Tag Archives: Phellavision

Song Making Process

Felt like I was wasting away during this whole Blizzard debacle, so I decided to hit up my goto guy for beats, J.Rob. Within minutes he sent me back a track, and within a few more minutes I had a basic sketch in my head for how I want it to sound.

I wanted to live stream myself working on the track from beginning to end so people could see the process but I couldn’t get it to work. Probably for the better anyway. I’m trying to be more open these days with my creativity but that might be a bit much.

Anyways, what I did film is below.

How To Make It In America

I think I just might have found another TV show to watch. HBO’s ‘How To Make It In America’ seems similar to the life I’m going to be living once I make this move to New Jersey. Let’s just pray if I sell leather coats on the street no hating cop comes and confiscates them.

You’ll understand if you watch. Here’s the link to the first episode.

LOST

I know I’m cheating by writing stuff here and then posting here but hey, what can I do? This site and that site attract two different types of readers but some of the content can be appreciated by both. Whichever you read, thanks.

I’ve never been big on these TV series’ that air once a week. Takes a lot of dedication and effort to be in front of the TV set at the same time each week and then sit through commercials, then just as the episode gets good, they cut to commercial and tell you to tune in the following week…aka torture. Luckily for me and through the power of Netflix I was able to watch ABC’s LOST (All 5 seasons) over the holidays. In a span of 2 months I covered more than 100 episodes and it was a great experience. What added to my experience was the fact that I knew nothing about the show for the 5 years it’s been on the air so to me it was brand new.

The synopsis is basically this: A bunch of people from various walks of life are flying from Australia to Los Angeles. Mid flight something goes wrong and the plain begins to descend. Ultimately they crashed on an island and that’s where things get crazy. We’re introduced to a doctor by the name of Jack, who assumes the leader role on the island. We meet Sawyer, a foul mouth, sarcastic, country pretty boy who calls everyone everything but their real names. John Locke is the elder in the group. Then you have Kate, the eye candy/tough chick of the group.

There are several other main characters that crashed on that island and overtime each of their stories are revealed. Basically what kind of lives they lived prior to boarding that plane. Although most seemed so normal to the naked eye, several of them had been through near death experiences, murdered people, alcohol and drug abuse, there’s even incest in the first few episodes of the first season. If all of this sounds crazy it’s because it is. LOST is about real life but at a very fast pace. They hook by showing the characters good sides as well as bad. You begin to learn not to judge people so quick and understand the motives behind certain actions. You see them problem solve as it becomes apparent that they may spend the rest of their lives on that island. You see them find creative ways to enjoy themselves like playing golf with clubs that were found on the plane. It’s pretty much about life, it’s complexities, and surviving and making the best out of them.

I’d give the first 5 seasons of the show an A-. At times the fictional aspects got a bit corny to me at times but not too much. It was done in the same sense that rappers rap about their “real life” but say lines like “money taller than the Statue of Liberty”. A little stretching of reality to drive home your point never hurt no one I guess. Overall LOST is a great show that I’d recommend to anyone. If you’re really focused you can watch tonight and catch up on most of the first 5 seasons over the next week. Your children would probably starve and you won’t pay rent but it would be worth it.

Sidebar: How sick are they for using Sade’s “Soldier Of Love” for the trailer? Her album drops a week after the premiere. The kind of cross promotion that would make Nike execs proud.

2 New Vids From Fab

Fab always delivers the extra crispy vids. He’s done the generic girl records to death but nonetheless, still one of my favorite rappers ever and a cool person. Album coming soon!

“Remember Dark Skinned Jermaine?”

This is great. Props to JD. Made this dudes day. I like seeing people giving legends their props. Love seeing legends show love to ordinary people.



Music Mondays:Revolution Will Be Phellavised..Part 8

Just some videos I found that I believe illustrate the good parts of this music thing.

First up, my homie Nephew from Chicago just doing what he does; spitting a few bars for the people. His mixtape Nephology 2.0 will be out real soon.

Secondly, The Dream in studio making 2 hits back to back. I love seeing people in studio creating like this. It shows the ease and difficulty that goes into making these songs that we sometimes take for granted. Dream definitely has tits hits for days.

Lastly, SlaughterHouse is getting the respect they deserve. These are 4 guys who are great on their own but were smart enough to form this super group. I think if they play their cards right they have potential to be one of the best hip-hop groups ever. I love how they all stay in their lane; nobody forcing the issue to sound like these half-ass newcomers new current rappers.

This video is for my favorite song from them, it’s called “Move On”.

Intuition Or Into Wishing?

