ready, set, go…

Internets. Yes, you of the interconnected networks. Aren’t you tired of someone thinking that you live in your mom’s basement? I always laugh at that because that is where my internet writing career blossomed. I was constantly on the Comedy Central message boards sonning all the bigots that rolled thru.

I say bigots as opposed to racists. They weren’t racists to me because racists don’t leave comments on a message board. Racists are too busy doing real racist shit. Bigots and the regular white is what leaves comments on the internets. It’s easy to yell at a crowd of people when you are online. You just do it by typing the truth. If the moderators aren’t scared to death then your truth can be seen and read. And that truth can be the equivalent of yelling to a crowd.

I’ve been writing my truth for a while now. Apparently I’ve been writing my truth forever. Momdukes pulled out some old 2nd grade shit that she had been keeping from like forever. It was a little child’s story but when I saw it I was transported back to the public school named after Louis Armstrong in the neighborhood that I grew up in – Corona, Queens. I wanted you to feel my shit [ll] even back then. So how do I come from there to here on your computer monitor? Oh and kill yourself if you read Its The Calm from an iPad or PDA device. That’s ghey. You need to go to a laptop or a desktop that has a printer and print out every single page of Its The Calm and then use a 3-hole punch to put holes in those printouts and then put those printouts in several binders arranged chronologically or categorically (because I’m not gonna tell you how to file your shit).

My journey thru NY life up to this point has been way more missteps than I can remember but I have taken a few giant steps (yes Coltrane) and that is what has me here with you today. A total loser wouldn’t get a guest blog opportunity over here. You can trust that N8 knows who’s nice with theirs and I’m nice like Sean Price. Aka Ruck aka Scraggbite. Hail Megatron! What’s the flavor?! D4L bitch (damn, pardon me for that flashback).

Weblogs were on some sucker shit, or so I thought before I got turned on to this page called Notes From A Different Kitchen, from there I found Unkut.com which led me to ByronCrawford and from there I caught a link to NahRight which blew my mind. Weblogs were hardbody all of a sudden. There was homages to the greatest music ever, and drops featuring the new music that wasn’t getting any commercial radio play. Even the best gossip pages were sucker free like Crunk & Disorderly. All of these pages were speaking to me like I talk to my homies. The filters were off and the language was funny and sometimes raw. This was where I could fit in.

I had been trying to become a published writer ever since I was in school for architecture. Even then I didn’t mind taking the unpopular opinion. A dozen or so people were killed at the college I attended because of a stampede that occurred at a celebrity basketball game. I blamed the victims and the attendees as opposed to the organizers. The truth is that people are so fucking selfish and greedy that they would stomp and trample one another just to be on the scene of a basketball game. City College’s school paper wasn’t feeling my Op-Ed too tough but I used several Xerox machines throughout the school to print my article and hand them out. That gave me the idea that I could start my own magazine. That shit was hard as hell though so I thought that maybe I could write for an existing magazine. One of my little homegirls in the music business who I would send my writing to told me as a matter of fact that I would never make it into a magazine because my writing style was too abrasive and unpolished. Plus magazines really liked dickriders more than anything else.

I wasn’t dismayed and I thought I would find my outlet at some point. I kept up my writing in a number of ways. My dude Ambush went to prison for almost twelve years for being part of a botched bank heist. Dudes actually got away from Virginia but ended up getting nabbed on the NJ Turnpike for speeding. Ambush was the driver and followed the G-code while his accomplices folded up faster than cheap lawn chairs. During his internment I sent him a steady stream of kites detailing the goings ons in our old neighborhood. Who was getting shot killed and who was getting pregnant. I felt like a news reporter and the what not. Ambush’s stint in prison also helped me sharpen my own mind politically and economically. He gave me the looking glass tour of the prison industrial complex but without bitterness. Between all the capers we had gotten into while we were teenagers it was like he was the one putting it all on his shoulders. The third musketeer Kenny had died back in the summer of ‘91. So now it was only me and Ambush left and I was the one who got to eat, shit and shower on his own schedule.

I thought I had another chance to crack into the mag biz. Another one of my peoples had a friend who was doing some editing for a basketball magazine. I tried to holler at the editrix to see if I could work under her (chea – puns always intended) and give her the secret perspective of a man that she could use in her group meetings. Sports means something totally different for men and women especially as a socialization dynamic. You have never heard of anyone putting down a girl because she “throws like a boy”. Whereas the inverse is a major insult. Shorty didn’t understand my proposition or possibly she just didn’t fux with me like that but that put the kibosh on any hopes I had for getting a magazine byline. Still I kept writing and I kept living my lifestyle. With friends in the music business as well as advertising gigs I remained in the periphery of the entertainment industry, more or less the 6th ring but still slick enough to come up on craft services and free alcohol.

The local rap and bullshit radio station had an awesomely popular morning show who’s host were known for their take no prisoners on the edge style. I had tuned into them this morning instead of Howard Stern which I alternated between the two. There was a commercial they played in which they said they were looking for writers for a startup magazine. An open tryout is exactly what I thought I needed to show off my work. I e-mailed samples of my previously drafted stories and I created several articles of the current events that were hot news items. I received a reply e-mail that I was going to be used as a feature writer for this new magazine. Back then I used a pseudonym for my byline. Don’t ask me why I choose the name William H. Sunday either, but it was a popular thing in rap circles so I fell right in line. That pen name was good for seven years of work from that bootleg magazine, to behind the scenes in radio to my own website.

It wasn’t until I made a trip to Atlanta to check up on my mother that I realized I was giving away my words to a fictitious character who may have been a white supremacist. Google Billy Sunday. Fake names are good for rappers and for other folks who attach purposefully subliminal messages to their writing, but I don’t aspire to be that person. I wanted folks to know that I said what I said and I meant what I meant. So from that point forward I would only use my name on whatever I produced. I remember having a G-chat with NahRight N8 back in the WMDeez days and sonn didn’t realize that I was actually all the writers over at DallasPenn dot com. That made me feel good that I could fool one of the super sleuths on the internets.

My purpose on the web isn’t really to fool people tho’ despite the fact that I am a trickster griot. I found a place on the web where I could tell the history of the city I lived in from the ground I walked on. I was always eye level, street level and next level. There was nothing that True York didn’t experience for the past 40 years that I didn’t reflect. I wasn’t in the boardrooms making political decisions but I was on the sidewalk seeing the ramifications of those power moves and how they washed over the people. Here I am now in the heart of Brooklyn where me and my dudes used to ride the Franklin Ave Shuttle smoking White Owl blunts and drinking 40’s and there is nary a Black face on this shuttle today. NYC has changed for the better(or the worse depending on what your stake is). The hardscrabble city that served as a backdrop for the ghetto rhythms that escaped from its lungs is now America’s top tourist destination aside from Orlando.

No wonder Rick Ross is so popular here in NY, this city has become North Miami. All around me I see architecture that would befit a strip on South Beach better than a block in Brooklyn. Condominiums with all glass facades are the new norm. The poverty that was a part of the city is being pushed out to the suburbs. You have to be incredibly rich now just to be poor in New York City. In any other city in the U.S. other than maybe D.C. people would feed you grapes and wave fans over you if you made 60K. In New York you are going to be shopping at the bodega on that salary. This is why our rap music has also fallen by the wayside. Rich kid rap generally sucks ass, except for Drake (natch). I could prA’li give you a thousand reasons why rap music from New York has been in a decline but that isn’t why I came here to Its The Calm. I came thru because N8 offered me a place to talk to some folks since I no longer have a website.

