The above message came to me yesterday (February 14th no less) and made my entire day. As you all know, feedback about my creativity and my art is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME IN THE UNIVERSE. I can crash my car, get dumped by my girl, have my debit card charged twice and get pulled over by a racist cop….if I come home and one person during that day said my music or my words touched them, then I’m good!

This particular gentleman went to high school with me. We were good friends. The high school I went to produced some of the most cruel and harsh human beings you would ever come across in this world. He was amongst a select few who I played my first musical recordings for (when I was using a $10 mic from Staples and recording in my moms dining room). They ridiculed me to no end. I mean people were literally rolling on the floor and laughing.

At the time I took it very personal because I thought I was great and they were just blinded, but as I grew older I realized I was trash and had they not laughed at me, I would have never had the fire that burns in me till this day to keep getting better. Over the years I’ve been approached by several of the initial “focus group” who somehow have stumbled into my newer stuff in the neighborhood, online or at friends houses and a lot of them have been kind enough to say “hey man, you really took this thing serious and it shows. I like what you’re doing. keep going”.

To them I say thanks. Positive feedback from the people who’ve seen you at your worst means everything. Like I told him in my response to this message, by no means am I a complete product. I’m just now hitting my stride. Once I make this move up North and really get focused, God help me…..we’re going to the Grammy’s!

Important Sidebar: I see a lot of people leaving comments on older posts (guess ya’ll only visit weekly now huh? haha, i’ll take it…love is love). The point I’m making is I don’t have the comments going straight to my phone anymore so it takes me a while to see comments and respond if needed but I definitely see everything. Thanks for reading this

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I took this AP History class in high school. Failed it miserably but technically I passed. What I mean is I didn’t do any of the work so naturally I got a horrible grade but my reason for not doing the work was because I was actually interested in the content. I felt like doing the curriculum work would distract me from actually learning what was in the book. So while Ms.Spector would ramble and ramble I just buried my head in the book and read till the bell rung.

What I gained most from the book was the importance of Social Solidarity, Civil Disobedience, and also about Henry David Thoreau. Below are some quotes from this great man.

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. ”

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. ”

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. ”

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ”

“I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.”

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

“If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.“

Haha this man was a true G. Gotta love it 

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I always randomly jot down lines from songs, movies, and books as I go through my day. Here’s a few that I feel like sharing.

“My life could be so much easier, and the people around me much more at ease, if I just accepted things as they were as opposed to always trying to change them. But then what good would I be? What good will they be?”-Phella

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”-Maya Angelou

“When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat”-Pat Riley

“You’re all welcome, as long as you felt him, I was gonna get mine if you know where the hell I’m from”-Jay-Z

“From now on I want you to put an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin”-Sam Rothstein

“You got an all out prize fight. You wait till the fight’s over and whoever’s left standing, that’s how you know who won”-Forgot where I got this from

“The worst thing about giving 100% to everything is the feeling you get when it doesn’t quite work the way you intended. However, I’m almost certain it feels worse to live a life where you only give 30%”-Phella

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