Black Musicians - Tumblr Posts

Elizabeth Cotten's 90th birthday concert, 1983

Joan Armatrading - The Weakness in Me

Joan Armatrading need I say more? She is all about the deep feels. Love love love her angst & gravel....

Jon Batiste - FREEDOM

This video is pure joy in technicolor! Jon is so alive that he wills your feet to move and you can't help but feel free! This Dude is one to watch!

Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X A...

This song gets my subby/maso side.

"More pain....got me begging....begging...begging. "

Maxwell - Lifetime (Official HD Video)

This song appears to be about a relationship on the surface, but it's about a spiritual journey. Just listen to the lyrics....

Babyface - We've Got Love (Official Video)

This is for the kewl in you Babyface. You're music is timeless.

Keep On Rollin (Radio Edit)

Where are all my old skewl players at? King George is that record player...in the basement..party music...he is nostalgic but never gets old....his music makes you feel...goood...

I made 2 edits of coco jones. ❤️ She got me in a chokehold now 🥰

The Black Dystopia of Free the Robots

Capital Steez's song Free the Robots is a tune that's been haunting my mind for the past few years. Everything from the lyrics to the vocals and rhythm is perfectly carried out. I never got to listen to any of Steez's music while he was still alive, mostly because I was still in elementary school when his career started and had ZERO interest in hip-hop at the time. Even now I'm still pedantic about the rap I choose to listen to. Capital Steez however blew me away with his 2012 masterpiece.

First thing first: I have to get credit to the producer responsible for the music, free the Robots. The original song is called Dear Diary and was released in 2007. Steez would later rap over the beat when he “borrowed” it for his single. The reason for the quotations is that the music producer Free the Robots never got properly credited for the song and many people attribute the beat to Steez rather than them. With that said, the music has an ominous and foreboding vibe to it that pairs well with Steez's cynical lyrics. It immediately lets listeners know they're in for a spooky ride.

Steez uses his lyrical wit to paint a grim picture of American society, particularly, the reality that many black Americans have to face. They also reflect Steez's deteriorating mental health and growing disillusionment with the world. Let's get started with the first verse:

"Illuminati tryin' to read my mind with a eagle eye

And the haze got me thinkin', why

We killed Osama and plenty innocent people died

We should see the signs, but we Stevie blind"

This is a blatant attack on America's war-mongering attitude. Osama's death was greatly celebrated, but the countless people who lost their lives in the name of war were treated as just a statistic. There is no glory in war. It's just senseless murder and yet people treat it as a noble cause. Wake up and stop the violence.

"No disrespect to the man or the legend, but

I'm sick and tired of askin' my brethren if

It all ends in 2011

Would God come through or would he actually forget us?

Cause, apocalypse is getting closer

But they're more focused on that lil youth sippin' soda

Fuck the sugar act, n*ggas out pushin' crack

And I lost my father figure because of that"

There used to be a common conspiracy that the world would end in 2012 and perhaps this weighed on Steez's paranoid mind. It's been noted that Steez had a very warped view of reality fueled by an eclectic blend of spiritual beliefs so it wouldn't surprise me if he genuinely believed an apocalypse was coming. Ironically, Steez ended his life two days after the world was predicted to end. He then goes on to call out how the government would rather tax the poor instead of dealing with the serious issues plaguing communities. The last line is especially brutal if you know that Steez lost his dad at age 3 so he basically lost two father figures in his short lifespan. Even though Steez acknowledges that drugs destroy communities, he himself was a very casual drug user and that only worsened his already crumbling mental state.

