Forever Fresh is a section where I get to personally update the world on the latest happenings and my future plans.
With so much emphasis being put on social media, this is a platform of my own where I can express myself.
Some posts will be posted through text and others may be delivered via video.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER / SPEAKER BULLIES UPDATE

3/22/23

In true Gemini fashion, I took apart my home studio and changed the entire setup recently. I try to do this once a year to stay inspired because change really keeps me creative. (I mean, remember the time I decided to change my rap name? LOL) Also, I copped my first Mac after being a longtime PC user for all of my life. I asked about buying a Mac on Twitter and got 98% votes to replace the PC with a Mac. One of the first to respond was my brother Phonte (Little Brother). Tay jumped on the phone to answer my questions and I was sold from there. Thanks to my friend, Will Feagins, Jr, for recommending the Mac mini M2. One of my coworkers gave me the magic keyboard and magic mouse to sweeten the deal. Not gonna lie… the workflow is SO MUCH better! I was a fish out of water the first couple of days. Granted I feel like an elderly man when I need to Google simple things on how to use the Mac, but I am getting the hang of it. My biggest issue was having to transfer my plugins to Mac and some of them didn’t have an update for my OS (argh!). I record all my vocals in Reaper now and it was a seamless transition. New setup and new studio look… we still cooking over here, baby! I’m about 20 years late to the Mac party but it’s better late than never.

Now that things have leveled out after that first 2 to 3-week promo period, I can start transitioning into my other ideas and next projects. I did the majority of the promoting as well as filming and editing all my video content. If you haven’t seen the video breakdown of “Old Man Strength’ yet, you can check it out in the video section of my site or on my YouTube page. It was dope to sit down and discuss the album process with a few people during interviews and hear the feedback from listeners. I will still be promoting “Every Last Word” and doing interviews for the EP but I also have to finish the second part of the series. I received an offer to film a video for Old Man Strength but I declined because of the short window of attention that artists have on the internet. Like I mentioned in “Closure” about “working a whole year for two weeks of attention, two tweets and a mention.” It’s a real thing and attention spans are very short when promoting online. To no surprise, the label (Soulspazm) contacted me the day after my EP dropped to ask me the status of the Speaker Bullies album. Hell, I have gotten some messages from people asking why I chose to drop a solo album instead of the SB album. It’s simple… I don’t have to wait on anyone to release a solo project. I NEEDED to release some music! I spent a year waiting to rap again due to lung issues and then when I could finally rap again, guess what I had to do? That’s right, wait even longer. There was minimal progress being made on the SB album over the past year (in my opinion). I had gone 3 years without dropping any new music and I am currently sitting on about three albums worth of material. Also, if anybody knows how this industry works, nothing motivates people like activity. You can sit stagnant for 10 years but the day that you start moving forward, everybody wants to move with you. I heard someone once ask if you saw two cars stranded on the side of the road, which one would you help with? The guy sitting in his car or the guy that you saw pushing his car? Truthfully, the delays on the Speaker Bullies album had zero to do with Soulspazm Records and I applaud Jim (CEO) for being this patient. Yes, the album is a little behind schedule but it is still coming! Everything will be turned over to the label in the next two weeks. With that being said, I plan to still release part two of the two-part series in the summer (no, it will not be called Every Last Word pt II). Momentum is difficult to build and it takes twice the effort to build it up again so I’m going to continue with my plan for this year. If all goes well, I will release more music in 2023 than I ever have. Stay tuned!

