ITS UP TO YOU…NEW YAWK! NEW YAWK! part 1

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Recently the team traveled to NYC for the CMJ Conference, where basically throughout the city, it’s a free-for-all for all artists, both established and emerging, to hand out as much promo music and merch as humanly possible. The goal is to meet as many people as possible in like 48 hours, it’s almost like the Amazing Race of indie music.

We set out at night around 7pm if i remember correctly, much to the chagrin of Mr. Black Beard, for good reason though. Seven hours of riding in darkness is not cool whatsoever. Nor is arriving in New York at like 2 a.m. to crash at a friends apartment with mad stuff to unload, but hey….lets go!

OK, passengers were Pirate/Ship captain Black Beard, Blackjack Jim Duggan impersonator (not shown), Damon aka “D” Promoter (not shown), Black Bauer and myself.
So two white guys, two black buys and a puerto rican jump into a Mini Van as if it were the start of a BAD JOKE, and we head for the “apple.”

Pirate Black Beard kept it so retro that prior to leaving the town, he encouraged us to bring “TAPES…Cassette Tapes.” WOW! We actually had the pleasure of bumping some pretty dated yet classic material on the way down.
***sidebar thought – “Does anyone remember having tape players or walkmans that only had a FWD button? You had to remove the tape, flip it and fast foward the other side, just in order to rewind the reverse side that you were listening to! RETRO!!
***sidebar thought II – “If you have an iPod, sooooo! You aint SPIT and aint lived unless you are able to share a tape player/walkman story.”

INGREDIENTS / SUPPLIES:
*You’ll need a destination or a point B, allowing you to travel from point A with purpose
*White mini van with New Era magnets on each side. Why!? Looks like you are official, like you may have boxes of promotional fitted hats in the cargo. Also, you are able to distinguish your “VeeHackle” from the other registerd dirty white vans.
*Two white guys (one really thin, young and fearless and the other with 80’s wrestler beard that can rap REALLY sweet)
*Two black guys (one with glasses, the other without…so that way if something goes down everyone can say….”The dude with the glasses did it.”)
*One Puerto Rican, Latino, doesnt matter really, just another ethnicity to round out what sounds like the start of a bad joke. Make sure he has coffee for the long ride and make sure that he looks like he could be in a “terrorist line-up.” The risk or being pulled over because of his beard makes the trip more interesting.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR TRIP!!!

PART II to follow….stay tuned for “This aint New York! Why are we in Jersey?”

GO AND GET YOUR MONEY LITTLE BOWTIE BOY

Long before there was Lil’ Wayne, Lil’ Cease, Lil’ Kim, Lil’ Bow Wow, Lil’ Romeo…..
(pause)
sharing some sidebar, silent thoughts i’m having while writing this
**sounds like the beginning of Twas’ the Night Before Christmas – Hood version
**Who in the H3LL made it cool to spell the word “Little” incorrectly

BACK TO THE STORY…
Long ago, Edreys was this VERY shy “lil'” boy. I was very content with staying to myself as well as keeping my drawing and musical interests private as well. In early grade school, there was always some type of class performance that the teachers would put together for the parents. I remember having giant butterflys in my stomach and even crying from the thought of having to stand before any number of people. So, typically what I would do is, I would avoid making any sort of eye contact and stare to the side while carrying out my part in the performance until it was over. Above, you’ll see the evidence of the such behavior. My mother would call out over and over as discretely as possible,
“Edreys…EDREYS! Would you turn to Mommy for a second?”
Maybe my bow-tie was just so big, that it didn’t enable much head movement on my part.

FWD to the present. I’m still facing the same way, minus the bowtie. LOL! But this time I’m just showing off my haircut. I actually LOVE rocking in front of people now. It’s what I’m cut out for…Entertainment.

Enjoy your family everyone! Peace
Next entry: Why I’m a Scrooge!!

