Jrnl Entry No. 9.13.2000 “MY HIP HOP STORY” PART III

Nelson and I, with his equipment, we started producing songs; sampling snare taps and bass kicks and other sounds. We even had a little mix down process that we did. We’d record something on one tape, and then play that tape back and record it with additional sounds and vocals, etc. It was with Nelson that I wrote “I’m Hype”, “In Effect” using the E.F.F.E.C.T. from Rakin “Microphone Fein”, “I’m Getting’ Busier”, “It’s Party Time”, “The Continuous Rap”, and “Parents Stop Buggin”, you can guess where I got the idea for that song. We recorded about four songs in his room and we were just gonna continue building.

Our most promising song that we ever recorded in that room was “It’s Party Time”. We’d discovered this James Brown record. It was so funky. I forgot the name of it. Big Daddy Kane used it on his “I Get The Job Done” album. I think the name of his song was “Callin’ Mr. Welfare” He just used the beginning bass line and the intro horn, but we used the whole entire song. We had to because the song was so funky and melodic with the horns. We looped it twice and that was the song. My verses and breaks fit perfectly. Nelson was transformer scratching on the breaks, and like my second or third verse came right where the song started over again. It was love. We had sampled some record I think by Jackie Wilson where’d he say “It’s Party Time”, and we put some delay on it that was built into the sampler. I thought that this was the song that was gonna get us a call back from a record company for sure. I played it for my family and they loved it. My younger cousins liked it. I remember just listening to it and thinking, “this is a hit, this is the song that’s gonna get us a contract.” I sent it in and of course, nothing happened but some more of those letters.

My cousin Romeo and Angel had told Romeo’s sister who worked for Motown at the time; had been working there for like ten years. They told her that I wanted to be a rap star. They called me with her on the phone on three way, and she told me to send her a tape. So I recorded the songs that Nelson and I had recorded in his room on a little cheap tape and sent it to her. She called me back saying that the tape was garbage, the sound quality stunk, etc. She told me to hook up with my cousin Mantrix and record the songs over.

So Nelson and I began looking for some beats to rap over. We found one perfect one, which was off the first Stetsasonic album. I rapped “In Effect” to it and it sounded dope. We had did it up in Nelson’s room like three times trying to get the right mix and scratches down for it. We had the right mix, and all we had to do was put the vocals over it. Nelson flaked on me. I was calling him all week, but he was hiding out over his brother’s house. I went over there one day to talk to him and he said he didn’t want to do this no more. So that was the end of us as “TWC”. From there, I got like two others beats and looped them at home on my stereo. I had a “Trouble Funk” song for the “I’m Hyped” lyrics, and I had looped a James Brown beat for “The Continuous Rap”.

I went to my cousin’s studio and recorded the songs solo. We layed the looped tracks down. My cousin told me I had to put a drum track over them to give them some umft. I used the bass and the clap sound off that Casio drum machine he had to do this. I really didn’t need the clap sound which made the songs sound kind of wack. I didn’t take notice of this until a couple months later when I was letting my friends listen to it. I made the tape, was confident in my rhymes and the songs as total packages, and sent the tape to my cousin who worked for Motown. She called back and said that some guy said I had potential but I wasn’t good enough. I had been bragging to her how good the tape was. I was especially hype about the song “I’m Hype” with the “Trouble Funk” beat. It was the first song I put on the tape. I had also sent this tape to companies in New York, and got a few letters back.

After about six months I made another tape. This time I recorded “I’m Getting’ Busier”. This song was the shit, and I know it could have sold millions if it would have gotten into the right hands. I still listen to it today and think about how big it could have been. I looped the “Doo Wah Ditty” beat by Roger Troutman and Zapp. This was about the time of Heavy D’s “Big Tyme” album where he did “More Bounce To The Ounce” and people were crazy about that song. I had looped my song perfectly. It was a perfect arrangement of a song I tell you. I sent this tape to my cousin and she never responded. Right around this time also on Motown, was the wack group “Rodney O and Joe Cooley.” Oh, I called and left a message on my cousin’s answering machine about them telling her how wack they were and that I knew I was better than them. I guess she didn’t like my confidence and cockiness. She never responded still. But her not responding wasn’t that bad after all because I got a response back from New York. I remember when my mom told me one day home from school that Stu Fines from Wild Pitch Records had called me. I was bubbling inside with joy, finally I would get signed and be on tour and all my dreams would happen.

