This is a test to see if one or the other of two plugins I downloaded work. One is old and reported to no longer function and the other is called Socialite, which they say may no longer work as well. They are supposed to cross-post my blog entries to my myspace blog. So let’s see shall we?
http://silenciobarnes.com
Life is full of contradiction and inconsistency. But life is just life; it’s the human mind and the collective conscious that adds so much complexity to something that is so simple. Consider this: We live and we die. That’s it. Everything else in between is just so much nothing when compared to these greater truths.
As they are wont to say in some places, “it is what it is”. It cannot be more, it cannot be less, it just is. When considered, the basic foundations of all things in existence can be understood, to an extent.
Without, there is nothing; within, there is nothing. Forming around and through this nothingness, there is matter. The space between subatomic particles is a nothingness that we cannot fathom. The space that we call our universe is predominantly made up of nothingness. Yet here we are. Out of nothing we get…something. And it is what it is. How could it be otherwise?
When man learns to harness that nothingness, to find the something that makes it up, we will have truly entered into a new age of wonder, or an age of destruction. Either way, we will uncover secrets and truths, the very stuff that we have always searched for. The key to meanings of existence in this physical plane, possibly the means to transcend.
As I became older, I began to suspect, all on my own, that much of what everything is, is thought. Visuals, sounds, the things we create, the things we do not, how we see ourselves, how we perceive others and the things around us. This is all thought.
I explored this a lot in my old earlier poetry and you can still hear this philosophy in a lot of my work even now…if you listen for it. I think, that thought creates everything around us, and collective thought binds that general perception into one semi-solid perception that most of us just agree to agree on.
I’ve always thought, that if I tried hard enough and stayed watchful for the moment, I could see beyond that artificial veil and truly see what lay behind it. And sometimes, rarely and just for an instant, I think that I do, or that I get close…but who can say for sure.
People think too much. It is our thoughts that corrupt what is really there. When people begin to stop thinking so much and start attempting to draw in what is real without thinking at it so hard, they may start to understand the things that are really around them.
That is to say, if it is what it is, then by thinking it to be other than what it truly is, you are warping it and turning it into something that it is not. Get it?
I believe that if people stop thinking so hard and start being, then they will eventually become who they truly are and not the sum-total of all of those thoughts and thinking that they’ve clogged themselves with since infancy. They will be free of all that thought up self-doubt, all those thought up prejudices, all those thought up thoughts that color everything they do.
This is not an attack on thinking as most people…think of it. The problem with most thought is that it is highly impure and flawed. We are taught how to not think right from birth. I believe that in order for us to start thinking clearly, we must let go of our current ways of thinking. We must start to use our senses and our logic to see what is there and what is not. Once that happens, it will be like a purification process to our thought mechanism. We can start to discard all the bullshit, and keep only that which is true.
Do you feel what I’m saying?
Or am I just high?
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.3MB)
If somebody were to ask me what Practice Words was about, I’d tell them that it’s one of those “I’ll kill you “lyrically”" tracks :) There doesn’t seem to be a lot of artists making those types of songs anymore. As usual with DaEvolution tracks, the lyrics for this are pretty old. It started as a 32 bar, unbroken string of lines. I figured that’s two verses so the chorus was written right then and there before I started recording. I wanted to add a third verse, but since the lyrics of the first two verses fit so well, I decided to leave it as is.
Recording: This song was recorded with an M-Audio Nova microphone through a ART Tube MP Studio V3 pre-amp. My audio interface (sound card) is an M-Audio Audiophile 2496. The vocals were recorded at SB Studios (my room:)) in the middle of it with all the windows closed :)) My DAW is Adobe Audtion and I used a couple of VST’s for general effects. You can look for all this stuff on Ebay as well as various other places.
The beat is called “On Fire” and was produced by Big B from Manchester UK in collaboration with Mr Smiff. The sound of it reminded me of the type of music we used to make back in days at the Dungeon :) The beat was free to download, and can be found on Mr Smiff’s page here.
