Welcome to the day we learn the secret of success – and stick to it! Today’s Daily Word is dedicated to having patiencem and seeing your dreams and goals to the end! Most people who fail don’t do so because they lack skill or ability… They do so because they lack patience!
If you surveyed all people who have ever had success in anything, the one thing they will have in common is their Stick-to-itiveness! They will all tell you how at times the going got tough, but the mere fact that they didn’t give up was the driving force behind their success! Just because something isn’t happening at the time you want it to happen doesn’t mean that it isn’t meant to be! All it means is that the time isn’t right!
If you become impatient and give up, you are pouring all of your hard work down the drain! Regardless of how long it takes, remember: It is in the small, ordinary moments that extraordinary accomplishments are built. As Ralph Marston said, “Though you may only move a few inches at a time, those small steps, taken one after another, will eventually put you miles and miles ahead.” Have Patience and Finish What You Started!!
-Ash’Cash
“It was important enough for you to start, so go ahead and get it finished.” -Ralph Marston
“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.” -Helen Keller
“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” -Josh Billings
“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes
“Never think that delay is denial. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.” -George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
“Not Now is Not NO.” -Lamonda Williams
“Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams.” -Ray Davis
“He who can have patience can have what he will.” -Benjamin Franklin
TO HEAR THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE DAILY WORD – CLICK HERE.
Ash’Cash is a Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Financial Expert and the author of Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. For more information, please visit his website, www.IamAshCash.com.
The Pied Piper has truly set the tone for cuddling (and possibly ‘cuffing’) season, as the weather goes from blissfully hot to uncomfortably cold. R. Kelly has released a remix for his lead single “Feelin’ Single”, and he’s labeled it the “Single Ladies Remix”.
Take a listen to what Kells is talking about on this one:
(AllHipHop News) Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn MC Skyzoo is releasing his Langston Hughes title-inspired album, A Dream Deferred, next Tuesday (October 2), through his own Duck Down Music-distributed label, The Faculty.
Named after legendary Harlem Renaissance poet Hughes’ poem of the same name, Skyzoo’s fourth album uses a more diverse variety of features compared to his 2009 debut, The Salvation, boasting appearances from Jill Scott, Freeway, Raheem Devaughn, and Talib Kweli.
“I feel like a lot of people are at a point where they know what it is that they want, and they have this dream that they’re going towards. But what happens when things don’t go the way you thought it would?” Skyzoo recently told AllHipHop.com in his thick, New York bravado.
“The closer you get to it, the more you realize it’s nothing like you thought it would be. What happens then? I think that’s what that poem meant, and that’s what I wanted the album to be about,” Skyzoo added.
As an avid fan of the Jazz sound that filled the Harlem air during Hughes’ time, Skyzoo described the incorporation of live Jazz instruments and string sections that producers like DJ Khalil and co-executive producer !llmind brought to the project.
“It stays true to the root of what people know me for rhyming over. Dirty drums, good baselines, and that core feeling. But it’s not sample heavy,” said the lyrical story-teller. “It’s a bigger sound. More lush. We had people come in and play stuff. We arranged it, wrote music pieces for it. I wanted it to sound like a dream.”
Grammy winning producer 9th Wonder’s trademark presence is not as strong on the upcoming album as on Skyzoo’s debut album, The Salvation, which was released on 9th Wonder’s Jamla imprint. Although the North Carolina producer lends to the album’s first single, “Jansport Springs (One-Time for Chi-Ali),” Skyzoo claims that for the majority of A Dream Deferred, he wanted to stray away from the sample-heavy beats which permeate 9th Wonder’s signature sound.
In recent times, Skyzoo has parted ways with Jamla in order to build The Faculty, but says 9th Wonder has been supportive of his recent endeavors. “That was one of the things that 9th and I had talked about. He was all for it,” said Skyzoo. “I felt like I did my part in helping to get Jamla to a certain place. And I wanted to do that for my own Jamla now.”