DallasPenn dot com owes a lot to the NahRight family for constantly linking to the page and allowing it to share readers with a site that already had a thriving community. I’m pretty sure that Rafi Kam from OhWord.com found my page from NR. Rafi is the dude who suggested we take a drop from DP and make it into a web video. That video would be the genesis of the Internets Celebrities – Ghetto Big Mac. I’ve come to see that the majority of the internets would rather watch a post than read one. Whoever has gotten to this point in this drop is a fuckin’ dinosaur, kill yourself for reading all of this shit. Video content is how the future of information will be disseminated. Some talking head ass motherfucker is gonna tell what you think you need to know. I feel like its all bullshit, but I want to be in the crest of this bullshit wave. If someone that was here and still cares isn’t telling the story of New York City then it will be someone who wasn’t here and doesn’t care a rat’s ass. So I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere (sadly, literally).

But if you made it all the way to this last paragraph then let me just tell you that people don’t know shit and everyone who I have tried to push my message to who has given me negative feedback is a fuckin’ loser. I became part of a larger community on the internets who thinks the same way as I do, has the same personal values as I do and believes in the same shit as I do. The so-called industry can burn in hell. The new industry is the community and this is who I will put my trust in. Don’t allow anyone the right or the currency to validate your shit. That is for you to do on your own so that you retain your power and your independence.

What were we talking about again?

Editor’s Note: Dallas mentions speaking to me during the wmdeez days, I doubt he knows I used to e-mail him from my gov’t name e-mail and he would treat me with the same exact respect that he does today. Thank you Dallas.

Editor’s Note: NCB is the Editor-In-Chief of COMPLEX. If you had never heard of him before the interviews he did for the magazine, you probably didn’t know about his rap sheet either. When asked to write about his story, he opted to take the humble route and talk about the people who gave him his start in the game, instead of talking about how he, as quiet as kept, was one of the first people to co-sign 50 Cent in 1999 – all the way to co-writing 50’s autobiography 50×50 with the man himself in 2007. He decided to make sure everyone on his team got a shout out, instead of explaining his long history with Kanye, which I’ve heard from credible people is quite extensive – up until how his name ended up in Yeezy’s latest blog entry. But the fact that you’ll never hear any of this from him is truly a testament to the kind of person that he is. These are all stories I’m dying to hear, but it might have to wait for another guest blog.

All right, so I promised nation that I’d write something for this site a long-ass time ago. How could I say no? He’s a good dude and at this point I pretty much owe it to the universe to give back to the next generation of independent publishers. See, I’ve been blessed over the years with contributions to my indie endeavors by lots of people waaaaay more talented than me and it’s only right that I return the favor. So, after months of dicking around, I’ve finally hit the tipping point where my guilt has exceeded my busy-ness and my laziness (Plus I’m trapped on a flight with no TVs in the headrests, so what else am I gonna do). However, when pressed to write “my story”, I dunno, it just seems kinda self-aggrandizing (which I know is the whole point of the Internet, but hey, I’m still a fake-humble print guy at heart). So what I figure is, the most interesting thing I could do is leave some jewels on your dresser (pause), and try to impart some of the knowledge I’ve accrued along the way.

Before I go in, though, I should qualify the below statements. Who I am, what I’ve done, and what I’ve yet to do, should inform how much stock you put in my thoughts.

I grew up in Manhattan, read a lot of comics, and listened to a lot of rap. I also read a lot of magazines. Mostly about comics and rap. This was back in the ’90s. You know, the olden days—when suits were shiny, videos had million dollar budgets. Anyhow, halfway through my senior year of high school in ‘97, I got an internship at ego trip magazine. Basically my will to annoy exceeded their will to ignore. I called their office and left messages everyday for three weeks. Eventually they got tired of it and called me back. There Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Gabriel Alvarez, Chairman Mao, and Brent Rollins taught me how to write, think, and listen (Ted Bawno taught me a lot, too, but I signed an NDA so I can’t speak on that). Those ego trip dudes are all lunatic geniuses in very different ways, and their balance of bile and brilliance made for some of the funniest, most thoughtful and probably under-appreciated magazines ever made. I’m forever grateful for the opportunity to be their sixth man off the bench.

That experience was the foundation for everything that followed. Starting with… Six months later when Sacha landed me a gig in the research department of VIBE, where he was the associate editor, working for another really smart dude, Dave Bry. Things went well, I fell into some writing opportunities for the book, and after a couple months managing editor Jesse Washington offered me an editorial position on the launch team of BLAZE, VIBE’s short-lived rap mag spin-off, for the next summer. Without getting into detail about all the hijinx and fuckery that went down at BLAZE (’cause there was a lot of it), lemme just say, That shit was nuts! Fun, though, too.

Shortly before the bosses pulled the plug on BLAZE in 2000 I got a call from Dante Ross (who’d apparently read my stuff), offering me a gig as an A&R at his label, Stimulated Records. Growing up a Native Tongue Stan, getting a look from the dude behind De La, Brand Nubian, LONS, Latifah, and K.M.D. was surreal to say the least. Psyched, I did that for a couple years. Exactly long enough to realize it wasn’t for me. I like making stuff more than I like managing people who make stuff (or at least managing people that make the same things I make). If you can’t write a rap or make a beat, it’s hard to say anything credible to someone who does (picture Diamond D walking over to my 19-year-old ass and asking what I think of the mix on “X-Man”…”Um, I like it?”). That said, thanks to Ross I did get to oversee the creation and mixes of a couple records and I can’t overstate how valuable that experience was in informing the rest of my writing. Also, I met Dart Parker. That guy’s the shit. Anyhow, out the blue I get a call from some guy at MTV looking for hip-hop writers, I think Mimi from BLAZE had referred him. So I went over there and wrote some shows. I hated it. Just hated it. Nice people and all, but for me, it sucked elephant sperm through a crazy straw.

Thankfully a about a year later I got opportunity to jump back into magazine making, via the ego trip massive. Sacha had been talking to the Mass Appeal guys, Pat & Adrian, about taking over the editorial vision from ALIFE, so they hit me during the summer of 2002 and asked me to be Editor-In-Chief there. When I got there I assembled a rag-tag group of friends and armed them up (think Chopper in jail). They became fucking great and I work with them to this day (starting with Mary, Justin, Jack and then later Brendan, Tosh, and D.Scott). Our first issue was a split cover with Nas & Large Professor on one, and 50 Cent’s gun collection on the other. People liked it. 13 months later Emil Wilbekin offered me the Senior Editor gig at VIBE. That was cool. Me and Ben and Tosh made some really funny pages together and I got the opportunity to write some kinda memorable stories.

That said, two years later I was kinda itching for a new challenge, and Donnie, who had been at VIBE during both of my tenures and then expatriated to Complex, hit me to gauge my interest in coming aboard Marc’s baby. Seemed like a great opportunity, plus he and my dude ‘Drew Simon were there, so I jumped ship and joined them. A year later I was promoted to the top spot, slowly filled out their already extremely talented roster with my folks, and we made some magazines and then a website. Apparently some people like those, too. *Phew!*

So that’s pretty much it.

POW!

A bunch of crazy funny shit–and some painful fuck ups, too–got nestled in the cracks between the above highlights, but those are stories for another day. Without further ado, here’s 20 pretty important things I learned, usually the hard way due to my own trespasses, along the road to the riches:

20) People love lists. They’re the simplest and most immediate way to organize information and there’s nothing people enjoy more than having their tastes confirmed, disputed, and broadened.

19) You should consider everything you create to be an argument to the world as to why the people they consider ‘your peers’ are not really your peers. Don’t just accept the comparison.

