I Am Phella

Okay here we go. The album is called Winter Wonderland: Enjoying Living In A Cold World. Hopefully you’ve watched my videos or you’re at least thinking on a deep enough level to know that it has nothing to do with the actual weather. It’s about life itself and how cold and harsh it can be. How the only way to enjoy it is to sustain through those cold periods and even find ways to enjoy them.
This first picture is probably my favorite. There’s only two times in life where we can experience true Winter Wonderland; as a child, when you’re oblivious to just how cold it is, or as a grown up, when you accept that the world is cold but you embrace it and find ways to make it work for you.

The second and third photos show that it takes a good amount of creativity to enjoy living in a cold world. It reminds me of when kids in third world countries play soccer barefoot or swim like Michael Phelps in the dirtiest of water. The harshness of their surrounding doesn’t bother them. Instead they make the best of it and turn it into wonderland. That’s what we did by turning snow into a baseball and a football.
The final picture simply shows the endurance and patience. It’s naïve to say the coldness of the world doesn’t get to us. Even the strongest of us can crack under the world’s pressures. However, if you endure and stay true to who you are, warmth is usually just around the corner. This is depicted in this photo by the snow melting away and the sun on the horizon.

Fresco, Matt, and Chris did a great job helping me illustrate this concept and I truly believe that I did my best job as an artist of getting this concept across on the 8 or 9 tracks you will hear. I did it in such a way that if you’re the type who skimmed through this entry, you’ll enjoy it, and if you’re the type who read and understood every word of this entry, then YOU’LL LOVE IT.

Whether you enjoy it, love it, or even hate it, which I doubt anyone will, it’s my life and it’s our life on audio so I hope that at the very least you appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

-Phella

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“It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficutly than I had imagined.” (Excerpt from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin).

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Thanks to Netflix I recently discovered the tv show “Lost”. It’s probably one of the greatest things I’ve stumbled into this year. The amount of detail and precision with which the characters lives are unveiled is something to behold. There’s so much backstory and so many subplots that you can’t help but tune in episode after episode. No human emotion goes untouched. The show definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.

Luckily for me I don’t have to face the suspense that TV viewers must have had to deal with. Since I’m catching on 5 years late, I can watch an entire season in 3 days which is what I did last week. 25 full episodes in 3 days and it was worth every minute.

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Raymond (Everybody Loves)….Chris (Everybody Hates)

Normally when I leave places I’m usually excited to be going back home. Not this morning. I wish I could stay longer, the A was great to me and I see why everyone thrives down here. They all stick together and EVERYBODY hustles. Whether legal or illegal, everyone makes money together.

The wait at Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles was 2 hours and people stayed. Saw a guy at A-Town day with a duffel bag full of money, just from printing up his own street magazine and selling it hand to hand. All the local artists perform and promote each others songs. It’s really good to see and I think if we adopted this attitude up top, we could be doing the same. I’m not gonna hold my breath on that one.

Still got love for home though, it’s just disappointing when you know what is and you see what can be.

Thanks ATL for having me, I’ll be back in a little bit.

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Looks like it’s gonna be a windy spring and summer out here. I’m really looking forward to working some artists out of Chi town which seems to be the only place up north that still breeds creative minds as far as hip-hop is concerned.

Nephew is priority number 1. (Pictured above with Sickamore after his first meeting with us.)

About a month ago I posted a freestyle he did over the Just Blaze “Why You Hate The Game” instrumental and the response was great. Many people hit me on the email asking for where they can hear/see more Neph. Well here’s two brand new joints from him. And look for him to be featured soon on our “Life Is Better When You’re Famous” mixtape.

Nephew-Same Thing
Nephew-What More Can I Do

The next guy I’ve been a fan of for minute now. You’re probably a fan too and don’t even know it. He’s the soulful voice behind most of Lupe Fiasco’s tracks. His name is Gemstones. He was featured on Lupe’s “Pressure” featuring Jay-Z. He also was on about four or five tracks on “The Cool” album. Besides backing Lupe with vocals, Gem is a vicious rapper in his own right. I tell people that I can’t remember seeing anyone that can sing and rap on a high level the way he does, it’s usually one or the other.

His last two mixtapes are absolute classics that if you’re a hip hop head or RnB head, you can’t go wrong with. My first meeting with him (Pictured above with Nikki Jean) was nearly two years ago and if all lines up you will be seeing Gemstones and the Firm doing some things in the near future. Below are some of my favorite tracks of his.

Gemstones-I Love Her (My Most Played On Itunes)
Gemstones back when he was Gemini MURDERING Cam’s “What Mean The World To You”

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Maaaaaan, Keyshia you know I’m a sucker for a nice smile. Why must you tease me this way? Props to Necole Bitchie on the photos.

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I don’t really have an angle for this post so I’ll just jump all over the place, bear with me. I just feel like putting something up here since the last post ended on a negative note. I really don’t want to make anyones life difficult but some people won’t let you live……I’m going to liveI am living.

Side note:Guess who was just taught how to strike a word out on html? haha I’m about to OD with it. I am OD’ing with it.

I feel bad about my performance during this inauguration weekend. I should have been way more active and more involved.
*Excuses For Not Partying As Much:Parties were too crowded, lines were extra long when we can’t skip the line, we skip the party.
*Excuses For Leaving The Inauguration Early: I was sleepy. Went straight from a party to a breakfast spot to THE breakfast spot, props to Jabari for putting a dude on to “Steak N Eggs”. From there I get in a line that stretched probably 10-20 miles. Imagine being surrounded by 3 million tourists who don’t understand the act of NOT stepping on your shoes. Imagine 15 degree temperature with no gloves and no scarf (props to the lady who kept giving me her tissues for my nose and the girl who helped me zip my hands inside my coat…2 much black+2 much love=4ever). Imagine taking pictures of monuments that you can see from your house, and then realizing that it makes no sense. Imagine being told that you can see more from the TV set than the people there in person….imagine no cell phone service. Imagine leaving with your frost bitten toes and fingers.

Props to everyone who stayed and thugged it out. I fully understand why. “It’s nobody fault I made the decisions I made, that’s why I’m still paranoid till this day..”-Jay-Z

Speaking of the Jigga man. Man that was too real to see him performing “History” on that stage. Like that’s the stuff movies are made out of. Shout out to Beyonce, Kanye, Usher, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Rihanna and everyone else who pumped life into this town this past weekend. Especially you, Ms.Rosario Dawson who I ran into stalked twice. What a woman.

Mr.Obama I know I’m not saying anything new here but you deserve to be commended a million times. You and you’re family exemplify all that’s good with the world. Struggle, perseverance, faith, hard/smart work and knowing how to handle success. You’re teaching showing men how to be naturally cool again as opposed to forcing. Your wife is showing women how to be strong, determined and beautiful without being bitchy and condescending a tad bit snotty. Your daughters are already serving as role models for their age group as well. Keep it up sir and good luck with the Presidency. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is a stones throw from where I live. Hit me up for basketball one of these days.

Back to politics as usual now.

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Jay-Z My President is black Remix LIVE 1-18-09 from pleasedontstare on Vimeo.
I really really really should have gone to this Jeezy party. I was at some half ass hipster event not too far away. Jay-Z is that dude. At least I got to see Mrs.Carter sing earlier on in the day but still, it’s not the same.

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