Here’s a message for your boy you should tell him to watch his words
Cause he talking and he rapping and acting like he ain’t herb
This is Silence and I’m back cause I couldn’t believe I heard
That these niggas think they spitting but really they just absurdI spit with such precision like needles to epiderm
Acupuncture you with lyrics disable a vital nerve
Meticulous incisions like surgeons I’m unperturbed
- Lyrically I’m shitting on niggas like flying birdsIt’s like seeing moving pictures all this action in my verbs
Metaphors deeper than scripture more angles than curbs
I’m a demon from the land lost where no one returns
Leave ya ass like damn corpse or ash in the urn, wordThis the purge y’all get lyrically burned
You kids don’t understand it’s hot till you touch it and learn
I am everything you’re not I leave you niggas disturbed
I state word to my pops like I’m Jesus returnedFuck what you think, fuck what you heard
This is just practice, these are just words
I’m warming up, feeling superb
Let’s get it started I, think it’s my turnFuck what you think, fuck what you heard
This is just practice, these are just words
I’m warming up, feeling superb
Let’s get it started I, think it’s my turnI’m sicker than that virus that renders niggas infirmed
I’m a cause for concern like awaiting the judges terms
Like catalysts I bring change and unexpected turns
Like calculus I hit you head hard and spread like germsLike atlas with the world on my shoulders I stand firm
Make cake and get dough with the butter my brain churns
A lot of niggas have been anxiously waiting on my return
I just kept telling them be patient the savior has now emergedStampeding y’all with bars like a moving buffalo herd
Y’all can not see me at most maybe you’ll catch a blur
Cause I’m high speeding like horse driven on by the spurs
Till I stop breathing or start bleeding I’m not concernedI overheard niggas say I’m the best and I concur
Wipe the blade on your chest once I split you with sharp verse
The nerve of these niggas to say that it don’t burn
When I spit the flames hotter than lava and star birthsFuck what you think, fuck what you heard
This is just practice, these are just words
I’m warming up, feeling superb
Let’s get it started I, think it’s my turnFuck what you think, fuck what you heard
This is just practice, these are just words
I’m warming up, feeling superb
Let’s get it started I, think it’s my turn
©2010 by Rasheen Armstrong – All Rights Reserved, Including the Right to Reproduce These Lyrics, or Portions Thereof, In Any Form (See Creative Commons License at Bottom Of Page)
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These words are free, so get em while they hot
Cuz if you wait too long you’re gonna miss em when they’re not
These words are me, just in case yo ass forgot
They were lifted from my spirit and they mated with the block
These words can be the seeds that – start a brand new crop
Let them grow within your mind and be immortal in your heart
These words can sting, sometimes they find the mark
That you hide within yourself but I can see it with my art
These words are free, but somebody gotta pay
When the words that others speak can only lead to our decay
How could it be that what we seek has turned into a play
And the actors don’t get paid and they forced to go on stage
We need some better ways but they guide us like we beasts
Not even jungle kings they just treat us like we sheep
I need a better phrase cuz that sheep shit’s gettin old
We’re more like auto-slaves, robots hard and dumb and cold
I hardly can control the rage that fires up my brain
When I see another corporate scheme succeed and we get played
When I see my fucking government treat people like they’re told
Knowing that the ones that told em are the ones that’s in control
Multi billion dollar entities that span our dying globe
That poison our senses and destroy our countries’ souls
But I digress I’m pretty sure you’ve heard these things before
But you probably could care less and think there’s nothing going on
You taking what they give you and accept their words as pure
Don’t you think that makes you less than the whores that you abhor?
I need to take a rest from these thoughts I conjure up
I’d rather smoke and sex but somebody must report
We in a global crisis that’s defined by the prices
How much does it cost to keep a population lifeless
How much for divorce from this all consuming tightness
How much must we lose before think it’s time to fight this?