18) A really good Q&A can deliver as much analysis as a well-written narrative feature—but about 10 times more people will read it.

17) If you agree to interview a rapper, you’re also agreeing to accept the possibility that, due to the circumstances of said interview and the ensuing reaction it evokes, you may never want to listen that rapper’s music again. I’ve never covered Q-Tip. He may be a nice guy and it could go great, but I have certain sentimental attachments to the music of ATCQ that I’m not willing to forsake.

16) Apprenticeship has been the key to whatever level of success I’ve achieved.

15) You can’t stand on the shoulders of those who came before you if you tear them down on your way to the top. Be gracious.

14) Honor your commitments to the people that put you on, even if it postpones new opportunities momentarily. You wouldn’t even be entertaining the opportunity if it wasn’t for those that put you in that position in the first place.

13) You’re only privy to 40% of your boss’s job, so keep that in mind when you Monday morning quarterback his or her decisions. It’s never as easy as you think, and you’ll only ever know the breadth and depth of the pressure until you have to do it yourself.

12) Compensation follows success; which follows excelling at what you do; which follows doing what you enjoy; which follows doing what you have a natural talent for.

11) There’s always a vocal minority that thinks you suck. One of them is probably going to comment on this post. Somehow I’ll soldier on.

10) Invest time mentoring the next generation. If you do a good job, one day they may cut you a check. Or at the very least, in the shortterm, they’ll explain the Internet to you (Lookin’ at you @bfred and @jlapuma).

9) If you surround yourself with the smartest people you can find, people will think you’re a lot smarter than you are. Only insecure people think this works the other way.

8) Don’t hoard the credit, there’s always enough to go around.

7) I get a lot of compliments on certain stories I’ve written, and that’s cool, but honestly, if you can’t get a good interview out of 50 Cent or Kanye West it’s time to assess your career ambitions.

6) People who are friends with everyone say the same nice things to the people whose work you don’t respect.

5) The internet is far more permanent than print. And anyone with a writer’s ego should appreciate that.

4) If you’re gonna shit on someone’s rhyme, you should try, at least once, to sit down and write a 16. It’s hard. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion as a listener and consumer, but a little respect for the difficulty of the process may inform how you express your dissatisfaction.

3) Generally speaking, those who are the most critical of you are your biggest fans. Just ask my mom.

2) When I was 12 my dad told me that I’d enjoy life a lot more if I acquired a taste for inexpensive coffee, wine, whiskey, and women. I didn’t listen to him, but that doesn’t mean he was wrong.

1) When you’re on a packed flight, never change your seat at the gate. The dude in front of me has been growing yeast in socks. At least that’s what it smells like.

Editor’s Note: Elite is the producer of Jadakiss & Styles P’s Shootouts, Jadakiss’ Why (Remix) and J. Cole’s Heartache, amongst other joints. I had been trying to get him to tell his story for quite some time then he decided to drop a collection of his instrumentals and things just fell in place.

“The Groundwork” was a project I initially decided to put together based on requests I would always get for my Instrumentals. I never released any of my instrumentals. I’m not even sure why, maybe because I somehow knew they would hold some value eventually. As I began to put together the track listing and sequence out the tape, it became apparent that this was more than a collection of beats. To me, it was my foundation. After reflecting on this body of work I think I finally began to feel as though I had “paid my dues”. Almost 10 years in, and it’s about damn time!

Once you reach that point, the sky is the limit. It’s not just about feeling like I’ve established a name for myself, but knowing that I’ve honed my skills to the point where I feel confident enough to tackle new things. For me “The Groundwork” represents step one in a long long long journey. The next step is going to really shock people, but right now is a time to sit back and reflect on a period of trials, errors, triumphs and development.

I figured I’d select a few tracks from the mixtape and share some of the stories behind their creation. As a fan myself, I love to hear/read how other creative people go about their process. Stories behind the song can add so much more magic to it. I remember hearing that “Billie Jean” was recorded in ONE take, which to me gave it the ultimate mystique. I can’t quite compare any of these songs or stories to THAT… But hopefully I can add some color to a few of these pictures for you.

The best place to start would probably be “Fireman” since it was the first beat I ever placed. It was somewhere around 2001, I was either 18 or 19 years old. At this point I wasn’t even making beats, I was rapping, which is actually how I got discovered by Alimah Deen (sister of Ruff Ryder CEO’s Dee & Wah). In college I was apart of a group on campus, and we basically just needed beats to spit on. The beat for “Fireman” was supposed to be our first real song. But when Alimah heard it, she decided to try and shop it around. I still remember the shock I felt when she told me that Drag-On wanted to use the beat. It literally had to be the 10th beat I had ever made. Ok maybe the 15th. But the point is, I was not expecting this kind of recognition so quickly.

I shifted my focus instantly from rhymes to beats and began to really take production seriously. It actually took a real long time for “Fireman” to come out, but between the time I placed it and the time it was released, I had already secured joints with almost all of the Ruff Ryders artists.

Being in the studio while Drag recorded, I remember him stopping the beat during a take and asking through the talkback. “Ay, whats your name again?”… I responded nervously “….Elite…..” ….. “Ok… E—Leet… where we at baby? Lets get it” was now the recorded intro. He definitely showed love from day one!

The story of “Shootouts” was well documented in my “Boiling Point” article for Scratch Magazine. And as frequently as I get asked about the beat, the main thing people say is “it’s crazy how you replayed that sample”. Which is funny because up until this point, nobody knew what the original sounded like!

I have to say, getting that sample replayed had to have been the most daunting task I’ve had to face in my career up to this point. What people don’t understand is that Queen (the group I sampled originally) was probably one of the most sonically advanced groups of all time. Brian May single handedly developed an entirely new type of guitar amp and sound. The guy is a genius. Recreating his sounds is just about as hard as recreating Freddy Mercury’s voice (which I actually found to be impossible… Thus the scratch hook).

Thank god for Hanan Rubinstein, a friend of mine that I met through college, who is a musical genius in his own right. Hanan helped me with all of the sound design for “Shootouts”. We spent an entire day in his garage tracking tom sounds, trying to get those epic HITS that set the mood so crazy. After we spent a day tracking them, we had to process them… Develop them… Make them SOUND like they did in the song. This was the case with every instrument… From the guitars to the strings, keyboards and beyond.

The main thought in my head I was racing against was “is it as good as the original?”. The answer always seemed to be “no” to me til the very end. And this was literally after a solid month of daily studio sessions. A moment of vindication however would finally come during the final mix of the record, when Styles P approached me and said: “Yo, you did a good ass job with this… This shit sounds way better than before”. Cue biggest exhale of all time.

To this day, I like parts of the original version better, and parts of the album version better. But now you can decide for your self!

Riding high off the initial buzz of “Shootouts,” it came time to tackle the “Why Remix”. Jada’s hit “Why” was everywhere, and in-house it was known that a remix had to be coming soon. All the Ruff Ryder producers were taking a stab at it. I remember Neo Da Matrix made a really dope beat sampling Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”. You know the part where it goes “why, why, why”. That shit was hot too!

The original idea was that they were going to get Alicia Keys to sing a different hook, which would totally change the song. But I loved this idea and went crazy trying to come up with something. My original remix was a dark, piano driven melodic take on “why”. I placed it with Jada’s original Acapella, and it gave the song a whole new undertone. I really loved it, to this day I wish they would have considered that approach, Alicia Keys, Nas, Common, etc. on this dark ass melodic beat would have been one for the ages. That same beat actually later got turned into a LOX song that might be on their next album, so you will still get to hear it one day! But anyways, the word from Kiss and the rest of his team was that they wanted something really similar to the original. They didn’t want to stray too far off, which in hindsight I can understand.

