http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/ifight_for_your_right_revisitedi_adam_yauchs_2011_film_commemorates_the_beastie_boys_legendary_music_video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

I remember when I was 13 and there was this 17yr old punk rock kid across the street from me that basically mentored me into the punk scene. At the same time, my sister was finding all this cool rap music that I was starting to get into also. I was surprised to hear the same band/group name on both sides of the fence. I mean, stores can’t claim the same name as another store without risking lawsuit, so how were these two groups running around with the same name? Then I found out – no, they were actually the same people. Not many people know that Beastie Boys started out as a hardcore punk band back in ’79. They were part of the American hardcore punk scene in it’s early days and ran with bands like the Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Black Flag. I can’t say they were a very GOOD punk band, but they did have their own spot on the scene for awhile. Then they released License To Ill in ’84 and really fell into their style. They were one of the pioneers on the rap scene. It was bold for a group of skinny little white guys to jump into an almost exclusively black music scene, but they were accepted and they flourished.

I remember riding the bus home from school and all of us running through an adolescent version of Paul Revere in the back of the school bus (after the bus was almost empty and we were safely back on the west side, of course). There was certain pride that us little whiteboys had when going to almost all black schools and being the group of outcasts. It was like knowing that even in the face of racism, you can be accepted too. There were other white rappers that tried through the years (3rd Bass, Vanilla Ice), but nobody else held their own like the Beasties until Eminem and now, 33yrs later, one of them is gone.

It surprised me that I’m not seeing the same kind of chatter about this as I did when Whitney Houston died. I mean, MCA was a humanitarian  (he was involved in the Tibetian Independence Movement), he was an independent film director, owner of his own production company (Oscilliscope Laboratories), he was an influential orignator on 2 completely different music scenes AND  he didn’t waste his talent on crack. 

We have a light in our bathroom that has a strip of 3 lights on it and when 1 burns out, you can’t help but to notice how much of a difference it makes in the room.

Goodbye, good sir – I pass my gratitude to you.

Not only are young men affected by the messages, but so are women.  The Journal of Social Psychology, found that exposure to rap music raised girls’ acceptance of violence to the level of boys.  The stereotyping of gender and sexuality in music and music videos that is broadcast across the U.S. and widely across the world means that many young and impressionable adolescents will put up with and/or feel more comfortable (if that is possible!) with gender violence.

Due to the Gangsta Rap industry, terms like “bitch”, and ‘ho” (short for whore) have been so prevalent as to have become almost accepted part of normal speech.  This particular media has very much thrived on pushing this anti-women sentiment, even by women rappers.

A WebMD articles outlines how African American teen girls who are frequent viewers of videos are “three times more likely to hit a teacher” or “2.5 times more likely to get arrested.” The gratuitous violence of rap songs and videos present violence as a viable or even preferable course of action during conflict.

Add to that the clear race and non-gender violence promoted and exalted by the “gangsta-rap” media, and you have a pretty bad combination of values being transmitted to global youth.

i Stay In The Traffic, I’m All About My G’s
put Your Clothes On Darling, Let’s Go To Tommy T’s
the Comedy Club, Up In The Contra Costa
off Of Willow Pass Road, Up In Concord

Good to hear E-40 reppin the East Bay, California. Why didn’t anyone tell me bout this?

Adam Yauch, the gravelly voiced Beastie Boys rapper and the most conscientious member of the seminal hip-hop group, has died at 47 from cancer.

Yauch, who’s also known as MCA, was diagnosed with a cancerous parotid gland in 2009. He had undergone surgery and radiation.

He hadn’t performed in public since 2009 and was absent when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.

The Brooklyn-born Yauch created the Beastie Boys with high school friend Michael “Mike D” Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, it soon became a hip-hop trio after Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz joined. They released their chart-topping debut Licensed to Ill in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).

But in the seven studio albums that followed, the Beastie Boys expanded considerably and grew more musically ambitious. Their follow-up, 1989′s Paul’s Boutique, ended any suggestion of the group as a one-hit wonder. Extensive in its sampling and sonically layered, the album was ranked the 156th greatest album ever by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.

The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instruments — a rarity in hip-hop — on the album Check Your Head and subsequent releases.

