wonders.

The moral of this post is that even though in the Music 2.0 economy there are a plethora of new media tools to market yourself and engage with your audience, whether that is Reverb Nation a Twitter blog, Vlogging, or free content RSS feeding your fans; but the simple fact is that you cannot replace spending some money on traditional marketing. Spend some money on a decent creative publicist and some sort of inexpensive video. It is also important to create a partnership with a company that can go after TV or film sync licenses for your songs for a 10% commission. And if you think you have some really good songs you should know the different distribution points for them; educate yourself; get daily RSS feeds from Hypebot, Coolfer, Mashable, and Paid Content. Well, anyway, I am new Chammilionaire fan, "Riding Dirty!" That's wassup! I wrote this while really sleepy I hope i didn't bore you to death.

Aftermath?

2008-06-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

As I sat on the A train on the way to the office: I was thinking about the interesting weekend that I just had. On Saturday night I had a really cool birthday party. I was surprised at how many people eventually showed up. It was so nice to see everyone. It was an honor for me to see all of my friends and make a lot new ones. My homey Michael Weintrob was the best person to through the party with as he is a crazy social butterfly in his own right and has a completely different set of friends then mine. Although I had an awesome time; I think the next time I do a party it I will do something during the day; like a brunch or a cookout. I want to do something where folks can socialize a little easier, maybe play group games or something. Why do we all have to be so grown up and hip all the time. Folks didn't leave the party until 5AM and I went to sleep around 6:30PM then woke up to clean up at 9:30 so I was exhausted all day Sunday. I finally took a nap at 4PM and woke up at 7:30PM to a text from my friend Jomo asking me if I could come to the emergency room and stay with our friend Scott because he just got admitted for severe abdominal pain. Jomo couldn't stay because his sister in-law was admitted to the hospital and he had to be on call as that developed. It was a lot to wake up to. Anyway, I went to the hospital and waiting with Scott; he received a cat scan and they found a kidney stone. They gave him a bunch of pain killer and I took him home.

On my way to the office while I was writing this blog I was listening to what may possibly be the best Live album ever; Bill Withers: Live at Carnegie Hall. If you have not heard this album I suggest that you cop it and give it an intent ear. This album is especially important for musicians as it is a text book for how to engage and audience and pace a show. Keep in mind Bill Withers was a huge star by the time this show was recorded; but his comfort on stage and his ability to make Carnegie Hall into his own backyard or living room was remarkable. The lesson that we learn as artists and those like myself who consult and manage artists is that you have to give of yourself in some way. People want to get to know you in someway that goes beyond the hype. With the gap closing on physical distribution and the influx of millions self produced artists that are cluttering the internet with songs and videos; it is really hard to find a means for distribution. Well, what comes before the opportunity to distribute and sell is the ability to make a connection to someone who gives a f*ck enough to patronize you. So at the end of the day Bill Withers in the 70's had hit records but he didn't have the internet; he didn't have YouTube or Blogger or MySpace or Facebook. As artists and promoters in the independent music game; we need to be known on a much more intimate level than ever. Whether it's Twitter or YouTube or Blogger; create a way for consumers to know a bit of your story and your life, you would be surprised at who would watch and listen.

Medicine For Melancholy

2008-05-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

With all of this Obama hype; and that fact that he has been pretty much categorized at this point as African American; it has made me contemplate blackness and what that means in terms of class, education, culture, country. What is the pervasive African American cultural Aesthetic, in the minds of most Americans? This discussion is an old one; but it is really rediculous how far away from Flavor of the Month my world and the world of my peers seems to be. Is it Reverend Wright? Is it Morehouse and Spelman? It's complex as we know but I have been yearning for something to represent me; a mass media voice for my friends and our conversations. Our aesthetic and our concerns. We seem to be caught in the middle of Jeremiah Wright and maybe even Barack Obama. We are cultural aware and the concept of defining ourselves is a constant part of the conversation. We are Anti-American and proudly American, we are extra-black yet proud that we enjoy non "urban" shit and have white friends. It's funny! Anyway, I came across film and even though I've only seen this trailer; I am praying that it is amazing and that it finds distribution so my friends and I and all of the black folks like us can have something commercial that represents us.

Thankful!