Jrnl Entry No. 9.13.2000 “MY HIP HOP STORY” PART II

Then we started moving on to bigger and better Hip Hop concerts like at The Front Row in Cleveland, OH. They (Samuel, Clay, Shaneequa, Shaniece) had tickets already. I didn’t have my ticket and had no clue how I was gonna get one. I had planned on standing outside until they came out. It was the summer before I entered the ninth grade, and I was freshly dipped in my Korea Fila suit that no one in my town had ever seen before. I also had a satiny Adidas one. I knew nothing about ticket scalpers. So I was standing there in line, and a guy asked me if I needed a ticket, I said “yeah.” He got his boy and they sold me one for $30.

The concert was legendary. A Fresh Fest starring LL Cool J performing fresh off his platinum Bigger and Deffer album. The other groups were: Stetsasonic, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, Dougie Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, and Whodini. The way The Front Row was designed was stadium seating and you could see from back to front. It was a circular hall with a rotating stage. I remember at the end of the concert Estacy of Whodini complimented me on my Fila suit. There was a second show so most all the rappers were hanging out by the tour buses. LL was probably on one of his sexual episodes because he was nowhere to be seen. He was the big star anyway so he couldn’t come outside. The next show we went to was also in Cleveland, a Fat Boys show, featuring U.T.F.O. U.T.F.O. rocked the house, doing dance moves and what not. This was the biggest concert hall I’d ever been in. This was like my third time seeing The Fat Boys. They were performing their “Chrushin’´album which I had bought that summer.

There was something about U.T.F.O.’s performance that struck me and made me want to become a rapper who performed out on tour. When I got back home that night, which was a Sunday, and school was the next morning, I wrote my first rap song called “Dance”. I finished it at like 1:00 AM. I wrote another song about two days later which included my cousin Donavan. It was called Doc and Don, describing how two guys treated girls; me treating a girl kind, and Donavan treating a girl cruel. We rehearsed the song, but Donavan didn’t take it serious. I eventually a month later, took his name out the song, and just made it as another personality of me.

My older cousin Mantrix had a little recording studio down in his basement. He said he’d charge me $25 to make a tape of the two songs. I had produced two little beats in my head and beat boxed them onto a tape to rehearse the songs before I went to the studio. I had one problem though, my mom said that she was not going to give me the $25 to do the tape. Well, that problem was easily overcome. I made the appointment to do the tape and I just stole the money out of my mom’s purse. She found out and asked me about it. The last whipping I had was when I was 12. She wasn’t mad or anything, she didn’t do nothing, but she still mentions it to me to this day.

So I went to my cousin’s studio. He had a Casio little drum machine that he didn’t know how to program. I called Clay and asked him how to program it because he had the same one. He explained something to me and I tried it. I had the sequence going but the beat wouldn’t come out right. I just played it manually. I played the whole drum track from pad to pad: bass, hi hat, clap, hi hat, bass, clap, open hi hat. I still know how that beat goes. I did the vocals, overdubbing the whole song, to give it a stronger voice my cousin said. The songs were pretty wack for the most part. The second song with the two personalities was the better of the two. I had my cousin play the bass guitar. It was the bass line from LL’s “I’m Bad”. I didn’t think about it at the time when making it, but that’s what it was as others pointed out to me when I let them listen to it.

When the tape was finished, I went over to Samuel’s house and got addresses off of the back of his records to record companies. I had like twenty addresses. I sent the tapes off with just one stamp on them. About two days later, they all came back “insufficient postage”. The maintenance man had them all in a bucket and gave them to me. I put like two more stamps on them and sent them off again. I probably got about two of those infamous letters in the mail like six weeks later. “Thanks for submitting your material, however, at this time we are not looking for new material.” I’d always get a letter back from Profile Records. I got one back from Virgin Records saying they didn’t accept unsolicited material. I called their office to ask what that meant. They told me it had to be submitted by a lawyer.

