Tag Archives: Soon They’ll Understand

Motown

Unreal. I don’t forget anything but even if I did, I wouldn’t forget this day.

“Vegetarian Lifestyle, Might Don’t Make It”

My homegirl Ainslee aka 6S from Ohio can be credited for that line.

I ate great this week. Vegetarian life doesn’t suck. Matter of fact, it’s great. February 12th makes it a year and everyday I’m still discovering new things to keep it fresh.


Monday mornings blueberry wheat waffles with the whipped cream my cousin brought over since Thanksgiving that I’ve been putting on errything. Also some morning star veggie sausages and cheese eggs. Looks like a lot of food but probably less calories than your average breakfast sandwich from a fast food spot.


Garlic naan (I’m a carb addict so things like naan allow me to get my fix without doing too much destruction). Morning star mushroom patties and broccoli overload (my second favorite thing on earth lately). And some tea (my first favorite thing on earth lately — after going 23 and a half years without ever tasting tea, I’m now addicted.)


Mushroom, walnuts, and greens salad at Masa 14.


More tea.


Curry tofu at Masa 14…..crack!


The carb fiend in me is suppressed these days but still is alive and well. Pecan pie after the studio never hurt nobody.

I’ll Let My (Unofficial) Big Brother Tell It

kanye-new-year

- Kanye West

Rest And Peace…Stack

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“I don’t see you anymore but I still feel your presence/

But your memory will live on for as long as I make records/

What Heaven look like? I need some answers now/

And try to save me a 2X for my angel gown/

I know I’m one in a million/

So when I go I’m trynna share a bunk with Aaliyah/

I wanna sit in Heavens Ghetto and write songs with Pac/

Share a laugh with Stack Bundles about how they seem to hate you when you young and hot/

And tell Left Eye I loved her ever since a youngin/

Then I could trade punchlines with Big LBig Pun and

the No-to-ri-us Big/

They say the good die young, yep only us kid/

I never was a drinker so don’t poor no henny/

Just pop in my cd and recall my memory/

First I raised my damn self, then I raised my brother/

And I’m sorry for the sleepless nights that I gave my mother/

But I had to go and grind, I wasn’t made to suffer/

So when I’m dead and gone, you don’t have to cry/

I’ll be watching from above like a Satellite”       -Phella

Feeling nostalgic tonight. The verse above is the 3rd verse from a song called Satellite I did about 3 years so ago. It’s from the era when all I rapped on was slow low quality beats. Nonetheless still one of my favorites I ever did. When If I go, my last wish is that they play this at the funeral.
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Today is the 2 year anniversary of Stack Bundles death. I remember when the news first broke about his untimely death. For some reason it hit me hard even though I wasn’t his biggest fan the time. The fact that he was so talented and then killed before the world got to know he was, that’s what really got me. There was a time I used to feel like something would happen to me before I made an impact on the world. I think we all fear that at times.

R.I.P. to Stack Bundles and the rest of our great artists that have departed. Anyone wanting to learn more about him and his music should check out my homie DJ Laser’s blog. He might be Stacks biggest fan and one of the people doing a great job at keeping his name alive.

Phellito’s Way:Since We Last Spoke

For the unfamiliar, Phellito Brigante is my ‘tell it like it is, don’t care what you think’ side. Based on Carlito Brigante from the film Carlito’s Way. Of all movie characters I’ve seen, I think I relate to that one the most so that’s where the nickname came from. How it relates to this blog is that Phellito is real honest, so whenever you see that in the title, BE AFRAID.

That was all sidebar. Main purpose of this post is to share some of what I’ve been up to recently.

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Fade Away. Been playing a lot of basketball. Getting in shape just in case I decide to play in a summer league, that’s doubtful though. My game is a fraction of what it used to be. I’m working on it though. On the bright side I’m very close to being able to dunk. Believe me it will be on film if/when I finally do.

 keyshia-cole

Bad News. On a sad note, my on again/off again relationship with Keyshia Cole is over. I realized that it was one-sided. I sit here and appeal to her and what does she do? Goes off and gets with some bench warming Cleveland Cavalier player. Can’t wait for Kobe to light him up for 60 points in the finals.

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Scaring Me. Speaking of Kobe and the Lakers, they’ve been killing me. Their current arrogance is causing them to take nights off and that’s how you get caught off guard. We need that chip on our shoulder again.

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Never Take Your Eye Off The Prize. Speaking of chip on shoulders, I’ve got mine back till further notice. It never really left, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t start feeling like a front runner for a while there. You work hard, it kind of pays off, people who you grew up admiring start to recognize you, so naturally you can relax a bit right? WRONG! Not saying I got lazy but I did have this false sense of accomplishment for a while and thought things were on autopilot. In life, there is no autopilot.

