Esperanza Spalding - Jazz aint nothing but soul

"You are not serious about your music"

From M.E. Exposed...

A friend of mine recently said to me that I was not serious about my music. I took some offense to this, but not in the old hyper-sensitive, defensive way I used to. The thing is this person knows nothing about what I’m working on or doing right now with respect to my music, nor did the person preface that very definitive statement with a question about it. The only reason I wasn’t more upset was because I could understand why they felt this way based on what they knew about my career. The statement was made because:

- The person hasn’t been seeing me perform lately (Which is quite intentional as I spend time building my brand and developing my product. Don’t be the common fowl. Try to be the unique Rooster, at least when you crow in the morning people will know it distinctly…That is far more important than being everywhere and having little effect).

- The person implied I was getting older so I should hurry up (I’m getting older yes. I’m in no rush. I’m not trying to write a hit LMFAO song that people may forget in a year. I’m trying to create something that represents me and that people will like, but will have longevity. That does not always happen overnight. Let no one rush you into any project or in any directions that your gut is not comfortable going in. I didn’t do music to become a star. I create music because it is a part of me and a gift God has given me to share. I do monetize my craft, but that is not the focus of this journey. Money will come.)

- The person suggested I sign to the label of another artist looking for acts to develop (Sounds glamorous, and the artist def has a lot of clout right now. That said I have never had the intentions of being any other artists entrepreneurial project. I can see how it could be beneficial to creating a hype around me, and maybe I would consider it if the contract was reasonable, but I’m here to create my own label, own my publishing company, write and produce my songs. These are some of the things I enjoy doing in music. I don’t wish to be molded when the mold of my vision is already so vividly clear in my mind. That said constructive criticism is always appreciated from people who matter.)

So at the end of the day I will conclude that I am and have always been serious about my music. If I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have gone to music school, or made it to the final pre-TV round of X-Factor, or the final round of Apollo, or opened on the stage of Jamaica Jazz & Blues festival, or be working on my debut album, all in 4 years. Many artists have devoted way more than that to a career and done less. 

So give yourself credit for all you have achieved, and don’t let anyone detract you with statements that come from a place that lacks insight. The hardest part of the music industry is definitely knowing yourself and knowing what you want, so spend some time thinking about that, and be sure about it. Keep that vision at the forefront of your mind. If you need external help then get it, but if you can execute this dream on your own, then make it happen, and never make anyone for the slightest moment imply you are not serious about your craft because they are not aware of you.

#RemainFocused

M.E.

So well said I had to repost in full

D.R.O.O.P.I.E. - She Wants Me To Stay (Unofficial Promo)

First hand at co-production places me on Golden Jubilee Bridge one crisp day in London, on shoot for a quick promo of D.R.O.O.P.I.E.'s She Wants Me To Stay. A taste of things to come from Mr Collab...

Peter Tosh Live

Never Gonna Stop

Been producing new tracks for the album some months now...Playing stuff for my mom last night leads to an hour long convo about Peter Tosh and some of my earliest musical influences...

I keep on, feels like I'm on the right track.

10 minutes of freedom in London

Writers Block?

I am too hard on myself

Writers block?

There is no such thing. Well not in the sense that you are creatively flaccid and unable to get it on. Its the complete opposite. More like trying to whizz when completely roused ...

40 Year old Virgin: Steve Carell trying to aim at a toilet

Something else wants to come out, don't force it. We are purposed to create.

Allow what is rousing you to burst forth. You might surprise yourself ...and your audience.

It worries me that some people can experience a 'creative block' for what might be a lifetime, or that I can fall into its cycle and not find my way out. is that possible? nah. its stubbornness really, holding on to things; the human condition.

