One-Song-A-Week: Song #29 – Go Hard (The Unofficial Remix) feat. DJ Khalid, Kanye West and T-Pain

Note: The “Go Hard Remix” video is now available for FREE Download!  Click HERE for more info!

This week’s video is for the song “Go Hard (Remix)” featuring DJ Khaled, T-Pain and Kanye West (produced by The Runners)!

This song appears on the following mixtape:

THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT (a.k.a. BACK ON MY GRIND)!

Featuring the hits: “Go Hard Remix” with DJ Khaled, Kanye West and T-Pain, plus “O-bama O-Bama MegaRemix” with Tyga, “#1” with Jay-Z, “Where My Money At” and more!!

Click HERE for mixtape and download info!!

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

In putting together my latest mixtape, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back On My Grind),” I was looking for songs that I wanted to parody.

As I did more and more original songs for the mixtape, though, I started to realize that (a) I had a lot of good ORIGINAL material, and (b) if I wanted to have people start taking me seriously as an artist, it would be wise to release a mixtape that didn’t have any parodies on their so people could see that I had real skill.

Prior to this thought, though, I had downloaded the beat to this song called “Go Hard,” featuring DJ Khalid, T-Pain and Kanye West. I heard the song once back in August, but it wasn’t until about 2 weeks ago after I saw the music video for it that I really began to like the song.

I downloaded the original song, and thought to myself: “Man, I would LOVE to use this beat for a song on my mixtape!” I found the beat, and was going to try and make a parody – something obvious, like “Go Hard,” only talking about trying to get it up in the sack – but decided against it. (Plus, I kinda did that idea already with “Erectile Dysfunction,” and I don’t wanna make too many songs about that, lest the ladies think I really have a problem performing my “manly” duties!)

Instead, I decided it would be cool if I did a remix to it. I didn’t want to do two full verses, though, so I decided to keep T-Pain’s chorus and Kanye’s first verse, then have my verse come in second. A pretty ballsy move on my part – there’s always a danger as a new artist that people will hear the first verse of a song, then skip to the next one without ever hearing your verse.  Still, the verse I had sounded better as the second verse, so that’s where I put it!

As for my verse… well, even though I didn’t go the parody route, I still ended up talking about “going hard” in the sense of popping Viagra and Enzyte! I talk about going hard like a man in Vegas who pops the helpful little pills, only to end up taking too many and staying “hard” for more than 10 hours. It ends up being a metaphor for how “hard” I go on a track even when told to “stay down.” Even though the verse is funny, I had to make sure my delivery was just as HAAAAARD as T-Pain and Kanye’s verses.  If you ask me, I think I pulled it off!

Some Interesting Song Insights:

1. Back when I did “The KKKramer Song” (from The A.P.T. LP – get your copy today!), I mentioned how I don’t like to use the N-word in songs. Therefore, once I downloaded the original song and the instrumental, I went through the entire song and edited out all uses of the N-word by T-Pain, Kanye and DJ Khalid. Yes, I kept all the other curse words in there. No, I don’t know why it doesn’t bother me to hear those other words but not the N-word – at least the other ones don’t sound racist!

2. I was originally going to just use the Viagra metaphor in one line – i.e. “I’m fitn’a go hard/harder than an old man on Viagra” – but that seemed to be the very obvious route go to, and I couldn’t think of any metaphors beyond that. This is why I dragged the scenario out all the way until near the end of the verse. It’s similar in vein to the way Eminem would have done it.

3. The last line of my verse is spoken by Kanye – “F–k y’all n—ers, I’m outta here!” The reason I left that line in the song? When he says the word “here” it’s at the same time as T-Pain when he starts singing the chorus. I couldn’t edit the transition into the chorus without having part of Kanye’s “here” in the mix. Rather than try to fight it, I just said “Screw it – I’ll let him have the last line of my verse instead!”

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

I really, really, REALLY wasn’t planning on shooting a video for this today.

I was actually going to shoot a video for “Hooptie,” the last song off “The A.P.T. LP” that needs a video. I even had the idea for how I want to shoot it.

Unfortunately, that idea meant having an actual car to shoot the video in. I don’t have a car, I didn’t have enough time to use my brother’s car (since I didn’t think of it until after we were about to hit the road back home from my Grandma’s Thanksgiving gathering), and I didn’t have enough money to rent a car. I start my new job today, though, so I should (hopefully) have enough money in soon to shoot the video for it within the next 2 weeks.

In the meantime, I knew I still needed a video, so I figured, “Hey, why not shoot one for one of the songs off the new mixtape?” And here we are!

The video shoot idea for this one was REAL simple. I wanted to do the video in a style similar to the original “Go Hard” video – not with the same camera shots, mind you, but with the idea of simplicity: just me in front of a camera, along with T-Pain and Kanye West…

Oh, wait – I don’t actually KNOW those guys well enough to call them down to my video shoots… Hmm…

So, I went with my second idea: I could portray them by wearing symbolic things indicating I was them. For the part of T-Pain, I wanted to get a top hat and dreads.