I immediately went in and re-chopped Havoc’s sample, gave it a bit more of a Premo dicing and added some more dramatic drums. A little string melody, bass line, etc. and there you had it. Pretty simple on my end I must say (especially following the creation of “Shootouts”).

When we were mixing the record, all we had was Common, Kiss and Styles on it. Nas was “supposed” to be on it, but the song was being mixed and it was starting to seem more and more like a hope than a reality at this point. It had to be done by the end of the night. Still no verse from Nas. I had given up hope, the lineup was still dope but man… Adding Nas would have really shot it into classic status. When I say “Last minute” in this case trust me it’s an understatement. I think I was downstairs playing Fight Night or something ready to pass out when someone finally let me know “They got the Nas verse!”. Man I was hype lol. I would still love to produce solo songs for both Nas and Common. Two of my favorite artists, but to have them both on one track was really insane.

On to the more present times. The beat for “Playground” was one that I had sent to J. Cole a while back, and he always liked it… But never wrote to it. One day during a session at the crib to record for “The Warm Up” he decided he wanted to try something from scratch, a new approach to writing. Jermaine is a notebook writer, all his raps are written down on paper and then read from the book. But this time he wanted to try the Jay-Z/Lil Wayne approach and just think of the raps in his head, and record them as they came… 4 bars or so at a time. So I pulled up the beat for playground, knowing that he liked it and there it was. I was amazed at how quickly he was able to put the verses together. You have to understand, just a few years before this Cole was only doing songs every once in a while. This was a moment in which I really realized how much progress he had made in that time.

Before long the song was complete, and was planned to be released on “The Warm Up” until like the week before it was done. Since I also had “Heartache” on there, I wasn’t too upset. Especially after listening to the mood and overall flow of the tape, I understood that “Playground” really just didn’t fit. Everything truly happens for a reason though and I think it ended up finding a great home on “The Groundwork”

Make sure you check it out! And keep your eyes peeled for much more in the future from myself, Dreamville and The World!!!!

Editor’s note: Chris Lee is the man behind CtotheJL.com and CJL Media. I was introduced to his website by Ray Mate of Mighty Healthy, but Chris also does online marketing for Diamond Supply Co. This is Chapter 1 of his story.

Skateboarding, one word that changed my life forever. When I was 12, my mother took me to my local mall in Freehold New Jersey to go to Blades. Blades was one of the only skateboarding shops in New Jersey and had all the ill brands and was the ‘go to’ place to shop. I started networking there when I was 12 years old by going twice a week, getting friendly with the employees, eventually getting a job 2 years later at the age of 14. While working at Blades, I was introduced to Nike SB, the first pair I ever saw was the Nike SB Takashi dunk low black/gold. I asked the customer where he got them and he said at a ‘Nike SB’ shop in Belmar, New Jersey. It was pretty much down hill from there, buying new Nikes every month, eventually making me broke ha. I continued to work at Blades until 2003, eventually they closed leaving me without a job that I loved so much.

After Blades, I started surfing the internet, eventually meeting someone named Kevin Ma, he runs Hypebeast.com. Kevin and I were the only writers on the site back in ‘05. During my Hypebeast days, Nick Tershay left a comment on my Myspace, and I quote “What’s Up Hypebeast.” I didn’t know who Nick was or what he did, but was interested to find out. I hit up Nick on AIM, and started doing online marketing for Diamond Supply Co. the following Monday. Eventually Hypebeast went one way, and I went the other. But it was a great experience and led me to the people who I know today. On Thursday December 22nd, while faking sick from high school, I created CtotheJL.Blogspot.com. I finished up the rest of my senior year and moved to the city of dreams, New York. I started working retail with Blades, eventually picking up a assistant buying position with Blades. The first year of Magic I met a friend by the name of Marcus Troy, Marcus wrote from WRG Magazine and was wearing a pair of Gray Jordan III’s, I looked at Marcus and said, ‘Damn dude, how do you get all the Jordan’s – So Early!’ We been great friends since.

‘I only follow the trends Marcus starts.’ Ha. (c) Joe LaPuma.

Once I moved to the city, I started the .com of CtotheJL.com. I worked diligently emailing companies trying to get interviews, of course getting shut down, I mean CtotheJL? What the hell does that mean?! ha. The only person who was down for me to take pictures and blog about them was Antoine Shepard, the store manager of New Era, and also my best friend. My sophomore year, I met one of my closest friends who remains my big brother outside the industry, Joe LaPuma. Joe is the Associate editor of Complex Magazine and has been my mentor/big brother for the whole process. For the record, JLP was the Marketing for the Good Wood Jesus Piece, he was the first one to blast it on his Hypebeast Blog.

Through out the years, I worked for companies such as King Stampede, Addict, Amongst Friends, Mighty Healthy, and Most importantly Diamond Supply Co. Handling all of their sales, brand direction, and online marketing. Diamond Supply Co. released their Misfits shirt back in ‘05, that is when things started for me. Nick and I worked very close together creating product, concepts, and of course promoting the product online. During the process, CtotheJL.com grew the be an online lifestyle magazine, and CJL Media was born. CJL Media is an online digital media business that creates concepts and markets the product for each client. CJL Media created the Good Wood Jesus Piece. The Good Wood Jesus Piece was released on Black Friday and sold out, stay tuned for a re-release, I cant be having people pay 200+ for a Jesus Piece it’s not fair. Nation will break the news so stay tuned. ha.

Chapter II of my life starts Saturday January 2nd, I will be moving to Los Angles to start a new life. New York was good to me, and I will miss my friends and family very much. But it’s time to move, but before I do, shouts to EVERYONE who has supported CtotheJL.com. Starting January 1st, until further notice we will be doing giveaways from your favorite companies, so make sure you Follow us on Twitter! – Twitter.com/CtotheJL.

Shouts to the CJL Crew – Rummy, Fat Frankie, Mills, R.Mills, Kazar, Notaro and Lars. Special thanks to to my parents who have supported me from day 1. All the homies, Joe LaPuma, Marcus Troy, HOF, Kerri [Good Wood], Timmhotep, JD [Hip Hop Update], Mike Yi, Antonie Shepard, Ray Mate, Denis Iderman, Hawaii Mike, the big brother I never wanted Hyun Kim, Yu Ming, all the homies in NY.

Sidebar: Doug Siu is taking over my position in New York, Holla at him. Doug.Siu@CtotheJL.com

Special shout out to my wonderful girlfriend Lisa Catalina, without her, I would not have anyone to vent to.

Nation, you’re my brother from another, thanks for the interview.

Editor’s Note: Ronnie Fieg is the HNIC behind the Asics x Trilogy Project that recently dropped in collaboration with CultureShoq, NiceKicks and HighSnobiety. Check out more of his work at www.RonnieFieg.com or follow him on Twitter: @RonnieFieg.

It all started in 1995. I just turned 13 and my dad had just thrown my first stereo out my window for listening to Wu Tang’s 36 Chambers. All I wanted at the time was a million pairs of kicks to go with matching Polo gear, and my parents weren’t buying me shit. In comes David Zaken (David Z.), the uncle who slipped Benjamin’s in my pocket every time he came through. I convinced him to let me work the stock room in his warehouse that summer, and that’s where it all began for me.

