DJ Decryption: Tha Blog

Merry Christmas and other assorted holidays to you all! Just wanted to drop another quick review / musical thought before bouncing for a bit.

Just copped Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" - quite an exciting disc. It's a concept album with some nice personified allegories (the whole underlying message of The Cool), diversified subject matter (e.g. a brilliant piece on children and violence called "Little Weapon"), and amazing production (e.g. "Hip-Hop Saved My Life", which has great thematic content too). Lupe has great flow with highly relevant subject matter, and thankfully he dives into metaphor in more than a precursory manner. He's skilled at tying various narratives together to highlight parallel experiences in provocative and innovative ways (e.g. "Intruder Alert"). I really appreciate that subtlety and creativity, since I feel there's a temptation to address all topics directly without couching them in some analogical flair. Plus, the production is amazing and diverse. Mad props to Lupe - sick album. To quote Matt F, "Hip-Hop is Back."

Everything else is great - it's nice to be home for a while. Caught up with Ana in Portugal today - sounds like things are fun there! She's got a killer new video from her Portuguese TV appearance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-fpWguN17s
Hope you're all doing well - catch you on the musical wave of 2008 soon!

Peace,
DJ Decryption

Talking with Joe (Focus) today made me realize that I hadn't updated the blog in a while, so I thought I'd give you some seasonal cheer. Hooray for cold darkness!

That was a seasonal cheer. Continue deadpan.

Recent music I've been enjoying: Craig David's new album "Trust Me". It's quite catchy overall, and although Craig leaves a little to be desired as a lyricist, it's a vast improvement from his other recent endeavors. There's more of a funk vibe on this album, although sometimes we veer into bossa nova (always a bad idea) and ill-advised British rap ("This Is The Girl"). Craig David does have an excellent ability to do two things: (1) make incredibly complex phrasing flow seamlessly and (2) name check himself with a regularity that makes you suspect he's had a continuous identity crisis over the last 4 albums. The former can be witnessed in choruses that feature lines like "six of one thing... halfadozenofanother"; whereas the latter can be witnessed every 15 seconds.

Recent enjoyable book: "The Islamist" by Ed Hussain. Amazing tale of a young 2nd generation British Muslim who claims to have joined radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Apparently there's some controversy over whether Hussain is a British neocon prop, but his book makes for a great story nevertheless. It's nice to read something with a narrative after hacking through Derrida. Although like most things, the deeper I venture into D's writings, the more they make sense. He's actually very astute - it's just that thinking like a deconstructionist will cause you to have a meltdown every morning. So let's stick to political apathy for the moment.

Deadpan humo(u)r continues.

The general outlook is good. PhD work continues unabated, and the Ana Free projects are grooving along. We've been putting in major studio time and setting up several networks for various parts of the debut album launch. The most recent track we've been working on is "It's Time", a lovely song with a killer chorus. You can check out the acoustic version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPOEhsaCHIs
I'm going to try to write more album and book reviews on the blog, as well as add some general music commentary and analysis on a more regular basis. So much of what passes for journalism about music seems so simplistic and binary-driven... it'd be nice to break away from that mold. So I'm going to start posting more thoughts soon.

Big things are happening in the new year - can't wait to share it all with you soon!

Happy Holidayz to you an' ya kinfolk.

Peace,
DJ Decryption

Kinfolk,

Thanks for checking back in! Sorry that it's been so long since the last update - life has been flying along. The PhD work has been going well (looking at neo-tribalism at the moment), and I'm aiming to have some solid pieces together before Christmas. The music production front is going great. Ana Free's project is blazing along. Portuguese National Radio is about to put the first single into rotation, so we're psyched about that. We did a couple of really fun live gigs recently. Ana and I performed together at the Frisson Gallery in Canterbury (which concluded with a hilarious beatbox / freestyle / breakdancing set), and I did some rapping with an awesome funk band named Parker Brown. Their concert at the University of Kent was absolutely phenomenal (they just added a killer horn section), and I am very thankful to PB for asking me to perform with them.

Ana and I also just did a photo shoot in preparation for the website and album artwork. The behind-the-scenes work takes a lot of time, you know? But in some ways, that's the most enjoyable and rewarding part. I've always loved the process, whether it's writing lyrics, composing music, or mixing an album. If it were easy, I don't think it would feel as rewarding at the end of the day.