These words are free, so get em while they hot
Cuz if you wait too long you’re gonna miss em when they’re not
These words are me, just in case yo ass forgot
They were lifted from my spirit and they mated with the block
These words can be the seeds that – start a brand new crop
Let them grow within your mind and be immortal in your heart
These words can sting, sometimes they find the mark
That you hide within yourself but I can see it with my art
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On February 18, 2010 – Andrew Joseph Stack III flew a small plane into a building that housed IRS offices. Many are already well aware of this particular news item. I’m a little late to it. It’s already been reported, blogged about and hyper-analyzed all over the usual places, so I won’t go into the super intimate details. I’ll leave some links to places that did a much better job of it than I can.
Stack also wrote a 30 paragraph long letter before he did the deed (he also set his house on fire) and I’m going to include of a few of the points that I like from it below. If you want to read the whole thing, it’s easily found online. A lot of these words ring very true, which is why I wanted to blog them.
…I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician (that has) cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities…and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
…I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us…
It…made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010
Do I agree with him? Well, yea. Do I approve of his methods? Well…ummmmm…*non-committal shrug* :))
For the full story, which is still being updated by some sites check out these spots:
Yahoo News – Still being updated with new info as it happens
Huffington Post – Also includes the full suicide note
Also on Huffington Post, more personal responses from two bloggers, one who was right down the street here and here
Here is a write up on the subject from my favorite independent news site AlterNet.org
Google News – A Google News search for Joseph Stack
YouTube Videos? Uhhhh…yea…lots of em
There are some Joe Stack dedicated FaceBook fan pages as well. I’m sure you know how to find em.
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The problem with freedom – the idea of freedom – is that no one wants it. That is to say, no one wants to put in the work necessary to achieve it. The sort of concerted effort needed may be currently beyond our reach. We don’t even really know what freedom means. Maybe we never actually did in this country. Keep in mind that I’m speaking almost exclusively about the United States.
We as a people have grown quite selfish, extravagantly lazy and extremely stupid. The stupidity is even odder considering just how much real information is available quite literally at our fingertips these days.
Everyone has become complacent. We feel right at home with having our individual freedoms stripped from us one by one. The powers-that-be take away from us and tell us that it’s for our own safety and we follow like sheep. Sometimes they take away from us and don’t tell us shit…and we follow like sheep. We are not even aware of the things that are going on around us. For some reason, we cannot perceive the powers that struggle back and forth over who gets to control the flock.
I say “we”, because although there are those that would fight it, object to it or even do something about it – the majority is okay with it…and we are all a part of the majority. Perhaps “okay” isn’t the best word in this case. People just seem to exist under a hell of a lot of brain/white washing and simply cannot see past anything that does not involve themselves or getting to that nine-to-five on time.
In a truly free system, everyone would be able to do what they want. I am not preaching anarchy, I am speaking on a system where people do what is best for all, but by doing what is in their power to do; by doing the things they truly want to do.
For instance, some people truly want to heal. Some people truly want to develop new technologies and practice different forms of science etc. I say let them. Let them learn their craft from like-minded individuals. Some people like to crunch numbers or fill in blank forms. Some people like to draw and paint and create. Everyone should be free to do and pursue that which makes them happy. If more people did what they wanted instead of doing menial shit just to survive, I guarantee the overall happiness factor in this country would rise exponentially. Don’t worry, the economy would still grind along, there would just be a shift in the way things worked. We would all benefit.
All people should have a real vote. All people should be educated. All people should be able to make an informed decision about the practices and policies that work best for not only them, but their communities as well. That’s freedom. If each person contributed something of themselves then everybody would be good. Wealth would be shared and We the People would be able to move forward together instead of separately.
Isn’t it odd that true freedom comes with the idea of shackling all of our fates together instead of this crazy, obsessive, and in some cases, obscene individualism that we practice now?
Think about the things that we bitch, moan and politic about. Things like gay marriage or gun ownership. If we were as free as we think we are, these would be non-issues. The people who want guns would get them and the people who do not, would not. The same-sex couples would get married if they wanted to. Free people making their own decisions. Instead of freedom, we have constant bickering, legislation, infighting, and even foul deeds done in the name of whatever thing is being argued over at the time. That’s not freedom. That’s just a way for those that control us, the ones who are truly free, to keep us from focusing on how much so-called freedom we do not actually have.
Think about it.
What does freedom mean to you?
