Music Inspires Music

Man, I love it when I see something or someone and a song pops up in my head, or when I hear a song and try to find out where the sample came from or which other artist used it. It all gets my mind running all over the place and can't really focus until I find and listen to that one song I'm looking for... or until I forget about it...

Those moments sometimes give me a fresh take on a song I already heard either by seeing how it could have inspired someone else, or how much more I should appreciate a specific song.

This dude here went bananas and did a piano cover of Nas's Untitled album...

Made me want to listen to the whole album again (which I am doing right now... WTF do u mean u didn't listen to it yet???? COP THAT ALBUM!!!). Also makes me want to learn to play the piano, I should really look into it... even though I don't have one at home... I need another hobby that will keep me focused and enrich my mind.

"Music is supposed to inspire" - Lauryn Hill

"Save the music y'all" - Nas

New Music : 808s & Heartbreaks

Got that new Kanye on tuesday. Opened the package, which came with a poster of him in the extra medium suit lol, but it got deep when I turned the poster around as you see him standing next to his mother while giving her a kiss on the cheek... (moment of silence). I gotta admit I'm a bit puzzled by Kanye's new album, but I'm all ears. Been listening for 3 days now... Dude's been hurt, something fierce. I've been there at some point(s) in my life so I'm feeling what he's singing about... though in a way I kinda wish I never knew what it felt like. For sure, this Kanye album is not for everybody, because it's either you relate or you don't. Those who don't relate are either too young or the "still lucky, for the moment, people" that never had to endure a broken heart, the pain, the loss or simply that "one" (out of many) paranoid girlfriend that goes through ur call list on ur cellphone everytime u got ur back turned.

As you get deeper into this album, you realize this is also the story of a guy who from the outside seems to have it "all", but explains to us his dilemna : "my friend showed me pictures of his kids, and all I could show him was pictures of my cribs"... Luther done told us a house is not a Home.

This said, say you will tell everybody that you know how amazing this album is. This one goes out to those that have a broken heart and sends a message to the heartless. Start picking up the pieces and keep ur love locked down coz this could be the coldest winter yet. Spread the bad news but don't be paranoid it's not like Robocop is hiding under broken street lights waiting to get you like I see in my nightmares. True story, don't u dare call me Pinocchio. Welcome to Heartbreak! (well this was a failed attempt at putting all the song titles into coherent phrases... bleh)

Right now I got the first track on repeat ('Say You Will'), I'm a music fiend.

"moments passing in front of me [...] I know my destination, but I'm just not there" - Kanye West

Say Word!

Who would have thought I would have kept this old book of rhymes... which sucked for the most part, but this one here is deep:

The day the sun & the moon met
They kept us all in the dark
Blinding passion, can't help but watch
Throw you off balance then its gone
Years again before they meet again
Relive a passion that comes and leaves again
That passes but that never ends
Sometimes in the same picture
Panoramic far away here comes the day
Opposite sides of the spectrum
Just to show us the way
Night & Day
No Play
-22-02-05

Didn't end it well though, but y'all get the whole concept right, day & night, meet every some years like a solar eclipse which causes darkness... I was ahead of my time... Sign me.

Music Makes Me High

I'm in a Bossa Nova listening mood at 6am so started dowloading 6 volumes of Bossa Nova compilations... bit extreme? I'm a fiend I tell u. As I listen to it, eyes closed, I can see myself in the future enjoying it slouched on a nice couch in my very own house. And man that feels good... taking glimpses into the future for a change that is... oh and the music too.

Maybe I should get back to learning portuguese...

How I feel... Defined by Lyrics Vol. 2, No. 9

"Yesterday was better off, didn't even know it" - Joe Budden

Yesterday I found a card that my godfather had sent me for christmas. It brought back some sweet memories... My greatest fear has always been to forget and as I get older... 27... er yeah... I tend to reminisce a lot on the past these days. Flashbacks are starting to ressurface at the oddest moments. Smells, words, songs, colours, voices just seem to trigger it all and then I zone out...

"Wow, I need a moment y'all
See I almost felt a tear drop" - Nas

I'm starting to think it can't be healthy for me to live in the past, but how do I embrace it without being obsessed with it... I'm a fiend, everything I like, I end up doing in excess... That's why I knew better than to try drugs... yeah I know, people still have a hard time believing that I never even had a puff before... in this day and age...

"Yesterday belongs to the dead
Tomorrow belongs to the living
The past is certified as a finished product
Anything which has ended is finished
That which is perfect is finished" - Madlib

Maybe that's it... Maybe I was born in the wrong age, maybe that's why I often feel like I don't always fit here... now. Maybe it would explain that I sometimes feel out of sync with most people my age... or maybe it's just me...

"I ask myself what does it mean if you are different
but I am the answer" - Charles Hamilton

I guess I will have to find a just balance between past, present and future...
Keeping the wisdom & memories of the past, living in the present & planning and looking forward to my future... now if I could just get that living in the present part to work out...

"memories dont live like people do
They always 'member you
Whether things are good or bad
Its just the memories that you have
The beenie man a sing (say hey)
Boy stop live down inna de past
Just member when man a ride 'orse
Now yuh dead that mean yuh soul lost" - Beenie Man

Well one day, as I was thinking of the past and the influential people in my life that passed away, I wasted a part of my present, at the time, to make this little bootleg montage...