Fast forward to 2006, I have covered every possible position in the company from stock to sales to assistant management to management to assistant buying to head buyer. It was simple; I made more money, which meant more sneakers, which also meant 3 pairs per style, one to rock and two on ice. By 06 I had collected for 6 years and I had built a crazy collection of Nike SB’s and Jordan’s. They flooded my parent’s garage, the apartment I lived in, and two storage rooms. I never counted but I had nearly 600 pairs of sneakers dead stock. I cared more about my sneaker collection than my girlfriend of the time and her stupid little dog.

The most important element of my job was obviously buying the right styles. I worked hard at that, but I had my eyes on creating my own kicks, it was my passion. In September of 06 I was approached by Asics, a company which I had opened an account with 7 years prior. I had built a strong relationship with management. They all loved me and loved that I was a sneaker fanatic. They approached me with an opportunity to go through their archives and pick out a style to which I could take and design my very own “special make-up”. That had me happy as a motherfucker. I was flipping through the old catalogs from the 80’s and 90’s, and I knew what I was looking for. I found it on the last page of the last catalog. Just seeing the Gel Lyte iii in the catalog brought back memories of my OG pair I used to rock when I was 10 years old (I was fly since I was 2). I re-introduced the style for the first time around the globe in May of 2007, in 3 colors and labeled the project “252 pack” simply because there were 252 pairs produced per color-way. The shoes were featured in Complex Magazine as well as the cover of the Wall Street Journal and Nicekicks.com. Two days later, all 756 pairs were gone. Since then my head has grown about 2 sizes in a New Era fitted and people have called me a cocky asshole at least twice a day.

It’s been all uphill since, collaborating with brands such as Adidas, Saucony, Sebago, Red Wing, Clarks, Timberland, Converse, and Polo Ralph Lauren. My trademark with collaborations has been very premium materials and colors that you wouldn’t find elsewhere in the chosen styles. FUCK HAVING MY OWN LOGO. It’s not about paying for the name; it’s about getting what you pay for. It’s very important for the customer to feel he/she got their money’s worth. I try my hardest to make my goods accessible. One of my goals is to knock down this “cool guy” shit that distance people from their products by making them feel they are superior to the consumer. That’s bullshit. #Fact – A quality product is a quality product.

Having the perfect product at retail is only the half of it though. The other half is the most intriguing; getting the information out there for the world to see. That is where I feel I have grown the most as a collaborator/curator. Gaining the respect of bloggers and editors has been a blessing. Making friends in this business came easy. We talk about sneakers all day, it’s where amazing happens. I believe that being passionate about something is good start, but if you’re consistently working hard and wait your turn, you will eventually get your shine. It seemed as if I waited a century for mine.

I read a lot. I’m on the blogs all day everyday A. because I consider myself smarter at the end of the day B. It’s part of my job to be on top of trends and C. I’m always looking to be better than what is out there. Over the years I became close with a few bloggers. On a hot summer day in 2008 I was chilling at my boy’s estate by his pool and I just got off the phone with Matt Halfhill from Nicekicks.com. 5 minutes after that I got a call from Greg Weinstein at Cultureshoq. When I hung up with him I was emailing David Fischer of Highsnobiety. The craziest thing about it was none if it was work related. It was all just regular conversations we would have weekly just to shoot the shit. I started thinking about what I could do to give back to them for the work that they put in on daily basis, and supporting all my work since day 1. I wanted to work with these three guys because those are my favorite three blogs, and each of them catered to a different audience. Cultureshoq is a lifestyle blog that covers everything from gadgets to mansions. Nicekicks is the epicenter of the sneaker universe. And Highsnobiety is an online fashion magazine that gets all the fashion news first.

It was like getting slapped in the face with a light bulb. Having built a following for the Gel Lyte iii, I thought why not give these 3 blogs their own versions. All three dudes were down and we got going early Fall 2008. The design process with each blog was different and it was interesting to see how each of them approached the project with their ideas for their design. Working on each Gel in the Trilogy was a dope experience, going through 4 to 5 samples before we came up with the final product. Most people think it’s easy to design a shoe and it might be on Nike ID but my world isn’t “Sneaker Design for Dummies.” It gets technical and it’s very time consuming, because each detail needs attention. My idea and concept for the project was for each shoe to represent the color scheme for the respected site. So we chose grey/purple for Cultureshoq, red for Nicekicks and navy/grey for Highsnobiety. Holding each shoe and being able to tell which shoe is for which site meant: mission complete. The materials were right, the designs were right, and the people loved it.

Fabolous kicked off the Project on August 1st rocking them to the launch party at Dune South Hampton, where he performed tracks off Loso’s Way as well as his greatest hits. Fab was mad cool. He loved the kicks and sent me an email from the road telling me people asked him about them all month. The all red Nicekicks joints must have set a record for the fastest selling non-Nike product. The 250 pairs evaporated in 10 minutes and they have quickly become a collector’s item. The Highsnobiety Gels dropped a few weeks ago on black Friday. A dope winter color-way dark grey/navy (still a few available on Davidz.com). The Trilogy was a major success and it raised the bar as to how I go forward with my future projects.

My goal is to be the people’s champ. I want to make shit that people want, like and respect. I could give two shits about anything else like Tiger, Oprah, Chris Brown or Balloon Boy. Just let me put together a fresh pair of shoes and I’ll be on my way.

Look out for Ronnie’s latest collaboration, dropping sometime in the near future.

Editor’s Note: Mickey Factz discusses what it was like to get his first post on Nah Right and almost never get a second one.

“Where should I begin, start from the end…”

- Mickey Factz, Flyin Balloons – 1:00 A.M. and Rising Nahright Mixtape

Nahright. To me, that site was the end all, be all for an upcoming artist. It was like getting on a Clue Tape in 98 for me. I’ll never forget first hearing about the site. I was at Jive Records, talking to an A&R rep. He asked if I had ever been on that site, I said no. I then went there and felt like I should have been on that site. My second mix-tape, Flashback Vol. 1 came out in July 2007. We wanted it on the site. We sent it to Eskay, to no avail.

We proceeded to send song after song and it never got posted. I began to get frustrated. Started devising different plans. I recorded a Success freestyle with Donny Goines cause he was on Nahright so much. I was like, since I know Donny, maybe this will segue into being posted. Negative. Didn’t get posted. Then, I started hitting up every blog asking them. 2dopeboyz, DifferentKitchen, etc. Nothing. I even sent my press kit. NOPE!

I then gave up. Once you give up, thats when things begin to happen. I recorded a song that meant a lot to me. It was about Sean Bell. That shooting was horrendous and I felt as an artist I had to speak my mind. I did it not to get on any blogs. I actually never blasted the record to some people’s surprise. I sent it to Ian over at Different Kitchen and put it on my Myspace…

For some reason, Eskay got his hands on it and posted it. His reasoning for doing it because it was the appropriate to the timing of what was happening and it was “Independent’s Day.”

I remember I was on my way out of my house when my manager called me like “Yo, go to your computer screen right now.” I ran back upstairs and stayed inside for about a hour. Just reading the comments and laughing. I thought it was funny how they didn’t comment on how good the song was but how wack I was. Even Eskay joined in on the fun…

So since that happened, I was like YEEEEA! Now Eskay is gonna post allll of my stuff from here on out… NOPE!!! He continued to deny me access to Nahright. Haha. Pardon me I had to laugh at that. Out of alllllllll the things Eskay has posted regarding Mickey Factz. I realllly wish he would have posted Heaven’s Fallout which, to some people, is my best project to date.

