According to this poll cited by Slate magazine, the vast majority of Alabamans and Stumpjumpers believe that Barry Obama is a devotee of Islam’s Allah and that the world was literally created in six days.

I’m no theologian but church father Origen was and according to Mark Humphry’s blog,

“Origen (3rd cent. AD) denies the Garden of Eden existed: ‘Who could be so silly as to think that God planted a paradise in Eden in the East the way a human gardener does, and that he made in this garden a visible and palpable tree of life … I do not think anyone can doubt that these things, by means of a story which did not in fact materially occur, are intended to express certain mysteries in a metaphorical way.” He denies the world was made in 6 days: “we found fault with those who, taking the words in their apparent signification, said that the time of six days was occupied in the creation of the world.’”

I’m amused that we look to Origen for support of allegorical readings of the Bible because I learned in college and confirmed with Wikipedia that Origen,

“…castrated himself based on a literal reading of Matthew 19:12 ["There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (RSV)]“

When I contemplate how individuals and societies act within and through religion and government, I feel fear, shame, anxiety, angst, and incredulity. Given the insanity and madness of fools, I look towards the eternal truths as mouth pieced by Eckhart Tolle:

The realization that You are not the Thinker is the Beginning of Freedom.

The Moment you start watching the Thinker, the higher Level of Consciousness is activated.

You then begin to realize that there is a vast Realm of Intelligence beyond Thought, and Thought is only a tiny Aspect of that Intelligence.

You realize that all the things that truly matter, Beauty, Love, Inner Peace,  Creativity, and Joy arise from beyond the Mind.

You begin to awaken.

It behooves a self-governing society (a society that governs the Self) to look beyond the pollsters and the pundits, the masses and the elites, and consider the true meaning of pain and pleasure, and to consider closely the qualities we look for in leaders.

The Big Bang: We're dragging out what was over in an instant.

From above the battlefield, from the lofty perspective of the One Son, the world is a world of tiny worker ants, scurrying egos seeking liftoff.  They are devoted and tireless, busy seekers of the One Answer, the Golden Ticket, the flight Home.  They call themselves by many tribal names; they follow many teachers.  They study, meditate, serve, weep and beg.  They are perhaps unknowingly united in purpose and intent, brothers and sisters of the Same Great Cause.  So why are they still in the grass?

Because we’ve set up the experience of awakening as a pleasure, says Lisa Cairns.  The One Son is no-experience, no-pleasure.  The ego, however, IS that entire dynamic of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain!  If we are seeking enlightenment for the sake of either finding happiness or escaping sorrow, we are working from the ego.  And we already know that the ego is never going to give up the illusion and die willingly.  The ego will be perfectly happy, however, to spend many miserable lifetimes pretending to seek so that the Son will never find.

This isn’t to suggest that we stop seeking.  The Big has already Banged and it’s all over; we already sought and found and rewound, and we’re watching the tape again.  And again.  And yet again.  We’re dragging out what was over in an instant, and crippling ourselves by thinking we’re in control because we have the power of choice.  Choice rearranges the chairs on the Titanic.  We’ve got to get off the sinking boat.

When I look around me, I appear to be surrounded by worker ants.  When I slowly close my eyes and draw in a breath, my smile comes automatically because I feel the elevator of Awareness  sink gently down to the fourth floor: the heart chakra.  It just wants to be there; it knows the way.  Consciousness swims and seeps and expands; it’s blue and green and red-violet.  I feel light-headed.  And when I open my eyes again, I Am beyond pleasure or pain.  I am only Joy, above the battlefield and in the grass.  “In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.”  Above all else, I want to see.  T-7.III, Lesson 64.

Idina Menzel’s I Feel Everything

Now, I haven’t been in a lot of relationships, but I have felt everything she is talking about the partner doing.

I have been single for over 5 years and celibate for the majority of that.  For the most part, I am okay with that.  Since sex has been such a weapon in my life, I figure I should probably be on my own for a while.  When I have been in a relationship in the past, I have done some pretty horrible things to my partner.  I have been cold in relation to someone that wanted to be close to me.  I have cheated for no reason, not even attraction.  Every time I have started to get closer to someone, I have pushed them away. 