Later that year I got hooked up with some guy, who was a beginner DJ by the name of Nelson. We got hooked up through some guy who talked a bunch of shit like he was a manager. He even had me do this one song for Nelson’s brother like I was auditioning or something. Nelson’s brother named Remmington was just a working man with a wife and kidz. But Nelson and I hooked up and he was the DJ and I was the rapper. We later named ourselves TWC (The Warren Crew). Nelson had two turntables and a mixer with a little button on it to help with transformer scratching. He had basically taken over his cousin’s little Casio sampler. I think Prince Paul used the same sampler on the De La Three Feet High and Rising” album because I heard the lion roar on the album, the same lion roar from that little sampler.

Jrnl Entry No. 2.23.2000

So I goes to Justin’s last night. I didn’t have any trouble getting in or nothing like that. I walked in and walked to the bar and ordered a Guiness Stout at $7 a bottle. They were playing D’angelo’s new album “VooDoo.” I was just standing around peeping the scene for a while. I seen this girl who looked like an enterprising young lady. She had on a business suit with a nice pair of shoes in my book. “I like a woman who spend a little cash for her shoes..” (Jay Z “What girls/guy like”) She had long hair or long weave, whatever the case it looked nice. She was skinny from what I could tell so I wasn’t lusting after her. She just looked like somebody who knew somebody who could probably help me break into the Hip Hop Music production arena. She was talking with different people every time I saw her. This one guy came up to her and her friends and he never left, and he was talking to her mainly. After a while I left or just stopped looking at them.

I was standing on the beam in the middle of the floor and I seen this beautiful girl. She reminded me of Lynette Treason from college. She had that dark brown complexion, she was slim from what I could tell on her figure, and she opened up her coat so I could tell she had a little body. After standing there for a few minutes wondering how should I approach her, I finally says, “fuck it,” and I goes over to her. I was staring at her and she gave me a couple of glances back. I went over to her and asked my usual polite, “how you doin’?’ She started smiling so I figured it was on. I started smiling back, but then after I started smiling she said “I’m here with someone.” I said O.K. and left and went and stood back where I was.

Oh did I mention that when I walked in the place Black Rob was one of the first faces I saw. He was drinking a bottle of something. He didn’t seem to have a friendly face so I didn’t start talking to him. I just stood there by him for a while. At one point I did say to him “how you feeling tonight god?” He had his attention focused on the coat check lady, and I guess he didn’t hear me. I didn’t attempt to speak again. I walked across the room a couple of times but I didn’t feel comfortable on that side with really nowhere to stand so I returned back to my beam by the bar.

I was just standing there trying to see if there was anyone I was interested in talking to. There was this one woman or young lady. She was light skinned, short, nice ass that I liked. She looked mature which is what I am looking for. I thought about talking to her, but she was talking to some older men. It wasn’t really buggin’ me to go and say something to her anyway, so I let that go. After two beers, I went back over to the other side. I heard this guy spittin’ rhymes to this other guy. I figured I’d camp out and wait for him to finish talking to the dude, and I would then talk to the rapper, and I would catch the other guy later and talk to him also to ask him who he was that this guy was rhyming to him. They were takin’ too long so while I was standing there, I noticed this fine honey standing over on the wall with space enough for me to go and holla at her.

I waited a few for these guys to stop talking. Then I saw the honey walk across the room in my direction so I was scopin’ her. When she returned to the wall, I seen a guy who was standing a few feet away from her on the same wall looking at her, but he didn’t say nothing to her. So then I walks over and ask him, “why ain’t you talking to this honey standing right directly next to you?” He says something like he was waiting for me to do it, so I said hey, and stepped over there. I said my usual “how you doin” and what not. It was a pretty dry introduction, but sometimes those are the ones that land you into some pussy. I asked her name and she told me and didn’t say anything else. So I just stood there for a moment and then I started kickin’ it to her about Tuesday nights at Justin’s. She took the conversation over from there telling me that there used to be a DJ but Puff didn’t have a cabaret license for that so couldn’t have a DJ.