The next post that got put up was my EPK and that was like 5 months later, lol. Again, we didn’t send that to him. He just randomly posted it. We were still sending him things and he wouldn’t put it up. I was like in the beginning stages of my leak series and this is when the term Hipster Rap was starting to become the “fad”. I had linked up with Naledge from Kidz in the Hall to record the record. We did it and it was dope. I had a line in there saying “I’m nice, so should I be classified as hipster rap? nah, right?” That line right there was like a shot at Eskay and he posted it. It was the first joint that went up. The comment section, which I absolutely love to death, bludgeoned me verbally. There was an argument about Hipster rap over that song for 2, to maybe 3, days.

The following week in my next leak, I then shouted Eskay out saying “My buzz off the internet, I got Eskay’s in a text, different kitch, every set” haha… Just showing love to him.

The moral of this story is, you can change your mind about anybody or anything once you give it a chance. I thought I would never ever be posted on that site. I saw Eskay go from making fun of me tons of times to then seeing him defend me in Posts, vigorously. I’m glad I got a chance to meet him at SXSW and just vibe with him. One of the realest people I know and I have nothing but love for him, Nation and Dre.

Mickey is prepping the release of his first single that will put up for sale. Keep up with Mickey Factz on Twitter or on his GFCny blog.

Editor’s Note: As told by Stephen “Spliff” Hacker of Spliffington Management. Spliff reps Alchemist, but he also manages producers Infamous & Streetrunner, who both have done numerous records for Lil Wayne. Read the story behind what is arguably the best track on Tha Carter III, and honestly the last time we’ve heard Fabolous & Juelz Santana actually spazz on a track, below.

Aside from representing Alchemist as a producer working with outside artists, I was recently heavily involved with his second album, Chemical Warfare.

This was an album that was in the making since 2005 and was released in 2009, so you know a lot of work went into creating it. Throwing around ideas of which guest artists to have featured on the project was something ALC was very critical of, but I knew there were some names which undeniably had to be heard on his music. Case in point, what became “You Ain’t Got Nothin On Me” featuring Fabolous and Juelz Santana, from Lil Wayne’s 3x Platinum and Grammy Award winning Carter III album.

Firstly, that beat was coincidentally on the same CD I gave Cam’ron that had what is now the “Wet Wipes” beat on it. Now, back in early 2007 I had spoken to Fabolous and let him know I wanted him on Alchemist’s album. He said he was a fan of Al’s work and obliged us. He had done a bunch of prior freestyles over Al’s beats and I knew there was a good synergy when they matched up. I set up a session and let him work his magic. He went through some beats and started to record. Not knowing what would come out of this experiment, since it was the first time Al and Fab actually worked together, we knew we had something great when he was finished. Even though it was only one verse, it took a few days of listening to it over and over again for the insane punchlines to set in. That was that and the ball was rolling. We sat on the Fab verse for about a week and then I told Al we have to put Juelz Santana on it next.

This is where it starts becoming a major pain in the ass. I’ve known Juelz for about 5 years now where I’ve learned the hard way that he loves taking his sweet time. I brought him the track with Fab’s completed verse and he took an instant liking to it and told me he’d get on it ASAP. ASAP in his dictionary means 7 months. That’s life when you are dealing with rappers sometimes. I lost count how many times I called, went to go see him and tried convincing him that this really could be something special with him on it. Fast forward to November 2007, I finally get the call from him that its done.

Now we are left with a song with 2 verses and no hook. What now? Only one choice I thought, The Fireman. Alchemist knew this could be a big record so he told me to go for it and get it done. I had tried to get Wayne on another song with Prodigy called “Keep The Heels On” for the Chemical Warfare album about a year before, but it didn’t end up coming to life. Within a week after Juelz had finished his verse, I sent the track with Fabolous and Juelz on it to Wayne and he sent it back a few days later. Not only with the 3rd verse done, but he filled in the hook as well, which we weren’t expecting. We also got the song back with different drums only over Wayne’s verse, something we later found out Weezy sporadically wanted done when he was recording to enhance the song. Those new drums were programmed directly on top of Alchemist’s track by Wayne’s engineer, which surprised the shit out of us. Weezy at this time was already taking over the game and it really surprised us how fast he got it done.

So you are probably asking yourself, why wasn’t this record on Alchemist’s album? We had all of the pieces of the puzzle in place, 3 of the hottest rappers going hard on the same track produced by The Alchemist. We were hype and really felt like we now had the song the fans and the streets are going to love. About 2 weeks after we get the song back from Wayne, I get a call that Wayne really likes the record and that he wants to keep it for his new album, Carter III. My gut reaction was like, there’s no way we’re giving this up, considering how long it took to complete it and all of the work put in. I told Al and he pretty much felt the same way. However, after looking at the possibilities of what was ahead with Wayne’s career, we decided to counter with a trade offer. We told them that we’d let them keep the record, if and only if, Wayne and the rest of the artists on the song agreed to record new verses for our project.

Carter III went on to win 4 Grammy’s and will probably set a benchmark in hip hop history. Chemical Warfare on the other hand, got an honorable mention in Popular Science’s Nevuary 32nd issue.

Download it here.

Editor’s Note: This is the third and final part of Meka’s guest blog. Read the first two parts here and here.

That summer of 2008 was one of the most memorable experiences I ever had. I could walk into parties and be recognized by fans of the side hustle. The work at the site and DX opened up other doors for me, and I was able to write for the likes of UR Magazine – a local ‘zine based in Canada – and XXL, the latter of which I consider to be one of the highlights of my life, as a dream of mine was to be the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine.

Of course, it wasn’t without its hardships as well. With no steady source of income and rapidly dwindling unemployment benefits, I was struggling to keep weight on my body and a roof over my head, having to sell clothes, shoes and electronics just to make the phone bill. I remember the times I had to ask my moms to spot me for the rent being some of my lowest points, as my pride and insistence on remaining independent from her kept me from doing so as soon as I left.

Finally, with funds low and desperation at an all-time high, I booked a flight to New York to spend a few weeks with my sisters during the holidays. I’ve visited the East a few times before, but primarily in the summer where I could experience the dirt, the grime, the music and the thick, cola-bottled shaped Dominican, Caribbean and Puerto Rock women dressed in the smallest of wears in the city. Coming in the middle of December, however, was a different story. Being raised in Southern California my entire life, I was accustomed to being able to drive to the beach for X-Mas. Having to be wrapped up in three layers of clothing to keep warm in under-30-degree temperatures while avoiding the many pan-handling bums, crackheads and performers on the A train was another story.

That trip to New York would be the turning factor for my career, for as soon as I went out to experience the industry nightlife I was surprised to receive the warmest of receptions from fellow artists, visitors and fans of this thing Shake and I did as virtually a hobby up until this point. I was also able to score an interview with Capone-N-Noreaga for XXL, and a freelance gig to be a music news writer for BET.Com.

“Fuck this shit,” I said, “I’m not coming back to California.”

Eventually I did, though, as I still was under lease at my apartment with most of my stuff there and had gotten tired of sleeping on my twin’s cheap, tiny couch. Returning back, I was even more determined to fix my future, and during one particular night I told my friends and mother that by hook or crook, I was moving to New York in six months.

Times were still rough, however, and by May I was unsure if I would even have enough money for bus fare, much less rent for an apartment out East. One day while I was filling out my unemployment form I found a job listing for an entry-level radio promotions gig for a boutique digital marketing agency in New York. “It never hurts to try,” I thought, and I sent them my résumé.

Here’s the kicker, though: a week prior to me finding their posting, the agency had invited me to one of their events out there, as they were well aware of the site Shake and I had. So when writing out my cover letter, I mentioned that I was the one of the site’s content editors.