In other music news, I've been composing some new beats for Team Business recently, and Drumline co-producer Dre Ramone and I have been getting our Foreign Exchange on. He's an amazingly talented producer and rapper, and it's been awesome working with him. And we're 7,000 miles away from each other! Ahhhh, technology...

I'm about to move into the enhanced studio (finally), so I'm looking forward to the improved recording and mixing environment. Other exciting collaborations on the horizon include Baba Brinkman (with whom I'll be chilling on New Years Eve, believe it or not) and Enigman (who spit some incredible verses for me today). Also, Da'Ron and I have been working on a new joint, which will be fire for your speakers. We've got a pretty tight recording schedule lined up for the US homecoming, but we're amped about it.

In other news, the first Drumline single (featuring Focus and two singers we'll pseudonymously call Sexy and Sultry) will be dropping shortly. I'm sure you'll be hearing / seeing more about that soon.

Things are moving my friends. I can't wait to be back in the US for a while over the holidays. Hope you are all kickin' it for real. Take care.

Peace,
DJ Decryption

What it do kinfolk? I've been out for a hot minute, but that's only because dis game been mad hectic up in da hizzouse. Balleristic on da grind with the thing and yeah enough colloquial speak for the moment. Life is good my friends! I've been missing all of you hardcore, but I have more than enough to keep me busy... which means I haven't had a chance to dwell too much.

So I guess first thing's first - literally. I just found out that I got a First (i.e. distinction) on my masters, which is wonderful news. It's nice to have all the research and toil validated by the powers that be. It's also a great boost to jump straight into the PhD. So I've been meeting with my supervisor, doing crazy research, making it clap, etc. The commodification of global youth culture. Wamp wamp.

On the production front, Ana Free's first single is going on Portuguese National Radio shortly, which is very exciting. Drumline and Team Business projects are taking off as well, and we're doing a ton of web design and marketing work at the moment.

In terms of new music, Mac Lethal is a lyrical beast. His song "Ashes to Ashley" is phenomenal, as are his Love Potion mixtapes (esp. 3 & 4). It's so refreshing to find excellent underground hip-hop on a fairly regular basis. Go global capitalism and technological advancements!

The birthday is coming up on Monday (the 8th) - I'll miss spending it with all of you!

Peace from Canterbury,
DJ Decryption

Kinfolk,

Ya boi is BACK! The dissertation is turned in, and the PhD is about to begin! It's been quite a wild month, and it's only going to get crazier. I'm working on a major website overhaul, so look for that in the near future. In the meantime, Portuguese National Radio contacted Ana Free and said that they want "In My Place," the first single from the album, to go into rotation next week. So we're incredibly excited about that, but we obviously have a ton of paperwork and studio things to do as well. More updates as they develop!

I also met up with Baba Brinkman in London. He's the author of "The Rap Canterbury Tales," which is amazing in both its CD and live performance forms. Baba is one of the most talented wordsmiths I've ever heard, and I had a great time chillin' with him and British rapper Dizraeli in the studio. Their producer, Infinite Potential, is dope as well. Check Baba out if you haven't already: www.babasword.com
In other news, we're in full production mode on the Team Business / Drumline end of things. Bad Boy submissions, Sage Francis connections, Suave's debut single, video game and film production, corporate gigs... the whole range. I'm also looking forward to working on British rapper Engiman's dark debut album as well. Not to mention a little PhD research here and there!

Speaking of which, I just got back from a conference on Displacement and Belonging in the Contemporary World in Manchester, which went great. I presented on Hip-Hop, Postcolonial Theory, and the French Riots of 2005. The paper was well received and will be published in an anthology in the upcoming months. So everything is still flying along on the academic front too. Just trying to remember to eat and sleep at some point!

Final note of good news: I just found out that my friend Mike's final animation film for which I composed the soundtrack received incredibly high marks and provided him with a Distinction on his Masters degree (the highest grade possible). Congratulations Mike! You're an animating animal.

Hope you are all doing well - keep that Soulfire burning!

Peace,
DJ Decryption

Last three days of dissertation writing. You notice how my blog posts get more frequent the closer the deadline comes? Ah well, that's how the inspiration works. Speaking of inspiration, I have discovered Podcasts. And they are good. I much prefer listening to southern Baptist ministers give marketing advice (intermixed with random rants against evolution) than Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" when I'm walking by the Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer would be proud. And confused.