2008-05-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I am definitely thankful for another year. I am 38 now and closing in on 40 really quickly. Seems kind of weird as it feels like I was just 28, though I would not choose to go back to those times. I was actually older, mentally and spiritually at 28 than now. I also had more cash back then, go figure. Anyway, yesterday I had a wonderful birthday. I am a very social person who seems to easily gain friends; in fact in someways I may have too many folks in my life. But yesterday, I had a day of one on one quality interactions. I had lunch with my new younger brother homie Joel Then at Victors (Victor's is amazing, I highly recommend it for a nice night out) Joel is only 22 years old but he is wise beyond his years and I really respect and love that dude. Then I went to see the new Narnia film with my close friend Michael Wientrob; who actually hurt my feelings, earlier that day, LOL; but redeemed himself by being the only one of my friends to come to the movies with me. I give Michael a hard time all of the time because he's a bit of a lunatic, but I really love that dude. I must say though that the best that thing happened to me yesterday was a phone call that I received unexpectedly from a GIRL. I'm not saying who it was because that's a secret, but I will say that it was the first time that I have talked to this particular crush of mine in about 8 months. We have sent texts to each other back and forth here and there recently; but we haven't actually talked. After hearing her voice again really reinforced my crush. I can't lie, my heart was kind of bugging afterwards, I really miss talking to her. I'm 38 damn years old and I feel like a kid with a crush a huge crush. Anyway, unfortunately she doesn't live in NY (that's a clue for those who know me). I will leave another clue as well. Anyway, I am supposed to have a party on Saturday to celebrate my birthday and Michael's moving back into his studio, why he left is a long and crazy story and getting back in merits a celebration. Oh, by the way; Narnia was hell of long but I really enjoyed it!!

ADGER COWANS!

2008-05-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

On the A train, on my way to my meditation class in New Rochelle I ran into Adger Cowans; an African American photography pioneer and legend. I learned about Adger Cowans in graduate school after I was introduced to the work of Roy DeCarava by my photography professor Gene Crediford. When researching the upper echelon of black photographers those 2 names would come up again and again. So when I got back to NY; I sought both of them out to show them my work. Roy DeCarava I found out was teaching at Hunter College so I arranged to meet him during his office hours. He told me then that I had real talent but that my prints had too much contrast. Adger, I met while volunteering one summer at the Black Film maker Foundation with Warrington Hudlin. He was a trip then and is a trip now; a strikingly handsome man that must have been a huge player in his day. He must be in his seventies now and yet he has the spirit and youthful ness of someone my age. For that short period on the train we talked about spirituality, cinematography and Barack Obama. Seeing him was a real treat and certainly made my day. He gave me his email and I will certainly keep in touch. The only thing that I regret was that I forgot that I had my little digital camera in my pocket as I was so engrossed in the conversation, so I forgot to snap his picture for this blog entry. All I could find online is this low-res deal that doesn't represent him well and a picture of his eyes.

Is this dude about to be President?

2008-05-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

We must realize what we may be witnessing; if a guy named Barack Husien Obama becomes President of the United States, everything has been turned upside down..in good way. It's a monumental shift in the America psychology. It changes the lexicon of commander and cheif; the change is way beyond policy or Washington culture; this is an American cultural shift.

China, The New Frontier?

2008-05-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I was reading a blog post from an Ed Peto, an American music critic living in China. He was talking about the music industry there and giving advice on how American labels can do business with caution. Most of the opportunities as he describes them, seem to be Long Tail. My label; being a small fish in a global pond, seems to have the disadvantage when approaching Long Tail opportunities for the simple fact that by the time I am able to sort out the benefits, I may not still be in business. If you listen to Gerd Leonhard, whom I greatly respect intellectually, you would learn that he believes that the notion of Copyright, which is essentially the right to sell a copy of music whether it be physical or digital is becoming or is irrelevant. Well, where does that leave me as a poorly funded independent producer of media content. Well as Gerd says is all in the clicks or the audience, once you have galvanized an audience by essentially allowing them access to your content for free; you can sell them ancillary products as well as use your content to sell other products visa vie licensing.

I know that I went on a tangeant but this is where China comes back into focus. Everyone knows that China is coming into it's own as a new super power and even though it is a communist country, their doors are open for business. The question is how does someone like me get a chance to play and how do I navigate the culture. Well, the article that I read gave some sound advice: 1) Create Chinese Metadata online for your media products, so that the folks who use Baidu, China's number 1 search engine can find you. 2) Create a Chinese version of your web presence and make it simple. 3) Align yourself with a respectable partner in China that is tapped into the local music industry. 4) If you are a label and you want to make money in China make sure you have some type of 360 or partnership deal with your artists because the money there is in touring and merchandise. Well, I'm going to pick up a some Rosetta Stone software and be about the business of learning Mandarin; Nee Hao Ma, bitches!!