After her infomercial about the restaurant, I started asking her the usual questions: age, occupation, residence, etc. She said that she worked and lived with her parents, but her real interest lye in starting up a Women’s Sports Magazine. I thought that was interesting. That is what I like about N.Y. is that I run into people who want to enterprise and start something of their own. I don’t want to start shit, but just work for them when they get their shit. I told her that I wanted to be a Hip Hop producer and asked her advice on how I should go about doing that. She just told me to start talking to people like in the restaurant because you never know who was in there. I asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to talk to people who already made it who were in there like Black Rob and Little Cease. She said that was a good idea. She made me feel good and confident to talk to someone. She was about to leave so I asked her since I had seen this ring on her finger, “friendship ring” she says. I asked her did she need another friend, and she said no. And come to find out, her twin sister was sitting right next to her. I told her that since she didn’t want to talk to me to tell her sister what a nice guy I was, and tell her to talk to me. I mean they were twins, same everything; what would I be missing if I talked to her sister? I was joking of course and she started laughing. While talking to her I spotted this bangin young lady. She had on one of them colorful knit skirts that I like, and it was knee length. She had a feathered like short haircut, ass was busting out the back of the skirt, and she had on some leather boots that came above her cav, below the knee. She had a cute little face.

So after the twins leave, this girl and her friend were standing right in front of me and the girl I liked was writing something down. So me, feeling the alcohol, I started like peeping over to see what she was writing. The first time I did it she didn’t get bitchy or nothing so I did it again. She looked at me and looked at her friend and laughed, and then her friend put her hand up in Martin “Dis” fashion, and put it in my face, touching my face. I figured they were safe to talk to once this guy they were talking to left. He didn’t leave soon enough, so I went over by the door where Little Cease and his entourage were standing trying to get up the nerve to say something to him. At one point I reached over and gave him a pound and said whats up. He was constantly talking to his man though so I couldn’t break and talk to him.

Meanwhile I spot the guy who was rhyming earlier. I walks up to him and start telling him that I heard him rhyming to the guy earlier, and told him I was a producer trying to break into the industry, and asked if he needed some beats. He started talking to me and asked for my number. I handed him a tape. He told me his name was Camilion. He said he’d give my tape a listen and he would definitely give me a call. He spit some shit in my ear to the Tribe ”Stressed Out” beat that was playing. I was feelin’ him a whole lot better than I am feeling Ricardo. He sounded nice and had skills with his words like an MC supposed to. After I talked to him I was definitely ready to shout at Little Cease, but just as I was looking over there, he was headed for the door. I walked to the back one more time and then left.

When I get outside I notice that the side of the street where I had parked my car was all clear. There was nothing over there but a garbage truck. My car had been towed. When I first pulled up, I pulled behind another car so I assumed it was safe to park over there. I starts walking up the street to read a sign which would tell the violation I committed for my car to be towed. At the corner of the street I see a sign that says, “Night Regulation: No Parking from 11 P.M to 6 A.M.” Where my car was parked I didn’t see any such sign, and I didn’t worry about it because usually all the signs say that you can’t park from 7A.M. to 7P.M. So from there I goes to a pay phone and calls the operator, and asks her for a number to call to get my car back. The operator had no clue and told me to call information. I called information and they gave me a number to call. I called the number and it said to call back during opening hours 8A.M. to 7P.M.

From there I walked down the street to catch the train. It’s a good thing I learned to ride the subway and learned how to read a subway map. If you ever come to N.Y. to stay or for a few weeks, you must learn the subway system if nothing else. With some simple instructions from a friend and a little experience of taking the wrong trains a couple of times, you’ll be a pro in no time. It’s a pretty basic system to learn. About two blocks away was the subway station with the train that I could take all the way to my neighborhood in Queens. I goes down the stairs and the attendant tells me that the train is only running to Brooklyn from that stop and not in the opposite direction to Queens. I didn’t panic, I just walked a couple more blocks to another station, but that station was closed. From there I figured I better walk all the way down about 12 blocks to the 34^th street station at Herold Square. 34^th street is a major stop, and the train had to be running from there. I asked the attendant was it. She said it was but you had to go down on the Brooklyn side to catch both trains: the one to Brooklyn and the one to Queens.