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:36 — 10.1MB)
It’s the evolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The revolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The ghetto’s moving – Gold Platinum to Diamond
This our resolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
It started out with sweating slaves bleeding out our agriculture
Picking cotton, fat pockets for Caucasian male nigger owners
Then we marched for better days, slaves became better soldiers
Ghettos turned battlefields and our game became colder
What’s the future – untold the computer’s the controller
I refuse to fold, stumble, get rolled or roll over
And I ain’t trying to preach so don’t give me the cold shoulder man
Just think of me as the eye of the beholder fam
I’ll skip the wood, bronze, and the silver, that shit was over when
Malcolm got shot up and Martin’s final deliverance
Now it’s not black, white, yellow or Indian
Now it’s coke, crack pipes, money and ignorance
Funny how it ends one day and then begins again
Yea they took our freedom then and gave us religion
Now they take your freedoms away and promise dividends
A rich slave is only a slave without no diligence
It’s the evolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The revolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The ghetto’s moving – Gold Platinum to Diamond
This our resolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
Another nigga on the corner still pushing that rock
Another bitch up in my sheets, another day smoking pot
Another nigga on the block with work, setting up shop
Another cop, another drop, another’s eyes on your knot
Another hustler scheming, passing go with no stop
Another night in the winter when the spot is too hot
Another close one, breathing – shit – you almost got knocked
Another nigga didn’t make it now he locked in the box
Another nigga died, another born, a mother is slain
Another crucified, another lost, another snort caine
Another alibi, another law that keeps us as slaves
Another failed to pass the test of life and now lives in grave
Another bitch is working strips, a nigga pays for that brain
Another added to statistic list, another found fame
Another tragic murder case, they picture up in a frame
Another day, another dollar, but the game still the same
It’s the evolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The revolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The ghetto’s moving – Gold Platinum to Diamond
This our resolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
No identity, no past, a home that doesn’t want us
No language, no class, that’s why they can control us
Non-conformists reform us then put us on the corners
Law enforcement patrol us, put burdens on our shoulders
Man they hate us, we hate us, yet they profit off our murders
They bring us the burners, the drugs and things that hurt us
Then we rap about it and those heathens sell it for us
We dance to the sounds of self extinction on the chorus
But at the same time – distinction, they imitate our colors
Walk and talk and dress just like us, call themselves our brothers
It seems that they transformed themselves while trying to conform us
That’s how we went gold to platinum, fuck the latter to the former
It’s like playing chutes and ladders, we slide back while going forward
Just imagine going diamond, it’ll be like a new world order
In the meantime teach your daughters –
And teach your sons: Not every argument has to turn into a slaughter
It’s the evolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The revolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
The ghetto’s moving – Gold Platinum to Diamond
This our resolution – Gold Platinum to Diamond
©2007 by Rasheen Armstrong – All Rights Reserved, Including the Right to Reproduce These Lyrics, or Portions Thereof, In Any Form (See Creative Commons License at Bottom Of Page)
As you can no doubt tell from the name of this track, DaEvolution is the title song for the DaEvolution Mixtape. The first verse is a mixture of old and new lines. The second verse is older than everything else on this song, written around 6 or so years ago. I was very proud of it when I wrote it :) The third verse was new material…at the time. It was written specifically for this song.
The chorus came about as an idea for a piece of poetry. I still may use it for that poetry as well. This song is the very first song that I made in it’s entirety, meaning it’s the first of my own beats that I rhymed over, attempted to mix down and give it some cohesiveness so that I could call it finished. That is why it’s the most prevalent song in my collection, the only one you see on every site I’m on and used the most often by me.
This song is about the state of affairs getting pretty much stuck in a “gold” or “platinum” era. It talks mostly about black people in America but can be applied to pretty much any person or group of people that just can’t seem to move forward. That is to say, through the sacrifice of the many that have come before us, we got to a pretty high plateau, but we hesitate (willingly or otherwise) to really take that next step that’ll launch us into something much greater than what we currently are. We are held back by a lot of willful ignorance. I could go on, but I digress.