I have to wonder how much of the disasters that constitute my past relationships were due to my negative thinking and how much was due to my own feelings of worthlessness.  I look back and I can see certain things were obviously bipolar behaviors.  Cheating on the people I dated, sometimes at a party they were also at, was definitely a hypomanic symptom.  Generally, even talking to them in the first case was a factor of the bipolar.  Really, the only time I actually talk to new people voluntarily is when I am hypomanic.  And when I am depressed, I just don’t care.  I stop answering phone calls, isolate, and the like.  How many times were friendships or relationships destroyed by these behaviors?

How do you feel about having relationships when bipolar?  Have you had happy ones?  Are you still looking?  Although I am not actively looking, I won’t deny love if it walks into my life…I think.

I love the rain. I like listening to the pounding on the roof, soft rumblings of thunder far away, and the soft brushing of rain curtains as the wind blows it around.  I like watching the pyrotechnic displays, the water dripping down the window, and the grayness it casts over everything.  And I love the smell of rain.  I love everything about rain.  Even when I get soaked in it, I still love the feeling against my skin.  I guess the only time I complain is when I am on my way somewhere and won’t be able to change.

Rain helps me relax.  It also makes me think about how cleansing it is and washes away so much.  But it also stirs up the dirt, moving it around so we see different things in new places.  I feel like my brain needs a good rainstorm sometimes: wash away some of the long-standing negative thoughts, reveal new positive or negative idea and memories.

I have had some rainstorms in my time.  Some were positive, caused by a great new experience.  Others were negative, caused by severe pain and sorrow.  In the long run, though, cleaning up after the storm has helped my mind and my soul.  Picking up the rotted limb that finally broke in the tempest and getting rid of it.  Finding a gem in the damaged garden that had been buried in the dirt.  I hope that I will continue having rainstorms, even if they are terrifying and hard to get through sometimes.  Asking for help after a rainstorm can be pretty scary, but it helps to clean and heal the forest of my mind.  My therapist, family and best friends are always willing to help me dig my way out, helping me to heal along the way.

Having one rainstorm after another is hard on you, but it also heals the drought-ridden portions of your heart.  As painful as a flood might be to your mind and emotions, it waters your soul, allowing the healing and growth to begin.

Do you have rainstorms?  Do you call them something else?  What cleanses your heart and mind?  Who do you go to for help?

or Noah’s Shore:

It is in Sin and Drowning Itself!

I seek a world

without pain and pleasure;

God and the Devil; and

lost Dreams and hopes.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bipolardisorder.html

Both of these websites have an extreme amount of information about Bipolar Disorder, including symptoms.  Now both sites admit that the symptoms they list are some that might occur.  Since these are only some, I inferred that there are others that are not as common.

One of the most common symptoms during a manic or hypomanic episode is increased sex drive.  Coupling that with an increased lack of judgement and you get indiscriminate relationships, promiscuity, and a higher chance of cheating on a partner.  Depending on the severity of the episode, these behaviors can go beyond detrimental into destructive and even dangerous situations.

I talked about my sexual past earlier this week.  I mentioned my college years (and some years after that) when I was influenced periodically by my hypomania to have inappropriate or indiscriminate relationships.  I put myself and allowed myself to be put into dangerous situations.  These behaviors led to a second date-rape while I was in college.

When I was having a hypomanic episode, my social anxiety seemed to fade away.  Trying to be social in college often leads to drinking.  (Not always, I know, but it is very common.)  Adding alcohol, which disturbs the thinking process and lowers inhibition to a hypomanic episode leads to uncharacteristic sexual behaviors (for me).  It also seemed to completely remove my instinct for self-preservation.  I would go to bars or parties where I knew very few people and meet men I didn’t know and have sex with them.  I am thankful every day that I did not get an STD.  Fact of the matter is, though, that this behavior was not something I would engage in when I am balanced.

So how do we forgive ourselves for what occurs during a manic or hypomanic episode?  How do we take the stranger that inhabited our body and start to reason out why the behavior ruined a loving relationship, caused a severe sexual trauma, dealt us an STD, or got us pregnant?

First, we have to seek treatment.  We need to recognize that this behavior is so far outside what we believe is right and healthy for ourselves that we realize that medical treatment is necessary.  When we seek treatment, we have to be honest with our treatment team.

Second, we need to study and comprehend what about our illness (and I am including any disorder that disturbs one’s sex-drive or decision-making abilities here, although I personally only have experience with bipolar) that drove us too these behaviors.  Fully understanding that this disorder affects us this way allows us to start to look at where our regular sexual thought processes begin to change when we are having an episode.