I catches the train home. I got home at three O’clock and went to bed. I had to get up at six to walk to the train station or catch the bus to the train station. I was prepared to walk, but when I walked outside my apartment, the bus was right there waiting to get on schedule so I hopped on it. I got on my beautiful N Train to go to work. I was gonna transfer to the G Train at Queensboro Plaza but I decided to stay on the N which was going to the same place, but I thought the G would have been faster. I got off the train at 7:30 A.M. as close to my job as the train would take me. My job is out on the water by the Brooklyn Bridge on the pier “pier 3”. I started walking and got to work at 7:50 A.M. My beautiful N Train is what I call it because it takes you to all the main points in the city: Times Square, 34^th St, the Village, my job and home.

After sleeping all day at work, I took the train to Time Square and walked to go and get my car. It cost $150 to get out. I got it and went home. If I ever meet Puff, and we have some kind of relationship, I’ll tell him reimburse me for my expenses that night:$21 I spent on beers that night; $150 it took me to get my car; $55 for the ticket I had to pay; $7.50 for the train and bus fair to get home that night and to work the next day, and the $35 I spent on dinner when I went to eat at his restaurant when I was first moving and spending a lot of money. On a normal day, I would never spend $35 on dinner for one, not at this point in time in my finances

IF YOU’VE EVER MOVED TO A NEW CITY, WHAT ADJUSTMENTS: SOCIAL, TRANSPORTATION, DRESS CODE, YOU NOTICED WERE DIFFERENT THAN YOUR ORIGINAL PLACE OF ORIGIN?

Jrnl Entry No. 12.6.1999

I gets home from Warren last night about 12:20 A.M. I figured I’d ride through the city to try and find me two boot leg CDs. I was gonna get Rakim and Raekwon. Yeah, that’s right boot leg. I told myself, especially since I got bills now and no money, that I am not spending another dollar on Hip Hop CDs until I make some cash in the rap game as a producer or rapper. I have been rapping and shit since I was 14; that is twelve years. Its time for Hip Hop to support me a little. At the least pay off my car or credit card or something.

So I’m riding down around Times Square but I don’t see anybody with any CDs on the streets. I passes by 43^rd St. and I see a crowd of people and cars lined up. I decides to ride down the street and I sees mad bitches and niggas lined up to get into this club. I tell you that is the shit I love about New York. You just ride down the street on a particular night and you can run into a fat ass party going down till 4 A.M. in the morning. The spot was called Club New York. I guess it was hot for the night.

I went and parked my car on 39^th Street and walked back up to 43^rd Street. I walks by and stands outside the party. I’m seeing Yukon Danali’s, Navigators, Acks, Benz V12 600s. Just as I was about to leave because I didn’t have the $20 or $30 that I know it cost to get in, I seen CLUE and a bunch of niggaz following him walking up. Now DJ CLUE is like a house hold name in Hip Hop. I’m just looking at the Nigga like an ass hole. I don’t know what was going through my mind. I leave the spot and goes back to my car because I gots to go to work in the morning. As I’m walking back, I’m thinking to myself “damn, I should have said something to that Nigga about me being a producer trying to get on.”

Its like when I see these people, I’m at a lose for words. I prepared me a little speech last night though. Its goes a little something like this. “ A Yo CLUE whats up? How You? I’m a producer trying to get on in this industry. Why don’t you do me a favor and take my tape. If you like it and think you can help me give me a call. If you don’t like it, don’t call and I’ll see you again. I know you don’t know me but can you do that for me?”

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to approach niggaz every since I got here. I’ve seen Funk Master Flex, Lord Finesse, Grand Master Dee of Whodini. I talked to DJ Premier, but I didn’t ask him to help me out. I just ask him how do I go about getting on as a producer. He told me to go to the clubs. I’ve been to a couple of clubs and seen nobody. When I did see the couple of people I mentioned above, I didn’t know what to say to them. I talked to DJ Big Kap but he brushed me off real quick because I really didn’t know what to say to him. I tried introducing myself to him, told him my name and shit and asked can I talk to him.