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DAMN IT FEELS GOOD…

03/06/23

This has been an eventful week filled with hard work, sleepless nights, days of promotion, and hours of design and video editing. I finally released “Every Last Word” last Tuesday and I think I might’ve slept on myself a little bit. I go into every album release with tempered expectations and a mission to get things done. The response has been phenomenal, to say the least. I’ve received some of the most encouraging and heartfelt words from listeners (possibly the best reception ever). This isn’t about music sales but more about reaching the right people and listeners actually understanding what you were trying to accomplish with your music. This is probably the first time in my music career that I felt like they actually “get it.” It was a reminder to myself to get out of my own head and just create the music that I truly want to make. Rhymesayers-affiliated rapper/producer, Grieves, said that I am “better at this rap shit than everyone I know combined” which is a HUGE compliment. My good friend, Rapper Big Pooh (of Little Brother), tweeted me “excellent work, bro.” That’s just a few of the responses from the more popular people but it’s really about the listeners and supporters (I can never bring myself to call anyone a “fan”). A good majority of them could truly relate to the subject matter and applauded my choice to do music on my own terms. Man, this was a great week.

This is the first time I have released something on Bandcamp on the same day as the digital release hits Spotify, Apple Music, etc… Naturally, more people will choose to stream it or just download it for free from another site if they are given the option. Bandcamp sales are instant and everything else takes about 90 days to get paid through my digital distributor (Foundation Media). I was able to recoup and break even off of Bandcamp sales by the second day of release so that’s another win. That’s a benefit of keeping very low overhead when putting together a project especially if you don’t plan to tour or immediately release a physical product. The engineer that I originally had in mind to mix the record was way outside of my budget. Shy (the Beat Yoda) was available to mix a few songs but he was mainly tied up mixing an album for Marco Polo. I ended up mixing the final 3 songs to save time and meet my deadline. Pecue designed the cover months ago and we worked out a deal for him to design two album covers. Outside of mixing/mastering and cover art, there were absolutely zero costs to recoup on this EP (excluding my power bill… lol). As I mentioned in “Head Above Water”, I don’t bank on music sales to pay my bills, so I’m always prepared for the best or the worst.

I am completely exhausted as I am typing this. While recording the EP, I reached out to a few people to work (videographers, vocalists, etc…) but I kind of got put on the back burner because they had other things going on. I was willing to pay for their time but there just wasn’t enough interest at the time. I don’t complain about these things so I made plans to do all of my own filming, video editing, and graphic design. It adds extra hours to the workload but let me tell you this one thing… when you do things yourself, you never have to be disappointed in anyone! This honestly makes the response to this album even sweeter. It was just me, my manager, and a grassroots effort from the good folks who helped spread the word. I even gained some new listeners along the way. I can’t thank you all enough. Please continue to spread the word.

I am working on part two as we speak and I am looking to have that ready by the summer. Of course, there are people interested in working together on it now. In the immortal words of Biz Markie, “Damn it feels good to see people up on it”. As I was once told by the homie Blueprint… “activity is sexy!” It looks like people are paying attention again.

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A WIN IS A WIN!

02/21/23

I recently made the announcement about the new project (Every Last Word) and I’m pleased to see the excitement from longtime supporters as well as newer listeners. Not the “Taylor Swift wins her 40th Grammy” but it’s truly surprising. I’m always shocked yet grateful that people still get excited over my new music releases. I spend most of my time at home with the family or working my 9 to 5 gig so there are times that I have to remind myself that I am still an artist. The fact that I can take years off between music and still have folks anticipating is wild to me. No, there aren’t 100,000 or 1,000,000 people waiting on a Supastition album but I will always be thankful that ANYONE is listening at all. In those early years, all I wanted was for one person to listen and it seemed impossible back then. With pre-orders trickling in, I’m already close to breaking even on this EP. To me, a win is a win! I record my projects with very little overhead because I’ve invested in my own equipment over the years in addition to teaching myself graphic design and (basic) video editing.