Third, we need to ask for help from our therapists, family, friends, and significant others to help us see differences in the way we act at different times.  Identifying when an episode might be beginning can help us try to find alternative means of dealing with these extreme urges.  Because they are on the outside looking in, they might see us clearer than we are able to see ourselves.  (No, I don’t think we should take their word as gospel, just as added information to assimilate.)

Fourth, and this is a big one, we need to forgive ourselves for the actions that occurred.  Now, this is not a blanket excuse for all the harm you have caused.  When possible, you need to tell those you have hurt that you are sorry for what you did to them.  You need to pay for your actions if you broke the law during your episode.  But you have to let go of the self-hatred caused by your behavior.  You need to take responsibility for your actions.  Own the fact that bipolar is a part of you and can cause these issues, even as you work with your team to make sure they don’t happen again.

Now, having said all of this, I am by no means claiming to be perfect.  I caused others harm at many points in my life because of this.  More than that, I caused myself an immense amount of pain and self-loathing through this behavior.  I am still working my way through those steps.  Sometimes, I feel like I am doing very well.  Other times, I head straight for my “go-to” emotions of self-blame, self-disgust, and worthlessness.  But each day is a step forward for me in understanding myself.

Here’s to working our way down the recovery road, whether walking tall, crawling, or pulling ourselves across the gravel hand over hand.  We are all getting forward, no matter how we are doing it.

Now I am pretty sure that I said previously that I am single and I am okay with being single.  As a matter of fact, I was celibate for just over 5 years until recently.  Being in my mid-thirties, I am not unfamiar with the concept of sex, nor of enjoying it.  But, for me, it is incredibly rare that I enjoy sex.  I have never “fallen in love” and may not ever do so.  I have learned that having sex without love, though, just makes me feel used and ashamed.  The two men that I have had sexual contact with that I can honestly say that I enjoyed are both men that I have loved.  They are friends in the truest sense of the word.

But after reading Nicole’s post, I thought about why I, and so many other people, feel the way we do after sex.  Now, there is some truth to the idea that some of those people feel bad because they do actually believe the act itself is sinful, dirty, or wrong.  I do not happen to be in that group.  I don’t think there truly are many people in that group.  But shame is inexplicably intertwined with sex for many of us.  When we give our body to someone–be we male female, trangender, pansexual, or a purple polka-dotted people eater–and they turn around and make it clear that they do not have any respect of feeling for us or for our enjoyment, we begin to wonder what we must have done wrong that they do not care for us or our feelings.  They tell us, either obviously or by inferrence, that it was all about them.  And we go automatically to, “What is wrong with me?”  And we all spiral into our own personal shame spectrum and begin to feel worthless.  For some of us, we turn around and ask for reassurance from another person who does the exact same thing.  And so the cycle continues.

What exactly is about sex that sends me into a spiral of shame and self-hatred?  I know some of it has to do with my past.  My sexual activity began when I was 11 or12 years old, although I remained physically a virgin until I was date-raped when I was 18-19.  I was date-raped again while I was in college.  That history is not the only reason why I feel such shame associated with sex, though.  It has a lot more to do with the way these experiences warped my self-esteem and distorted my thinking processes.

Now, part of the reason I became sexually active when I was so young is that I was being physically abused by an adopted sibling.  Having thought so much of this person, to know that he felt me so worthless as to physically attack me dealt a serious blow to self-esteem that was already poor and battered by neglect.  Add in the ideas that I loved him and thought he was the next thing to sliced bread and hitting puberty at the same time.  You can instantly see that this cocktail of insecurities, love-seeking, and misguided distortions of sexuality could cause a lot of problems for a young girl.  And they did.  I spent my junior high and high school years expecting that I would be asked (read made) to do specific things in exchange for respect, attention, protection, among many others.  So, just like society teaches, I thought sex was all about an exchange of goods or services.  It may not have been spelled out, but it was clear that I would get certain things only if I did as the other person wanted.  Whether I wanted to do so was never a question in my head.  Regardless of the damage done by others at this point, I did not even think I had the right to an opinion as to what was done to my body.