You got to get at these niggaz at least as an introduction. You got to get straight to the point, and that might not even get you nowhere. Just get at em every time you see somebody. When you see em again, holla at them again. After a year or two, people will notice you and see that you are determined and will maybe help out. THAT’S WHAT I GOT TO DO! TIME IS MONEY!

Jrnl Entry No. 9.29.1999

Well what can I do? My bills are like $100 more than my monthly income. I’ve put in for a few part time jobs and nothing. The places where I wanted to work said that they are all booked up on the weekends and they are not open late enough for me to work after six o’clock. I can’t go out to the clubs and meet anybody in the music industry because I don’t have the money to go. I have a little Hip Hop connection with Jay through Darry. I could probably make a bigger connection with Dessert Storm DJ CLUE Crew if I got in touch with Windexter, but he is never home. I can’t go to any labels because they are closed on Saturdays and that is the only day I have time. I work out of the way of all that shit. That is why I wanted to work somewhere around Broadway so that I could reach a couple of labels on my lunch break by train.

So I’m stuck unable to execute my plans because of money and work location. All I do is go home after work, cook, maybe sit and watch tv or start with my sampler. I can’t even afford to take the train into the city or to drive and waste all my gas. I have to save every dollar I can, how I can. It is kind of depressing. I thought that I would be alright here with bills and things and have a few extra dollars to party, but it just ain’t so.

At lunch time on my job, I just stare at the big buildings across the river, dreaming about how I can get a production deal or a deal for my Warren Posse crew. We’ve been in the studio and have come up with three very nice songs. But now I feel that the bullshit is about to start coming on. The songs Billy is talking about recording are very, very wack to me. I think they are going to throw everything off. I hope he records these shits and they sound just as wack to him as they do to me. But I ain’t gonna say nothing because everybody thinks that they know so much about this Hip Hop shit. Like they tried to tell me that the “Warren Posse Strikes Back” song wasn’t going to work out because of this and that. When it was done, they liked it, not loved it, so they say, but liked it; when before they didn’t even want to record it. I like the song but I think Nelson could have calmed down on the yelling in the break and during his lyrical flow. And even with that, it still sounds kind of cool. I hope “We Crew” and the other song they plan on recording has the same effect on me.

When the project is done I will probably try to shop it around here for a deal and see what we can come up with. I need to be shopping The Phat Rapper’s shit to someone. My problem is I don’t know the first step to take. I’m going to see if I can go to labels on Saturday and talk to someone. If I can’t, when I get a personal day, I’ll take one to go and visit some labels and see what I can make out of the day. It’s all I know, and maybe it will lead to something else. I got to get discovered somehow because that is what I came up here for, to make some grands in the music industry one way or another, that is going to be my future; this accounting shit is not working. Maybe I ought to try and visit some labels after work and see if I can get my foot in a door. I got to try something.

That is my problem, I’m not trying hard enough to really talk to anyone. I’m sitting around on my ass complaining when I ought to be out there trying to make moves. Yeah, I’m going to start bringing me a change of clothing for after work and head over into the city instead of just going home and sitting there. I just might run into something. Go hang out by some recording studios or something. I gots to make this work for me. I think I’m sitting around waiting for it to work for itself. I got to get up. I know once I’m over there politican in the city, I will feel charged and there won’t be no stopping me. The city just makes you want to do something, it gives you confidence. Of course, that is if you can move around because being stuck in traffic can kill your spirit like death I tell you. You just feel like you are in the car dying, moving five miles an hour; super slow motion.

I’m about to do this. Fuck this shit. Tomorrow, I’m going to the city after work and do something to advance my career.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT STUCK IN A SITUATION; KNEW YOU HAD TO MAKE A MOVE TO GET OUT, BUT YOU EITHER DIDN’T MAKE THE MOVE OR THE MOVE YOU MADE DIDN’T WORK OUT THE WAY YOU HAD HOPED?