Less than thirty minutes after I sent my stuff, I received an email from them suggesting that instead of working in radio promotions, I head up their new media department.

I called my mother right after and told her I was moving to Harlem in six weeks.

So here we are now, with nation allowing me to wax my poetics on how I was reared in the Internets game. I currently reside in the upper west side of Manhattan, where I still freelance, run the site with Shake on an almost 24-hour basis (as now there’s a West Coast and East Coast representative), have my new job and host/DJ three different online radio shows with, most importantly, my happiness – or at least a variation of it – back in tow. Thanks to my efforts in a few short months, my job’s website ended up in XXL’s top hip hop websites list (which really doesn’t mean shit to me, but whatever), and their online profile has boosted. I no longer need to push off a Playstation or pair of Dunks to make rent at the end of the month, and I finally seem to have a clearer path of my future.

I remember when an editor at my former benefactor interviewed me, and had asked if I have sacrificed anything to make the site a success. I don’t know what was going on in my mind at that moment, but I responded that I’ve not had to sacrifice anything. Thinking back, I couldn’t have been more wrong, as I’ve lost people whom I once considered close friends, weight that I’m still having trouble gaining back and God[dess] knows what other abuse I put on my body from the stress and pressure of having to maintain a insanely fast-paced lifestyle. But would I change anything? In two words, “fuck no.”

I still look back on my entries at “Slap-Boxing,” now collecting dust on my flash drive, and remember back to the days when I was filled with something that I now couldn’t even recognize if it walked up to me and spat in my face. Reason being, most of that anger I held inside was released through my posts, and it was essentially the fuel I used to power them each and every time. Alas I eventually ran out of gas, and on its second anniversary earlier this year I shut down “Slap-Boxing With Jesus,” having felt that I’d said everything I needed to say as I’ve now taken another path. I’m still a short-fused hothead, however, but now I just let most shit slide since I don’t need to prove anything to anybody anymore.

Also, if you’ve noticed, I’ve never said the word “blog” or “2DopeBoyz” once (excluding those) throughout this post. Why? Because due to the fact that wild people think that I’m somewhat of a big deal (am I?) those terms have been blurted in my face more than a money shot to the face of portly porno piece Pinky, I actually don’t like to say those words and I cringe each time I have to read, say or write them aloud. Such is life, I suppose.

How’s that for “website pundits” that talk shit about not having 200 words per post?

Oh, and fuck Urban Network.

“ARE YOU FINALLY ENTERTAINED?! WELL DANCE THEN, BITCH!”

Editor’s note: In part two of his Guest Blog, Meka discusses the inception of 2dopeboyz.com. Read part one over here. Part three is here.

Alongside a variety of writers from all walks of life, the DX columns had become one of the site’s more prominent sections, with “Slap-Boxing” being the most popular. I treated the column like it were a canvas and my words as paint, spending hours writing, editing and re-editing every entry until I had felt that it was complete for the world to see. With most of my posts having quotes like:

“If he had the space in his coffin to do so, Pun would be turning in his grave.”

And:

“I’m even starting to think that I can catch the next red eye out to JFK and slap the ever-loving shit out of Cam’Ron for his chain. Lord knows I could use the rent money and he probably wouldn’t snitch on me anyways.”

And finally:

“In a sense, I’m almost glad that Biggie isn’t alive to see his legacy burn worse than Travis Barker and DJ AM in that Cessna. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Puff at this point dug his body up out of his grave, tied rope to his arms and legs, hung him from the rafters and had him perform “Big Poppa” marionette style at Madison Square Garden on September 11th.”

I was the person readers loved to hate but couldn’t take their focus away from. Not even my cohorts were safe from my wrath, as I openly called out one William E Ketchum III just for calling Kanye West the new DJ Premier. A “beef” of sorts soon followed, and we exchanged barbs back and forth for a number of months until one day he sparked a conversation with me via iChat. We’ve become relatively good friends over the past two years also, even though we’ve not met face-to-face to this day.

Funny thing though, Ketchum hit me a few weeks ago, mentioning how the he can’t look at a song he thought I lifted the title of my “ether” post on him the same way anymore – I believe it was a T.I. cut – as it makes him remember our battle. Oddly enough, I took the post’s title from a Jadakiss lyric, but I digress.

“Slap-Boxing” also allowed me to fully re-enter the world of music journalism, where I was able to interview everyone from Hell Rell to The Pharcyde. I’d become so enthralled by its success that I was pretty much writing almost every day at my job at this point, subsequently forgetting to do some of my duties there. In August of that year, some of the higher-ups at DX had invited me to help them move product at their booth during the Southern California stop of Rock The Bells, and it was here when I met one of my fellow members of the DX section, a stocky white boy who went by the name “Shake,” the Design and Media Content Editor of DX.

Hanging out with Shake that weekend turned out to be one of the more intriguing experiences. I had thought Shake was someone who knew more about Green Day than Pacewon, and Shake thought I was just some belligerent, angry black guy who’d flip out if he had the gall to look at me wrong. When we realized that not only were we wrong about one another but also we both had a relatively extensive knowledge of music, we pretty much connected off the bat. The Middle Eastern overlords at DX saw how well we got along and suggested that we should start a website that they would set up and sell ad space on, to which Shake and I agreed.

About two months later, DX still had not done anything in regards to this new site. At the same time, my fuck-ups at the job had gotten noticeable amongst my bosses there, and in late September 2007 I was cut from my job in an effort to save money due to the impending writer’s strike that subsequently ethered Hollywood, with its aftershocks still being felt to this day. However it wasn’t for the reason I originally thought: my boss had stumbled across my stuff at DX and thought I would be better off pursuing that as a career choice rather than sitting at a front desk making coffee and refilling the copy machines for a living. Of course I didn’t see it that way at the time, but getting fired would turn out to be the best thing that would happen to me.

Imagine if he saw my “Slap-Boxing” shit, though…

Now without a job again, I panicked. I didn’t know how I was gonna survive without a bi-weekly paycheck, and I had turned my back on full-time freelancing for my former job years prior. So I hit up Shake one day…

“Is DX ever gonna start that site for us?” I asked him.

“Man, we can just start it ourselves,” he replied.

On October 17, 2007, the site was launched. However, my mind was far from it, as I had to find a legitimate means of making money since I refused to move back in with my mother. I began working on various commercials and music videos, all the while collecting unemployment checks and still scribing for various magazines. Spending upwards of 16 hours on random-ass sets left me no time to really do anything else, and my production over at “Slap-Boxing” began to slow from it where instead of doing one daily post I’d do three posts a week. Needless to say, my attention over at the new side hustle was menial at best, and for the first few months I only posted one per day: Meka’s Soul Mix Show. I got the inspiration for the Soul Mix Show posts when I would scour across the Internets, discovering the original samples rappers used in their songs, and I flipped an old Kanye West mixtape for the name. My very first post on the site would be Tom Scott’s “Today,” also known as the sample Pete Rock and CL Smooth lifted for “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You).”

Funny how everything seems to finds its way back to Pete Rock and CL Smooth. But I digress.

In January I landed a temp job at another production company, but by then I’d become jaded again. Not by the music industry, however; my distaste was at the idea of having to work a 9-to-9 job that pays little to less than nothing, with no foreseeable upward momentum. So I began contributing more to the side hustle, with Shake giving me pointers on how to post, how to scale pictures and whatever else I didn’t know, which was a lot as Shake had an extensive graphic design portfolio and I just had a bunch of Meka Soul posts and interviews with rappers. In May 2008 I was let go from that job, but by then I wasn’t even bothered by it; I’d decided that it would be my last gig as a receptionist. With a seemingly endless amount of free time, I finally focused fully on the site with Shake.