The last shred of dignity I held on to for dear life was my virginity.  And that was stolen by my then-boyfriend.  And for those who are curious, yes, we were fooling around; yes, we were playing in the area.  But I had told him that I did not want to have intercourse with penetration.  His excuse that he “slipped” was a bald-faced lie.  As I lay there shattered, he finished and rolled off of me.  I remember a tear dripping down my face as he got up and left.  I am not sure if he said anything…I simply cannot recall anything after that.  I do know that it wasn’t long after that that he moved to a different city without a word.  So my sense of self-worth, which had been a weak ghost before this, disappeared completely.  Being told at a later time that this was not a date-rape, but consensual sex was as much a type of rape as the act itself.

The next several years of college are a nightmare of increased libido and poor judgement due to my bipolar disorder.  I don’t really like to think about the time period except for one boyfriend.  He is one of the only two men that I have enjoyed sex with and felt good about myself afterward.  He was a wonderful, strong, loving man when I needed it the most.  Even after we parted ways as lovers, he was a good memory for the most part.  Between losing his strength and caring and the increasing loss of myself to my bipolar, I went through a very bad and weird period over the next several years.  I dated indiscriminately, created relationships in my mind, and participated in on-line relationships that were emotionally and mentally abusive and disturbing.

I got to a point that I admitted myself to the hospital for the first time.  Two years later, I was back.  After the second trip, I came out being “friends” with one of the men I had been with on the ward.  He was married and neither he nor I were healthy enough to refrain from sex with someone we felt “thinks just like me.”  It didn’t last more than 6 months.  When that relationship died, I put a moratorium on the concept of dating.  I didn’t intend for it to last 5 years, but I didn’t miss it while it was gone. 

What I missed was having someone hold me without expecting that I would “put out” for them.  I missed talking about things with someone that cared what I thought and said.  I missed the intimacy of sharing myself with someone who cared about me.  I may only have had it once, but I understood the concept.  So for the first time in years, I made love in November.  It was a loving and healthy experience, even if I allowed my previous feelings of shame and self-hatred to overshadow it somewhat afterward.  Since then, although I have not had sex, I have kissed and played with a close friend.  Both of these men make me feel as though I am more than a convenient receptacle or toy.  Both of these men listen to me and try to understand a shred of what I might be going through with my past and my disorder.  Both of these men respect who I am and the decisions I make.

So that is what I was looking for all these years apparently:  I do not have to be “in love” to make love to someone, but I do have to love them.  And sex is empty, unfulfilling, and painful for me.

It’s not easy to work through our pasts to determine when and were those distorted thoughts come from.  And I will tell you that much of the damage to my sesne of self-worth happened before I was 13 and was not directly attributable to the physical and emotional abuse the one sibling perpetrated.  I have been through both CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and DBT (dialectal behavioural therapy) to help me see myself, my history, and the distortions in my thinking.  I think we all need to make the choice to look hard at ourselves to figure out when certain feelings began and why they might be there.  Even if that means looking into the darkest reaches of our souls.

DREAMS

Steps dreamed not taken good bad indifferent
dreams nightmares how do they differ?
waking in cold sweat pouring after a hard day’s work work work never done
never finished unfinished unpolished diamond in the rough or
a simple piece of coal just to be burnt bright
fire burning keeping you warm or searing your flesh
do we decide which it is or does G-d does Fate does Chance?
fire destroys and warms water gives life and drowns
dichotomy living each day wrong right left behind always left behind
the rest unwanted undesired no love lost here no love at all
a heart shattered before awakening wake up
wake up wake up sleeping beauty not
a true fairy tale with monsters demons a not-so-happy ending
ending everything sounds easy sometimes impossibly selfish
the mind of a child in absolutes
if-then proof taught but not to the heart meant
geometry doesn’t apply to life shouldn’t apply to life
Life love and happiness all dreams all Greek to me
will no one ever understand the child wanting
simplicity even as the mind sees the complex
mind heart soul torn between decide
decide already and quit playing games with my head, G-d
vegetable animal or mineral twenty questions never answered
prayers answered in the silence of cacophony listen
listen listen intently to hear the still small voice shrieking with pain and
pleasure slaves sold two for the price of one
one?
am I only one or am I two is this voice me or another or G-d or illness what?
what?
dreaming waking sleep walking until time runs out and time passes me by
dreams dreamed not done and things done not dreamed resulting an angry fate or an angry me?