Man, there's so much going on right now. Many production opportunities and jobs coming up, which is great. It just makes me realize how crazy doing music production for a living is. You're literally working on 8 projects at once. I also understand why producers charge such massive rates. The equipment and time investment costs are huge. But word, it's one of the most enjoyable things I can imagine (in a professional sense), and I love mixing the music with the activism. So I'm mad thankful to be able to do what I'm doing.

The dissertation is chugging along. I've been doing close readings of poems, which is a nice break from the theoretical insanity (well, it's real insanity, but it's about theory). You can only talk about the role of anthologies in academia and literary culture for so long before you start to wonder, "What do the anthologies even contain?" So I'm dropping some mad allusions and interpretations on dem who wan' test.

Back to the writing - I'll see you all on the other side!

Soulja Boy off in this ho(rticulture),
DJ Decryption

In case your life was lacking in humor this week, I present Karl Rove on Fox News Sunday:

"Let’s face it. I mean, I’m a myth, and they’re — you know, I’m Beowulf. You know, I’m Grendel. I don’t know who I am. But they’re after me."

It's true Karl. You are Beowulf and Grendel. And they're after you.

In other news, the dissertation deadline looms, and all chaos breaks out. Rain, wind, spiders, construction, general insanity. I just finished the demo music for my friend Mike's animation showreel. It's a very funny piece, and I had a great time composing the music for it. A little diversity for ya boi.

Had a great interview with British poet Lemn Sissay for my dissertation. He's a fascinating and incredibly talented individual - one of the biggest names in contemporary British poetry. He edited the primary anthology that I'm discussing, and he validated many of my points, which was wonderful to hear from the author whose work you're analyzing in depth. Sometimes you start thinking, "Am I just making this all up?" And then you talk with him, and he says what you've been saying. And you think, "hallelujah." So I'm on track for completion... it's just stressful, you know? Not in a "grand scheme of life" kind of way, but it is a big deal in a professional sense. So I'm trying to stay focused and put out a great product.

Been reconnecting with a few old friends, keeping up with some of my US crew, and watching Da'Ron break out fully costumed Michael Jackson routines. Sheer glory.

I hope you all are doing dandily and are having better weather than we Canterbury folk. I can't wait to emerge from this cloud of literary criticism.

Keep on keepin' on,
DJ D

Greetings fellow humans! Just wanted to drop you all a line of appreciation for reading this blog. You could be watching cats playing pianos on Youtube, so I appreciate your devotion of time. I'll try to make it worth it. :-)

First of all, I just discovered an INCREDIBLE rapper named Baba Brinkman who has done "The Rap Canterbury Tales". He is a lyrical genius (ridiculous multisyllable rhymes), and he has insanely elaborate and articulate songs. Check him out at www.babasword.com . If you have a chance to listen to "Rhyme Renaissance", please do. It's worth downloading on iTunes, I promise. He ends up in this area every once in a while, so we're going to see if we can meet up at some point. Maybe a collabo? Who knows...

In other news, I'm making really good progress on the dissertation now. I had hit a mental block for a while, but I finally found my focus. The poetry that I've been researching was so diverse, I couldn't see the common thread. Finally, it struck me that the anthologies were all commentaries on the necessary balance between universality and locality. For people to empathize with the Other, they need some common reference point. That's the "universal"... stories of love, pain, loss, work, etc. Then there's the "local"... the individual experience of living in a certain culture or coming from a certain community. This is what differentiates us... and it has serious repercussions when it comes to racism, social justice, etc. With too much universality, the reader just assumes that everyone has very similar experiences, and that one group's struggles are just as difficult as any other's. With too much locality, the reader is alienated and doesn't understand what the poet is saying or from where they're coming. That's why these black British poetry anthologies are so awesome - they display the commonalities and the differences in a linguistically exciting and innovative form. Word.

Alright, on that note, I'm going to go write some more on the dissertation. Just wanted to check in... I hope your week is going well! Can't wait to catch up once this dissertation is done!

Peace,
DJ Decryption

Kind readers,

Welcome to the reinvented DJ D. After a rather rough week of struggling to get a grasp on the conceptual direction of my dissertation (and my life), I finally had a breakthrough. It was one of those moments that has no reason or singular inspiration. But I woke up on this particular morning and decided to run through the graveyard near my house. To come to grasp with our own mortality is one of the hardest things in life (literally), and I think I, like most people, tend to avoid reflecting on it.