Read part three of his guest blog here.

Editor’s Note: After making you sit through that exhaustive two-parter, I thought I’d let a real writer tell you how he got here. These guest blogs will give you a glimpse into the lives of the people that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting along the way, whether it be bloggers that have made you know their name, or people you might have never heard of before. In either case, it’ll be someone that I feel that you should know more about.

I came across Meka’s HipHopDX column in late 2007, and I later stumbled upon a blog that he had just started, with then-fellow HipHopDXer Shake, from which I borrowed this picture for a wmdeez post. Shake e-mailed me not too long afterwards, introducing himself and Meka, and the rest is history really. I’ve had the chance to speak to both of them on a regular basis for the past year and a half, via NMC e-mail threads and other channels of communication, and they are both extremely interesting, hardworking and under-appreciated individuals. I could tell you about Meka, or I can let him explain it himself better than anyone ever could. Below you’ll find part one (of three parts) of his guest blog. UPDATE: Part two is up now and so is part three.

To know about the present, one must learn about the past…

Have the visitors of the site tell you, and I’m just nothing more than a shit-talking, arrogant asshole. Have those closely involved in my circle tell you, I’m a conflicted individual who – despite having a deep disdain for the field of work I’m involved in – continue to do it out of the sheer love of music.

But we’re not asking them.

Ever since that cocoon of fantasy known as college shattered once I graduated nearly six years ago and was suddenly thrust into the “real” bullshit world like a premature baby being forced out of his mother’s womb, this middling lie life of mine has seen more twists and turns than Dale Earnhardt’s #3 car after it careened headfirst into Turn 4 on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001, and it’s currently got me stationed in a cramped, windowless room in an office based in some nondescript part of Harlem, where my neighbors are a methadone clinic and a slaughterhouse that reeks of blood, feces and despair each time I walk past it while heading to work. Not exactly what I had in mind when what I do keeps Russell in that skyscraper, but such is life.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My foray into this music shit began in December 2004, when – while on my third job as a Macy’s bed, bath and kitchen clerk – on a whim I emailed the then-Editor-In-Chief of HipHopDX, Albert “Mac” McCluster, asking to write for the website, as it was essentially the only place I went to for all things music. To my surprise Mac responded, agreeing to let a person who hadn’t had any published work since his high school newspaper write for a burgeoning website. Essentially I landed another gig at a local ‘zine called Urban Network, and was eventually made the Music Editor.

What happened next over the course of six months, however, would drastically change the fiber of my very being, as I simply was not ready for the fuckery that truly is the music industry. During my tenure at Urban Network, I was essentially forced into writing good reviews for horrible artists, as their labels were the one paying for ad space and by extension my bills. Writing for DX was an event unto itself as well, as many of my works were constantly edited and torn apart by my higher-ups.

The defining moment, however, happened one breezy afternoon in April, as I took my then-girlfriend with me to interview the recently-bounced-from-DTP Chingy for DX. There, the mush-mouthed wannabe washout of a shitbag rapper spent more time ducking my questions and hitting on my girlfriend in front of my face. Returning home to write the piece, I had a writer’s block – stemming from the stress, poor health issues from essentially living out of a suitcase in my mother’s dank basement and who knows what else – that was so severe I could even draw up a single sentence.

That writer’s block lasted for another 18 months.

I essentially went into hiding, never answering emails and phone calls from my two editors, while trying to piece together the remnants of my young life. Three months later I landed a job at an entertainment commercial production company, who was responsible for the likes of Kanye West’s “All Falls Down” and Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got.” Although now having a semblance of stability (I moved out of my mother’s basement and into a one-room shack in Inglewood), I was still jaded by the music industry. Remember that now-infamous tangent 2Pac went on at the end of “Hit ‘Em Up?” His vitriolic venom is the best way I can describe how I was feeling at the time.

My first foray into the world of cyber-writing happened accidentally, as I somehow came across XXL Magazine’s website and was surprised to see that the shit evolved from a shitty, two-bit splash page to a well-developed online magazine with a variety of different sections, including this upstart section with the likes of Byron Crawford, Crunk & Disorderly’s Fresh, Billy X. Sunday, Tara Henley and more. I was surprised to see that there was a weird, geeky cyber-society that existed with cats whose thought processes mirrored that of my own. Eventually I began commenting under the handle “Meka Soul,” playing off a nickname I got in college when everybody kept stumbling over my full name and an old Pete Rock & CL Smooth song. It was in those c-sections where I was freely able to express the years of pent up rage, frustration and disdain I had for all things music, and to my surprise my comments eventually landed me a few mentions in Tara Henley and Byron Crawford’s respective XXL segments.

Eventually Tara had inexplicably found my MySpace page, and when she asked who I was – apparently I was more well-versed than the usual assortment of asshats that flood c-sections across the nation – I explained to her my background and past history. She then suggested that I should start writing myself, and pointed me in the direction of this “eskay” guy who was the Online Editor of XXL and also ran a website with the doofy name Nah Right.

Put a pin in that for a moment…

Meanwhile, although I had long stopped writing for DX, I still received email blasts from a writer who had replaced Mac as the Editor-In-Chief, Andreas Hale. One day in January of 2007 I received an email blast from Dre looking for anybody on the writing staff to do tribute pieces on The Notorious B.I.G, Big Pun and Big L. When I noticed nobody had answered, I responded, “I’ll do it.”

“Which ones?” he replied.

“All three, if I can,” I told him.

What I didn’t know at the time (Andreas told me this later on) was that during my first stint at DX, I was regarded as one of their better writers, and had I not became a recluse I may have been one of the editors myself. Needless to say, Dre was somewhat happy I had resurfaced, and I responded with three features on the deceased legends that I received a lot of acclaim for.

During this time, I had gotten to speak to eskay a few times virtually, and he suggested I should be a guest writer for XXL for a week, and if successful make the transition over to mainstay. Unfortunately, due to his duties over at XXL, the shit never happened. However, due to my pieces at HipHopDX I got offered a spot there, to which I happily agreed to do. I ultimately named my spot “Slap-Boxing With Jesus” for two reasons: I was listening to the Ghostface Killah song at the time I was thinking of a title for my spot, and it was a metaphor for essentially every repressed, possibly offensive thought I was going to spit out.

“Slap-Boxing” debuted April 9th, 2007, and to be honest I was petrified. I wasn’t sure what the response was going to be now that I was “on the other side,” and its sluggish reception had me questioning if I was doing the right thing at all. But I continued on, unleashing the two years of repressed anger and dismay at the rap game I had stored in my chest into daily, 500-word posts, taking shots at everything from Snoop’s hypocritical stance on Don Imus’ use of the term “nappy-headed hoe” when most of his shitty albums were nothing more than misogynistic dedications, to why I thought a good chunk of the female rappers out at the time should have stayed in the kitchen behind a stove and not in a booth behind the microphone.

About three weeks into “Slap-Boxing” I wrote a piece titled “Lil Wayne = G.O.A.T. (Garbage On A Tape).” Not thinking too much of it, I posted the piece and continued on making coffee and preparing lunch for my bosses at the commercial production company. When I returned 45 minutes later I saw that the number of comments had totaled somewhere in the hundreds, which I found strange since at the time the most I had gotten in a post was about 25. It turns out that Dre had like the post so much he featured it on the front page of DX for all of its visitors to view.

Meka Soul had finally arrived.

Read part two of his guest blog here, along with part three here.