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Reunited And It Feels So Good. One thing I did do recently is rekindle a few relationships. Whenever I get into my zones and start working towards a certain goal, I always alienate friends. People can’t reach me or I don’t check in with them and they catch offense. With most people, I really don’t care to explain to them why I dissapear from time to time but believe it or not I do have a heart. I used this hiatus to mend a few relationships with a few people.

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Family. Been spending a lot of family time recently too. Not just with my immediate family but also with cousins, close friends that are like family etc… It’s been real cool. Even dressed up in full African attire for the first time in my life (as pictured above). I look like I can hold down a village right?

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Da Fam Inc. Between now and July I’ll be looking to assemble an All-Star team of sorts complete with artists, athletes, PR people, DJ’s, producers, engineers, and much more. Everyone has a “company”, everyone has a “movement”, everyone has “team”, no one has a family though. A business that runs like a family can’t fail. If we’re all we have, utilize each others strenghts and leave no one behind, failure won’t be an option. More details to come.

Music. I don’t think I’ll ever be a full-time artist. As much as I would love to, it makes zero sense given the current state of the genre that I’m skilled in. I’m learning each day how to make music but by nature I’m just a lyricist. Raw lyricists have never really been appreciated and now they are borderline extinct. This new definition of “lyrical” would have drawn laughters back in 1999-2003, the era when I fell in love with rap. 

Other than that I’ve attended a few shows. Saw Colin Munroe, Wale and J.Cole in Norfolk, Va. That was cool because of course Colin is the homie and J.Cole is someone I knew of almost a year before he got signed.

Phellito’s Way:A Year Later


Been a while since I did one of these.

Today is a big day for me personally. It marks exactly one year since my meeting with Sickamore in NYC and subsequent joining of The Famous Firm (The only reason I even remember the date is because of the above picture I took on the Blackberry while I was up there). If you’ve read the blog from day one then you know the story, if not then here’s the brief version:

2006 left school after 3 frustrating semesters. 2007 making music and trying to blow up. Things going okay but not great. Wasting money like every other aspiring artist. Very little business sense. Very naive. Money starts to run very low and I’m contemplating quitting music. Around December slip into depression. Around January 2008 start getting pressured to go back to school. February 15th wait in line for hours in the icy cold to hear Barack speak. Obama speech motivated me so much that there was no way I could quit on my dreams. Stumbled on to Sickamore resignation letter from Atlantic and heard about Famous Firm starting up. Seemed like a perfect fit. Wanted to see if he could assist in anyway with my music. Took last bit of money and didn’t tell anyone but moms;drove to NYC. Meeting almost didn’t happen but it did. Went very well and resulted in me being asked to handle The Firm in the DMV area.

That’s the long and short of how we got to this point. Hope it inspires someone out there.

In the last one year, The Firm has served as sort of my second college. I’ve had a chance to learn things I was completely clueless about prior. Things like invoices, accounting, scheduling, marketing plans etc. Things that I would probably have never ever learned. Where I’m from people don’t really teach you stuff or instill knowledge in you. You either learn it on your own or you don’t learn it all. Sometimes I shake my head when I see some of the mistakes people make due to a lack of knowledge (it’s why I ramble so much on here in hopes that it will help somebody somewhere). Having the opportunity to interact with legitimate business people and moguls and world class talent has been a priceless experience for me. Thanks to the entire FF team, those that are still on board and those that have moved on to other things.

Also on that February 25th of last year, it was decided to put Da Fam Music on hold. Da Fam Music is the umbrella me and my partner were doing music under. No paperwork, no receipts, just a name and a dream. I’ve decided to re-launch Da Fam Music but this time everything is legit and with a new cast of characters. It’s called Da Fam Music but it’s more than just a music group. It’s more so a team of artsy people that are committed to providing the world with high quality entertainment. This is something I’m extremely passionate about and might be going into more detail about. I say might because with this, we’re not going to post a million bulletins or flood peoples inbox. We’re going to go back to the old days of word of mouth.

“The original goal when this started was to entertain people with our art and make lots of money doing it; However, I believe the purest form of entertainment is achieved when an artist feels no pressure to compromise his or her work for the sake of profit. Ideally Da Fam will be comprised of individuals who believe so much in the power of art that mainstream success and financial gain will be secondary. The goal isn’t to be anti-money or anti-mainstream, we love that stuff, just not enough to compromise who we truly are”.