The Beastie Boys — a trio of white Jewish kids — established themselves as one of the most respected groups in hip-hop at a time when white rappers were few.

Introducing the group at the Rock Hall, Public Enemy rapper Chuck D said the Beastie Boys “broke the mold.”

“The Beastie Boys are indeed three bad brothers who made history,” said Chuck D. “They brought a whole new look to rap and hip-hop. They proved that rap could come from any street — not just a few.”

Yauch also went under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower when working as a filmmaker. He directed numerous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 concert film Awesome: I F—– Shot That! He also co-founded the film distribution company Osciolloscope Laboratories, named after his New York studio.

Yauch was also a passionate Buddhist and a defender of Tibetan rights. He is survived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch.

Remember the 1st listening on copy-k7 of “Licensed to Ill”….in 86, i was 12 and this litterally changed my life on some points. The album got auto-reverse mode for about 2 years straight…and it feels really cool to listen to it again more than 25 years later. I will give it a spin right now in the memory of the great MCA, R.i.p….No Sleep Till’ Brooklyn!!! (For the story, the pict above is a remake of their original Eric Haze’s logo i have made for a tv itw back in 2004) ⚡KoolFunc’88

Childish Gambino

By Azumi Smith (Journalism) and Hope Woodruff (Spanish)

On May 2nd, the University of Idaho’s highly anticipated Finals Fest began with rap/hip-hop artist Childish Gambino. We appreciate UI Vandal Entertainment’s mission to bring well-liked performers to campus, but we found the choice to bring Childish Gambino a problematic one.

Donald Glover hit the scene as Childish Gambino in 2011 and has created a large fan base since then. However, despite this popularity, we questioned whether he was a good choice for a campus fighting to establish a safe and welcoming community.

What we find problematic about Childish Gambino’s music is the misogyny, or the hatred of women, that is glaringly apparent in many of his songs. Although there isn’t enough space to present examples from every song he has ever released, we have chosen a couple to highlight our point.

In his song “Heartbeat”, he raps: “I’m going straight for your thighs like the cake you ate”, in which a woman is not only body-shamed but turned into nothing but a sexual conquest. In “Do Ya Like”, he says: “I love fast women, Jackie Joyner-Kersee.” Joyner-Kersee is one of the most gifted female athletes in the world, yet here she is reduced to a sexual pun that denigrates her talent. There are other examples that could be used that are a great deal more offensive.

It has been said that Glover has “taken aim at black machismo” (see his interview with The Guardian), yet is still perpetuating misogyny in his music. Yes, Glover might be a comedian, but these lyrics shouldn’t be seen as funny. They should be taken seriously.

Obviously, Childish Gambino performed despite the point we presented above, but in writing this we hope that those responsible for choosing entertainers to bring to campus will be more cautious during their decision process in the future and more importantly, that students feel compelled to question these choices themselves.

I am done for the week… I’M OUT!

And when you see me remember to say wazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuup!!!!!!!!

“Remembered a great rule for taking chicks home just now. Get to the point where it’s reasonable to ask them to go home with you (you’ve been flirting/touching, everyone else is leaving, her eyes are rolled back in her head, etc) and then ask her very straightforwardly. When she blushes and starts to say no, tell her with the utmost seriousness that she should feel okay doing this because there’s “no strings attached” in her doing so. It’s not that you want to have sex, you just don’t want the night to end. Like Scarface said in his epic love song “Goin’ Down” when told by his female companion that she wouldn’t have sex with him, “No sweat. Not even on my mind. We just met.” Make her feel safe with a guy who nearly took offense to the idea of sex when she brought it up. You’re not a whore for goodness sake! But then when you get home…

MORE STRINGS THAN A FUCKING ORCHESTRA. 

Just make sure to wear a rubber so you don’t get one of those nasty STD’s– Shitty Toddler Diapers.” 

Ready to play.

