Here's What I'd Really Like To Talk About...

Tomorrow Is Another Day

2010-10-07T03:01:00.002-04:00

I always come back to this blog and I write on how I am going to blog more often yet somehow, I never do it. While I admit to be guilty of procrastination at times, this is not the reason I suspect that this continues to happen. Aside from the hectic schedule that I have, I think that maybe if I put these thoughts and ideas into print and document them then that somehow commits me to whatever I have written. Maybe its a fear of being held to something such as me writing I'm going to get to the gym more yet not having the time. Or maybe I have too damn much on my plate. I don't really have the answers but I am going to try an exercise in discipline.

Once a week from this point forward I am going to update this blog with whatever I feel I want to at the time. Being that I am focused on this next Gecko album most of it will center around that. I am going to try and be consistent more so than worry about whatever the content of what I add is so we will see how it turns out. And if not, then hey. Tomorrow is another day right? LOL

Anyway, as for what's going on with me right now, Tha Gecko Brothas are getting ready to do the Emcee To Emcee" which is a showcase put together by H2C2 and Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box fame. I hope you can make it through.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

2010-02-26T04:53:00.004-05:00

2 Months after Xmas and 3 weeks before my birthday and we are in the midst of a snowstorm like none we've seen in a minute. I think its a metaphor however, as things fall into place around me.

I had the pleasure of stopping 3 Hispanic kids from jumping a younger brother today. It was some real BS and I wouldn't have gotten involved except for three reasons. One, the kid was going for his and was outnumbered. Two these kids were Hispanic and this was a young black kid. It has nothing to do with being a racist but the reality is that in on the block I grew up on, as a black man you don't let a bunch of Hispanic kids jump one of your own. Cats would look at me suspect for letting it go down like that. Lastly, years ago that kid was me. I spent a good amount of my time in middle school fighting against the local Latino gangs and they were notorious for trying to jump somebody. So it wasn't going down like that. If they were gonna shoot the one, fine but it wasn't gonna be a 3 on one situation.

So as I found myself telling them to chill one kid steps in front of me acting like he has something to say about it. As I told him I was a grown-assed man and would slap fire out of him and that he should be easy about it, other people who were there got involved too. This broke up the situation and the kids walked off. The kid they tried to jump got a few bruises but not what it would've been had no one been there to stop it.

So what does this have to do with falling snow you ask?

Anyone who knows me knows that I have progressed past a lot of things in my life. Violence being one of them. However like anyone who has moved on life, it is easy to fall back into old patterns and habits. This applies to everything from workplace behavior to how you deal with your family. We are all guilty of falling off the wagon every now and then. Normally I beat myself up for stepping backwards into old ways. It is not "grown man behavior" to engage in street fighting and I know this. I would be lying though if I said it didn't feel good though to clench my fist in preparation to try and knock someone's head off their shoulders. What felt even better is not having had to. Maybe I saved a kid from getting severely hurt tonight or maybe for my own selfish reasons I involved myself in a situation that had nothing to do with me hoping to let off a little steam. Who knows and who cares.

Deeper than that though is the understanding that sometimes we all will regress and It will be okay. Trying to walk around acting like you've got wings sprouting out of your back all the time is unrealistic. I put a lot of effort into trying to do right by everyone around me. Tha old ways that we fall back into may be learned patterns that protected us at times in our lives so they can't be all bad. And when you encounter situations that make you wanna revert into being the person you used to be do you always have to take the high road? Maybe, but I am human and far from perfect so I will have my moments. Not being harsh on myself after is the hard part. Tonight though, I'm okay with it.

I think like everything in life it is about balance. I do a good job balancing the person I have to be versus the person I want to be but sometimes... Sometimes you just gotta do you and let the shit fall where it may. I got a lotta shit falling around me right now but let it snow. Eventually snow melts and the bullshit drifts away. Just try not to slip and bust your ass in the process and you'll be alright.

Damn, It's 2010 already?

2009-12-01T01:40:00.002-05:00

I mean, where did the time go? It was just 2008. Now its the holiday season and we gotta go through this whole Xmas exercise and Thanksgiving is just the beginning. To be honest, this is probably one of the most enjoyable Thanksgivings I have had. Some of the cats from my radioshow went to serve Thanksgiving dinner at a local church around my way. It was really cool and I will be doing it again next year.

So I only blogged twice this year??? Didn't realize that. I will have to do better next year. Its not like a lotta stuff hasnt happened this year to talk about. I do realize that I have been slipping on posting about it tho.

From now on I think I'm gonna post my radioshows up here on this blog too. It will give me a reason to post more content. I am also gonna figure out this podcasting thing and see how it works too. If you read this blog then let me know what you would like to see up here and I will try and add some stuff up here for ya.

In the meantime, rock with this post and get ready for tha new year.

Chicken Comes To Harlem

2009-04-24T23:53:00.000-04:00

So I was coming from the radio station on wed and noticed a crowd standing on 135th Street. Upon further inspection I saw that the line was actually people standing on line at Popeye's Chicken waiting to purchase the special "8 piece for $4.99" offer. I suspect in a few months they will be selling watermelon soda to go with the special.

It was one of those moments as a black person where you are slightly embarrassed yet amused by the whole situation.

My people hold on...

I know, I know...

2009-03-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

I know, I suck. I was supposed to be blogging more consistently. I say this all the time but I dont follow thru. Well now I will get on it. I have a birthday coming in a few weeks and I always use that as a reason to make changes so in addition to eliminating salt from my diet, I have a few other changes I plan on making. Keeping the blog current is one of them.

In that I will be adding stuff from my radio show up here. Now I never really was the type for putting or for that matter even taking photos with famous people and that Is for a number of reasons.

1. Seems like some real cornball shit to do - I saw this one guy who had a buncha pics with him and famous rappers and actors and shit. Upon doing the research i found out he was some lowlife scumbag drug dealer who used that as his way of trying to make himself signifigant and impress girls. It just seems like posers are the type to do that shit. Cats trying to front and impress people.

2. Is it really that serious? - I mean If you are Muhhammad Ali, Magic Johnson or Bobby Seale then yeah, I wanna take a pic with you but not for the world to see. Even if you are not famous I'm down to take a pic with you but I dont need the whole world to see it. Thats not the kinda attention I need. I prefer to keep my memories to myself being that to a degree I share so much of my life in a public manner. It seems like bragging to put pics on blast like that and it kinda cheapens the moment.

