THE LAST SOUNDWAVES?: inane ramblings about the scene during my short run

Welp, here we are. end of the whole experiment that was soundwaves 2 and i find myself asking the serious question of "should there even be a soundwaves 3? before I delve deep into my emo fest I must warn you, im on some new shit. names will get named here. i don't care anymore. I have always tried to keep quite on stuff because of the fact that the Seattle scene is a constant flux of "whose side are you on". you critisize someones beat, they don't wanna submit work to your project, you tell someone they coulda brought it a little more on a verse, they don't wanna open for your show. A little tact is never a bad thing, but its gotten so bad to the point that they're are people you litterally can't tell nothing to and let me be honest, as a producer i get enough of this already and i'm not gonna contribute to it. especially since the results are the same as if i had said something. also we started soundwaves to for the main purpose of "putting people on" we always kept the most perfect balance possible of established local acts, up and comers, total darkhorses for the soul reason of letting nonames shine against stars in a way we are pretty confident you would never see otherwise. we also wanted to see people come up on a little cash. of course their are greedy reasons like building a brand out of the show, and getting Cel some face time invovled as to why we did this, im not gonna lie. but the base intentions where always pure. just looking at it from a business model perspective would show pretty clearly that it wouldn't be smart from a business perspective but my goal never was to make money from this. We know where not BIGTUNE (a show that we have tremendous respect for) nor were we trying to be with this beat battle, we always wanted to remain small and local. Steve harvey voice: "WELL, NOW THAT WE GOT THAT PART OUT OF THE WAY...." first off, i had a 15 man line up rather than a traditional 16 man. why you ask? well to give our reigning champion kdcutz a first round bye (a thought up reward for winning previous soundwaves battles that Cel and I thought up that we thought would be cool). the only problem with such an odd lineup is that the entire show would be fucked if you don't get everyone to show up. but surely our hero of yesteryear wouldn't miss an opportunity to win another cash prize, especially one that would theoretically be easier than last year with one less round right? right? WRONG infact we had a number of flat out no show no calls in some of the most unprofessional manner. kdcuts no show jay battle no show izzy no show <---(fyi dude, your automatic xbox360 gamertag updates that say your at home playing call of duty modern warfare 2, not a good look when you noshow on someone). pretty much the only legitamate cancellation was boomboxmassacre, who had a computer issue and told me well ahead of time that he couldn't attend. there was other fuccery from other competitors, such as asking to get in without having to submit beats (man if you don't have beats for consideration, how you gonna win the battle!?) and then once getting in, dropping out the day of once you see the competition sheet because you quote "forgot it was fathers day that day" cmon son! lol really!? In case you haven't figured the theme out for this blog entry, its show etiquete. I know sometimes in the midst of being told how nice you are by friends and family, getting a couple youtube shout outs, or maybe even doing a song with a Q-list celebrity artist or two it can be easy to forget you are not in a position to be a diva and are in fact very much.....gulp....dare i say it?

LOCAL

shocked diva: "wha....!? not me"

YEAH YOU MUTHAFUCKA!

you

me

all of us

local, so get off your high horse

I'm sorry but you not wanting to start the show until you have purified yourself in waters of lake minitonka, or recieved your hand picked grapes just isn't in the cards and continuing down that path is just gonna screw your name up real fucking talk. i don't care who you (or who you think you) are, people will get tired of it. YOUR NOT KANYE. i had a nigga really request comp meals to do the show, im like "nigga you submited your application to me! gtfohwtbs"

its getting weird out here yall. i know im gonna get a thousand "do you know who such and such is, you should apologize" type of emails, save em. i don't care and this stuff needs to be said.

for all the whinning people do about shady promoters/venues like studio 7 and how much you guys wanna "get on" how you gonna front someone off when they try to actually put you on.

when my co-sponsor had to gracefully bow out and the prize went from $1000 - down to $500, i swallowed my pride and made sure i personally emailed, twittered, text, and in some cases even called each and every contestant to let you know it and if you wanted out because of it, you were more than welcomed to. now imagine how bad a rep i would have had if i had just said it at the show.

next post we will go further into actual show etiquete in the next post.