And here’s the Scarface song in question:

Photo credits Mobeen Ansari

So the rap music scene in Pakistan finally looks like it is about lift off and leading the charge is none other than Islamabad based rapper Adil Omar. Funny thing is I stumbled upon him while looking for an old Xzibit song on YouTube. I read the name and was like this sounds desi enough and when Xzibit mentioned Islamabad it was confirmed. Adil Omar is not the only Pakistani to rap, there are many now, but he certainly is the one who has made it the biggest.
For his first single from his upcoming album he managed to pull off a huge collaboration with Xzibit. I love this guys flow and finding Pakistani references such as Jinnah super, Shoaib Akhtar, and Shahid Afridi in a rap song just makes it all the more exciting. So far he hasn’t made it really mainstream in Pakistan, but slowly and steadily he is getting there. And as is the case with rap music, controversy also seems to be courting him, however from his attitude it doesn’t seem like he really cares a lot about that. His video “Paki Rambo” raised some eyebrows to say the very least and “Pindi Express” isn’t that far behind.
He also recently confirmed on Twitter and Facebook about a new music video release. So Adil Omar fan’s keep your eye out for “Star Power”, which according to Adil Omar himself contains some surprise cameo’s and has beats produced by Talal Qureshi. Speaking of Talal Qureshi, something I would love to hear would be Adil Omar rapping on tabla beats produced by Talal Qureshi. Just saying
But enough of my talk, now let’s move on to the real reason you guys opened this post. So I caught up with none other than Adil Omar himself and he was kind enough to take some time out to answer a few questions I had in mind.

Q I actually stumbled upon your off the handle video while I was searching for an Xzibit song. So I have had this question in my mind for a very long time, how did you land your collaboration with Xzibit?

Adil Omar: I was already working on my album, on the first single produced by my friend and producer Fredwreck with a video planned by Matt Alonzo… It was Fredwreck who hooked me up with Xzibit; they’ve been working together for over a decade now and have known each other forever.

Off the handle video

Q What is your dream collaboration? Which artist would you love to do a collaboration with?

Adil Omar: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

Q Considering Pakistan hasn’t really had a historically successful rap scene, how did you end up becoming a rapper?

Adil Omar: I don’t know something about hip-hop just excited me. I also grew up with a bad stutter and speech problems so rapping is what ultimately FIXED the way I spoke. It was like therapy, writing was like my outlet. I’ve always been into many different types of music and plan to evolve into more than just a rapper, but hip-hop will always remain my core.

Q So your debut album is expected to release this year. Is there a more specific time release and what can the fans expect from the album?

Adil Omar: I’m trying to get it out by June or July independently. It’s like nothing that has ever been done before. I don’t mean that in a cocky sense. I’ve experimented a lot on this, I’ve tapped into my psyche like never before, and it should be my real introduction to the world. My current singles don’t do it justice.

Q what is your favourite song from your album?

Adil Omar: I like all of them but look out for The Mushroom Cloud Effect (title track), Heart of Darkness, Runaway With You, Broken Man, Star Power, Carry Me Home, Hand Over Your Guns.

Q I really loved your song Go outside, how did the release on BBC news come about?

Adil Omar: I don’t remember. They did an interview/article on me a few days before and I gave them the song when they asked for some material.

Go outside video

Q The Paki Rambo video looked like a lot of fun, however there were reports that an incident occurred during the shoot, a head injury? What happened?

Adil Omar: I was stupid, I got into an argument and in a fit of rage smashed my own head against an ashtray multiple times and shot one of the performance shots with a mild concussion. It was so fucking retarded of me; I’ve been working on my anger since. If I hadn’t hurt myself that day it would have been somebody else, I don’t even remember what it was about but somebody really got on my nerves like never before.

Paki Rambo video

Q you have just released a new music video called Rawalpindi express, how has the response been?

Adil Omar: Pindi Express is not a single or a video; those are clips from Gol Chakkar, the movie for which it is a soundtrack.

Pindi Express video

Q what are your musical influences?

Adil Omar: Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, Everlast/House of Pain, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Marilyn Manson, Gang Starr, Cypress Hill, Big Pun, Kool G Rap to name a few.

Q how irritating is it when people compare you with other artists? I remember you getting a bit pissed off when someone said you’re the Pakistani Eminem?

Adil Omar: It’s the kind of shit that only happens in Pakistan, which when it comes to Hip Hop is a culture solely based on what they SEE and not what they hear. Up until last year I was a clean shaved skinny kid with short black hair, which I guess reminds people of Eminem. Musically I have a lot of respect for him, but he’s not a major influence to my work. He’s inspiring and beautiful, I’m a huge fan of his earlier work, but I make music to be myself, not to emulate anyone.