3. Who is really that famous anyway - I mean we are all people. Taking a photo with someone famous doesn't mean anything. At the end of the day we are all people. I've been around "famous" people my whole life and and never felt the need to tell everyone that. My being as a person is not validated by me taking a photo with someone famous or hang around them. That's their life not mine. And to quote my man Rich Kid, i'm on some "Fuck (place famous person's name here) I gets my money just like he do!" type perspective. LOL

I dont knock people who do it. If thats your thing then do you. Its just not mine. Anyway, I just went into that to explain that I will be doing a post of photos of people that come thru the radio station. Just know that its always business, never personal.

Another Great Day In Harlem

2008-11-24T02:07:00.000-05:00

This is my account of one of the most historic days in recent history. Now first off you have to know that I personally I had a lot of back and forth debate within myself about whether I would vote in this years election. Personally I feel that the whole political process is antiquated and needs to go. After the Gore / Bush election I had lost faith in the democratic process. I stopped voting altogether so I hadn't planned on things being much different this year.

Now the other side of the coin was that this year we had a black man who was running for office. Not only was we black, this brother was qualified and in my opinion the best possible candidate. This would be a momentous occasion and how could I not do my part to help this brother pave the way for future generations. I had decided to let events fall into place and wait for a sign that would allow me to make a decision. I took a few photos to show some of the events as they went down and wanted to share a few with you.

This is the Barack Obama and Rakim shirt that a sneaker store had in the window on 125th street. I thought this was kinda stupid because WTF does Barack Obama have to do with Eric B and Rakim? Just another example of how people were pimping Barack and this whole election to make a quick buck. Other examples of this are.

The Barack Obama button lady selling buttons for $2 dollars a pop.

The Rhinestone Barack Obama Shirt which I don't know how much this brother paid for it but he is obviously happy to be wearing it

So aside from all if the other things being sold on 125th street, Charlie Rangel had made arrangements to have a Jumbotron set up in front of the state office building.
Everyone came there to watch the election results come in on CNN. A few Celebrities showed up as well. I saw Jeremy Piven of Entourage there at some point. I heard fellow Harlemite Dougie Fresh was there, but it was really all about Obama. As you can see there were lots of

News Trucks

People

Even Obama himself showed up to watch the events on the Jumbotron. And for 5 dollars you could even take a picture with him. (I swear if the resurrection happened tomorrow and my people knew about it in advance, they would have T-shirts with Jesus' picture on it talking about “The Comeback 08”)

Anyway, I had decided a way that I could still vote without being a hypocrite and participating in the political process myself. I wanted my daughters to be able to understand the significance of this moment so I decided to take them into the voting booth with me. This way they would be the ones pulling the lever and actually voting in my name (I know its a stretch but It works for me) I took this picture so that they would be able to show their kids one day that they voted in this election.

This is a picture I took maybe 30 minutes later of the aftermath of a buncha Bloods jumping on someone in front of the building around the corner from my house. No matter what is happening you can still expect some cats to act totally uncivilized in the face of progress.

The only thing left to do now was to sit back and wait for the election results to come in. When they did, Harlem exploded. There were White, black Hispanic, Asian east Indian, all races running and shouting in the streets, hi-fiving and hugging each other. It was a celebration even bigger than New Years. I have never seen anything like it and I gotta say it was beautiful.

We went into PJ's which is a bar around the corner from my house to watch Barack Obama's acceptance speech. This made the day even more historic since PJ's is a place that I would never be caught dead in. It was great to see my people happy and celebrating but it was even better to know that we had a black president who won this election with class and handled himself with dignity.

I even got to get some video footage. I shot this footage at 1am on 133rd Street and 7th avenue in Harlem in front of PJ's Lounge on the night that Barack Obama was elected our nations 44th President. I wanted to show that the excitement was still in the air. Please forgive me for sounding so ghetto in the clip but I was soooo tired.

I hope that my people will take note and be the change that they want to see the same way brother Barack did.

Another summer blog gone by..

2008-09-08T17:32:00.000-04:00

So this is the opening paragraph of the blog where I say how much I am sorry about not posting more often and how its just been so busy lately and how I promise to step up my blogging game and add entries more frequently and yadda yadda yadda and so on. So if we can all agree that we know that's what happens here then lets agree to just move on and act we all know that I'm gonna try to do a better job if it. Ok?

Ah, the summer that was this past summer. It was a busy time for me as I did my usual of racking up the frequent flyer miles. What were some memorable things that happened this summer? Well we shot more videos to support our album, tha radio show moved full steam ahead and the "From Dusk Til Dawn" CD kept moving units. We shot out video for our next single, "The Buckdown" and it was cool. We were doing one take and some random chick decides to jump her ass in front of the camera like she's in the group or something but other than that everything was fine. Big shouts to everyone who came through and supported. It was much appreciated.

The state of Hip Hop pretty much remained stagnant as usual with only a few decent offerings coming out this summer. I cant say that I got caught up in all tha "Little Wayne" hysteria but I can say that independent Hip Hop offered some good music that mainstream radio slept on as usual. Not that thass anything new though, radio has been sleeping for years. I am glad to see my cats in the underground stepping up to the plate. I have come to the conclusion that I am more interested in playing unsigned and independent artists than mainstream major label artists because they just seem to have a lot more substance lately. If fact, if you are an independent Hip Hop artist and would like to get your music to me for consideration for airplay on our radioshow, send me an e-mail or mp3 of your music to the address listed below.

Priest@priestforever.net Subject: Radio show submission

Please make sure that your music is radio edited. I don't have time to edit it myself so please make sure it is clean.

Tha superhero movies were in full effect this summer as well. I enjoyed "Iron Man" and was surprised at how good "The Hulk" was. Batman was a classic but Hancock was some old bullshit. Tropic Thunder was alright. I think that Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise were the funniest things in the movie but I am looking forward to "Burn After Reading". The Cohen Brothers make some funny movies. Rent "Raising Arizona" or "The Big Lebowski" if you don't believe me. I know its "No Country For Old Men" that everyone is buzzing about but I haven't seen that one yet so in my mind they are still primarily comedy directors.

I'm so glad that the football season is in full effect now. I have had these Giants fans giving me the business all summer and now it is time for my Cowboys to redeem themselves. The sad truth of the matter is that with Brady gone for the season, the NY Jets with Brett Farve now have a better chance of making the playoffs than the NY Giants do. Also big ups to Serena Williams for winning her 3rd US Open.