STAY TUNED

SOUNDWAVES 2! ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!

This is it folks, raw as beatmakers fighting it out for bragging rights....oh and $500 cash.
also gonna be some performances from The realest and my boy YOUNG CEL. this shit is gonna go down. even hotter than last time with veteran competitors like Jack the ripper, jay battle, baked beats and reigning champion kd kutz!
hell even UW hoop star Venoy Overton is dropping in to hear the heatery
hell this time theres even a freaking after party
i personally got a list of more than a few dozen top notch females coming through to this.
GET YOUR ASS TO THIS!

now i aint one to gossip and you aint heard this from me, but i heard Jesus Christ himself is taking sunday off from work to get to this. its going down!
(ok that last parts not true, but this is still gonna crack)
(sorry jesus, but come through if you can)

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN HE NEEDED YOU BROTHA?

There is no true "scene" in ANY city that is totally united at its core. its a myth people perpetuate to point out that they think its possible (it isn't). people talk about this all the time but the fact is that as long as there are people on top, the people on the bottom (whether because they where there fairly or unfairly) will undoubtedly complain. thats okay.

WHAT IS NOT OKAY however, are when those people who claim to be in a tight-knit organization a really just a loosely realated group of people who are all looking for someone to use and use up.

SEATTLE: At first look you would see a nice group of talented nearly polished emcee's and producers that all appear to work together in loving hip hop matremony. A land of Oz if you will. so what happens when the perverbial WIZARD OF OZ needs help? why you throw a party and rally behind your boy of course!
In this case, the help the wizard needed was to keep the Pharmacy; a local beacon of hip hop hope in Seattle that is (estimated off the top) probably the source about 70% of the quality local hip hop that is blasting on the very limited sources here in the city. for various reasons the pharmacy was facing being removed from our growing rap map and the solution was a old school Rent party. The venue was thrown (to be fair rather last minute) at the Hidmo in the Central District. With a cover of only $5, and awesome drink specials (I got introduced to for the first time to a sneakily intoxicating drink called "spodee"), I had almost no doubt in my mind that this was gonna be a real big shindig with the biggest problem being if there was gonna be standing room in such a small venue.

I WAS SHOCKED TO FIND OUT THE HORRIBLE TRUTH

Now before I go any further let me put this in proper context for possible national readers who don't understand our little scene. Picture that Jay Dilla was still alive but didn't have alot of money. a dirty deal on his contract with [enter evil record label here] means he is about to lose all his belongings and music forever and ever. the only thing he can do is throw a rent party to save his stuff. Do you think all the people Dilla has worked with in his lifetime would show up? al the dilla stans that claim he inspired him (yet they're music sounds nothing like his), all the people who claim to be down with dilla?

I hope so because that's not what I saw at this event.
what i did see was a strong handful of about 70 or so people who you could tell where down with Vita from day one. People who you could tell were actually friends with dude before he became the main sound of the town. they came in and paid, bought raffle tickets, bought drinks (which also went towards the cause) and were supportive in all ways possible. Every face I saw I could identify how they were connected to the man, from artist who hapilly hopped up on stage to spit verses over songs they collabed on with him to young producers that probably didn't know what 4/4 time was until he explained it to them. but the numbers didn't add up. 70% of the polished music scene shouldn't add up to 70 people. where the fuck was everybody. ANSWER: some phony shit was going down. Im not trying to get on a white horse and claim loyalty. I just came by and dropped a few dollars and showed love, thats nothing compared to those that ORIGINATED AND ORGANIZED THE WHOLE THING. I haven't know the man for that long so I am not gonna sit here and front like I been down since day one, but you don't really gotta know him to see that he is good for the town in a major way. half the reason the studio was in such a financial state is because of his NON-SHEISTY business practices. yep, all them times you didn't have the recording money and he "let you slide till next time", or you really wanted a beat of his but couldn't afford it (after your broke ass already recorded on it) and he liked you on it so much that he let it go "for the love". those all end up costing and they don't cost anybody but him. until such a stable in the town falls and then it cost all of us.