Like most of the DaEvolution Mixtape, it’s a song that I wanted to re-record. I don’t like my tone of voice on it. But, as I’ve said in the previous posts, I’m moving on :) There’s much more music to be made, not to mention I still haven’t even recorded all of the tracks that I planned for the mixtape.
last.fm/music/SilencioBarnes/DaEvolution+Mixtape/DaEvolution
mymusicstream.com/silenciobarnes/song-2067869172133.html
reverbnation.com/silenciobarnes#/artist/song_details/3158295
youtube.com/watch?v=ZO2qZBl-65A
video.yahoo.com/watch/6968363/18113427
http://www.last.fm/music/SilencioBarnes/DaEvolution+Mixtape/DaEvolution+-+Acappella
http://www.last.fm/music/SilencioBarnes/DaEvolution+Mixtape/DaEvolution+-+Instrumental
http://www.mymusicstream.com/silenciobarnes/song-2067724736887.html – Instrumental
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:51 — 7.9MB)
These cats don’t know how to say nothing but “give”
The ignorant cover their ears, the militant see with their fears
The children fight wars, they parents fight tears
The soldiers buy whores, their fathers buy beers for drowning their cares
It begins: The streets turn red and men dying
All because the powers that be commence lying
I predict scheming and bleeding and men crying
Give me wings for trying then tell me there’s no flying
I add the rhymes to the beat and target
And let fly the darts to the heartless
And let the sharks eat the carcass
Or whatever’s left after, end your laughter, so begins a new chapter
Unscripted rapture, slash ya, with the word razor flesh slasher
The star gazer third laser eye TEC blaster
Fate snatching, face basher, call me gate crasher
I think faster, death crafter, empty shells clatter
My touch destroys matter, blesses every form factor
Question every known fact or follow like a clone’s shadow
Here’s a message: Mankind cannot avoid battle
Learn your lessons, rosemary, rosary beads
Say your blessing, my mouth’s a weapon, spit many bars a second
Or mini bombs that blow up through your speakers when they land in
The sound of cannons, this rhymes a metaphor for challenge and inner balance
Civilize the mind, make the body savage
Fucking bastards, I write poems and make em classics
Y’all sour Vlasics, perm and shower cap kids
Heard ya’ll acting like drama actress I’m the director yelling “action!”
These cats don’t know how to say nothing but “give”
The ignorant cover their ears, the militant see with their fears
The children fight wars, they parents fight tears
The soldiers buy whores, their fathers buy beers for drowning their cares
Why rest? Roll up cess, relieve stress
This the Wild West, with beef comes guns and d-tecs
Conquest, release arms, ya wan test
Dead the conflict, in these palms I hold death
Your assignment: Take these bombs and these straps
Strap em to your ribcage arms and your back
Then run into a crowd, this note, repeat that
It reads “This a gift from God” then blow em with these steps
First, ignite the charge then wait for like three breaths
Next, brace for the shock by grabbing a bitch legs
Last but not least it don’t need to be said
But make peace with whatever you wish cause you dead
And that’s cause whatever I spit release shreds
That explode from my center at speeds that beat lead
I’ll never fold, I just bend with the wind like a tree branch
And dig roots that be deeper than under the sea depths
Revolver holstered on my side while I’m able to take breath
I’ll be ready for the demons that’s scheming to take cheds
Ready, willing, able to bring it to bloodshed
With the steady aim, the beam and the needing to bust heads
You not ready for the way that I script it and unshed
Steady rhythm from these lyrics I’m gifted enough said
Back to business, kill the witness then front like he not dead
With no evidence, no victim, no weapon and much bread
These cats don’t know how to say nothing but “give”
The ignorant cover their ears, the militant see with their fears
The children fight wars, they parents fight tears
The soldiers buy whores, their fathers buy beers for drowning their cares
You scream out your life when the thunder clap you
These are the times, black iron pipes spit medusas at you
Leave you petrified bleeding/breathing statue
Before the hammer blow crash down and shatter half you
Peer pressure turn a nigga bad apple quick to smack you
Quick to strap boots, quick to point the toast and quick to clap you
The lead flood your pores, a leaking tattoo
Cut loose all your living ties, nigga do you
If you fear an evident demise, cock it and shoot
Only cowards think to run and hide from tiny disputes
Rise up ghetto niggas rise, learning the truth
A little cheddar make you see the light but death is the proof
So, if you wanna ride gather your troops