As for this upcoming election, all I'm gonna say about that is I'm voting, "Eric B. for President" (Clap ya hands and do what he's doing...) I know that if Obama does get elected to office, black people are gonna act like it is a national holiday. I can't wait to see it unfold, cats soming in to work late talking about "Man, its national Obama Day, I aint even supposed to be at work today!" I thought about getting some t-shirts made up if he did win that would say "Tha Black Man Wins Again!" the problem is I cant ever really figure out when we won the first time.

Other than that I'm gonna, well you know what I'm gonna say here, just keep checking back man...

March Madness

2008-03-31T09:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a month

Aside from seeing another birthday come and go, I have had the pleasure of seeing the independent release of my latest project. I feel like I could just pass out from being so tired but the grind continues. There were a lot of good things that happened this March and that makes me feel very optimistic about the future. We got some solid support from people and a lot of positive feedback about the material. There is still much work to be done though.

Sadly I will have to remix and re-master the album but it is enough for heads to get the idea and that is a good thing. What’s important is that we were able to accomplish something that the system tries to tell you cant be done. There is so much good independent music out there that never gets heard but what artists have to do is learn how to do for self. Self reliance, cooperative economics, even the bartering system all comes into play when you are trying to do things yourself. Maybe you dont have the money to pay someone but what can you do for them in return? I’m not suggesting anything crazy, I’m just pointing out that you can help people and they will help you in return. These are the actions that form solid friendships that last through time.

I dont have enough time to list everyone but I do wanna thank the Equilibrium Radio Team and all of our supporters and sponsors who helped out this past month. Whether you came to one of the shows, gave items for the gift bags or helped spread the word about the material your actions were appreciated. Thanks to all of the promoters and venues that held us down as well. We look forward to coming back and playing these places again so be on the lookout. Remember that the summer is coming and we intend to bring nothing but heat!

I’m keeping it brief cause I’m about to get some sleep but I will be posting video of the shows soon for all to see.

Thanks for your support

Priest Forever

One Down Two Ta Go...

2008-03-06T12:44:00.000-05:00

It was a great show. Shouts out to everyone who came thru and supported Tha Gecko Brothas last night at Amy G Funk / The Underscore. Special shouts out go to "Chilly G" (Brrrrrrr) for coming up with the new catchphrase of tha night.

Dont forget to come out to support the other dates on March 25th (Album Release Party) and the Emcee Challenge @ E.O.W. on March 30th

Peace
Priest Forever

Valentine's Day Joints

2008-02-05T17:22:00.000-05:00

So we had to put these promotional mix cds together for our radio show but I wanted to make them available to good music lovers everywhere. The CDs are for Valentines day. One is all Hip Hop songs about love and relationships. The other CD is a mix of soul classics that you can put on for those romantic moments.

Please download them, burn them to cd, pass them around, whatever you want to do just get the music out. Also, fwd this e-mail out to anyone else who you think would enjoy the music. They are both I-pod ready and I have added the links and play lists below.

Hit me up with your feedback, questions, and music requests.

Hope you enjoy tha music.

P

Crys Breezy presents tha Equilibrium Radioshow Valentines Day Mixtape

01 Equilibrium Intro Crys Breezy
02 Brown Sugar Mos Def
03 Hot Thing Talib Kweli
04 I Want You Common
05 Selfish Slum Village / Kanye West
06 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
07 Teenage Love Affair Alicia Keys
08 Number One John Legend
09 You Should Be Here Dangelo - Raphael Siddiq
10 You Got Me Singing S.B.
11 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
12 Bonita Applebum A Tribe Called Quest
13 Come Closer Remix Common / Erykah Badu / Pharell / Q-Tip
14 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
15 Climax Slum Village
16 Find My Way A Tribe Called Quest
17 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
18 Tha Letta Tha Gecko Brothas
19 All Of Me 50 Cent
20 You And I J Dilla / Dangelo / Common
21 Step My Game Up Little Brother
22 I Need Love LL Cool J
23 Love You Betta LL Cool J
24 I'd Rather Be With You N.W.A. / Bootsy Collins
25 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
26 You Are Tha One Mos Def
27 If I Dont Love You This Way The Jacksons
28 Playing Your Game Buffalo Soldiers / Barry White
29 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
30 Cross My Mind Jill Scott
31 Brown Skin India Arie
32 Feel Like Making Love Dangelo
33 You And I Emily King
34 Shout Outs Crys Breezy
35 Coming To Break You Off Tha Roots

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7196775650e0ff/

Priest Presents Soul Standards Volume 1 Tha Love Ballads

01 Greatest Inspiration - Teddy Pendergrass
02 If Only You Knew - Patti Labelle
03 Send For Me - Atlantic Starr
04 Sparkle - Cameo
05 Love Train - Confunkshun
06 How Bout Us - The Manhattans
07 Can't Hide Love - Earth Wind and Fire
08 Love Ballad - L.T.D.
09 Say Yeah - The Commodores
10 Prince - Do Me Baby
11 Very Special - Debra Laws
12 Attitudes - The Bar Kays
13 Love Of My Own - Average White Band
14 No Hiding Place - The Gap Band
15 I Want To Be Free - The Ohio Players
16 Morris Day And The Time - Gigaloes Get Lonely Too
17 Marvin Gaye - You Sure Love To Ball
18 I Try - Phyllis Hyman
19 Cause I Love You - Lenny Williams

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7220848886a501/

U betta watch for tha signs mann

2008-01-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

I have always believed that sometimes signs come from the strangest places. The hard part is that sometimes you have just got to lay back and try to be aware of the signs when they reveal themselves.

As most of you know I am finishing up a album with my man John O called "From Dusk Til Dawn". Now while the material is crazy, I am in the final stages of mixing and that is a tedious process (See my earlier blog on mixing). Plus I still gotta deal with everything else I need to deal with and it can get a little frustrating when you are working on so many different things. I find that sometimes you tend to feel like a project is not moving quickly enough for where you are trying to go with it.

Well I was feeling like this and then found myself watching TV. While flipping through tha channels, I came across an Quentin Tarintino interview on MSG. Since we named the Gecko Brothas project after the movie that Quentin did, I took it as a sign to see what the brother was talking about. They'd asked him what the toughest film he'd ever worked on was.

Quentin said that before he was well known, he had worked on a film project spending money he didnt have to buy film to do it for 5 years and at the end of all that, he had nothing come of it. No major movie deal or anything. He said that seeing that project thru was his proudest accomplishment because for him to have stuck to it and not given up on it showed a lot of growth in himself as and artist and although it was never released for everything that came with it he was glad to have done it. He kept pushing through it. Sounds like a sign to me. I got another sign a week ago.

