A Thinking Mans Guide to the Failures of the Urban Music Scene Pt. 2

This music thing is actually a lot simpler than it seems for the people who think about it from the business prospective. That’s why I know the people behind the desks are fine with urban music reaching it’s inevitable demise. Here are some of the reasons urban music is dying and just some of the things that can be done to save it.

1. The most obvious answer is for the channels that were dedicated to playing music to go back to playing music! MTV, BET, and VH1 were all created to promote artists and promote music. Now they promote reality shows and garbage. Serve your purpose, please!

2. The most necessary change is the least likely. Regardless of what you want to believe, ipods created this problem. Five years ago, sure people were downloading music, but they were doing it to create mix CD’s. when ipods became a necessity in every person’s daily life, downloading became necessary instead of just an option. If you never need a CD then you can get all your music from the damn computer and pay for it only if you want to be nice. It’s obvious and everyone knows it. Without ipods we would still need CDs! But the solution doesn’t involve the complete destruction of ipods, that would be stupid, it just demands more use of technology. CDs can be watermarked, which means they cannot be played in a computer and therefore they cannot be downloaded. It can be done because every time I get an album in advance from a record label it is watermarked so I can’t make bootleg copies before it is released. It may cost more money to produce but it would make CDs a necessity again and it would bring money back into the industry. Imagine if the new Jay album dropped without the possibility of a leak because everyone who had it on CD couldn’t burn it and put it in their itunes. Sure they wouldn’t be able to play it on their ipod but they could get the singles online if they really wanted it. Smarten up!

3. Anyone remember back when half the videos you saw had movie clips through them? It was because they were on the soundtrack for some movie. When was the last time you saw something like that. Now, undoubtedly there aren’t as much movies with African American casts but we need to get in where we fit in and need to get these soundtracks going. The movie companies and the labels need to get a partnership back up. That gives the artist and the movie double promotion. It worked so well years ago, where did we go wrong?

4. Artists need to come into the game with a crew. A team that will hold you down and keep your buzz up, not hold you back. Every artist who does it properly succeeds, from Jay to Nas to Nelly to 50 and even more recently with Young Jeezy and DJ Khaled. All these new artists are out here looking lonely and scared. The fewer moves you make, the easier it is to be forgotten when you are quiet.

5. Now this one might sound stupid, but ain’t nothing wrong with a good old fashioned hip-hop beef if it is done properly. Just attacking everyone in your path is ridiculous…what Charles Hamilton as a new artist with no real industry co-sign was simply silly, you don’t want to make enemies before you even have built your buzz, you just want to make it known that you are better than the next man lyrically. It keeps your name in the press and if your diss record is good enough you might end someone’s career and cement a legacy. It’s a business, challenge the competition but play it smart.

Those are just the basics. If you want a more detailed list we can sit down for lunch and talk tactics. I wish I had a record label, it would be the truth, believe that!!!

A Thinking Mans Guide to the Failures of the Urban Music Scene Pt. 1

For the last five, six years or so music and entertainment have become a major part of my life. There was so much excitement when I stepped into the business, eager to get those interviews with the hottest celebs and to just learn more about the art. Now the excitement has all but fizzled. Urban entertainment and music appears to be a dying cause and I’m left carrying a magazine I can only hope will be able to hold on until things get better.

It took a while for me to understand why people were all over Jay-z these last few years. It’s true he represents the golden era of hip-hop and yes he is one of the best to ever do it, but that was never enough for me. I’ve made it my duty to go out and get every Jay-z album and certainly there is no doubt that the man makes hits, I just don’t think those hits always result in hit/classic albums. Bigger than that I am honest with my music and Jay has been in a decline. His music is not nearly where it used to be. Still it seems that any bad talk about Jay automatically makes you a hater. All that said, I finally realize that Jay-z is probably the last hip-hop artist to garner attention the way he does, and most certainly the last to move an audience at this rate. People like Lil’ Wayne and T.I. can move the units but I doubt they’ll ever be able to look back at a career as illustrious as Hov’s. That’s quite unfortunate for music.

The way it looks, hip-hop and urban music is just a few short years away from becoming an old man’s tale that we’ll tell our children. With the way music is going and CD sales are plummeting I seriously doubt artists will put out albums at all in the next two to three years. It just wont be necessary. I know people who haven’t brought an album in the last 5 years, but have every track on their favorite albums. You probably know people who haven’t brought albums in longer! Record labels are losing faith and losing money and they won’t stand for it too much longer.

