Thursday, April 7, 2016
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Are you a Dumb Smart Nigga?
In order to be a 'dumb smart nigga', you have to know what it is first. A 'dumb smart nigga', is someone whose too smart to be in a lower position in life, but remains there regardless of their talent and skill sets.
Two of the most common signs a person is one, is the fact they never own their successes. Meaning while people give them credit for what they've done. They themselves shrug it off never really owning it, grabbing it by the throat! Like they should. This is a sign of low self esteem.The other sign a person might be one, is sometimes it's unbeknownst to them until someone brings it to their attention. Kinda like, if you don't believe something exists, you don't have the motivation to know it does if you don't even know it's there.
I used to get called this a lot when I was a lil homie and always by a female usually my age or a little older. True to what I mentioned above, I didn't know I was being one until it was brought to my attention.
I was always told "man..You are to smart to be working here, what are you doing here?"
"Ayo! Ray boogie, I want you to use your brain man, you a smart dude, just use your brain!".
Those lines mentioned above were from some other homies I grew up with or just worked with on different jobs. Man even as I type this, all my experiences make me reflect on moments where I could see I was being one but recognizing I had the talent to make real shit happen. It's definitely sobering thoughts, especially at a time like now where I feel I could be doing so much more. Yet the drive hasn't been there like it was, only appearing in patches of time. It's been a process pulling myself along and bringing it back out.
Now below is the only live performance of 'Dumb Smart Nigga', that I have with Corina Corina, who sang the hook. When you scroll further down you'll find the bandcamp MP3 with the lyrics below for you to sing along yourself. Check it out.
We in the zone yo!
Verse 1 intro
“You know what you should have in common with Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, and Kurt Cobain? It ain’t talent, should blow your brains out you Dumb. Smart. Nigga”!
Hook
My friends say I'm smarter than Them. Smarter than my friends ooooh.
So how come I'm not making their ends?
Their ennnnnds
They tell me I have everything, because I am aaaa king!
So why do I still feel like I got nothing?
Nothing, nothiiing. ...
Verse 1
I feel dangerously vulnerable, when I write songs like this
I feel like I’ll be judged, then hung for the shit
Because long as I’ve existed I won’t let people get close
I find myself alone, living life as a ghost
Can you blame me?! I mean I love living life
But there are moments I wish I have had my memory wiped
I’m no angel with its wings clipped within my own right
I’ve burned so many bridges with such tremendous force
You’d think I was a monster a living human torch
That wedged a gap bigger between life & corpse
I hurt the ones that I love, never the ones that deserve it
It’s enough to curse myself and start rethinking my purpose
My impulsiveness is like a fucking disease
motivated by the need to quench the thirst of my greed
Jumped to conclusions with a short burst of speed
My lack of self control has left scars that always seem to bleed
Verse 2 intro
You blinder than a muthafuckah! Can’t see shit to be shit! Do us all a favor, just walk off a roof you Dumb. Smart. Nigga!
Hook
My friends say I'm smarter than Them. Smarter than my friends ooooh.
So how come I'm not making their ends?
Their ennnnnds
They tell me I have everything, because I am aaaa king!
Why do I still feel like I got nothing?
Nothing, nothiiing. ...
Verse 2
Because I had perspectives different from the rest
My friends believed that I was destined for success
I suck at handling the stress rehearsals never dressed
subjected to the con I’m not fit to take the quest
But if I saw what others saw I’d be without the mess
But I’ve been told so many times that I ain’t worth shit
I’m ashamed to say a part of me started to believe in it
I’ve been told I’ve made things into more than what they are
Will I be old & gray, sitting at a bar
drunk & telling stories, about a falling star?
not playing with a full deck the joker in the cards
delusions of the slander, old habits die hard
I’ve hit rock bottom is escaping so bizarre?
I’ve walked many miles more than ones put on a car
I’ve slept on a beach without a home near or far
you dumb smart nigga, or whoever you are………
Verse 3 intro
Nigga you can’t tell your right from your left, what’s real or what’s fake, you ain’t good for nothing
you Dumb. Smart. Nigga!