I am a lover of music and I have a decent record collection. When I took the pic for my "Beast Within" mixtape that I put on my myspace profile, I was trying to recreate the feel of those old soul album covers where cats didnt have on a shirt on some old Al Green, Isaac Hayes type shit. Apparently a lot of people who saw it thought I was trying to be on some "I'm too sexy for my shirt" shit which was not my goal.

While there are a lot of cats are on here with tha shirtless pics chasing ass, (and females too) I am not one of them This is why I posted in big letters on my profile I DIDNT COME HERE TO MACK, I'M ABOUT THA MUSIC. Still what i found out is that some people never read the small print and thought I was trying to show some skin. I just wrote it off to the concept going over peoples heads. Then this week, I saw the video for Erykah Badu's Honey and I knew that some people DO get it.

If you haven't seen it go here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x46v8r_erykah-badu-honey_music

(ps: you get mad points if you can name all of the album pics in the video. Ten extra points for the magazine cover)

She recreated all of the old soul album covers and interjected herself into them.(The damn thing is brilliant.) Now if you just are from the mp3 age you might not get it but if you are a DJ or vinyl purist like myself you could really appreciate it. (She killed it with the Earth wind and Fire cover), Anyway I took it as a sign to keep thinking outside tha box.

Artists think like artists and that is what makes them artists. Everyone is not gonna get it. Not all of the Beatles were feeling "Let It Be" when Paul McCartney auditoned it for them. They didn't think it fit into their sound but they were true enough to the art to put it out there and look what happened. It is one of their biggest hits. Sometimes you just gotta look for the signs. I tell ya.

Have you ever had any signs that you saw and knew were meant for you specifically? How did they affect you?

Holla back
P

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

2008-01-01T23:12:00.000-05:00

I was sitting here watching this TV show called The Lords Of Brooklyn"about a Hip Hop / Rock band and their struggles to achieve that next level of stardom. In a lot of ways their situation parallels my own. They have that underground notoriety but keep getting their heads bumped when trying to get to that next level. It made me sit down and revisit a few thoughts that had been swimming around in my head for a while. Now, while I'm not big on new years resolutions, I'm big on moving forward so I decided to try something different this year.

This year I've decided to go extra hard in terms of my career. All of the opportunities I used to turn down I will take and all of the doors that were once closed I intend to kick down. If one way of doing things do not work for you, you have to try another and I have finally reached the point where I can accept that. Being the true Pisces that I am, I'm not gonna do anything until I get good and ready and I am finally at the point where I am ready to accept my destiny. I can't avoid it any longer. Everything is pushing me in a direction and I can no longer avoid the inevitable.

The radio show is more cohesive than it has ever been and I am happy about that. We finally have a solid team that all contributes something that makes the show better. The Damented Mindz movie is coming together and now we have 28 skits posted on YouTube so we are getting there slowly but surely. The Gecko Brothers Album is pure fire and I am shocked because this was something that went from a mixtape to an full out album. It was just supposed to be a couple of cats from the block collaborating on a track or two and now its gotten real serious. I'm impressed with John O's lyric game and the fact he has made it really hard for cats to half step on this joint so I can't wait for everyone else to hear it. And the Priest album is gonna.. Mann, You just gotta hear it.

So It will be a good year. I'm happier than I have been in a loooong time and now I've got great people in my life that support what I do and have made it easy for me to take it to that next level. Its up to me to do it. I'm getting a camera and I'm gonna document the changes I go thru and post them on tha blog for all to see. Should be interesting to see. A lot of other things are in the works but I can't mention them yet. You will just have to stick around to see what happens. Keep checking back and I will keep you posted. Also feel free to write me back on these blogs I wanna get your feedback and see how it goes down.

With that being said, hope you have a happy and productive New Year as well

Priest Forever
Harlem's Most Dangerous Emcee

But It Was All Good Just a Year Ago... (NOT!)

2007-12-04T10:07:00.000-05:00

Damn its been a while since I blogged. I know im pretty pathetic with this but it is a process. From now on, I promise to do this once a month (minimum). If I dont please e-mail me and let me know. Anyway

I was reflecting on my life this past weekend while and I came to the realization that other than needing to new soundcard for my computer, things are sorta good.

It was NOT all good just a year ago,

Last year this time my life was in a state of chaos. I had all kinda shit going on. So called friends and family throwing me under the bus and betraying me. Stress was at an all time high.

This year has been one of the best that I have had in a long time and for that I am truly blessed. For every opportunity that has fallen through (Like that TV show on VH1), I have had another one present itself (That all elusive recording deal). My family is good and although things still are not perfect. They are better than they were and looking up.

I used to hear that tale about how people can block your blessings. God removed some of the people from my life and I can not tell you how much better things have been for me. I had lost perspective and let my loyalty to situations, business and people dictate my decisions. I can truly tell you that everything happens for a reason and although you might not understand it at the time, you will know why later.

I can tell you dozens of lessons I have learned or been reminded of in this past year, that have been extremely beneficial to me. However for the sake of time I will list 5 in no particular order.

5. The business of "Crisis Management" does not pay well,
Most of the time this is often more about the people around you being fuck-ups than your ability or need to handle situations. If someone is constantly coming to you with crisis situations then you need to let them learn to deal with them rather than trying to be Superman (Now Why Do Yooooooooou!) and save the day. They'll be alright. Eventually you will re-examine why you even have them around you in the first place. Unless you just like drama, me I prefer comedy. My point is dont do it to yourself.

4. Eat beef, dont live it.
Especially when you realize that you have more to lose over something stupid than any beef is worth. This doesn't make you a punk. Most of the time I avoid beef not because I'm afraid of what will happen to me. I'm more worried about what someone is gonna make me do to them. Its not worth having to ask God for forgiveness because some fucking poser decides to try to test you. God will take care of them your main responsibility is taking care of you and yours. Never let anyone make you jeopardize that for anything if you can help it. Being locked up is no fun. Trust me

3. Get free or die trying.
I was watching "Roots" and weekend and I saw the scene during the middle passage where the female slave jumps off of the boat rather than to let herself be violated by the sailors. I was yelling at the TV "Aiight! Fuck that, get free!!!" This concept is something a lot of people cannot wrap their mind around. Most times people go to jobs they hate and are miserable to the point that they make everyone around them miserable. If you aint happy in how your situation is then take responsibility for it and change it. Period. Everything else is some "Blue Pill Matrix" shit. People who don't know any better follow the masses like sheep because that's what they've been told to do. Know what you stand for so that you can learn to depend on you and you can truly be free.