Q There is some hype about your collaboration with Meesha Shafi on your album the Mushroom Cloud Effect, how did that come about and how did that go?

Adil Omar: Facebook. I added her and her exact words to me were “So, Paki Rambo. How do we make this friendship useful?” next thing I know we were talking about a song and booked a recording session in Lahore. I’m a huge fan, she’s great and the song is great.

Q Finally do you have any messages for your fans?

Adil Omar: I love you all

You can follow Adil Omar at www.facebook.com/adilomarmusic and @Adil_Omar. You can also check out his music at http://www.youtube.com/user/adilomar

Not supposed to be confused with Asap Rocky…(!)….⚡KoolFunc’88

I always enjoy jumping into the psyche of American pop culture and nothing intrigues me more than people referring to rappers as geniuses.

Let’s examine the genius of Lil’ Wayne just at a base level.

I’m not going to analyze too deeply here, but rather, I will provide a few lines from some of his, as Brooklyne Gipson would say, “lyrically intricate verses.”

1. From the song “Fuck the World” on his 1999 album “Tha Block is Hot” (I can already feel the genius dripping form the titles.)

“A young nigga screaming fuck the world and let ‘em die.  Behind tints, tryna’ duck the world and smoking rie.  Got my bandanna ‘round my head and pants to my feet.  And got my eyes fire red and glock on my seat.” 

Wow, if only William Shakespeare could have been such a genius.  Our boy Lil’ amazingly fit in an amazing amount of negative African-American stereotypes into one verse.  Well done young man.

You see, white kids do it too.

2. From the song “Dick Pleaser” on his 2008 album “Dedication 3.”  Again, such captivating titles.

“I gotta bith name Keisha she a real dick pleasa.  But shawty from cuba still workin on her visa.  Her girlfriend Lisa met her in porta rica.  How she don’t suck dick but expect for me to eat her?  That hoe crazy man and you don’t wanna meet her.  But her home girl Nita swallow cum by the liter.”

Sorry, but no commentary is really necessary after that pure genius spit out by Lil’.

I will leave you with one more intellectual gem.

From the song “Abortion” on his 2011 album “Tha Carter IV”.

“I woke up this morning, dick rock hard.  Ashed my blunt in my Grammy Award.  You can save your bullshit on your memory card.  If this real nigga business, then you niggas unemployed. 

In a world full of ass-kissers and dick pullers.  I’m tryna walk a straight line but the line crooked.  I’m shooting for the stars, astronauts dodge bullets.”

HOLY, FUCKING, SHIT, that is pure GENIUS.

Step aside Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein,  Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, etc., Lil’ Wayne is rapping about getting his genius dick sucked by whores, dumping weed ashes in his Grammy Award and wearing his pants below his ass.

And for those of you keeping score, Lil’ Wayne is reportedly worth around $95 million.

I truly hope the Mayans were right, because I’m ready for the apocalypse.  If it doesn’t happen, China will surely win.  Do you need any more evidence????

Hey Brooklyne Gipson; thanks for continuing to distort reality to the ever pandering lost souls of America.

If Lil’ Wayne is a genius, then my dick is 10 feet long.

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” Carl Sagan

RAPPER CLAIMS GOD IS HER 'HERO.'

Nicki Minaj, the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the same time, announced today the first set of dates for her “Pink Friday” concert tour.

The 29-year-old Trinidad-born rapper, who now makes New York City her home, is perhaps best known for the bump and grind she performed this past February while sharing the stage with Madonna during the Super Bowl half time show.

She was no less provocative last month in an appearance on ABC’s “Nightline” when she said that she contemplated killing her father when she was younger.

In a follow up interview, published in Great Britain’s Guardian newspaper, explained why she didn’t follow through with her murderous thoughts: God saved her and her family.

Her father had been a drug addict, Minaj recalled. He was abusive toward her mother, threatening violence, she said, “whenever he would have a real bad outburst.”