Haven’t really had a cause to blog as of recent. My last 1 to 2 weeks have been centered around things that wouldn’t benefit me to talk about them on here, at least not yet. Probably going to be like that for a while but it’s not a sign of depression, distress, or any other kind of problem. A good percentage of it is actually positive. Just some precautionary measures to make sure my year life and multiple careers are headed in the right direction and all potential obstacles are out of the way.

Like whenever things are about to move real fast, I like to slow down and envision how I want stuff to go and what I will do if when they don’t go quite as planned. Some call it intuition, Jay-Z calls it “sort of a premonition”, Magic Johnson described it as “seeing the game in slow motion”, while Michael Jordan concluded that “I saw what would happen before my opponents”. Whether it’s sports, music, business, or what have you;the ability to think ahead but still live in the moment is what makes the greats GREAT.

Sidebar:Took down the top pic because I realized that it was outdated. I don’t really do fitted caps too much anymore, my hair is grown out, my skin isn’t even the same (Winter paleness victim).

Sidebar 2:Might find myself in NY, Philly and Atlanta over the next two to three weeks. I didn’t mention that for any particular reason. Just felt it was noteworthy.

Anyway the real purpose of this entry is to post a few blogs and websites that I frequent and benefit from in one way or another. All these people offer their own unique contributions to society through pictures, music, and written words. There’s a bunch more that I check but these in particular have content that resonates well with me. Might do the same for you too.

Simone Carlene-She Writes

Sean Famous

The Young And Disenchanted

Go Getter

Corporate Takeover

Pardon My Fresh

Other than that enjoy the “Current Mood Music” off to the right which is now called “Music Of The Moment”. When you call it Current Mood Music and the artist says “I’m about to go do a drive by”, people start thinking every single word represents your thoughts. A lot of times I pick the music based on the emotion of the track, not so much the lyrics. If I want to get lyrics across I’ll post some of my stuff.

Phellito’s Way:Revolution Will Be Phellavised

Not the biggest movie person in the world but I do have a few that I watch over and over again.


#1-Hairspray. Whenever I’m in a creative drought or just need to hear sounds being put together I pop this in. It has all the elements. Comedy, drama, social commentary and all that. I’ve been hooked ever since I had a chance to see the play on Broadway about 3 years ago while traveling with the George Mason basketball team. Shouts to Coach L for that ultimate put on.

#2-Carlito’s Way. This one goes without saying. I basically see myself as Carlito. Just somebody trying to do right that keeps getting forced into wrongs. Add that to his struggles with his girl, battles with close “friends” and desire to please everyone and what you have is me…Phellito. Great great film.

#3-A Bronx Tale. Another one I watch in large part because of the soundtrack. That whole 60′s Doo Wop sound zones me out everytime. Treat yourself to “Streets Of The Bronx” some time. I really regret not going to see it on Broadway earlier this year. All my NY heads let me know if it comes back around. My favorite line: “the saddest thing in life is wasted talent”.

I think #4 is about to be Sound Of Music once I find it. Shouts to Simone Carlene for refreshing my memory about this movie. I watched it every single day as a kid.

Everybody enjoy the weekend, I’ll Holla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R.I.P. To TRL

Goodbye to another great show that influenced most of us coming up. MTV put Total Request Live to bed for good today. I’m starting to wonder what’s left to launch new talent????? I’ll admit I haven’t watched too much in the last 3 years or so but I was an addict during the Carson Daly era. That was when Eminem first started poppin.

People like Destinys Child, J.Lo/Ja Rule, Hardknock Life era Jay-Z, and Puff post-Biggie owe a great deal of their success to TRL.

I think TRL is what really started branding artsist as more than just musicians. Prior to TRL I would just watch videos and know that the person made music. The TRL VJ’s would always ask personal questions that really got into who they were outside of the music.

Another thing TRL did for me was introduce me to pop culture as we know it now. In my area it was never cool to listen to pop music until TRL. They made it acceptable to listen to Pink, Limp Bizkit, Britney Spears and those types of acts.

One of my favorite moments I remember off top is when Eminem came on and almost started crying. In his book he said that was the first time that stardom really hit him and he just couldn’t hold it in.

Another one is when Jay-Z and Beyonce performed Bonnie And Clyde for the first time.

Diddy holds the record for being on the show the most. 38 times. No one can question the mans desire for camera time.

More Highlights I just Remembered: When Ludacris first came on the scene with “Whats Your Fantasy”…When Nelly used to have a hit song/video every month….When 50 first came through with “In Da Club”

GREAT GREAT GREAT show.

The Last Time I Met Obama…

Was on Feb 11, 2008 and the experience shaped my next 8 months in more ways than I could ever imagine. So I think I’m going to go to the final pre-election rally tonight in Virginia. Talk to everyone tomorrow.

Photos Courtesy Of The BlurrBerry