I'm trying to write myself into the happy chapter of my life when I havn't finished living through some of the dark unhappy ones. I can press my pencil into the paper all I want sending my doodles pages down, but the song I'm trying to write cant get out around perhaps those I need to just let go of

Clearing all creative blocks....feels like an album, or so...

in studio

Read all about it (Pt3) - Emile Sande

You've got the words to change a nation but you’re biting your tongue

You've spent a lifetime stuck in silence afraid you’ll say something wrong

If no one ever hears it, how we gonna learn your song?

So come on come on, come on come on

You've got a heart as loud as lions so why let your voice be tamed?

Maybe we’re a little different, there’s no need to be ashamed

You've got the light to fight the shadows so stop hiding it away

Come on, come on

Chorus:

I wanna sing

I wanna shout

I wanna scream till the words dry out

So put it in all of the papers, I’m not afraid

They can read all about it, read all about it oh

Oh ohhh oh

Ohhh ohhh oh

Ohhh oh oh

At night we’re waking up the neighbours while we sing away the blues

Making sure that we’re remember yeah, cause we all matter too

If the truth has been forbidden, then we’re breaking all the rules

So come on come on, come on come on

Let’s get the TV and the radio to play our tune again,

It’s bout time we got some airplay of our version of events

There’s no need to be afraid, I will sing with you my friend

Come on come on

(Repeat Chorus)

Yeah we’re all wonderful, wonderful people

So when did we all get so fearful?

Now we’re finally finding our voices

So take a chance come help me sing this

Yeah we’re all wonderful, wonderful people

So when did we all get so fearful?

And now we’re finally finding our voices

Just take a chance come help me sing this

(Repeat Chorus x 2)

First fell in love with this girl in July when I heard My Kind of Love, but this song just opens me up like it was written for me the way how I feel it. 

To my number one fan...

I could O.D. on this cocktail: getting lost in the music, engaging and connecting with you in the crowd. I cant get this high often enough, but when I come down; hop off that stage; lights, cameras, mics all switched off, its easy to take for granted that you're still checking for me.

See I go back to my ordinary humbling life, quietly feigning for those moments between.

I try to get it back. I try to put it together. Pieces of me, scattered all over the floor and walls of my solitude. Melodies wake me from my sleep, I write them down quickly lest I lose them as they fade like dreams. Others have plagued me for years. I tune in to the din of voices in my head speaking over each other incessantly in prose. Thoughts on my chest like an aggressive persistent cough. I need to get it off, get it out...

Where did that come from?

That joy from writing and composing is the gateway drug that's gotten me here...smacking my knees, scratching my elbows, bussing shots through my ceiling with my gun finger, or that finger-snapping you do with your middle finger and thumb together while index finger lets loose (girls that dance 'hot wuk' understand. Men that give it do too). But I digress...

I'm a junkie you see, irrational, here one minute, spaced out the next, but i never stop moving. Perpetually focused and scatterbrained all at once. I disappear, not because I'm not channeling my gifts to purpose. I'm trying to better share them. Bare with me...

I am eternally grateful for all the time you have lent to my dream.

Thank you for helping me to support my habit.

Back in the studio with Kabhir Bonner

10 years ago I officially started this journey in music. After an 18 track demo and plenty cassettes full of deck recorded freestyles circulated among friends, 'Mystory' began in studio with Kabhir Bonner. '2002/For My...'

This is for my ghetto children

Not the ones that's living in it but the ones that's got it living in em 

This is for my warriors

Not the ones that start wars but the ones that's gotta fight the odds

This is for the poor 

Not those that live beyond they means but the ones without the means to live 

keep your heads up ... this ones for me and you 

2002 we gon' turn these grey skies blue 

...And that's how I came out the gate with my first official recording. Fully embracing that I was a British Jamaican yute spitting from my hip hop soul. I turned around and spoke on my environment, Music Correspondent coming to you live from the streets of round town Kingston, Jamaica.

Now I find myself back in the studio with Kabs 10 years later with a focus shifted further forward to the rest of the world, the global marketplace, Jamaica my backyard...

In studio with Keisha Patterson and David Kennedy