Cause when I loose off and cauterize and leave you reduced
A little less than your former size, status minute
You get blessed with the 45 and checked with the tools
“Excuse me Mr. Barnes I think there’s holes in your shoes”
Why – “cause every time you kick it you be dropping these jewels”
What’s next when they got the law, money and goons
What’s left for us? Slums, drug money and booze
I guess in the end we all ignorant fools
So learn from the past and the predicates too
Read between the headlines the evening news
And don’t believe the hype keep carrying tools
Cause every time we lose a right they gain a few
And every time we get a slice they eating too
And every time you roll the dice or make you a move
Just remember you could lose your life so please think it through
©2008 by Rasheen Armstrong – All Rights Reserved, Including the Right to Reproduce These Lyrics, or Portions Thereof, In Any Form (See Creative Commons License at Bottom Of Page)
RedSt.Ignorance, like most of the tracks from DaEvolution was really just a recording experiment of mines. The idea was to take all of these really old verses that I had sitting around and lay them over beats that I make.
This song was going to be for a separate project called Bliss (as in, ignorance is) and would have been the title track along with the song GunSpeak. In the end I realized that it belonged right along with the other tracks from DaEvolution Mixtape.
Red St. Ignorance, the St. is for street, consists of three old verses that I wrote when I was much younger. The chorus is actually the first four bars of what the first verse originally was. I had previously recorded the second verse by itself as just a quick 16 bar track. And the third verse is also an old write up. It was short so I added a little to it to stretch it out. You can tell how quickly I did it as I repeat a lot of words in it.
I wanted to go back and re-record it, but in the end, I gotta say forget it and move on.
The lyrics were recorded on a slower industry beat, and I liked how that came out much better than this faster track. The name of this beat is “Slow and Fast” and I later used another iteration of it for an R&B song I was working on. If you ask me really, really nicely, I’ll let you hear me attempting to sing it :))
There is something in the mid to high range of this song that annoys the hell out of me, but I could never isolate it.
Red St. Ignorance is about condensing a lot of things into a lot of words. You can especially hear it in the first verse. I try to hit you with different images and concepts, probably too fast for each new one to sink in before the next one comes. It’s about the words, but there’s a lot of substance there as well.
I wanted to convey a sense of moving forward. Not like progression, but just that things happen and keep happening and we keep moving forward as people and perpetuate no real change.
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The sound of my recordings have been a major problem for me for a while. I record my audio in my room, not a studio. I try to mix it to the best of my abilities, which are, admittedly, non-existent in this area. I suffer from a deaf ear to musical nuance as well as a lack of proper equipment, such as a good set of monitors. Any engineers
out there in need of a friend?
I have some monitor headphones, but the stuff you hear in the cans don’t sound anything like they do in the car or on the stereo. What I really need is an okay pair of studio monitors…or a damn studio :)) but neither of those things are in the budget at the moment.
Case in point: I took two of the tracks that I recently blogged about – GunSpeak and WhereDoWeGo – and burned them to a disc to play on my way to work today. Both tracks sounded extremely hollow when I turned them up in the car, which upset me no end.
These problems I have with the sound are due to my inability to properly mix and my complete lack of any sort of mastering on my tracks. There are many services available to do both of these things on a per track/album basis no matter if it was recorded in a studio or not. However, at this point in time, I can’t justify the costs (since I don’t have an actual product to sell) nor can I even afford the costs.
This is a big reason why I don’t like to share a lot of tracks. It’s also one of the reasons that I get highly frustrated with a lot of the music I work on, causing me not to finish as I just can’t get the sound right…or even close to right :)) But I guess I have to just say fuck it and keep moving forward. That’s the motto for the O-10 folks :)
I guess I said all that to say this: sorry for the sub-par audio quality. I try :) I’m going to try to upgrade over the course of this year.