2. Even without 30 pieces of gold, they WILL betray you.
So keep your relationships in their proper perspective. Everyone you are related to will not always behave like your family, every person you grew up with will not always be your friend, every person you do business with will not always act in the best interest of being your partner and every person that you are intimate with has the potential to, given proper motivation and opportunity, can and will stab you in tha back. Give yourself tha time you need to deal with it and move on. Plotting revenge and being bitter isn't worth it. Success and happiness it the best revenge. Put your energy into that and you will do better

And the most important thing is

1. Sometimes Its good to be me
Life can be a struggle and sometimes you spend so much time in pursuit of your goals and dreams that you never take stock of how much you have been blessed. Stop every now and then to take a look around you and smell the roses. Try and remember that this is all a series of mountains, there will be peaks and valleys navigate them the best you can.

What have you learned this past year. Give me 3 things:

Priest Forever
Harlem's Most Dangerous Emcee

Tha Priest Blog

2007-01-05T03:51:00.000-05:00

Okay so I know I said I was gonna write a weekly blog about my new material and the process of recording it all tha stuff tha goes into it and blah blah blah, but I'm finishing up my move and all of my equipment is packed up so I wont be doing any recording for at least another week, just writing. I cant really write about what I'm writing because that would spoil hearing it for you so allow me to ramble just a bit about some other things thass going on with tha kid.

It's 5 days into the New Year and Sanaa Lathan hasn't accepted my friend request yet. I am trying to be patient though, so let's wait and see what happens.

I am looking forward to the playoffs this weekend and hoping my Dallas Cowboys don't choke against Seattle. With my luck though, the Seahawks will win.

Its no fun being a Celtic / Laker fan right now, but at least I'm not a Knick fan, they REALLY suck.

I am thinking about going to see "Dreamgirls" again because I haven't seen a movie that good since "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and Jennifer Hudson's performance was amazing.

Speaking of movies, I had the pleasure of attending a special movie screening last night. Tha name of the movie was called "Death Of A B-Boy" and my man John O was one of the stars of the film. I had a small cameo appearance (No Pun Intended). It was the second time I've ever seen myself on a motion picture screen and I must say that It was an interesting experience. It was cool though, to sit in a movie theater and see my face on tha screen, (even if it was only for like 30 seconds).

I've never thought of myself as an "Actor" although I'm kinda used to seeing myself on TV. I am a co producer on a television show thass been on the air for several years now and although I prefer to play the background, I do appear on camera from time to time. Anyway, about the movie. To be honest, I found it kinda inspiring in tha sense that if other people can do it, then maybe so can I.

I'm not talking about acting, but about shooting a small independent movie.

One of my frustrations with my TV show is that I have been wanting to shoot a small movie for YEARS but my co-writers (mainly Kevin Keith) keep acting like they don't hear me when I say that. Now, I don't really know how to write a script but I know that Mike Myers wrote "Austin Powers" in a weekend so it cant be that difficult. I just don't wanna write something tha sucks. I don't think tha world needs another corny hood movie that ends up on tha shelf next to "Booty Call" in Blockbuster. I just wanna make something that cats can enjoy for a minute.

I asked a friend of mine who is more familiar with how to write a script. She said "Keep it visual and write what you know" I figure if I can write a visual album, I can write a visual script. I have been mulling this idea over in my head and I think its time to move on it. I've got big plans for 07 so we will see how it plays out though. I'll keep you all posted

Next post will be about the album. I promise.

Priest and his perfect imperfections

2006-12-29T01:11:00.000-05:00

I got a lotta shit with me, I know this. It's because of the voices in my head. The same voices that drive me creatively also are the same voices that sometimes cause me to make bad decisions. As of late though, I have made some pretty good ones.

With the coming of a new year, I stopped to think about some of the decisions that I had made and some of the people that influenced them. I also came to terms with a few things. I decided to write this blog on them because maybe if you know that I have gone thru some things, it can help you. Here are 5 things I found out about myself this past year that I am learning to deal with.

1. It's not my responsibility to save the world.

All my life I have had this "Superman" complex. I've spent years trying to fix situations with the people I care about that were not really not my concern. This past year I started the process of learning to say "Fuck It" like everyone else around me seems to do and I must say it has made my life a lot less complicated. People are gonna be who they are, do what they wanna do and I cant change that. God bless them

2. I gotta learn to forgive myself

Guilt is a funny thing. It will consume you if you let it. Outsiders who know that you fight with guilt will attempt to use that against you. I walk around with SOOOO much on my head sometimes that it get really difficult to deal. I always held my feelings in and told myself "I'll deal with it later" but now things have reached a point where all the stuff I've Id put to the side is impeding my forward progress. While I can find it in my heart to forgive other people, I still beat myself up. I'm gonna try to work on that this year.

3. I have to let go of people who are counter productive to what it is I am trying to do

I had a conversation with someone very close to me last week. I said to her, I gotta get rid of some of these negative people around me because they are causing me to regress. She said, "I coulda told you that 10 years ago." You know what, she woulda been right. I've always been loyal to my friends, but my friends haven't always been loyal to me. Not all of my friends want the same things I want in life. Some friends because of their reckless behavior put me in positions that could jeopardize everything I've worked for years to build. I cant have that, so Its time to make room for new friends and appreciate the old ones for what they gave me.

4. I'm no saint, but I'm not a total bastard either

I mean, we all have a dark side. I've really regretted some of the things that I have done just like everyone else. I used to be really spiteful when I was younger but I have outgrown that. I might forgive someone who has done me wrong, but I never forget (so does that mean I really forgave?). Now I'm at a point at life that when I let someone pull me out of my character, I'm more upset with myself for letting anyone make me act as If I too, am totally uncivilized. All of that being said, I have never done anything with the INTENT of purposely hurting anyone. Well, at least if I did its because they might've deserved it at the time but at least I always apologized. Overall I am not a bad guy though. I wake up everyday trying to be a better person than I was the day before. That's got to count for something, right?

5. Overall I'm blessed.

No matter how hard things get they could always be worse. If it sounds cliche, it is because it is true. I have traveled the world doing something I love to do. I am blessed with my daughters and my dysfunctional family and friends. I am blessed with talent and I have a profession that enables me to pay my bills doing something I would probably do anyway. I have my health, a roof over my head and I'm alive. A lot of the people I have known in life are not here anymore so I appreciate everything that I have and every day that I am able to enjoy it. I could complain but who would listen anyway? Its really all about finding the positive things and trying to adopt that kind of attitude. I have gotten knocked down so many times in my life that I don't know how to do anything else but get up. The fact that I can get up means it all to me.