Hook
My friends say I'm smarter than Them. Smarter than my friends ooooh.
So how come I'm not making their ends?
Their ennnnnds
They tell me I have everything, because I am aaaa king!
So why do I still feel like I got nothing?
Nothing, nothiiing. ...
Verse3
Devils in the details, angels in executing
My brain is fried, with my impulses electrocuting
A retina scan for the mind keeping my eyes open
Mass produce adrenaline keeping my drive potent
I’m not a dumb smart nigga! I'm dumb smart nigga! !
When I Iearned Jiu Jitsu they teach discomfort & pain
discomfort being achy joints bruises and strain
Pain is walls closing in no oxygen to the brain
The Grim reaper with the key unlocking the chain
When I suffered losses that made me take leave from the game
I suffered the emptiness of never facing the strain
reminded me of being paralyzed as a child
When I flew off my bike and laid in rocks in a pile
a discomfort that temporarily altered my style
But like Tetsuo in a Akira I picked my guts up
so there might be hope after all for this fuck up.
verse 3 Outtro: Maybe you starting to get it after all nigga, but once a dumb. Smart. Nigga, always a Dumb. Smart. Nigga.
Hook
My friends say I'm smarter than Them. Smarter than my friends ooooh.
So how come I'm not making their ends?
Their ennnnnds
They tell me I have everything, because I am a king!
Why do I still feel like I have nothing?
Nothing, nothing. ...
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Have you ever needed a clean slate? A fresh start? A reset? A do over? No, this is not a infomercial.
So I'm back to making posts on my blog after a short hiatus I took to focus on growing my facebook page, and my youtube channel. If you haven't been to either one I suggest you head over to the following links, like and subscribe!
I also haven't done a ton of shows of late after getting preoccupied with 2 murals I got commissioned for. The first, a mural of the marvel comics character Deadpool. I finished it and made a 6 episode playlist on youtube documenting the steps I went through on the journey to finish it. Here check it out below.
I also did a freestyle dedicated to 'Daredevil: Season 2'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvMgKMa1MKU So yeah I've been busy to say the least.
I also jumped back into battling, something I said I'd never do, but the bug bit me again and I was compelled to step back into the ring. Not on the level of say a URL, but through Freestyle Mondays Off The Head Game show that happens the first Monday of each month at Meridian 23. Check'em out on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/freestylemondaysNYC/?fref=ts
And for a while I was busking in the Subway tunnels,lol. I can imagine how suspect that sounds if you don't know what busking means, hahaha. 'Busking' is street performance, or doing my rap songs in the streets, on the trains, and subway platforms. That slowed down once I started working on my murals.
So now this is the time I start refocusing my energy on doing shows again, and finally get my ass on a lengthy tour. Hit up a few states, countries, etc., You get the picture. I feel like I'm becoming attached again to New York City in a way that is slowing me down from utilizing my maximum potential. Which is why I've been on the fence about battling again even though I've been doing it. I want to throw in the towel because battling while I've had many great moments doing it. It's never been a consistent win for me. Where as doing shows is ultimately my strongest suit, battling is like Crack to a competitive person like myself.
So that brings me to my track below called 'Clean Slate'. Which is off my album 'Gone Is The Illusion'. I never finished posting tracks from my album to my blog so here is the continuation.
This song is self explanatory, and on point with what I'm going through right now. I am in need of a fresh start and a new kick off point, and I feel like getting back to making posts to my blog is the first step to doing so.
Below is both the link to the track for streaming on bandcamp and the song lyrics below it. I'll be doing a part two to this blog as a vlog on my youtube channel and I will post it here for everyone to see.
Hook
Post winter laced, thawed lakes, spring break Clean Slate!
Ruffies in beer, a mind disappears Clean Slate!
Comatose Amnesiac awakes Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Reincarnation in a new birth place Clean Slate!
Before illusions drained me of my faith Clean Slate!