Funniest Ever!!

2008-05-23T11:46:00.001-07:00

I came across this today and to me this is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Well not ever; but definitely up there check it out!!

2008-05-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

Fear is an incredible emotion! Fear will often trump hunger. It has the power to keep a slave from seeking freedom. As I watched the comments from anti-Obama West Virginians it dawned on me that Obama's candidacy for the democratic nomination threatens much more than we can imagine. It threatens the concept of white supremacy; and as my brother Christopher Moye stated in a recent email to me, it brings up the subconscious fear that America's dominance in the world is quickly coming to an end. This fear is real; most of the hard working white people in rural America that Hillary counts as her core constituency has never had to deal with the cultural the ideas of other races and nationalities. These people have always been on the outside and seen as inferior to America and especially to white America. Is Chris stated; the bottom line is the largest publicly traded company in the world is in Beijing, and the largest investment fund is in Abu Dhabi. We all know how the dollar holds up against the Euro. These details are probably consciously unknown to most heartland patriots but subconsciously, maybe even spiritually, they are sensing change, and that change for the most part doesn't include them. Maybe that's what they feel about the change that Obama represents? Maybe subconsciously, this man of multi-ethnic, multi-national background represents a different paradigm of what an American that wants to compete in a newly accessible global economy needs to be. Maybe, he threatens the old American, bend to our culture and you don't matter attitude towards the world that we American's used to get away with.

I found this image of this black man in Kentucky obviously upset with Obama; and it dawned on me that there must be a segment of the Black community that is also fearful. Fearful that the Obama family represent a change that they are not ready for. Maybe this image creates an intra-racial xenophobia that we as the educated leisure class can not understand.

2008-05-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

It's been couple of days since I have had a chance to write I need to catch up on things. Oh, I had an extremely busy day on Saturday. My new artist Kameron Corvet; opened for Tamia and Jaheem at the Beacon Theater. That was an interesting spectacle. Let me just say that Tamia is a real talent and if she would have decided to sell a little more sex in her act like Beyonce she would be much bigger now. I must also say that Jaheem is one of the worst live performers of all time. He is completely uncomfortable with himself on stage and although he has a nice voice; he is definitely not a star.

After that Kameron and I went to Fort Greene so that he could perform at my friend Veronica's birthday party. I have to say; Veronica through the party of the year. I had a ball; everyone was cool and open and the DJ's were off the hook! I danced my old ass off!!

Brooklyn, England, Japan!!

2008-05-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Publish Post

It is a really dark and dreary day today in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It feels like Brixton, London! Even though I prefer the hot weather; I kind of like these kind of days, they force people to be quiet and reflective. Rain is a way of washing away the excess noise; if the traffic and the honking seems quieter. Today has a beautiful stillness to it; I'm working from home today in beautiful rainy Stuyvesant Heights.

I am also excited because I found some of my digital photos from my 2005 Japan trip and a few that I took on my tour of Australia in 2006. I thought I lost all of these when my PC crashed. Turns out I saved 144 of those images on my little cheap point and shoot; I may have lost a lot of my favorites unfortunately; but I will take what I have. I shot a lot of stuff on my medium format pro film cameras as well, and that stuff I have.

Speaking of Japan, I got a call from Nami Higa last night from Highwave Records in Okinawa, who licensed Martin Luther's "Rebel Soul Music," release for the Japanese market. Apparently, Across the Universe is just being released there this summer and there has been a lot of hype. She wants to arrange for Martin to perform in Tokyo around the release of the film in August. That's what's up!! I'm definitely rolling on that trip I miss Japan! Last time I was there I got a good taste of the city and the country side for about 3 weeks. Amazing country! Check out some of my re-found pics.

2008-05-15T14:37:00.001-07:00

This is bananas!! Has anyone else noticed that the earth is not playing right now? I mean the cyclones, brush fires, and earthquakes in the last couple of weeks has been bananas!!

Swimming

2008-05-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Every morning I try my best to do a 20 minute meditation. It's really hard for me as my mind is really active first thing in the morning. I work on focusing myself by listening to my breathing or focusing on the beat of my heart. Sometimes I cannot control my distraction but I still spend the time with my eyes closed giving that time to myself and God to be still.