This poem is better spoken than read, although the essence comes across either way.   I am sure that you can ready this and see that it was most likely that I was in a fairly high place on the emotional spectrum.  Currently, I am pretty low on the spectrum, although I did manage to accomplish a very important phone call Tuesday.  I have other calls to make Wed. that I hope to complete as well.I wrote this years ago, but revisited it recently to share with a friend.  Oddly enough, I find incredibly hard to write poetry when I am depressed.  I have done it, but I prefer to write poetry that is not as dark as that.

I hope this poem finds you all pursuing your dreams, whether they be ephemeral or concrete.

The trinity of shades.

Today i’ve found something that i can relate very much to. I can relate to the deep meaning of it. I can relate to it all. When i saw this wheel on the wall, i was more interested in the way the shadows were falling on the wall. I can relate to the trinity of these shades, of these dark deep shadows. I always remembered how the bright days were, but today i realized how all the bright light left the shadows behind. I tend to beat myself up with the memories and by living in the past sometimes, but i know it makes more sense to live in the present tense. And that i am trying to do. Sitting in the dark and waiting for the phantoms to come talk to me. Starring at the window sill, starring out of the window. I used to detest sunny bright days, sometimes i still do, but they make me more happy now. I guess we all have to let it release us, well i’ll wait for this circle of love and hate, of pain and pleasure, of sorrow and joy, of life and death to release me, to let me go.

Well, he mutilated her, so he deserves to be sentenced, right? How about if the mutilated girlfriend testified FOR the defendant? What if she insisted it was just a sex game that went too far? And that she didn’t want him punished for what she CONSENTED to?

Ring any fetishism bells? A sex game where one enjoys being beat and the other enjoys doing the beating? Where humiliation, degradation, and power are turn-ons? Where the lines between pain and pleasure are blurred?

That’s sadomasochism (also commonly referred to as BDSM), ladies and gentleman. Or aggravated assault, according to the jury.

Why aggravated assault? Doesn’t it make a difference if she consented to the abuse? If she begged for him to beat her and burn her and mutilate her? If the pain brought pleasure to her as well?

Not legally in most of the western world, since no one can consent to grave bodily harm. She is still considered a victim and he is a felon.

Well, what constitutes grave bodily harm?

Though usually left to a reasonable person standard in many U.S. courts, I think it’s safe to say the following are universally considered grave bodily harm even to the most liberal of folks: breaking bones of another, inflicting wounds that require sutures, causing injuries that result in disfigurement, and causing prolonged or reoccurring unconsciousness.

According to KHOU: “Prosecutors said Longoria tied his girlfriend to a bed and beat, choked and burned her for more than 15 hours back in February of 2011.”

I’m pretty certain a 15-hour sex game that involves beating, choking, burning, and results in permanent disfigurement would not turn me on in the least. And I’m preeeetty sure most people are going to consider it grave bodily harm no matter how much the submissive enjoyed him or herself.

For those who enjoy being beat or beating those who “consent” to the beatings, how much is too much and therefore, punishable by law? Is it fair for the legal system to step in and decide?

While I am all for freedom in sexual self-expression, I am glad the court intervened and imposed this sentence. In THIS particular case. Why? Because after following some of the testimony, I wasn’t really convinced she actually consented.

Why emotional suffering persists

when there is attachment to things, emotional suffering persists based on not giving way to the fact that your idea might be outdated. Whether it is a loved one, acquaintance, teacher, dog, etc. all of those ideas that you have built up an image of this thing, and what its suppose to be like, how its’ suppose to act, what its’ temperament is, and other things of this sort. Its true though, take a look into your everyday life, and see how many things and people that you have put an idea, belief, or any other kind of label that you’ve put on them. For example, you walk into your friends apartment and your buddy Bill who is a real stand up guy, has a sense of humor, is very outgoing in your views is sitting in the corner just kind of to himself, and very reserved. You go up to him and ask him why hes not energetic and the sort and he tells you to leave him alone. Now you get upset at this maybe because hes usually a nice guy and for whatever reason he has snapped at you. You aren’t upset with him really for snapping at you (maybe a little) but rather for the fact that your idea of him was conflicted with what you were just presented with. However if you just let it go at this point and open your heart and see that every human being is susceptible to these elements based on circumstances, then it may be easier to take.