Minaj’s dad enrolled in rehab. He and her mother “started going to church a lot,” she said, “and he got saved and started changing his life.” Her parents have enjoyed a happy married life ever since. And Minaj attributes that to God, whom she calls her “hero.”

Well, it’s uplifting to read the rap star’s testimony about her parents. The problem is, while she is praising God for His divine intervention in their once-troubled lives, she continues to raise hell in her own life.

Indeed, Minaj sees nothing ungodly about releasing music – like her latest album, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” which dropped in March – that, as the Guardian put it, “out-filths the boys.”

She sees nothing perverse about dressing up (or should I say down?) like the “Stupid Hoe” she raps about on her latest album, while wearing a Chinese tattoo on her left arm that reads shangdi yu ni chang zai , which means “God is always with you.”

Nicki Minaj represents that she’s a Christian. But there’s nothing Christ-like in how she’s chosen to use the talents with which she has been blessed.

Things have been going well with my mission to learn Portuguese. The hardest part has continued to be the micro-goal setting and monitoring my progress. This combined with my never-ending concern that I might not be studying enough (perpetual college student complex?) leads to concerns I have to keep in check. For example, I might declare to myself “ughgh I did nothing today!” before realizing that, all small tasks combined, I was actually studying and/or practicing Portuguese for 2-3 hours.

yeah... boo hoo...

In this post, I’m going to focus mostly on using the free program Audacity to improve my comprehension and speaking.

This tactic was originally inspired by Idahosa Ness, of the Mimic Method. Idahosa uses Audacity to slow down songs, especially rap, in order to see which syllables in a language end up dropped from the “text equivalent” when speaking quickly. You can read a great guest post he wrote about this on Irish polyglot Benny Lewis’ blog Fluent in 3 Months. Since my last post, I’ve gotten in touch with Idahosa about his completed program The Flow of Spanish (which was really great to see) and have had an opportunity to help him beta-test his Flow of Portuguese program. If you’re in my position of wanting to improve Portuguese (especially accent and tone), you could always contact him and seeing if he can add you to the trials. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s great to have someone skilled in communicating about languages carefully review your audio submissions for sotaque advice. Just tell him a happy gringa sent you.

So onto Audacity. I used Audacity in college for some creative projects, but never thought of using it to analyze a language until I saw the suggestion on the Mimic Method website. Since then, I’ve been having a great time “capturing” random bits of Portuguese and putting them under the microscope with this software.

Here’s how it works: Download the free software and drag an MP3/wav of your favorite song or soundclip in to the editing window (if you only have a youtube video, you can strip the soundfile with this site). Then, under the Effect menu at the top of the screen, choose Change Tempo (not Change Speed)– this algorithm will slow the speech down while preserving the native tone of the language. I usually go for somewhere from 15-30% slower than the original recording.

a screencap of the free audio editing/recording software Audacity

Finally, put on your headphones, turn up the sound (LOUD), and start mimicking! You don’t have to think about the meaning or how you might write it just yet, just focus on hearing and recreating the sounds. Apparently, often when singing, people generally show reduced accents (or so says Susanna Zaraysky of Language is Music).

When I do this exercise, after concentrating on listening (to the sounds, not the words) for a few minutes,  I restart the file trying to repeat exactly what the artist says. I’m usually a second or two behind and sometimes if phrases are too complex,  I trip up and just jump back in whenever I can. Once I get a little more familiar with the material, I take one of my earbuds out so I can hear my voice better and start a mix of “parroting” (1-2 seconds behind) and synchronized singing. I like to have one earbud out so I can hear my own voice better, especially when I’m trying to sing along. I find this really helps me emulate the sounds of the artist, similar to the way a singer in a choir might calibrate their voice to their neighbor’s.

For my first song, I picked the song Pilotando o Bonde da Excursão by Marcelo D2. It’s mostly about getting stoned, but that’s okay because it’s upbeat, funky, and, most important: fast. It’s been about a month that I’ve been listening to this song at least 3-4 times several days a week and I deliberately only just looked at the lyrics today. Some sources I’ve read suggest that text can trip you up since it doesn’t give any indication which syllables disappear when language is spoken fast (Idahosa Ness calls this “The Flow”). Accordingly, I’ve been trying to focus mostly on the sounds, getting ready to understand the meaning later.