This morning I am heading to the pool at St. John's Recreational Center. It's located in Crown Heights at 1251 Prospect Place between Troy and Schenectady. That place is a steal @ 75 dollars a year, it's one of those NYC bargains that make this city affordable, like the Halal buffet spots on Fulton between Franklin and Bedford. I love swimming there because I get to see my swimming buddies; a group of old black men that I affectionately call my uncles. There is Uncle Junior, Uncle Pat, Uncle Clarence, Uncle Richard, Uncle Percy and Uncle George. We spend half of the time there talking shit about politics, sex, and just clowning. It's good to know that you never grow out of clowning with your boys. Some of my uncles there are in their 80's and they are the biggest clowns. I love it!!

Awakening!

2008-05-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

I was riding my bike today coming from a local meeting in Crown Heights. Jonathan Weinberger is a 49 year old orthodox jewish guy who owns 59 buildings in NY City. Needless to say he is "Rich Bitch," and really smart. He bought this condemned building that was subbing as a homeless shelter/section 8 building. The building has 50 huge units; and he was able to buy the building from the city for $1,000,000. Now that's where he is hooked up; now here is where he is smart. The location of the building is still a little hood crunchy; but not bananas. So what he decided to do with the space is make it a artist centric building called "Creative Heights." He found a local artist of color on Craig's List and offered her a free apartment to manage the space and recruit all of her artist friends to live there. Of course he has offered these apartments for well below market rental rates. He understands that the best way to gentrify a "borderline" is to bring black artists and recent college grads into the area. Soon pioneering whites will come as they feel cool and comfortable loving amongst the cool negroes, and the property value of the neighborhood will skyrocket. Now years ago; I would have felt weird about knowing this and not getting mad; but today, freak it!! At least some cool black folks have awesome cheap apartments, I'm not mad. Not only am I not mad; I'm profiting from it. I am consulting him on how to provide Internet access to residents in the building for free.

On the way back from the building I ran into my boy Naya; he at once invited me to his new crib in Crown Heights, MAN!! This guy's crib is awesome, I was so inspired! This guy pulled his bucks together as a freelance photographer and events promoter. When I say awesome, I mean limestone, huge...come up!! Naya is a bit older than I am and has always been about his money. I am an idea person and my money has always been secondary. This year is all about the gwap; I need to buy a crib, absolutely!!

May 12, 2008

2008-05-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today, I am glad to be alive. I understand that my choices in life are my choices and that they have been a direct result of where my consciousness was at the time that I made them. I am learning that all actions have reactions or repercussions. I believe that thoughts and desires are actions.

I am on my way to my consulting job; again lending my time and my thoughts to someone else for a low fee. What does that say about how I feel about myself? Can I justify this time spent? Can I foresee spending my time and talent building something exclusively for myself? Even my record label requires much sacrifice financially, intellectually, and even emotionally at times and is not exclusively beneficial to me. Maybe exclusively beneficial is an impossible concept. Sometimes I wish that I could live in a bubble where I didn’t have to be accountable to anything or anyone; just the myself. I know that sounds extremely selfish; maybe it is. It’s just a fantasy, but at this time in my life I want to grow and I would like sometime to do it on my own terms.

I feel like I’m hiding in someway by working with or for someone else. I want to be a pure expression unto myself in something that I do. I don’t even do my photography anymore and that was the most independent expression that I had. Why have I abandoned that? What does that say about me? Am I thinking too much? Well, I learned from a teacher of mine that the clearest path to self-realization is constant self-analysis and meditation. Our lives in fact are meditations. This self-analysis is not a brutal process but a joyous exercise, a practice of self-love. Of course, I have not fully integrated this process into my life and therefore have not fully learned it.

I have decided to write this blog to create something that is uniquely me. Maybe some will get where I’m coming from; and that would be awesome!!

Peace,
Shawn P

Tokyo is Bananas

2005-11-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was a little unsettled, to say the least. After 14 hours of flying and a 2 hour ride from the airport, the last thing I wanted to be was lost in translation. Initially, Shabuya, the section of Tokyo that we were staying in seemed rather corny, somewhat movie set fake. Maybe it was because it was so extraordinarily different from anything that I had seen or I was just kinda tired but my first reaction was, oh no! After an okay night sleep I went out the next day and walked around a bit. Wow! How cool is Tokyo. Later that afternoon Jeff, Sumiyo and I took the train to Harijuku (spelling), i guess this neighborhood is Tokyo's version of Greenwich Village. By this time I was really into the city, and was thinking I could spend some serious time there. I mean Tokyo is crazy, the fasions are amazing, the people are orderly and disciplined and the city is absolutely gorgeous. LOVE IT!