The emotional suffering comes from our ends, in regards to our ability to let go of our own ideas of someone to be receptive to the beauty of who this person really is. This is a constant cycle of letting go of your attachment to things. It does not mean to be detached from everything, because that’s just the other side of the same coin, but rather to allow things to fall in their right places and to appreciate every flavor that life is willing to give us and to flow with those things.

Letting Love Go

This of course is easier said that done in terms of attachments to loved ones that may have seen a fork in the road and have chose to take the opposite side from yourself. Sometimes these events cannot be avoided (sometimes they can, its best to try and see with an open heart where the other is coming from and seeing if there is any way something can be mended). However sometimes things just don’t work out, so investing a lot of energy into another is tough when it comes to attachments. I will be the first to admit that growing attachment to someones is not something that can just be turned off by seeing that they are ideas of the person and not who they are and that things have changed.

First things first is seeing that this person is always changing to begin with, so  seeing that they have changed even now is something you have to investigate. So if this person is always constantly changing, then why have you not been letting go of those old attachments of those ideas to begin with, isn’t that why you’ve been put in this position because, your ideas of each other no longer ring true?

Look at it from this stand point though, regardless of what happened in the relationship, you still learned a lot in terms of yourself. Your weaknesses and strengths as well as qualities that you may want in another mate later on down the road. There is nothing saying that it is bad to have attachments to things, its just that like I said in the very beginning that you have to know what you’re getting yourself into. You would be foolish to think that attachments to things will only lead to pleasure, and not eventually to suffering as life moves on and constantly transforms these things for the better. It is the same for you though, life has done this with you, and you cannot say otherwise for even a day or week ago you have not have some of the same thoughts that you do in this present moment. Did you know that every seven years the body is completely filled with new cells (not one single old cell exists in the body).

Having and Open Heart to Life

Here is what it comes down to, when you see something next time, look at it but make no judgement (This may take some effort in the beginning, but the more the “mental” muscle is practiced just like anything else, the easier it becomes) but really just look at it and take it for what it is. Try not to alter it with your labels. I guarantee you that you will enjoy life by ten fold if you go about it this way. This however also might have to be taken into consideration which is to take a look at your own beliefs, concepts, and ideals. These are also roadblocks into clear seeing. If you are already seeing through a filter, trying to see others for who they are really gets difficult. Those filters must be investigated and eliminated, for they won’t allow you to see the true beauty of a person that is right in front of your eyes.

Pain and pleasure are twin sisters, you see. Some people will go to great lengths to avoid the pain aspect in favor of the pleasure, not realizing they are cut of the same cloth.

It’s all about those lovely endorphins. “They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food, love and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being.” Thank you, Wikipedia, for your artful definition, I love you.

Sit-ups or a spanking? My choice is clear. And as much as I love spicy food, I’d rather have a varied platter of BDSM activities laid out before me. The endorphins don’t only affect the submissive in the scheme of things; the dominant person gets off on them too. The rush as your paddle meets willing skin, the tensing of your bicep as you go in with the dildo…the physical act of dominating someone is its own sweet, sweet workout. If I don’t have a fine line of perspiration along my hairline for my beloved to lick off, then I’m shortchanging myself.

.. and they say all he talk about is sex.

The Unusual video is set to be released some time in May. Really?! OMG.

Heres the track if you haven’t heard it already..

Derrick Price, Doc Mob Records and IHip Hop Music filed the lawsuit against Trey Songz, Atlantic Records, Kodak, manager Gee Robertson, producer Kane Beatz and others.  The lawsuit, which was filed February 2nd in the Southern District of New York, Doc Mob hired producer Milton James aka “Tony Scales” to produce the original, copyrighted track for “Bottoms Up” for his company, Doc Mob Records.

Price and Doc Mob further claim the track was originally produced by James in Price’s home studio.  James teamed with producer Kane Beatz who added production to the song, which was eventually used by Trey Songz and Nicki Minaj.

The lawsuit claims that “Bottoms Up” was contained on Trey Songz’ hit album Passion, Pain and Pleasure but only listed Kane Beatz as producer of the song.

Doc Mob’s Derrick Price alleges that he sent multiple cease-and-desist letters to Atlantic Records and Trey Songz, but they were allegedly ignored by the defendants in the case.

Kodak has been dragged into the $18 million dollar lawsuit, for using the song in an advertising campaign featuring Trey Songz.

Episode Six