But as I have run through the cemetery every morning for the past week, it has made me realize an important theoretical balance. The problem with subjective and objective reality is that an overdose of either will make you a very messed up person. Too much subjectivity, the idea that all reality is filtered through your perception, ends up making you incredibly self-centered. Since everything in life depends on your perspective of it, you can overanalyze your awareness of everything. But on the flipside, too much objectivity leads you to the realization that you are but a speck in the cosmos, eventually the sun will crash into the earth, and we're all going to die. Which can make you want to sit in your room and play video games all day.

I think a nice balance comes with the realization that we're going to die, but we have the opportunity to do some good while we're here. So that means that everything has a slightly humorous, ironic edge if you step back for a moment. The trick is not to step back too far, because then you start to become disillusioned with humanity, think that nothing will ever change, and go on a smoking and drinking binge for the next month.

Now obviously religion has a role to play here, but I'll let you decide that one for yourself. You can listen to "Open Curtain" for my perspective on it. :-)

So yes, the point is that I've been running every morning, eating two good meals per day, writing my dissertation, and working on the music scene - all in much more productive and balanced ways than I had been doing. I wish I could point to a single event that sparked me to take action, but I can't. It wasn't "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". It wasn't "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School". It wasn't even the realization that my pasta cooking skills leave a lot to be desired. It was some internal willpower that sparked the furnace again. I think some people call that "a deadline".

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well, and I can't wait to catch up with you on the other side of this dissertation. Big birthday shout-out to Jewelz, and mad love to all my homies (and honeys) out there - you know who you are.

Through these 26 symbolic gestures,
DJ Decryption

Greetings mes amis. Thank you all for checking out the blog again! I'm getting some good web design feedback from my friend Mike Ziggy (famous videotaper of all events Ana Free / DJ D related and a damn good animator in his own right), so the website should be evolving soon. Anyway, hope you all have been chillaxin' this weekend... onto the update.

Per the title of this entry, I have been combating "reentry illness," which seems to afflict me every time I fly back over to the UK. I think having the clouds 500 feet overhead has something to do with it, as does the bipolar weather we have here. What's that? You want sun? Here, have some! Oh, but you want rain too? At the same time? No problem! How about some gale force winds? We got that work. Oh, and you want an oversupply of rabbits? Welcome to Canterbury.

You'll all be happy to know that I am eating fairly decently, as I am now combining my previous favorite dish (toast!) with new ingredients (ham! spinach!). Okay, so ham clearly isn't new, but one step at a time, okay? I've also been knocking back some serious Airborne and trying to avoid international students in an effort to limit the severity of reentry illness. I'm not hating, I'm just sayin'... the Chinese kids get as sick as I do when they are housed with Russians, Jamaicans, Germans, Irish, Nigerians, French, Mexicans, Indians, Moroccans, Turks, and Old Grumpy British Men. It's an international microbe convention.

I've been reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, and it's quite inspirational on a number of levels. Obviously the personal management / discipline side of things is the foundation for everything else, but I'm very taken with his advocacy of "Win/Win or No Deal" negotiations in business interactions. Since I've been getting more and more into the music business, I'm finding that integrity is a rarity, and working with people you trust is crucial. I'm very grateful to have a fantastic crew right now (Ana Free and Team Business) as well as the Soulfirians who are the most amazing singers and friends a fellow could want. I also feel fortunate to be in regular contact with people like Jodie Manross (awesome folk singer and friend from TN) and Brian Kurtzman (Wake amigo who's working at RCA) who have helped me learn a lot about the nuances of the music industry.

Beal, OD, Glee, and I had an interesting exchange the other night at Wake that prompted this observation. We were discussing how business negotiations have the potential to change the dynamics of any pre-existing relationship. I had never really experienced that before, but I can now see how a focus on money can totally shift the perspective of engagement in situations. Stephen Covey calls it being "money centered", which means that every interaction is filtered through a lens of financial benefit. There are a variety of lens that we use all the time though... being "friend centered," "work centered," "pleasure centered," etc. The trick is to balance them all by being "principle centered". I think this is clearly the hardest one for all of us to achieve, but it really is the key. I've been trying to negotiate that one in my own life, as my deep-seated desire to engage in large scale positive social change has encountered my increased involvement in the music industry. For me, Soulfire was an attempt to effect mass social change by combining my love of music with socially conscious messages. At first, I was concerned that my involvement in the music biz might become antithetical to my desired goals. But I'm finding now that it's actually a more empowering experience. In the not too distant future, I will have the ability to help people who haven't had the opportunities that I've had to reach their dreams. I will be able to promote artists and people in whom I truly believe. Even the management company I'm working with, Team Business, has "Pro Humanitate" as our unofficial motto - we are setting up philanthropic efforts as a cornerstone of our business. So I don't think that the music side of my life and the social justice side have to be distinct... in fact, I feel really inspired to try to link them as strongly as possible.