What are 5 things that you have learned about yourself this past year?

30 Days (originally posted Dec 1)

2006-12-22T18:35:00.000-05:00

Question: If you had just one thing about yourself that you wanted to change, and If you had 30 days to focus on it what would it be?

Someone once told me that it takes 30 days to make or break a habit (and no it was not Morgan Spurlock) Like anyone else who has taken a long hard look at themselves and wanted to change a thing or two, I gave this concept some serious thought. There are a couple of things I would like to change about myself and I decided to give them some serious examination

I'm not talking about anything superficial like my looks or anything, I'm talking about breaking cycles and bad habits. This is more serious than any new year's resolution bullshit, this is about self examination and discipline. How many cycles do you carry? Are your actions based on habitual behaviors, or are they really necessary routines that reflect your current life situation?

I know I carry a lot of things with me from my past so I have decided to conciously try and let go of a few of them. Which things I will be letting go of I haven't decided yet, but I will be letting them go. I've actually let go of some of the people around me and although it wasn't easy, I made it thru to find situations that were better for me. Now I'm kinda anxious to see what else I can get rid of. Old beefs (Hell NO), the usage of the N-Word (probably not), my paranoia (Never!!) I'm thinking though, maybe I am giving up my fear of change and thass a good thing no matter what.

I can say that I am happy, and some parts of me haven't been that for so long that I didn't even realize I WAS unhappy. That being said, for the next 30 days, I am going to take some steps toward my self improvement. I'm going to take them one day at a time and allow myself to make mistakes in the process. I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

In the meantime, If you had just one thing about yourself that you wanted to change, and If you had 30 days to focus on it what would it be? Tell me, I'd like to hear from you so holla back.

Priest Forever

See If you Can Guess Where I Am Now... (originally posted 11.27)

2006-12-22T18:18:00.000-05:00

So I went to Portland Oregon this weekend. We had a show with Angie Stone. I had never seen her perform before and I must say that she is one talented performer. She has the whole game down. I also find her story quite inspiring. for those of you who don't know Angie Stone used to be Angie B and she was one of the female MC's in the group "Sequence" that was on Sugarhill records back in tha day. (Dig That! If I'da been thinkin I woulda brought my copy with me to have her sign it.) Anyway, back to what I was saying.

It was bad enough that I had to travel over the thanksgiving holiday, but having to deal with the tha T.S.A. (which I always thought stood for "Those Stupid Asses") was another thing altogether. I don't like the fact that I have to go through all this bullshit to have my toiletries rummaged through, but I've done that rant already. I found Portland to be very peaceful. I've been through there a couple of times before, but never more than the usual get off tha plane, go to tha hotel, go to the show, get back on the plane and leave bit. It wasn't much different this time, however I must say I was at peace. I don't know if it was as much Portland as it was some of the changes that I have gone through in my life, whatever it was though, it was pleasant. I'm at a point where I will take that If I can get that.

Other than that it was really an quite uneventful trip. This pic of me sitting in tha airport is just me in Denver waiting to go standby. I ended up getting bumped up to first class and watching that movie about Uma Thurman being some kinda ex girlfriend who's a superhero. Well, It was on, I didn't watch it, I don't stay awake when I fly, but we've covered that too I think.

Well let's see what this week brings, I'm sure I will find something else to blog about...

Priest Forever

Parties And Bullshit

2006-11-03T01:24:00.000-05:00

So I'm supposed to be at a party right now that is being thrown by Tha Beatminerz for the CMJ in New York City this week. As much as I enjoy hearing them do their thing, and as badly as I need to be out networking, I'm sitting here at the computer watching TV. I swear to you I believe that If they had a cable channel called "Tha Scarface Channel" and all they did was show the movie "Scarface" 24 hours a day without commercial interruption, I believe niggaz would watch it. I know I would. Anyway, getting back to my point. I just don't feel like it tonight. Not just going to the party, I just don't feel like being "Priest" today.

I know that Mercury is in retrograde because I see the signs everywhere. I'm playing it cool, focusing on my work, and cutting my grass in order to see the snakes around me. I came to the realization last night that I'm gonna have to scrap my "Best Of Priest" mixtape because in reviewing the material, its not really the "Best Of Priest" it's more like a collection of stuff thass just been sitting around and not doing anything. I'm going to put it together though and make it what it needs to be. I will HAVE to think of another title for it though.

Don't get it twisted, It's still miles above that bullshit that you hear on ya Hot 97 everyday (not that that's saying much, ) It's just that I tend to record more music than I could ever hope to put out, so while its new to anyone who never heard it, its old to me by the time you do. Another problem is that the perfectionist in me will always find something wrong with it. I know all artists go through this but I swear I don't know if its my OCD but it just has to feel right before I put it out. So I say that to say that my deadline is not looking good.

Not only that but I gotta finish mixing tha new John O Mixtape as well as "The Gecko Brothas" EP and I'm just a lil overwhelmed right now. I'm moving, getting ready to leave town, and I'm undergoing the process of reevaluating some of the people in my life and whether I need them around me to continue forward or not. Suffice it to say its been a lil shaky on this end. If not for my babies and my music I swear that I would be up in a steeple with a shotgun sometimes. I feel a little better right this second though, cause I turned to the Clippers / Nuggets game and Carmelo Anthony just got ejected. That shows me I'm not tha only one who doesn't feel like playing games today.

I say this because I read 3 blogs from other artists today who are all going thru tha same kinda shit. I decided to post mine to let them as well as other people know that we all go thru things like this at certain times in life. The trick is not to let them beat you. The adversity of the world is not gonna go anywhere so you can only do what you can do to deal with it the best you can. In the end thass all you can do.

As for me I wont be going to any party tonight, I've got too much work to do. Maybe next time.

That's Why, I Say...

2006-10-24T21:18:00.000-04:00

In a week where I had a show date fall apart, I had my people sell me out on some other shit, family act like they were stuck on stupid, one person didn't do what they were supposed to to while another person did some other shit outta left field and then turned around to tell me that tha whole shit was my fault, I had the pleasure of watching my Dallas Cowboys getting their asses handed to them by the New York Giants on MNF

That being said, I'm sure you can understand why I have this look on my face, shit its only Tuesday.

The Mercury Retrograde hasn't even started yet and already about 75 percent of my world is turned upside down. Am I complaining? Nope. You know why?