You can read more about it on our myspace page by clicking anywhere on this sentence. To get down or find out how you can get down: dafammusic@gmail.com

New Colin…"Piano Lessons" Video


Today we’re rolling out the latest video for Colin Munroe. It’s being released through Pitchfork TV and should be on the youtubes and such in about a week.

Pitchfork.tv Premieres Video for Colin Munroe’s “Piano Lessons”

Featuring Joell Ortiz and Produced by Black Milk.


Direct Link: You can click here for the embed code

The Video: 
 


Colins Myspace

Main Song: http://www.zshare.net/audio/5385385860dd1822/

Acapella Version: http://www.zshare.net/audio/53853198c458d2e6/

Instrumental: http://www.zshare.net/audio/5385321236d138e7/


The Super Long Happy New Year Post

“I get a lot of back lash for saying what I’m going to do. I love saying what I think because it keeps me accountable. Once I say it, I feel like I have to to do it and I love proving to everyone that I can!”-Kanye West (Page 16 of his book)

Last post of the year, gotta make it count. First and foremost I must thank each and every person who reads, comments, laughs, and shares anything they see on here. It means much to me that people take time to check what I got going on and allow me to share my work and my thoughts with them. Appreciate it.

Shout out to everyone who helped me this year. There’s no one I came across that I didn’t learn from. Every person I encountered on the street, every facebook /myspace profile I read, and every blog post that I viewed helped me in some form. Even if it’s just me saying “Phell don’t you ever do what that person just did”. I would love to shout people out individually but it’s impossible….way too many people were instrumental in my 2008 run.

Easily the happiest of my 21 years on this earth. Had the pleasure of working with people I grew up idolizing. That’s not even supposed to happen. Only in the movies. I was able to touch people with words both recorded and written. Helped a few folks advance their careers. Introduced people around me to a whole new way of thinking and living. Came across so many smart people that passed on knowledge that the worlds biggest library couldn’t provide.

2008 was everything 2007 wasn’t. 07′ was where I cut off everyone to get my life on track without any distractions. Very selfish but necessary. I had to go through 07′ to get to 08′ so I ain’t mad.

2008 was the year I tried to reconcile a few of the relationships I lost the previous year. I believe people who really care for each other can go years without speaking and pick up right where they left off like it was nothing. If you don’t speak to someone for a few months then next time you speak to them it seems funny,that relationship was never worth much in my opinion. Anyways, 2008 I made a pact not to cut anyone off (just an extremist way of compensating for the mass cut offs of 2007). It (kinda) worked except mad people took advantage. No matter what people did, I let it ride till my patience finally ran out around September and I reverted back to my old low patience self. It’s really not low patience. You shouldn’t have to tolerate other peoples BS in your life unless it’s a relationship you really really value. And even then there should be a “let’s fix the BS” time frame.

The following was my approach towards life in 2008 written in WordsFrom style (Might get posted there too, I sent it in).

In 2008 I Ran

Running=Pursuing goals in life. The Finish Line=Accomplishing those goals in a timely fashion and maintaining happiness while doing so.

I put my head down and I run forward with velocity. My head is down so I don’t see any potential obstacles or hazards that might discourage me from running. I run with velocity as opposed to speed because any fool can run fast as hell in the wrong direction;velocity however is knowing your direction and then applying speed to it. I take note of everything I pass along the way and try to apply it to my run. The temptation occurs to look ahead but I take great pleasure in my current progress.

Occasionally I’ll slow down but never completely stop. I slow down to make sure I’m still comfortable with the direction I’m going in. If someone behind wants to run with me they are more than welcome. Running partners can make the journey easier but they are not a necessity. To join, you have to offer something positive to the run and cannot show any signs of weakness or doubt. If you don’t 100% believe in something, don’t do it. Plain and simple.

If it’s revealed that you’re a person looking for a free ride or that you are scared or incapable of running,I’ll simply leave you behind without explanation. Same will be done if you are a person that easily gets jealous of the velocity and confidence that one runs with. There’s no magic potion or secret shoe. It’s simply the constant practice of acquiring knowledge,hard/smart work, and blind faith.

If you lack those and envy me for having them, I’ll leave you behind. No hard feelings. No diss songs or harsh text messages need to be exchanged. In the event you do disrespect me for my decision, I’ll run even harder. Your unkind sentiments will be dealt with appropriately after the run. I also won’t tolerate if you come off as a person willing to cut corners or cheat in the run. Sorry but no golf carts or rocket boosters allowed. We want to get to the finish line but not that bad.

Shout out to all my runners. See you at the track in 2009.

Sidenote:Props again to Will Smith for the motivation to run. Props to Sickamore on the Velocity vs Speed speech way back in the early days of The Famous Firm. That always stuck with me for some reason. Props to everyone that did decide to run with me this year and those who will be running with me in 2009. Also props to those who don’t run with me but do get their run on. “Real Recognize real and ya’ll looking familiar.”