THROWBACK CINEMA

Since posting the “One More Audition” aka “The Flashback” to the popular scene in Krush Groove, I was inspired to do a little diggin’. One may be able to tell that my associates and I have a great appreciation for the music pioneers that have paved the way and left us little jewels to hold and cherish. So in the post we pay homage to one of the greatest Hip Hop groups of all-time, Run – DMC.

The brief story goes like this: The year was 2002, and there was a buzz around the town about this Hip Hop Halloween Jam that everyone was anticipating. Well back then I was a part of one of the dopest two-man, award-winning hip hop groups, that you’ll probably never hear of outside of this post, named Raw Intel. It was myself (Eddie Reys) and my Wonder Twin and partner in rhyme, Trev Thorne. So being the forward thinkers that we were and still are, we decide to perform as Run-DMC at the Halloween Jam, doing original songs of our own as well as some covers.

So the plan is in motion, we contact my man DJ LoPro to back us up as we needed a trio for the full Run-DMC effect. While at his apartment the night before the event, October 31, we’re rehearsing, diggin’ in the crates for Run-DMC hits and catching feelings about how dope these guys were. The music is blasting, we’re zoning out, spitting each line of these classic hits and out the corner of my eye, this little 10 – 12″ television has some “Breaking News” running across the screen. They flash a picture of Jason Mizell, and there was some rainy, dark footage of a body bag being dragged from a studio. Lo’ and behold…right while we are there rehearsing our Run-DMC show for the following night, the news breaks that Jam Master Jay (JMJ) was murdered.

Incredible sadness and a greater sense of purpose hit all 3 of us that night. Just the coincidence of us paying homage and the mortality of one of the greatest DJ’s to do it being last remembered in a yellow body bag and not his Adidas suit was shattering.

(scratch one for JMJ) “Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning GOOD!!!”

Long Post, but it was necessary.
Also, i gotta give you the ingredients for this dish as well:

*Two – Three dudes who know ALL the Run-DMC lyrics (or any group for that matter) As long as they are notable!
*Two “Old Man” hats and black spray paint, the hats were originally plaid
*Some rope from Home Depot and gold spray paint
*Two medium Sweat Jackets from Old Navy, notice we aren’t even rockin 3 striped joints…how official were we?? lol
*Practice a routine and hopefully you can pull this dish off without a rapper or icon being slain while you are planning your show.

PHOTO Courtesy of “M.I.S.S.I.N.G. Link”©

ONE MORE AUDITION

Everyone is familiar with doing things on a shoe string budget a.k.a. “Low Budget”…but today we are here to talk about the latest phenom..”NO BUDGET.”
We just shot a trailer for my video called DUI (Dumb Under the Influence), and it worked for what we needed it for. No FAT news channel cameras with gadgets, bells and whistles…No Hi-Def digital cameras with vibrant colors to make me look like i’m in your living room with you. No Sireee! CHECK OUT THE VIDEO and the instructions below for the “No Budget Diet Plan.”

Ingredients:
*Time and Date for Shoot
*1 to 2 Video cameras (Works best if one is your own and the other is borrowed)
*A location: (Choose a place where the guy keeps the thermostat at about 58 degress even though its just below 32 degrees outside) – Keeps everyone attentative
*A crummy youtube upload of old school footage or scene from a favorite movie ripe for re-enactment
*Request the help of friends that are down to hang out for about 4 hours or so and let them know that you can only pay in Pizza slices
*Enlist an intern or student majoring in Film from a reputable University (this way there is at least one person who knows what they are doing) or SUBSTITUTE a Friend here
*A print out of the lines for each character from the snippet you have selected to re-enact
*Assigning characters in advance usually helps things go smoother
*Everyone takes their place in the scene and the cameras are ready to roll…
*ADDING a little procrastination here with jokes and laughter helps warm everyone up in that cold a$$ location you chose to shoot in
*ACTION..have fun and record as many frames/shots as it is better to have more than not enough when its editing time…
CHECK THE VIDEO: DUI