To those that complain about aspects of the scene being faulty such as you not being able to get on, those are beatable and while they may exist, are really nothing more than a annoyance. BUT THINGS LIKE THIS ARE DISTURBING.

had this party been introduced as a chance to look at some sexy females and get some drinks (of which both were there) complete with typical party flyer packaging of a half naked chick and a bottle of champagne people that didn't even know vita would have been there. but since a brotha decides to be straight up and reach out.......

just think about it, what if the Pharmacy wasn't saved, what would (again) 70% of the towns music scene do? sorry but i just gotta say if you didn't show up and you were in town that is officially some funny shit #takeithowyouwannatakeit. I understand some of you may have had to work or had prior obligations but i sure hope you threw the man something or do when you see him.

LIKE. BUTTAH!

Ok yall so as it stands now, i have the standard axiom 25 midi board, which is cool....i guess. its pretty easy to you use and with my mac book its all plug and play (no need to use the software disk which i like) but i new from day one that there would eventually be a point in which i would need more than 25 keys (it is a gray haired bitch to transpose mid melody like i do now) and the drumpads (honest to god the main reason i got it for at the time) are worthless as they are hard as rocks. so unless I get my hands on a certain special drumstick that is 1/2 of the keyboards usefullness down the crapper. i was inches away from buying an mpd (an mpc drone) when along came this sexy new option.

the mpk61 allows for programming of a full 16 drum pads, a screen that actually intergrates with whatever software program you are using, note repeat, mpc swings, and the knobs are a helluva alot more responsive than a lot of the consumer brand boards I have seen!

bye bye axiom!

MORE REASON SOUNDS

FUCK RAPIDSHARE!
[color purple voice]: Iz using sendspace now


REASON REFILL 0.5

REASONable doubt

Woulda had this done faster if it weren't for the fact that RAPIDSHARE SUCKS DONKEY BALLS!
REASON REFILL 2

The zombification that can be Seattle hip hop

First off let me say that no scene is without its own brand of politics and many are waaaay worse than ours. in fact i feel it is not our own brand of politics that is the problem but the small amount of space in which it occurs in. this can lead to politics which would seem mundane or harmless in a large scene like say New york to be considered colosal in Seattle. being one of the priveleged few with access in such a small market gives you a lot of power and this is totally fine (people forget there is a degree of business to this). what is not okay however is to deny that this network even exist at all and to straw man the argument into oblivion.
For clarification

THE "CIRCLE JERK", CHAIN OF COMMAND, ECHELONS OR ANYOTHER NAMES FROM HERE ON OUT IS NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT GETTING ON A SHOW.
the echelons are not i repeat ARE NOT Vitamin D/jake one/larry mizell jr/john moore/dave meinert (or mein millie)or any other name that you heard of as prominent in the town. in fact all those cats mentioned (and many more) are nothing but helpful.

The circle jerk lies in yes men cosigning hip hop no-no's in the hopes of getting in good with artist. as frustrating as Fyle Formatz post could get at times they happened to get 1000 replies at a time because they obviously struck a nerve with people. worse still, a glaring majority of the post weren't even from the people he was offending but from legions of zombies fighting a proxy war on their behalf in order to gain favor with higher ups. this isn't limited to online nut-hopperism.
D-dot had an argument with a man at party who was going hard on defending vitamin D as the greatest hip hop producer in the town and yet he couldn't name a single vita track. worse still he questioned dot's knowledge of vita (Dot is vita's brother. irony at its finest in that situation).

To avoid being one of these zombies it is important to follow the guidelines below to see if your part of this seattle hip hop douchery.

- Do you in ANY way shape or form try to argue that the reason someone isn't into your favorite local act is because they quote "don't get it"?

- [proof specific] Do you see the song of the week name and post a critique or compliment before you have really listened to the track?

- Do you go to shows or encourage others to go to shows to "Support"?

- Have you ever started off a critique or opinion of someones music with any version of "such and such is a good dude" or "i have known such and such X amount of time"?

- Have you ever stepped in to attack someone who has stated they dislike a song because "this person is an icon"?

If so you are a zombie and part of the reason artist get passes for putting out crap or make questionable moves so you really can't get mad when you see up and coming artist doing the same thing on a much smaller scale.


more on this later as we next discuss upper echelons.