Hard Drive cleaned freeing up space Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Verse 1
Remembering the moves that brought me to the dance
I waltz with skeletons with a icy long glance
So cold a polar bears fingers would catch cramps
and a paraplegic would brush frost off his pants
I got distracted going against my very nature
From taking what I want and reaching my goals
Never having to prove anything to these fucking assholes
They don’t suffer with me, so I don’t give’em that control
So, yeah bitch gimmie the blue pill dream
Like Jessie Pinkman cooking methlamine
to get that rare hue of methamphetamines
so euphoric I leapt from a mezzanine
landed in a space shuttle slash time machine
Searching for the restoration of my old base
Gone is the illusion, I have a clean slate
Hook
Post winter laced, thawed lakes, spring break Clean Slate!
Ruffies in beer, a mind disappears Clean Slate!
Comatose Amnesiac awakes Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Reincarnation in a new birth place Clean Slate!
Before illusions drained me of my faith Clean Slate!
Hard Drive cleaned freeing up space Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Verse 2
I’ll Terra-form the moon busting nuts at night
That go up & down like suborbital flights
That cause torrential down pours & new signs of life
A fresh start yes but that doesn’t change the game
The only way diamonds are forever
is if pressure is a crucial success measure
like diamonds from the players club casting weather
Only when you know pain can real change occur
I should slam my palms on salted broken glass
shoot myself in the knee stab both of my calves
Just so I can start penning my rough draft
Like Tuskegee Airman operating aircraft
But I got better luck having my prostate exam
By a blind cardiologist with hooks on his hands
But when the mappings of my brain are left in gods hands
I guess he isn’t laughing much at the layout of my plans
Hook
Post winter laced spring break thawed lakes
Clean Slate!
Ruffies in beer a mind disappears, Clean Slate!
Comatose amnesiac awakes Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased. Reincarnation in a new birthplace Clean Slate!
Before illusions drained me of my faith, Clean Slate!
Hard drive cleaned freeing up space,Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
verse 3
Call me autonomous prime with my inner chi
With the energon I produce from my energy
I could power a city from new orleans to sicily
and keep away these strange creatures from my vicinity
They are those who’ll be frightened by your journey
will give you every reason to pack it in a hurry
But disappointed if you quit and decide to live safely
That some psycho shit or maybe you just hate me?
There are those who want you to escape hell & bust ass!
But don’t believe you have the strength for the task
They just tell you these things so you won’t feel bad
Their just great salesman blowing smoke up your ass
Because everyone wants you to do good but not better than them
These are leeches, not friends - cover your skin
Only through evolution can we leave the past behind
That’s how you get a clean slate that’s how I got mine…..
Hook
Post winter laced, thawed lakes, spring break Clean Slate!
Ruffies in beer, a mind disappears Clean Slate!
Comatose Amnesiac awakes Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Reincarnation in a new birth place Clean Slate!
Before illusions drained me of my faith Clean Slate!
Hard Drive cleaned freeing up space Clean Slate!
I need a fresh start with my past erased
Monday, March 7, 2016
Exclusive Interview with Super King Armor - Supreme BARs
I was recently interviewed by Roberto DeJesus, AKA "The Analogy". Creator of the Hip Hop event, competition known as Supreme Bars!! Their next event is March 15th 2016 @ Meridian 23 in Manhattan, New York. Here is the facebook event invite! Be sure to check them out https://www.facebook.com/events/205116206510752/ and visit the mainsite for Supreme Bars at www.SUPREME-BARS.com be sure to join the facebook group, they have a pulse on what's happening, and who is doing what in the NYC Hip Hop underground. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SupremeBARs/
This was shot in Midtown Manhattan at Funkadelic Studios http://funkadelicstudios.com/ This interview goes indepth track for track about my album "Gone Is The Illusion". Enjoy!