Marcelo D2 ("deh-doish"), a carioca rap artist

There’s one interesting theory I read (forgive me, I lost the reference…) that says you can’t necessarily hear/perceive a sound in a language well until you can make it. For this reason, often, I make a lot of crazy sounds while practicing. D2 says something like “Fala–” and suddenly I pause the recording and try out 5-10 different a sounds, repeating the ones that sound the closest and making all sorts of faces and droning noises to alternate between the open/closed back/front vowel scales I mentioned in this entry. It’s the kind of thing one might want to do behind closed doors…

After using this method on songs, I was watching my novela Vidas em Jogo about a week ago when it occurred to me– could I capture the sound of their rapid fire conversations and slow that down too? The answer, as you may have guessed, is yes.

For my “novela studies,” I generally pick either “listening” or “speaking” when I watch an episode, and either focus intensely on understanding the content or mimic the dialogue, losing sense of the words but focusing on making Portuguese sounds rapidly. (Riffing off Ness, again, who says some interesting things about “babbling” in another language in that blog entry.) By slowing down the novela audio just enough to free up some brain processing space, I found I could do both (understanding, speaking) at once, more or less.

In order to do this, I watched a scene on a youtube clip, trying to understand what the characters were saying. I watched it again mimicking their sounds. After I was familiar with the content, I took the audio from that clip and slowed it down by 30%. I was amazed to find just how many “hidden” words appeared as my brain started figuring out the vocal slurs on a slower timescale. I listened to this slowed down clip several times trying to focus on where one word became another, and recognizing the meanings. Then I started mimicking.

drama, drama... son character gets caught in a lie (Vidas em Jogo)

It was great to have the sound so slow because it gave me time to really adjust my vowels to line up with the speaker’s (the Portuguese a gets me every time…). Soon, I could mimick about 50-70% of the content on the 30% slower speed. I ramped it up to 15% slower and did the same thing. Finally, I set it back to normal speed. By that point, I could only mimic a few sentences reliably– but hey, those are full speed native Portuguese sentences!

The most important part of this exercise has been figuring out which parts of words might be likely to disappear when talking fast. For example, I’ve found that when one word ends in a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, the second vowel usually “eats” the first (Eg. when said quickly, “minha irmã” sounds like “minhirmã” to me). I don’t claim to know how this works in my brain, but I’ve definitely noticed that working on mimicking small clips of speech has helped me with word transitions in general. When I read now, I somehow know much better than I did before how words should start fitting together. As a result I can read aloud more quickly and with more confidence. I’m definitely improving. It’s a slow process, but–as my former Portuguese teacher here said–baby steps, né?

One closing note that I found helped me: tone! I love the sing-song nature of Portuguese. I love the website I listed in this entry. Especially, check out this section on tone complete with audio files of typical tone structures in Brazilian Portuguese. If you pretend each one is a sound or a song and mimic it (the words/meaning are not important here), you can build up an arsenal of tone structures for easier, more authentic conversation.

And as a final thought, If you listen to a Brazilian news report or radio advertisement as an English speaker, you should immediately notice (read: be overwhelmed by) the enthusiastic up and down predictable sing-song. I’ve found that since coming here I’ve internalized this voice, especially one example in particular, a man, always incredibly energetic (if you’re watching Globo you’ll hear him say “No PROX-imo SAB-ado…! sing-song sing-song SING-song!”). Often, when I practice reading, I try to speak with this hyped-out singing reporter or advertiser tone. For some reason it makes it easier, and it also puts me in a better mood due to the energy it requires and my perpetual amusement at whatever the hell reason I’m doing it for (I don’t honestly know why, but my productivity skyrockets when I do this).

this is what I picture that completely insane guy looking like... oh wait that's Tom Cruise

So, in closing, I’ve been making a lot of progress thanks to the help of Brazilian rap music, my favorite novela, and the free software Audacity. I hope, if you haven’t used these methods yet, you might consider trying them out.

That’s it for now! And thanks for reading.

And those weekly micro-goals… right… someday…

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/WdgLMslbDuY?version=3&hl=en_US

The homie returns to the streets with his latest track “The Don” a street anthem that you know will be ring out all summer long… This is  the brand new video for the track..