Check out the tracklist for Skyzoo’s A Dream Deferred below:
1) Dreams In A Basement featuring Jill Scott (produced by !llmind)
2) Jansport Strings (One Time for Chi-Ali) (produced by 9th Wonder)
3) Pockets Full feat. Freeway (produced by !llmind)
4) Give It Up feat. DJ Prince (produced by !llmind)
5) Glass Ceilings (produced by !llmind)
6) Range Rover Rhythm (produced by Jahlil Beats)
7) The Knowing feat. Jessy Wilson (produced by Eric G)
8) Drew & Derwin feat. Raheem Devaughn (produced by Focus)
9) Realization feat. Jared Evan (produced by DJ Khalil)
10) The Rage of Roemello (produced by DJ Khalil)
11) How to Make it Through Hysteria (produced by Best Kept Secret)
12) Steel’s Apartment (produced by Black Milk)
13) Spike Lee Was My Hero feat. Talib Kweli (produced by Tall Black Guy)
14) The Cost of Sleep (produced by Tall Black Guy)
(AllHipHop News) Brother Ali has recently embarked on a national tour to promote his new album Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color. Wisconsin’s white-bearded MC will stop at 28 more cities before ending in Santa Barbara, California in late October.
Earlier this month, Ali release a visual for his single “Only Life I Know” where he raps about social problems that continue to plague American society.
Check out “Mourning in America” tour dates below, along with one of Brother Ali’s tour vlog episodes:
09.25 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
09.26 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
09.27 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
09.28 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
09.29 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
09.30 – Toronto, ON @ Annex Wreck Room
10.02 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
10.03 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
10.04 – Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
10.05 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
10.06 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
10.09 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s Oasis
10.10 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
10.11 – Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre
10.12 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
10.13 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theater
10.15 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
10.17 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
10.18 – Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo
10.19 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue Nightclub
10.20 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
10.21 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
10.23 – Reno, NV @ Cargo
10.24 – Arcata, CA @ Humboldt State Univ.
10.25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
10.26 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
10.27 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10.30 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Velvet Jones
(AllHipHop News Feature) Compton rapper and songwriter Problem spoke with AllHipHop.com yesterday (September 24) about his recent ascension to the forefront of Hip-Hop on the West Coast, after what fans would call an impressive weekend performance in Hollywood.
While Problem is still building his buzz nationwide, he is well known in the West, as he got his start co-producing and writing songs for West Coast legends such as Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, and DJ Quik among others.
Currently, Problem is signed to the independent label Diamond Lane Music Group, which also houses Bad Lucc and the nine-member production team called the League of Stars. League of Stars also produced Tyga’s “Faded,” now a certified RIAA Platinum record. Problem wrote the hook and also has a verse on E-40’s popular song, “Function.”
Problem’s concert was held at the jam-packed Key Club, where he performed songs from his critically acclaimed Mollywood 2 mixtape, and brought out Bad Lucc, other members of the Diamond Lane Music Group, and local performers from Compton and South Central, Los Angeles.
The show was at capacity, and by 10PM, the venue would not allow more people to enter the premises.
“Right now, the streets are really f*cking with me, and we put in a lot of groundwork, so it’s great to see the response,” Problem told AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview. “It was about 100-200 people that were trying get in after we were filled up; it was a really diverse crowd, and I wasn’t expecting that many people. To do the Key Club in April and now five months later to get this response, it’s just crazy.”
Back in April of this year, Problem held a concert at the Key Club and brought out Kurupt and Warren G. When asked about how he came up with the concept of “Mollywood” and the movement that has followed, Problem described the Mollywood movement as “perfect timing.”
“Well, I mean the whole ‘Molly’ thing, I didn’t expect it to become this craze. I guess it was just the time when I dropped it, but it was something that I was really f*ckin’ with for like over a year before the actual first project came out. And it was something that we used to say all the time when I was getting ready to pop one. I would say, ‘I’m going to Mollywood.’
“So the timing on everything was perfect. We dropped it, the first one did real well. I wanted to do a theme with it again, and we built some anticipation with it,” Problem said. “For it to spread this fast – we got songs that already went on the radio, and I got like four in the club. I’m gonna continue the Mollywood series, this will be my spring and summer project, but there will be a third project in the Mollywood series.”
While the next project is not likely to be released until Spring or Summer 2013, Problem noted that he would drop work in the interim, along with his longtime friend and labelmate, Badd Lucc.
“Right now, we finishing up Badd Lucc’s album. When he drops, it’s one thing, we a team. We got Lucc’s project dropping; we got a group project dropping, I’m doing a tape with a DJ, but I’m not saying any names yet. Just know it’s going to be a major announcement; there will definitely be another project coming out before the year ends, hopefully two.”