I had a few days of solitude this weekend whch allowed me to refocus. My conclusion was something like that song from tha Dave Chappelle show with the Sesame Street sketch.

Thass why, I say... Fuck it

One thing about indifference, it's quite liberating. Becoming indifferent allows you a freedom that normally you would not have. The trick to being indifferent is knowing when to be indifferent to the bullshit. You don't wanna become totally indifferent to everything because once you decide to stop, you risk finding your situation even more dire, but it does allow you a brief reprise from the everyday stress. Work, friends, family, fuck it. It'll be alright. Trust me on this

Really.

Another thing I've found about being indifferent, you'd be surprised how many things work themselves out. I'm enjoying the new practice of turning my phone off for extended periods of time. This is a trick I learned from someone who would do this and leave me having to deal with fixing all of the problems that he could not be reached to fix.

But then I learned how to cut my phone off too...

It was beautiful.

My advice to you during this upcoming retrograde is to play it cool, let shit go, and dig yourself into your work. they say you are not supposed to start anything new during a retrograde so this time I just intend to have as much fun as possible.

Doing what you ask? Just being indifferent.

Priest Forever

Transition

2006-10-20T03:02:00.000-04:00

I seem to remember someone once saying to me that I am a person who is reluctant to change. This is a fact that I fully embrace about myself. Transition has never been an easy thing for me. Not because I've ever feared it, just because it seems at times as though my life is an never ending cycle of transition and sometimes you just don't feel like making another one.

For as long as I can remember it's been "Go Here, Change This, Move There, Live Here." After so many years of chaos, upheaval, and constant change, eventually you get to a point in life where you have to make everything stop spinning long enough to try to make sense out of what is going on around you. Don't you? I mean, it would make sense right?

The thought had occurred to me this past week, after being stuck in a state of limbo, having to await phone calls from various people who needed to tell me what I was doing next or how I was supposed to move forward, that this is not a very proactive approach to obtaining peace in life. If I were to continue to allow myself to exist in an state of flux I would be doing a disservice to myself and those around me. Unfortunately, the only way to remedy said situation, involves even more changes.

Therein lies the dilemma.

Recently, I've had someone point out to me that things can't always be the same. After having time to think about that statement, I believe that maybe they were right. Since evolution is a continuing process, it is only natural that you will outgrow situations, places and people. Yes, It's hard when you wake up one day and are forced to question the very foundation of what you have built, even harder when you realize that the only way to move forward is to leave a place that you love or the people you have struggled with because of the pain and redundancy that it causes you to continue be there.

I love living in New York City and after living in different places and traveling around tha world, I know that in some way, it will always be home for me. I love the people in my life. I love the sound of cars driving over the asphalt of these city streets in the rain. I will NEVER give up my Hungry Ham membership card or the people who I live to love...

But to quote Sam Cooke, "I know a change is gonna come"

Anything that remains stagnant is destined to die a slow death. I've never been the most religious of people, but I do believe in some cases a higher spirit removes situations and people from your life in order to prepare you for the next phase of your life. It is something we all experience. Some use the expression "Let go and Let God" to describe it. Coming to terms with it however, is something completely different.

So as I prepare myself for the next phase of my life and career, I assess what is really important to me and accept the fact that transition, although uncomfortable at times, is always necessary.

Pretty insightful for a Emcee huh?

Martin Scorcese, Niggaz, Garbage Cans and Loyalty

2006-10-18T04:08:00.000-04:00

Loyalty.

Recently I went to the movie theatre to see "The Departed" which is a movie about loyalty. A argument broke out in the theater between 2 females that had positions that they were both loyal to. One woman was loyal to the idea that she could talk on the telephone during the movie while the other woman was loyal to the idea that she deserved to watch the movie in peace.

The argument escalated and the woman who wanted to talk on the phone kept getting louder and louder (which I will assume was her idea of being loyal to acting ghetto). As she and her boyfriend walked down the stairs of the movie theater, her boyfriend, (in what I can only assume was a demonstration of loyalty to her,) picked up a garbage can and threw it into the middle of the movie theater at a group of people who had nothing to do with the initial confusion. The only thing these people had done was be "loyal" to the idea of sitting through all of the bullshit that was going on in an attempt to see this movie and what was their reward for that? A giant trash can to tha head.

Ahh, gotta love that Loyalty.

Loyalty will make you question who and what are you really loyal to. What do you believe, what do you stand for. Loyalty is an easy thing to hold as an idea, but not always an easy thing to practice. Too often I've seen loyalty come back and bite you in the ass. Either you were too loyal to someone and found yourself sacrificing what you want for them or you were not loyal enough to them and somehow caused them to be disappointed in your actions. Sometimes it's both.

In my strongest moments I've been both loyal and disloyal. Whether it was to an idea, belief or person, I've executed both with a certain level of ferocity that would be hard to explain. Sometimes I've regretted that and sometimes I've stood by my convictions. I've had people that were around me profess to be loyal only to do things that I viewed as deliberate acts of betrayal. In my heart I still haven't learned to forgive that, but fuck it, I'm a work in progress. I spoke to a dear friend tonight, he told me a tale of loyalty whereas he did a good deed for someone and they reciprocated to him totally unexpectedly. That story convinced me that loyalty exists, maybe I just don't get to experience it on that level. they say the creator has a master plan though, right?

Riiiiiiight.

Anyway, me being loyal to finding out how "The Departed" ends, I went back to the movie to see it this past weekend. I found the ending to be worth the trouble (and the last scene in the movie, I could soooo relate to). That being said, I've come to this conclusion.

Loyalty itself is an idea that can be just as elusive as any other dream. For now though, I gotta believe that it works better in the movies than it does in real life

Priest

Another Day Another Airport

2006-09-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

I was told this is me getting my "Maxwell" look on.

Ever since Sept 11th happened, I REALLY dislike flying. Not that I was ever crazy about it before, its just that now you have a whole other set of assholes to worry about. I don't mean the supposed terrorists either, I mean the TSA. These stupid assed terror alerts and "Elevated" levels of security are ridiculous. I've always believed that this whole "War On Terror" has more to do with government defense and security contracts than with anything else but that is another story for another blog. Right here I'm complaining about tha ass clowns who do security screenings in the airports.

A few weeks back I was coming back to NYC from Detroit, and it just so happened that Ice Cube and his entourage was all going thru the security checkpoint at the same time. Now these silly ass screeners were so giddy over Ice cube and his crew being there that they held everyone else up while they were waiting to get autographs and take pictures. None of them even noticed that Danny Glover was standing further back on tha line. I looked back at him and he looked at what was going on and shot me a look like "Would you look at this shit" I looked at him like "Yeah I hear you man" What's more is, I had a big assed bottle of Chocolate Milk in my bag that no one noticed because they were too busy being star struck.