I have been on the fence about pressing up physical products this go-round. I’ve had a few people ask me about doing vinyl for the project but it would have to be after part 1 and part 2 have been released. I’ve never been married to the idea of dropping vinyl for every release. As a business owner, you have to weigh out the risks and the rewards. During my time working with the group Soundsci, I witnessed how they were committed to pressing vinyl for every release regardless of whether it sold out or not. I like to do short runs of merchandise because it feels more personable and most importantly, I don’t want 500 records sitting in my garage. I had so much remaining stock from older releases that I had to trash boxes of merch when we moved into our new house in late 2021. On top of the records that I use for production, I have no room for a bunch of unsold merch. Then I ask myself, am I doing this for fans and people who actually listen or am I doing this for collectors and resellers? I see my old vinyl on eBay going for almost $100 and it’s bittersweet. With that being said, I am debating about whether to spend the money on CDs, tapes, or vinyl or just invest it into the next project. We’ll see….

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COME IN, WE’RE OPEN…

02/15/2023

I am really excited to be kicking off 2023 with some new Supastition music. Man…. after such a discouraging 2022, I am now focusing on closing out my career as a solo artist and bringing my listeners some dope music. I rarely have time to record and produce music nowadays since I have been thriving in my career outside of music. Trust me, there are still a few projects on the way. I am going to be releasing a two-part series with each part being released a few months apart from the other. The first part is called Every Last Word which documents the battle with insecurity, anxiety, and self-doubt. You say certain things while you are emotionally in the moment and in your heart, you mean every last word of it. As artists, we are constantly somewhere between the feeling of “this is my best work” or “I am selling all of this sh*t tomorrow and just giving up.” The second part (to be announced later in the year) will deal with accepting your reality and looking at your situation with clarity and a better understanding. The first project will be angry, dark, and moody while the second one will be more humbling and self-aware. I went through all these feelings in the previous year after losing both my biological father and a few of my close friends. I handled the production on the majority of both of the EPs because I refused to allow anyone or anything to hold up the process. If you have been following me on social media, then you have probably witnessed the growth in my music production throughout the years. Plus, this allows me to experiment a little more with ideas that I might have in my head. With all of that being said, I am ready for my longtime supporters to hear what I have been working on. I had the chance to work with an amazing Philly artist by the name of Pecue on both album covers. I discovered Pecue’s work through the good brother Sleep Sinatra and his album, In God’s Image (which is dope!). Pecue knocked out both covers for part one and part two. I thought it would be great to retain the same people while working on both projects to make things more cohesive. Please make sure to support the new music!

I’ve spent the last few years unsuccessfully trying to release collaborative projects with other people. While they keep me creative and somewhat busy with recording, it hinders my productivity when these projects don’t see the light of day. The more hands in the pot, the harder it can be to get anything finished. I noticed that when I returned to music in 2013, I had released a project every year up until I started taking on other side projects. I’m a go-getter when it comes to my own music. The truth of the matter is that recording solo albums are very taxing on me though. I handle 90% of the workload including writing, producing, recording, and graphic design as well as designing the website and handling the online orders from the store. Side projects allow me to kick back and focus on handling half of the project without having to carry the load. Well, that’s at least what I thought. These side projects can be frustrating to deal with because everyone works at a different pace. Where others may excel in one area, they often suffer in another area. I am a project manager by day and the hardest part of any project is closing it out and turning it over to a client. With music, creating and recording the songs are never the issue. Where most people falter is that they can’t seem to pull it together after the songs have been recorded. When you have two or more people trying to agree on simple things, it slows down the process in areas outside of the recording process. The artwork, mixdowns, filming video content, and putting together an album rollout is where they usually fall off a cliff. I hope this provides some clarity on why it may take longer than usual for these collaborative albums to be released.

I’ll be dropping in at least once a month to update you all on what I am working on and what I have been thinking. I know that the current trend is to post everything on social media, but I will be putting more energy into my own platform. This allows me to speak freely and removes the feeling of instant gratification that you get from social media. If you are an artist who frequently looks at your stats and metrics to see how a post performed, then I think it takes away from being a true artist sometimes. It's almost like an NBA player who sets out to get a triple-double every night rather than win the game or just let the game flow naturally. Everybody is trying to make the next highlight reel or big moment. I just want to make great music for those who truly appreciate it.

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