When asked about how his relationship with Bad Lucc developed, Problem explained the first time he ever met Bad Lucc:
“First time I seen Lucc, I wasn’t really into rap like that. I was at a battle thing, and Damani was performing at the break, and he stopped and said he had someone that would ‘Eat anyone up.’ It was Bad Lucc, and he come out and he rapped for two minutes straight – no beat and he shut everybody up. It was the craziest thing I ever heard.
“Then a year later, someone invited me to the studio and he was there, and we just clicked and talked, and we became friends over the years. Then he got in with Snoop and then I got in with Snoop, and we just always kind of tried to stay connected. Then I had the Diamond Lane opportunity, so I thought I needed a running mate, and who perfect but my boy? Ain’t nobody f*ckin’ with him lyrically. We like the terrible twos or something.”
While his label is doing well and has received offers from major labels looking to handle distribution, Problem says he is happy with where is currently situated.
“No slashed on us, we are majorly independent. I feel like we are in a good situation; we got our city talking about us and that’s a start, but we got a long way to go, though. We want to be compared to like the G.O.O.D. Music or the Cash Moneys of the world. Diamond Lane Music Group works so hard for us, and that’s not really my department, but I’ve heard some things, and we aren’t slowing down for anything. All money ain’t good money. I would take a great situation over cash any day.”
Problem said he is currently determining what video he will shoot next from the Mollywood project, but he said that “Like Whaaat” featuring Bad Lucc may be the next video. In addition, Problem recently hit the studio with Wiz Khalifa, recording for several days in a row, so he has lots of music for the fans coming out soon.
Check out some footage and additional flicks from Problem’s show at the Key Club in Hollywood or, as he likes to call it, “Mollywood”, below:
Lupe Fiasco’s been a polarizing character for most of the right and wrong reasons, to say the least. On one hand, he’s a lyrical guillotine and has still retained his clever wordplay while relating to more artists and listeners than the average rapper, while on the other hand, his brash, outspoken comments can stir up a firestorm within seconds of him pressing the “Enter” button on his Twitter account. The last time Lupe was in the spotlight musically for an extended amount of time, he released L.A.S.E.R.S, which some think was more of an Atlantic Records creation than his own, but Lupe’s since promised that his follow-up and current release, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album (Part 1), would be all of his own doing.
If that’s the case then it explains why the level of replay value is so high for this LP; lyrically Lupe’s still a decapitating guillotine, as he throws in clever metaphors to further his point (and not just for the sake of doing it like most). The subject matter on the album is at times seemingly too heavy for the production, but it’s yet another method that Lupe uses to successfully draw listeners in (see: “B*tch Bad”, or the Mr. Inkredible-produced “Lamborghini Angels”). That doesn’t mean that he fails to get busy on a couple, however, as he delivers a few crazy verses for “Put Em Up” and “Form Follows Function” that can easily make you hit the rewind a few times. To be honest, even the single stabs this time around are much better than L.A.S.E.R.S, with Lupe recruiting Bilal for the soulful “How Dare You” (it’ll be a shame if that doesn’t make a radio playlist soon), and Lupe’s heart is on display as he opens up about his brother’s death on “Cold War.”
However, as great as the replay value of substance and execution makes this album, Food & Liquor II is not perfect at all. Lupe unsuccessfully tries his luck with singing on “Audobon Ballroom”, but thankfully leaves that task to the plethora of guest features scattered throughout the playthrough. Unfortunately, even that fails at times, as the hook from Casey Benjamin for “Strange Fruition” takes a couple of plays to grasp due to the distortion effect used on the vocals. In addition, the “Go To Sleep” track could’ve easily been included in the normal tracklisting in the place of fillers such as “Heart Donor” and “ITAL (Roses)” [note: “Go To Sleep” is included in the deluxe iTunes edition]. Although they aren’t bad songs by any means and have great messages, they don’t flow well with the vibe of the album, and the Autotuned breakdown during “ITAL” doesn’t help defend this argument any.