All the while, people like me who live off the business have to watch in hopes that this last of the dying breed provides some sort of breath of air for the game.

Parlé has had its share of ups and downs, but never because the pool of talent wasn’t available…not until now at least. I sit around flipping through cover concepts in my head and not one makes sense in the long run. Even the ones I eventually run are questionable. Then we get people like Kanye West who actually have a position in the upper echelon of entertainment and he decides he wants to make a fool of himself every chance he gets.

Music and urban entertainment needs a savior, but unfortunately its not going to happen. We’re so far gone that there is no bringing us back. Sadly, people like me who have invested so much into this life have almost no choice but to sit around and watch it crumble…and because we love it so much we’re too stubborn to jump shit before it goes all the way down.

...lonely living

When I was 15 years old I had my first “semi” serious relationship. Six to eight months into it I found out the girl was cheating on me. Three days later I was in another relationship, with just as much invested in it. I stayed with her for a year and a half or so until it just felt like it had run its course. We broke up on Monday and I was locked into another situation by Friday. I think it was then that I realized I had a problem.

My problem is shared by millions of people across the globe, but everyone has a different way of handling it. My problem? A fear of being alone. I like company, preferably a female “like” interest. Early on that “like” interest would quickly become “the love of my life” and we’d be in a relationship for the title and the benefits. It seems a lot of people , more women from what I see, are fine with that solution to the problem, but personally that solution has come to disgust me, so much so that these days I prefer to be the complete opposite.

Believe me, I still like company—preferably a female like interest—but a relationship takes building up to. I’m 22 and have already had 2 very serious relationships along with a handful of meaningful situations. They have all taught me a lot, but above all have taught me patience, especially when dealing with the opposite sex. I’m so patient that I’ve already made the decision that I need to be with a woman at least 7 long years before we get married. And I take the 7-year plan quite seriously. With that said I feel like if I’m looking at a 7-year journey towards a strong future, I can wait as long as I want before I’m locked into a relationship. If we are going to work I don’t see why six months, nine months or even a year is too long of a trial period before a relationship. Sure it may be prolonging the inevitable, but I might also save us many months of unhappiness.

I’ve learned to cope with m problem, women on the other hand haven’t been so receptive to my solution. I’m still a work in progress, I have yet to be perfected, but one day I hope to be.

Life isn’t all about side kicks, video games and myspace…or is it?

For the past 11 months, I’ve worked with teens in a couple of very hands on positions. Over that period of time I learned so much about myself and about people, and though I will continue to learn, this piece of life helped me understand just where I stand in the world.

I first worked as a mentor and a motivator of teens in a high school after school program for about 9 months. Then immediately after I was an assistant coordinator and editor of content for an online teen news magazine.

I can’t say I knew what to expect when I started looking for jobs that involved working with teens. My degree is in legal studies but my background in writing is what led me to young adults. I figure I have something valuable I can teach them and the fact that I’m considerably young myself, it might be a lot easier to get the message across.

Once working with teens in any capacity, it doesn’t take long to realize how much they are being short changed by the system. They say in life you get what you pay for, so I guess it makes sense that the free public education these students are receiving is serving up the least amount of education legally possible. It’s so bad, I’d like to get a civil class action negligence case against the mayor and the entire education system. I’ll save the exact problems for another entry, but what puzzled me most was that none of the young teens seemed to recognize the issues. I met more young adults in the last 11 months who don’t know how to read and write on at least a 9th grade level than I think I’ve ever met in my life. The number of people who couldn’t write a proper complete sentence, much less a complete paragraph was quite astonishing. So I quickly began to understand why they didn’t want to write. And who wants to read when you don’t know what half the words mean. Maybe its always been this bad and I was just one of the lucky few to make the best of it, but I feel like its gotten much worse.

These young adults are faced with more problems than they could ever comprehend at such a young age, but they have found ways to cope with their issues. For the boys, games serve as the perfect escape from the world. There is a new video game every week to take your mind off the fact that you can’t write in script and by the time you realize you can’t sign your own working papers the good folks at Nintendo or Sony introduce a completely new system. For the girls, it's sidekicks, smart phones, youtube, and meebo to distract them from the fact that they can’t spell Tuesday or Wednesday, considering electronically all you need is T-day or W-day to get by. I honestly believe some of these kids wouldn’t be able to spell their own names if they didn’t have it memorized from seeing it so much.