The real bullshit is that they just came out and said that you couldn't build a bomb with liquids that you sneak on a plane anyway so what's the point?

Anyway, that aside, I also wanna say that I wish people would stop telling me how "knocked out" I was when I wake up upon landings. I know I was sleeping, that was the idea. The plan is always to sleep on tha plane so as not to have to have conversations with people while on them.

Damn, flying.

Summer Sickness

2006-08-29T07:13:00.000-04:00

You see, after yet another summer of continuing to work for and with people by whom I feel I am under-appreciated by, I have taken this very moment to stop and re-evaluate how it is I spent my summer with hopes that I can better manage my time. Right now I think these are the top 5 things i'm fed up with

10. I'm sick of hearing records made by niggas with southern accents that rap in "Slave-speak"

9. I'm sick of having to play said records at clubs for a buncha grown-assed people who should know betta.

8. I'm sick of my cellphone, everything it stands for, and everything that comes with it.

7. I'm sick of not sleeping and not being allowed to sleep once I do finally pass out from exhaustion.

6. I'm sick of having to deal with tempermental artists that act like spoiled brats all tha goddamn time.

5. I'm sick of wack ass promoters who barely know how to do their jobs but think they know how to do mine.

4. I'm sick of going through airport security and being screened by idiots who wouldn't know what a bomb looked like if you had it strapped across your forehead.

3. I'm sick of flaky, hateful, envious, phony superficial assed people who play games about taking care of business and say they are gonna do stuff that they never get around to doing.

2. I'm sick of being surrounded by niggas who are scared of revolution.

and my number one thing that i'm most sick of right now is...

1. I'm sick of complaining about the things that I'm sick of.

2006-08-07T17:10:00.001-04:00

Here is tha camera pic that I tried to add in the last post

Bathroom Camera Phone Pic

2006-08-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

I added this because I realized that a cameraphone pic is something every blog apparently must have. I took this in a bathroom at the Hilton Hotel in San Jose a few weeks back. Tha Razr phone may be a piece of crap, but it takes decent pics. Anyway lemme catch this plane.

One

Once again its on!!!

2006-08-03T09:55:00.000-04:00

Tha Priest Blog
Looks Like Im back in effect. This heat is enough to make you crazy in New York right now. Ima about to get on a plane to go to St Louis (where I lived for a time,) to do a show. Its 92 degrees already and I am not looking forward to getting on this plane but whatever.

After a year of not blogging, im gonna step my game up. I cant believe its been a year but suffice it to say that when you are doing everything by yourself, some things fall by the wayside. I'm on it now though. As for the music, I cant get into everything that is happening just yet but let's just say that some things are about to pop off.

That is if politics dont come into play, but im trying to adopt a optimistic attitude on this so we'll see how things play out

Stay tuned people

VH1 Contest Starts Today - Part One

2005-08-31T12:13:00.000-04:00

I have struggled with sleep for as long as I remember. Now it is kicking me in my ass again. Not sleep itself, rather the lack of it. I know i was supposed to start logging in about this contest and the parties I hit this week, but sleep has just put me in tha "Dope Fiend" plus i gotta edit joints for tha radio show today, so I'mma have to get back to you on this entry a little later. Sorry, but im whipped.

Tha Bitches What What, Tha Bitches...

2005-07-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

I hate mixing. It is the final most important part of the creation of a song and I hate doing it. A good mix can make bullshit beats sound hot (i.e. D.M.X.'s first album) or it can make hot beats sound wack (i.e. Blackmoon's first album) . What frustrates me even more about mixing is that I cant wrap my mind around recording or mixing on computer based systems. Its a bitch

I learned how to mix in Analog studios on a 2 inch reel with a Neve board. Now everyone uses pro tools and Mackie boards. Fuck Pro Tools and Mackie, I hate that shit. I've only seen one engineer who could bend that pro tools shit like he was Neo bending tha Matrix. I'm mixing on cubase now and It kills me cause its a bitch to deal with.

Sleep deprivation is a bitch too. I swear to you that I haven't slept in the last 4 years. im tired of being tired so imma cut this short and take a nap and finish mixing later.

c-ya bitches...

Another week begins

2005-07-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

So its Monday. It is tha first performance of the play "Soul To Keep" tonight and I'm up arguing about phone service. I'm trying to get all my last minute business squared away before the Mercury Retrograde starts. I also threw away all of my comfortable sneakers so that I would have to wear some of the new ones I bought that have been sitting in my closet collecting dust for the past few years. As you may have surmised, I tend to be resistant to change.

I also got a flyer in tha mail from some corny promoter talking about how their artist is the New York version of Nelly. WTF is that about yo? Have these cats in NYC just totally given up any shred of dignity and jumped on tha "Dirty South" bandwagon that hard...?

Yup

Look I can't front like I'm with all of the current country-fication of Hip Hop, however I will say this. For a long time NYC and the Westcoast had Hip Hop on lock. It's tha South's turn, I wont argue that. I just never thought i'd see tha day heads in NYC started riding all that down south d*ck. East coast Hip Hop used to be lyrical and about something, now the bullshit I hear is just as weak as music I hear outta Atlanta or someplace like that

And It's a lotta artists outta tha south I rocks with, Scarface, Goodie Mob, Juvenile, Outkast, Field Mob, David Banner, Bun B, and having lived in St. Louis for a spell, I even got love for Chingy. (not for his music, but because to have grown up in a city that makes it so hard to be black, this kid has his head screwed on pretty straight) I'm not hating on the other cats, but they aint really impressing me like that.

I did a skit on my mixtape "Live And Let Die" about how simplistic NYC flows have gotten and how cats is sayin they from tha "Dirty South Bronx." Heads thought I was being serious, that scared me. But alas, this is an indication of how weak tha game has become.

More on this later, I gotta pack up and get ready for tha show tonight

And another one...

2005-07-12T05:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, so i lost what i was gonna type because i still havent figured out how to work this thing yet and somehow i deleted my original post. That means this is all you get tonight because im tired and my eyes hurt form looking at the screen again. I'll try again soon

Welcome To My Blog

2005-07-04T05:43:00.000-04:00

Ok so im up and in effect now. I'm gonna see how this Blog thing goes. I'm too tired to write a lot now so i'll leave it at this for now.

Peace
Priest