Saturday, February 6, 2016
My song and lyrics off of 'Freak Of Nature' from my album 'Gone Is The Illusion'
Verse 1
Parts of a whole
A pie chart with percentages and color codes
personality traits human heart & soul
we are a composite of the company we keep
surrounded personas before I could walk or speak
My grandfathers quiet manner much like my own
I rather put things into action than speak from a throne
Girl friends of mine-say I’m like an a authority
The irony- taking orders- frustrates the shit out of me
A deep rage- I’ve had to learn to control
From having expectations not met by a soul
absurd- my women say I’m also a nerd
I’ve never met one before with my kind of desire
for reckless abandon who throws himself to the fire
Uncategorized my style will baffle your dome
Hook
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
ever feel like you were born in the wrong timeline?
and people can’t comprehend what’s on your mind
Am I- even-one of- gods- Designs
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
Being the black sheep of the family is a understatement
Wrapped up in blankets like your contagious
I’m a freak of nature you’re a freak of nature
Verse 2
Born into a deadzone & barren wasteland
in a bed where death combs a Baron with slave hands
Between Ja rule & 50 cent, Hollis & Guy Brewer
Through laurelton & springfield blvd I maneuver
My neighborhood as far back as I can remember
Filled with church goers with bible arsenic tempers
and ego driven tempest testosterone tormentors
we went from hard rocks to sexual experimentation
now everyone out the closet in the age that we live in
I remember a time it wasn’t cool to be haitian
Until Wyclef rapped on your radio station
This happens through the iris of my observation
I’m amazed today flack rappers catch for homophobia
It was on those classic albums that caught your attention
to say you hate hip hop is such a contradiction
but hypocrisy saturates the human condition
Hook
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
ever feel like you were born in the wrong timeline?
and people can’t comprehend what’s on your mind
Am I- even-one of- gods- Designs
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
Being the black sheep of the family is a understatement
Wrapped up in blankets like your contagious
I’m a freak of nature you’re a freak of nature
Verse 3
Respect & loyalty are the most important things to me
I don’t care how you look through racial imagery
what your religion is or how you behave sexually
I’ve been stabbed in the back by people close to me
It has a homie feeling funny makes me keep to myself
I don’t roll with a crew they to slow for my health
I like being alone that doesn’t mean I need help
The strong stand alone I can depend on myself
who needs to be ostracized for being an outcast
I just build my own niche & carve my own path
I walk on water, thats made from broken glass
through the use of my own words like moses with his staff
That’ll send down smoldering bits of your golden calf
for entering my domain an incurring my wrath
Fearing what you don’t understand you try to thrash
but show your fucking teeth when it can earn you some cash
Hook
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
ever feel like you were born in the wrong timeline?
and people can’t comprehend what’s on your mind
Am I- even-one of- gods- Designs
I’m a freak of nature, you’re a freak of nature
Being the black sheep of the family is a understatement
Wrapped up in blankets like your contagious
I’m a freak of nature you’re a freak of nature
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
What's making it?
"What's making it?" was the first song I wrote for my album 'Gone Is The Illusion'. Ironically enough it ended up being the very last song on the album. The idea of making it has changed over time, especially due to the changing landscape of the music industry and personal experiences I've had. Take for example what I wrote in this older post in my blog about my experience of being on national television.
http://www.8thrankrecords.com/2015/01/there-is-no-spoon-there-is-no-manual.html
http://www.8thrankrecords.com/2015/01/there-is-no-spoon-there-is-no-manual.html
I went from badly wanting to be on MTV and BET and
wanting to be signed to a lucrative deal with whatever label was the most popular at the time. To wanting and eventually starting my own record label and learning how artists actually get paid for their art. Things I would've never thought capable years ago. Crazy how perspectives change with time spent in the game......
wanting to be signed to a lucrative deal with whatever label was the most popular at the time. To wanting and eventually starting my own record label and learning how artists actually get paid for their art. Things I would've never thought capable years ago. Crazy how perspectives change with time spent in the game......