For most of the last 10 years I’ve been told that other people aren’t like me and that I can’t expect people to be as motivated as me or as advanced as I was. It never made sense to me until recently. Most people are content with themselves and rather be oblivious to their setbacks. Ignorance is truly bliss. After learning all this, ironically, I’m not even mad any more. Yes, they are going to get older and will be forced to deal with grown situations sooner than they can imagine, but that’s just it…they shouldn’t have to deal with anything more than the next video game or puppy love in these early teen years. It’s our job as responsible adults to try to teach them through everyday life, but these children are exposed to way too many things beyond their years already anyway, no need to rush them anymore. I intend on trying to make young adults more progressive and hopefully I can help some more students write a complete sentence, work on their spelling and even write in script but I can't expect them to understand how far behind they actually are. They shouldn't be held responsible for other people's short comings, it just not fair.

SO next time you see some child enjoying their childhood…let them be, because for them, at that age, life is really all about video games and myspace.

The Return

I decided to blow the dust off the keyboard and get this blog back up. The goal is to put up a new post every Wednesday. Hope you enjoy them.

2008 year-end status update

Once again, a new year is upon us, faster than I was able to grasp, but nonetheless it is here. I am thankful and more importantly, I’m optimistic about the opportunities and possibilities that this new year holds.

If no one else has said it, 2008 was a great year. No relatives, nor friends, nor associates were taken by death and as far as I know, all are healthy as need be to approach the new year positively and with ambition.

For myself, 2008 began with lots of uncertainty and sickness, but the hardships and doctor visits proved to be full of more lessons and life analysis than I had gotten in many of my years past. I’d like to think I was on a clear path before, but now I’m focused, clear headed and on a mission more than ever. I found more personal success this past year because I finally allowed myself to see what’s truly important to me, and I have made a commitment not to allow outside factors to be the least bit of a hindrance anymore. Things will go wrong, and there are so many things in life that we completely have no control over, but if we take complete control over self and understand where we are struggling to get ourselves, than the hurdles become small pebbles we skip over on our pursuit.

How’s Parlé? Could be better, but we ended 2008 on an amazing note, and the future is brighter than it’s ever been. Name an artist who was making moves in 2008 and we got a feature (give or take a couple). The same is looking to be true for this new year. As far as the tour, we’re flying now…literally. We touchdown in California and Michigan in the coming months and it only gets better with time. Not only are we finding success, but it’s great to see the extended family finding success as well. Charles is signed, with a single, a video and a magazine cover under his belt. Naima put on her play and is building up for a future in theater. And Brian (Sciryl) dropped his 2nd mixtape with plans for more very soon. All is well in Parlé land and it would be selfish of me to expect more.

As with any year, there are new goals and missions that have been set out for myself and for Parlé. My baby turns 5 this year, a milestone I dreamed of seeing, but can’t say I always expected to see. Not sure how we’ll celebrate yet or what the future will hold for us but I can only expect the best. We’ll continue to aim for the stars in 2009 and with a little bit of help I hope to at least get a trip to the clouds. Until then…it’s still, Not Your Average!!!

My President (Elect)

I had a great nights rest, one that was genuinely peaceful where I could lay rest assured that finally we the people had earned a victory.Our win was bigger than the Superbowl, the feeling is better than the one I hope to experience if the Knicks ever earn the coveted NBA championship. This is a win that won't go away at the beginning of next season, it is a victory that will last a lifetime and impact generations. It is bigger than we can ever imagine.

Growing up in a low income household you quickly learn that you should never count your chickens before they hatch. I even live by the ideal that you hope for the least/worst that way you don't set yourself up for disappointment. That's why throughout the entire Obama campaign. I never got too excited. I always hoped for the best but never did I get too far ahead of myself. Not once did I allow myself to think the majority of America would want to see this man--a black man, hailing from Chicago with very little political experience--holding the biggest title in the World. My cynicism can take a back seat, at least for the remainder of the year.

As a child, my father would always tell me that one day, even I could be president of this great country. I can't say I ever truly believed it. And I'm pretty sure he never believed it either. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would ever see an African American president, a friendly face if you will. Things have changed now. I have hope now, I'd like to think we as a people now have hope. I've been inspired to try to accomplish more than my cluttered mind allows me to imagine. When I push my students (at my after school program) I can point to a larger role model. When I tell my frieds that they can do anything they put their mind to I will say it with conviction. Most importantly when I tell my children that even they can be the President of the United States, I will believe it! All because of the examples set by...MY PRESIDENT (elect).