And as always, I’m open to suggestions and advice. Leave a comment.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:33 — 5.9MB)
Act 1 Scene 1: You think I sleep
You breathe you speak some shit to me
Next scene you bleed then cease to be
Your team can preach your history
One scope one beam and a chance to squeeze
One shot to the throat disconnect your scream
Stick a knife to your hopes and dissect your dreams
Turn your life into memories
In a crowd broad day I’ll bang the heat
Down a dark hallway I’ll drag your feet
Through a dark doorway, here have a seat
Then I use my tools to divide your meat
No vest no chest no chance to flee
I’ll leave your thoughts leaking on your jeans
I’ll leave your corpse on a stranger’s feet
And leave your soul on a gentle breeze
The gun speak steel cheeks blow out heat
Turn your brains into lunchmeat all out beef
You turn dinner scrap bleed you cook then eat
Feed you to the beast then digest your meat
Forever gunplay the tech spit any given Sunday
The restless die over money
The reckless die being dummies
Direct hits from the 9 leave em ugly and so unlovely
Ain’t shit sweet or funny, whole clips
From the chamber into your tummy, hold this
Connected like gin and rummy
The best shit since the last time I dicked down your newest bunny
I can leave you bleeding sonny, masked up
I can leave you broke and bummy, tough luck
You a thug when you with your homies, get stuck
Then you change like cutey honey, ya dumb fuck
Where that army you claim as company
A bunch youngins, like plants all they do is stay green and hungry
Like ants with no queen or country
Ya’ll work towards nothing then die underneath the sunbeam
The gun speak steel cheeks blow out heat
Turn your brains into lunchmeat all out beef
You turn dinner scrap bleed you cook then eat
Feed you to the beast then digest your meat
I beg you please stop running your lips
Cause when your lips run the shells come run in your flesh
You don’t want it with this
I’ll leave your mama with a memory and fatherless kids
You’se a no name nigga
No games hold flames propane spitter
Hoop ride whipper
My bitch by my side with the two 9’s gripped up
I paint a better picture
Colors so vibrant you see it more clearer
My niggas still riding the beef more thicker
Stab it with a fork, watch it bleed done deal him
Watch him real close if he breathe cold kill him
Believe when I say that the green come quicker
I needs me a K that’ll spray whole cliqs up
A beam to your face or the hawk through your liver
Inebriated microphone fiend that delivers
Bar after bar so hot that I shiver
One click of the razor leave you scarred and disfigured
Squeeze clips never wake up you’ll be fondly remembered
The gun speak steel cheeks blow out heat
Turn your brains into lunchmeat all out beef
You turn dinner scrap bleed you cook then eat
Feed you to the beast then digest your meat
©2007 by Rasheen Armstrong – All Rights Reserved, Including the Right to Reproduce These Lyrics, or Portions Thereof, In Any Form (See Creative Commons License at Bottom Of Page)
Like a lot of the songs that make up DaEvolution Mixtape, this one came about as an experiment. I wanted to take these old lyrics (can’t you tell I was young when I wrote this stuff ;) and a beat that I made myself and put em together. The beat was called the Work Out Beat, because I could imagine doing reps to it :))
This song is pretty ignorant and negative, but, that’s just an indication of where I’m from and where my mind was when I wrote the words. The chorus is the result of an unfinished rhyme I started. When I was going through the old scraps of paper looking for lyrics that all fit the same theme more or less, these are the ones I found. A lot of the lines were incomplete and I added some here and there to fill them out to a proper 16 bars.
As an example…or bonus (if you choose to think of it that way) here are a few of the lyrics that came up but didn’t make the cut when I put the track together back in 07 or 08:
They call me Silent Nalij, the key of life is to live
Small caskets at the wake cause you ain’t watching your kids
Fully armed, body targets, take a life do the bid
Call collect to the crib and brag about what you did
Sick and I’m fed automatics filled up with lead
Cock back aim and shoot and take the head off a fed
Hope they don’t jam cause the red’s sweeter when spread
From your head to your ribs bitch onto your legs
…yea :))
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