Hope you can find the time to put a comment...

Fade to 'T.R.O.Y.' by Pete Rock & CL Smooth....

Quotes Vol. 1, No. 1

Quote I fell upon on the IMDB website.

Comes from the following movie : 'In A Lonely Place' (1950)

"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."

Tell me that's not DEEP! Ah ah, fire!

How I feel... Defined by Lyrics Vol. 2, No. 8

...

"Can we please have a moment of silence?
[...]
As days goes and nights fall
For the rest of our life we'll miss y'all
And even though life must go on, we'll still mourn
While wishin' y'all were home
[...]
And can we please have a moment of truth?
For soldiers and troops away with helmets and boots
And families back home who pray they make it home safe
Hopin' that they don't get hit with a stray or missiles
This is just a moment to let you all know that we miss you" - Nas

Might not be agreeing with the cause, but I respect the job.

How I feel... Defined by Lyrics Vol. 2, No. 7

"I feel like I'm ahead of my time, like I'm ahead lets rewind
I feel like I've never felt feel like I'm ahead of my prime
I feel like my feelings feel like they maybe feel intertwined
'tween incognito and shine I'm being caught in the lime
feel like I'm stuck in a fight when the future ain't feelin bright
I put the pencil down, feeling unwanted, and go on strike
but then I'm struck by the light that ain't how you properly strike
but the ball be over the plate and they still don't call it a strike
I mean I honestly try, I feel like I try in vain
start doin a lil different shit always just stay the same
there's a good in every bad when there's loss I know there's gain
I appreciate the love but I'm living with all the pain
I hate when the sun is out, but love whenever it rains
and God be sending me signs like my future is preordained
my timing keep gettin fucked, the wires still havent came
and all I do is object but my shit ain't never sustained
wonder if I keep on trying then will I finally attain
wonder if I'll ever feel like I got nobody to blame, MAYNE!
[...]
I told mommy when I was five that I would strive to be a lawyer
or a doctor took the opt. to hangin out with the mobsters
now he's a hip hop'sta, no more general Tso's
orderin shrimp and lobster mommy look at how I prospered
look at what I've become but still I feel like a bum
emotional strain can't be replaced by any sum
emotionally drained, insides prolly look like a slum
just give me a bag of weed, just give me a shot of rum
no better yet give me none, no mommy I won't succumb
not that- almost forgot I stopped that when I was young
some people do it for pleasure some people do it for fun
but I remember it well, that dust used to have 'em strung
I wonder what I've become or why am I overlooked
I want 'em to understand but still I'm misunderstood
I keep on taking suggestions I'm wondering if I should
I know you see the potential, I know you see that I could" - Joe Budden

"What would I do...
if I could reach inside of me...
and to know how it feels to say...
I like what I see?" - Nipsey Russell

How I feel... Defined by Lyrics Vol. 2, No. 6

wow

Well on this great night, I saw something I never expected to see in MY lifetime. This is one for the books as History is still being written and I am proud to say I was a Witness. I will talk of this moment for years to come.

"If I could find the spot where truth echoes
I would stand there and whisper memories of my children's future
I would let their future dwell in my past
so that I might live a brighter now" - Saul Williams

The moment where the house filled up with my father's loud claims of victory running down two sets of stairs arms in the air to shake us up. The moment I turned my sight away from the tv screen with a large smile and faced him and saw a tear come down from his right eye. Eyes red from the sleep he deprived himself of just to see it all happen. The moment a black man was elected president in another country and how it meant so much to us.

"Here I go again, the same old shit
My mind is still playing tricks
Cause today when I left my residence
I heard we had a new black president
And he wasn't no Uncle Tom
Rudy poo stankin' fetch house n!gga scum
And white folks wasn't planning to murder him kid
Cause they voted for him just like the blacks did
And this might sound reckless
But I got a loan on a brand new Lexus in Texas
If I'm lying I'm dying, everybody was color blind
Went to church and I gotta admit
Walked in, didn't see one hypocrite
It appeared every single soul was reached
Cause the pastor practiced what he preached" - Willie D

I just pinched myself and I wasn't dreaming!

"Some dreams stay dreams, some dreams come true" - Nas

How I feel... Defined by Lyrics Vol. 2, No. 5

Hot dang, this whole election got me excited. Anxious to see the final results.

"C'mon now, make it happen, make it happen" - Big Daddy Kane

"Yeah I'm afraid, like I'm scared as a dog
But I've got a new song, and I want y'all to sang alooooooong
Sang aloooooooooong..
See this is the way that we walk on a sunny, day
when it's rainin inside and you're, all alooooooooone
All aloooooooooone - yeah!
Cause the whole, world, loves it when you don't get down
(Bah bah-da, bah bah bah-da da)
And the whole, world, loves it when you make that sound
(Bah bah-da, bah bah bah-da da)
And the whole, world, loves it when you're in the news
(Bah bah-da, bah bah bah-da da)
And the whole, world, loves it when you sang the blues
(Bah bah-da, bah bah bah-da da)" - Outkast