But of course, that brings us to the present, where I'm hacking away at this 15,000 word dissertation on Contemporary Black British Poetry Anthologies. I always have the existential crisis of a suburban white scholar from the US talking about Black British writing, but I've come to the conclusion that it's more important to talk about these issues and learn from any mistakes that arise than to say, "well, I don't fit into this category, so I'm just going to ignore it completely." Because if we are going to attempt greater understanding and social harmony, then we do need people trying to bridge the gaps. These divisions obviously exist between classes, races, and religions, but I think they're more marked between the Academy and the Streets. So often, people in both spheres are talking about the same thing, but it's language that separates them. That's why studying poetry, literature, and foreign language is so important. To really understand somebody, I need to know what they *mean* as much as what they *say*. And without historical and linguistic context, that's not possible. So that's why I feel it's valuable to study the fields that we do in the Academy. But at the same time, I recognize the frequent disconnect that appears to exist between the theory and the practice, which is why I included an "applied theory" component in my PhD proposal. After reading French high theory for a while, you start to doubt your own grasp on reality (and everything in general). One postcolonial theorist, Gayatri Spivak, almost drove me to International Law in a desperate attempt to escape her convoluted abstractions. Spivak also drove my friend Irmin to twist her hair into "Spivak balls of angst."

I'll hit you all up with some of the more specific music related updates soon - all this talk about theory is making me freak out about my dissertation... so I'm going to go work on that now.

Thanks for checking in everyone! Maybe there will be more absurdity next time... only Beckett can say. I'll leave you with a slight adaptation of a motto I appreciate.

Goals for the next month:
Make good music; write good essays - be a good person.

Win/Win or No Deal, baby.

Alright amigos, here goes the blogging life. Much like Facebook, I swore off blogging for many years. Yet, the lingering thought in the back of my mind says, "Hey, maybe someone else wants to hear the ramblings of your only child brain." Although I promise to organize these fleeting contemplations, I cannot attest to their relevance in the grand scheme of things. But then again, if the sun is eventually going to crash into the earth anyway, it's probably not a big deal. Just to start off the blog on an uplifting note. :-)

So yes, here is the woefully underdeveloped webpage. I'm working on getting some web design assistance, but I couldn't rob you of some random thoughts in the meantime! So please pretend the rest of the website doesn't exist until I tell you it does. Which will be easy, because it doesn't. Anyway, on to the hits parade...

I'm currently listening to Joe Martinez's "Heaven Medley" (http://www.myspace.com/joemartinez). This kid is one of the most talented, positive, and genuine people I know. Joe, Juliet, and Katie rolled up to the HKY to record the flagship single for Drumline - straight blazin'. Look for the drop in October!

Alright, I promised myself that this wouldn't turn into an events update blog, so let me drop some random thoughts on you before this entry disintegrates into complete chaos.

- Life is mad crazy. Time management is a beast, ya know? With so many areas demanding attention, it seems like it would be easy to avoid procrastination. But instead, you find yourself writing a blog.

- As Da'Ron would say, I often find myself thinking more about what I'm saying than what I'm talking about. C'est à dire, I tend to get wrapped up in the form and the words and lose the subject at hand. Which makes me rather postmodern in a metaBlake way, I suppose. Hey, every blog needs a pretentious sentence, right? That one's for you, Darren.

- I am so grateful for my friends. I was able to see almost everyone who was on the east coast this past month, and it really helped re-align my inner state of being. Actually, let's drop that hypen, cause it's REAL... they REALign my mind. Plus, there's too much hyphenation in this world anyway. I'm only into gratuity when it comes to bills.

- Oh yes, and if you'd made it this far, you'll have to accept merciless punnage if you intend to continue reading this blog. It comes with the territory. I'll spare you as much as possible, but old habits die hard... like BRUCE WILLIS BOOYAH THERE'S ANOTHER ONE BABY.

- Sorry, we're okay now.

- "We" Blake? Who is "we"? I don't know. The wizards.

- Okay, it was a valiant attempt at coherence. Maybe we'll have better luck next time. Stay tuned for more absurdity in the near future!