Granted, some could complain about the length of the album, but that could be due to Lupe wishing this was a double album to begin with, so there had to be concessions made in that aspect. Even with its nitpicks and flaws, Lupe Fiasco delivered on his promise to make an album his fans and supports could appreciate with Food & Liquor II. It’s a lyrically strong album that is sure to spark conversations due to its content, and can easily draw in casual listeners due to the LP’s sound and presentation. Regardless of what you may think of the man due to his online antics and statements, he does indeed know how to make though-provoking music. There’s no reason to not give this a play, or to support the release.
(AllHipHop News) Surrounding the 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards, the elite industry event, an “Evening of Luxury” returns for its seventh installment in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2012, the invitation only, black-tie affair, presented by Ciroc Premium Vodka, will serve as a birthday celebration for this year’s honoree – Young Jeezy.
This year’s “Evening of Luxury” affair is titled El Jefe, and will take place at a private location on September 27.
“Evening of Luxury” caters to top-tier influencers, BET Hip-Hop Award nominees, entertainment moguls, record label executives, and an impressive roster of celebrities descending upon the city of Atlanta for the awards.
Emerging as the longest standing event surrounding the BET Hip-Hop Awards, planners for the red carpet affair say they will merge a unique mix of over 400 select, industry power players under one roof.
This year’s formal gala will serve as a toast to Young Jeezy’s successful career and another year of life.
Former event hosts include Jason Geter/Grand Hustle, Abou Thiam/Def Jam and Konvict Musiq, Reginald Huldin/BET, Big Boi, Sean Garrett, Polow Da Don, and more.
In addition, past celebrity attendees have included T.I., Akon, Keri Hilson, Russell Simmons, Kevin Liles, Flo Rider, Lloyd, Young Jeezy, Stephen Hill, Debra Lee, Chaka Zulu, Kerry Washington, Jazze Pha, Diddy, and more.
To join the conversation, use Twitter hashtag #EveningOfLuxury.
The BET Hip Hop Awards will be filmed Saturday, September 29 in Atlanta, and will air on Tuesday, October 9 at 8PM.
The Game is one big contradiction, isn’t he? Not even one month after he announced that he had been baptized and that his next album, Jesus Piece, was going to be a Christian album, the rapper is back to his old bullying ways.
Hip-Hop Rumors: Which Hard Core Rapper Is Turning To God?
Today, the West Coast emcee saw an opportunity to cause some mischief in the life of his nemesis 50 Cent and took it. The rapper spotted a truck branded with 50 Cent’s energy drink, SK, and hijacked the drinks. Check out the photo he instagram’ed below:
According to Game, the driver was very aware of his reputation and ran off when he saw him. Game claimed to be heading to “skidrow” in Los Angeles, to “give this nasty sh*t to the homeless.”
Those are some serious shots fired in my book. Your play, 50!
It may take 50 a while to respond, as he’s currently busy with real life issues. AllHipHop.com broke the exclusive today that 50 Cent has hired an a private investigator to look into the death of his former manager Chris Lighty. I hope the PI can bring Lighty’s friends and family some closure.
(AllHipHop News) Today (September 25) is National Voter Registration Day, and the League of Young Voters Education Fund continues its #Ignite2012 tour with a stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, to encourage young people to exercise their right to vote in the 2012 Election.
#Ignite2012 will host a live UStream at 3PM ET today featuring the following activists and industry panelists:
Jasiri X, Co-Founder of One Hood Media, Pittsburgh Hip-Hop artist and activist
Biko Baker, Executive Director of the League of Young Voters
Andreas Hale, Founder of The Well Versed
Paradise Gray, Co-founder of One Hood Media, legendary Hip-Hop activist
Malik Rhasaan, Founder of #OccupytheHood
Watch the UStream below:
[ustreamlive 571821]
According to the League, the goal of #Ignite2012 is to inspire 100,000 young voters between the ages of 18-35 to become engaged in the 2012 election through a series of discussions and performances. For more information about the #Ignite2012 tour, visit Ignite2012.com.
About the League of Young Voters Education Fund:
The League of Young Voters Education Fundempowers young people nationwide to participate in the democratic process and create progressive political change on the local, state and national level – with a focus on non-college youth and youth from low-income communities and communities of color. The League meets young people where they are, works on issues that affect their lives, and provides them with tools, training, and support to become serious catalysts for change. Visit us at YoungVoter.org.
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