"So can I live? or is my brother tryin' to gun me down

Scuffle a couple of rounds 'til we hear the thunder sound

No lightening, clash of the titans

And after the violence a moment of silence

Cause I want mine the fast way

The ski mask way, lookin' for a fast pay

And instead of stickin' up for each other

Pickin' up guns and stickin' up our brothers

So fuck 'em all, I'm comin' through ragin'

And I won't stop 'til Reagan is caged in

Mom tell me I should let the Lord handle it

The arm of the law is tryin' to man-handle us

A man's world, but a white man's planet

And the doors are slowly closing while we fallin' through the cracks of it

It's a shame that flippin' crack will be

The best alternative if you don't make it rappin'

These crack houses and trap houses are trappin' us in

And in the end we're gonna remain stagnant

I ain't havin' it"

There's so much to digest with the second verse but the general idea is that the black community is self-destructing while also being under attack from white patriarchal society. Black On black violence is a topic often used as a tool to justify racist hatred, but here, Steez expresses genuine empathy. All too often are black people getting killed by their own members, by people who are supposed to have their backs. A life of drugs and violence is treated like the only option afforded to black people if they don't make it into the entertainment or sports industry. Steez is practically urging the listener to not become another statistic and to do something more with your life. This is your wake-up call.

12 years later, Free the Robots has a message that remains relevant even today. There are many people who are slumbering, completely blind to the poisons rotting society. Steez made it clear that the responsibility of changing the world lies upon those who are aware it needs to be saved. It's a shame that he lived such a short life, but it's clear that there was incredible acuity in his soul. Rest in peace.

“We talking bout practice!”

-Allen Iverson

Just a little neosoul typebeat vibes as I practice on my Akai_Pro mpc.

Drill Bits Vol. 4 music produced by Teach_or_Trav

Studying 📚 the craft and learning about the music business, and music publishing.

How yall like my study aesthetic? 🤔💯

Studying some jazz theory, I need my piano chops to improve to create better music. When I practice I start with some

-scales, been focusing on natural and harmonic minor, minor and major blues

-Hanon exercises

- ii-V-I’s (right hand four voices, some times three when I’m messing with a tritone voicing I learned.

- Then I usually start having fun and creating there from ideas I’ll generate from my exercises.

jazzology by Robert Rawlins is my current resource of study.

A random amalgamation of videos. The clips are significant because all of the was shot while I was still teaching full time.

A lot of my videos were shot with comic type filters because i still didn’t feel %100 comfortable expressing my full artistic self.

I suppose #differentmoney the track that I rapped on is an extension of this expression. The transition from educator to artist and back again every day as I would commute to school in the BX but have studio sessions all over the city 🏙️.

I think thats why I left the mistake at the end of the track. Mr. Washington the music educator would have wanted as close to perfection as possible. Teach_or_Trav my inner artist creates with reckless abandon and doesnt give a f@ck wut u think !😮‍💨

Thinking About one of my musical influences…Bobby Mcferrin

In “The Artists’ Way” Julia Cameron is adamant about prescribing weekly artists dates to take time to be present and heal your artistic soul.

This week I decided to go to a rooftop spot in the city that always brings me joy and peace. I did nothing but allow my self to experiment with sounds and play on my #mpclive2

[Shoutout to Akai Pro]

I’m glad I took some time for myself to do this because normally I wouldn’t. It was a stressful week and I was not in the mood to create or go to a different borough iykyk.

I found my flow there and for a few hours, release from all my worries and anxieties. It was dopeful.

SIMPLEXITY [yes i made this word up]: Simplexity for me is when art 🖼️ is executed in an individualistically complex manner but its final product is simple enough for any person to understand.

Sometimes I want my music to just hit you with a feeling no words. Other times I’m just talking my shiid cuz I know we all want to in our own ways.

But recently I’ve been trying to take a step back and reflect on what I have completed and released so far so I can decide ok where do I go from here. What do I want to achieve with each new track I make?

I am constantly asking myself questions…

Are these levels too high? Should I cut this part or that part? Can a beat have melodies and counter melodies and still go hard af? Is this too much compression? Are the dynamics building up to something? Etc.

At the end of it all though I find myself saying. Have I achieved Simplexity? Is this simple enough to digest while still expressing the little orchestrative lines I wish to include.

Its a process. It takes as long as it takes. I'm enjoying the grind tho. 💯

Killer by kali uchis (cover)