Verse 1
Dreams and goals I don’t play with it
like a vampires chest put a stake in it
somewhere along lines you’ve heard this shit
You ain’t good enough to be making it
Words spoken by an antagonist
Whose viewpoint is lower than average
but it seem so many people carry it
like pepper salt shakers in a cabinet
I thought making it was celebrating with peers
But I realized they had other ideas
The makings of a man change year to year
in this western civilized part of the sphere
The unknown of making it is part of the fear
and the he said she said from ear to ear
I know artists who made it near the pinnacle
started out a optimist and came back cynical
Music videos don’t change how you live
Rappers on mtv still live in they mama crib
more ironic than the cia wearing coke boy t-shirts dock of the bay
Your favorite artist might work in the day
saving up for big time radio play
when he hands the money over to the DJ
who never intended to play his songs anyway
Making it is not as simple as you thought it was
Like a ziploc bag minus all of your drugs
all that hard work and you ain’t got a ounce of buzz
Thats more than ouch when you get snubbed
Nothings perfect about making it
In fact there’s more of a pain to it
More of a paint to it the interior is cracked and the frame is chipped
Hook
So what they can’t grasp, your need for it
They don’t wake up in the morning and eat with it
Your obsession and why you feel complete with it
So why the fuck should I care how they see or feel for it
Is making it making other people happy
Or being rich out your ass and lonely
Whats making it? Who the fuck knows!
All I know is there’s a point where I determine it
Verse 2
Amidst my Grandma’s picture collection
I’m a vampire, yes I have no reflection
I look at my cousins graduation
Pictures of so much admiration
about me they have no expectations
Proud of his and all her contributions
I guess I always been kinda losing
My path not there’s one I been choosing
He ain’t like us it’s so confusing
The work you do has not been proving
a answer of a financial solution
only the hours of you coming and going
change but no progress is showing
your birth was only the sign of a omen
He’ll never have his own just stuck in our home then
not sitting in a benz with chrome on both ends
How come you couldn’t be like all your old friends?
Jared and Richard why don’t you call them?
Frankensteins monster without the bolts in
Chances slimmer than signs of a vulcan
Sitting here day & night
all my good friends have moved on in life
Mini van with kids with a house and wife
Suburban area so quiet at night
I know I couldn’t do it with my internal fight
I’d peel my skin off and disappear in the night
Like how my uncle my was explaining it
this art music thing you ain’t making it
Then his left knee he started banging it
Angry because the drums he stopped playing it
He went and got married kids the end of it
if thats life then I don’t need this shit
Hook
So what they can’t grasp, your need for it
They don’t wake up in the morning and eat with it
Your obsession and why you feel complete with it
So why the fuck should I care how they see or feel for it
Is making it making other people happy
Or being rich out your ass and lonely
Whats making it? Who the fuck knows!
All I know is there’s a point where I determine it
Verse 3
My station in life am I ashamed of it?
Funny how everyone perceives whats making it
But I did more than my co workers at Bally’s
and proved wrong friends who said they were family
I’ve looked for moments I could validate
every single waking moment that I create
My lifes not worthy of being snubbed
I’m really not the loser that you thought I was
but the seeds of jealousy started it cause
You look at me as if I was addicted to drugs
Your kindness was always a sense of false love
When you have a metal fist inside of kit gloves
Proving myself I used to slave on that ship
Til I realize nothing really came of it
Its like an elephant explaining life to an ant
his position in spite he can’t fit in his pants
I’m self possessed like an evil spirit
jumping in its own chest and the screams you hear it
I’m sorry grandma for not listening
I didn’t become a baptized christian then
but I’m so much comfortable in my skin
more than I ever was way back then
Sorry Granddad I didn’t roll in a Benz
I ain’t never been to good at saving my ends
But this music thing keeps on pulling
I’m so obsessed with it like its a trend
I’m better at expressing myself with a pen
I’m sorry ma for all the schools I never got in
It’s my life after all I have to look in
determine my life and the state that its in
See I ain’t happy with just making it
Paradise lost I’m escaping it
Hook
So what they can’t grasp, your need for it
They don’t wake up in the morning and eat with it
Your obsession and why you feel complete with it
So why the fuck should I care how they see or feel for it
Is making it making other people happy
Or being rich out your ass and lonely
Whats making it? Who the fuck knows!
All I know is there’s a point where I determine it
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