2009 Goals:
I started working on my new year goals in November. One of them I’ve already accomplished. It was more so a physical benchmark I was trying to reach. Those who knew me back in the “big boned” days know the difference.
Sidenote: Jacks I’m gonna really need you to burn those super fat pics. I’m not embarrassed that I used to be a chubby kid but those pics are just overboard.


I always have so much on my mind but I’m going to try and channel it more into a microphone and less on blogs. I feel like I say too much on here. That’s until I find Mrs.Phella. Then I’ll just tell her all my thoughts while we count bags and bags of illegal cash (sort of a joke).

Speaking of microphones. Got a mega-super duper-blow your socks off-wish I could say it right now type of announcement about my music coming in the end of January.

Speaking of January. I’m excited to get to work on the N.E.P.H.E.W project. Add one more Chicago MC to your list please. Big ups to his manager Rico as well.

I am extremely excited about the Firm and all we will be doing. 2009 is on track to be a breakout year for the company the way I see it.

In 2007 my focus was strictly about money and it was successful. In 2008 my focus was strictly about happiness and it was successful. In 2009 I’m hoping to achieve both simultaneously. I’m not even sure it’s possible but it should be a fun ride.

Also gotta get back to playing basketball again. If we do the summer team this year,I just might play.

Try to check on people more. Sick and tired of being yelled at for never calling,texting, or online messaging. I honestly care, just don’t like bothering people.

I WISH A HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR WITH MUCH LOVE AND SUCCESS TO EVERYONE OUT THERE .

Oh and remember. You are you and I AM PHELLA….hahaaaaaa gotta love corny phrases at the end of movies…I’m gone

This Is A Tale Of Lost Innocence

I really really really didn’t want to blog this. Part of my new years goal is to not depict myself as some “save the world” a$$ n*gga. I think post-Obama we have too many of those and I don’t wanna be part of the new “cool”. Plus I’ve been about change since birth and I’ll continue to be. I just won’t be as vocal about it anymore till the trend dies down. But I gotta get this last one in.

Sidenote:Merry Christmas to everyone out there by the way, hope it was great.

Now on to the story of innocence. I was at a store just buying some random items and I saw all these cool toys for kids. Immediately these two kids popped in my mind. A little girl and her brother who used to be my neighbors. Let’s just say their family situation isn’t the best and they probably weren’t going to get any Christmas gifts. So I bought the toys that I thought they would like and had my mom call their mom to find their new residence. I showed up unannounced and gave them the gifts and what happened next is the main point I’m trying to get across.

Those kids were sooooooooooooo happy you would think I gave them everything in the world. They smiled and jumped and thanked me over and over. Their mom was so emotional because she was just in the process of explaining to them why they wouldn’t get presents this year due to her not working for the past 6 months. When I say they were happy, I mean HAPPY. So happy that I started playing the toys with them. That 20 mins I spent there made my whole entire year.

I say all that to say that innocence children have is the best thing I think in the world and I want to regain as much of that as possible. The toys didn’t cost a million dollars but that didn’t matter to them. I left their house with the thought in mind that I ABSOLUTELY must become wealthy so I can help provide that kind of joy to more than two children. I’ve always been about getting money so I can better peoples lives but this completely sealed the deal.

Phellito’s Way:The Super Positive Post

Got up this morning and every e-mail, text msg, facebook status and Blackberry Messenger name I saw was depressing. www.iamphella.com won’t contribute to all that negative energy….”that ain’t the happiness we like pursuing.” Decided to post random positive things. Hope it works.

This pic of Christ The Redeemer in Brazil is one of the illest pics EVER. I’m definitely going over there next year.

Mrs.Carter decided to shoot a video for my favorite joint off her album. I haven’t watched yet but I’m sure it’s ill. Everything she does is ill. “She can see my Halo, but you say I’m a-hole/then wonder why on all those nights I never came home”-Phella (Unreleased Song)

Two of the best to do it chopping it up at the barber shop. Loso and Joey.

I randomly got my role in The Famous Firm transcended yesterday. That’s great news, but I won’t go into detail until next year. I’ve more than learned my lesson about premature announcements.

Also today is the Famous Firm head honcho’s bday. Sickamore turns 24. Feel free to stop by here or here to wish well.

Lastly Christina of FF was featured in this Nike Ad. Looks very cool. The person in purple shoes by the way.

Aight I’m outta here. I’m really not supposed to be blogging right now but I made this exception to spread some good news. Hope it worked.