One problem: I’m broke!

So, after scrounging around my room, I found a long and narrow rectangular box that looked kind of like a top hat. However, the flaps on the side wouldn’t stay straight enough to give it a 100% top-hat look. After a quick deliberation with myself, I decided to add some paper eyes to the front flap, thus giving the appearance that I had eyes even though the flap covered up my actual eyes. Genius!

For Kanye’s part, I simply wore the Kanye “Stronger” glasses I got back at his concert in May. So far, I’ve worn these glasses in two other videos: “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls” and, most recently (like, last week recently), “Stop Cock-Blockin’.” I also wanted to keep his outfit simple, as he seems to be wearing more down-to-earth stuff in the “Go Hard” video. Thus, the shirt I’m wearing with the name of me and my bro’s ideal record label name, “Buckbo Entertainment.” (You may have first seen this shirt in video #12, “I’m Gonna Make It” – there’s a picture of me and my bro wearing it.)

As for my part, I figured that I, too, should dress down, as if I were just hangin’ out with the guys. I decided to wear the T-shirt I got back in 2004 when I attended the Jay-Z and R. Kelly “Best of Both Worlds” tour (back when they were still talking to each other and hadn’t yet broken up the tour) and some brown shorts (also worn in the “I’m Gonna Make It” video).

And of course, I had to put it in Black and White, just like the original video. All in all, it came out pretty well, and only took 13 minutes to shoot – in one take!

Some Interesting Video Insights:

1. The camera itself was kept stationary, similar to what I did in the “Obama Obama” video, only this time I didn’t cut the camera off. I filmed the entire video straight through in one shot so that the background would also look stationary the entire time (i.e. no small little off movements – yes, I notice those types of things).

2. The hardest part of the shoot was wearing the box on my head. Right above me was our chandelier, and I had to duck down so I wouldn’t hit it with the top of the box!

3. I didn’t just want to shoot the video in front of a boring old flat wall. Luckily, the wall I used is one that has 3 squares on it. Sometimes, even a simple addition to a background can make it less boring!

4. I didn’t know what to wear for the “T-Pain” part in terms of clothing, since most of his clothing in his videos seem pretty elaborate. I figured a vest would be a good contrast to “Kanye” and me, who were more dressed down.

5. While editing, it dawned on me to start the song with the first panel of the video.  Usually I have all my “Get A.P.T. Stuff” advertisements run BEFORE I actually start the song.  However, I wanted people to get into the song right away, as soon as they clicked on it.  So, the video runs the length of the song, nothing more, nothing less!

6. Estimated time for editing: About 20 minutes to add the effects, 39 minutes to transfer the video into Windows Media, another 2 hours to cut and splice everything together… so, about 4 hours total.  Also, I would have added more edit cuts and effects, but I ended up calling the cops on my roommates after I heard screams of “Stop It! You’re hurting me!” coming from the woman half of the couple.  I can’t wait to get my own place…

That’s all for now! Incidentally, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind)” mixtape is available NOW for FREE download – consider it my Christmas gift to you!

Only 23 more videos to go – see ya next week!

-A.P.T.

E-Mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

“The Next Black President” Mixtape is DONE! + This Week’s Video

Well, surprise, surprise!

I thought I’d be working down to the last minute to finish up my newest mixtape, “The Next Black President (aka Back on My Grind)”… but lo and behold: it’s done!

It’s not supposed to come out until December 2nd, but it’s actually done NOW!  Well, about 98% – I still have to edit about 3 minutes off one of the tracks so it’ll clock in at under 80 minutes.  Don’t worry, it’s not 80 minutes of music – I included a podcast interview I did with a guy named Rhymestyle, which clocks in at about 18 minutes, plus there’s a track previewing “The A.P.T. LP” which I’m going to shave down so the whole thing will fit on a CD (should someone want to burn it).

I’m also going to have an option where people can order the CD for FREE, provided they pay the 2.99 shipping fee.  No sense in not letting people have a mixtape if they want it!

As for this week’s video… I finally figured out the video I want to do for the “Hooptie” track… but I won’t be able to film it for at least a week.  Why?  It requires me being in a car (which I don’t currently have), and I have to rent it but won’t have the money for it until after I start my new job! Yes, I finally got hired someplace.  Actually, I could have been hired a while ago, but I really needed the month off from working to do whatever I wanted to do.

With that said, I will be doing a video for a song off the mixtape.  I have a few ideas for some of the songs, but I probably won’t really know until tonight.  Stay tuned, people!

-A.P.T.

Email: aptsongs@hotmail.cmo

Myspace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

Get Your “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” Merchandise Today!

Above: My YouTube “non”-ad for “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” Merchandise!

Another week, another video in the can…

Did you notice something about the last video? Did you see the shirt I was wearing?

That’s right – it’s the “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” long sleeve shirt!

The shirt I wore in the “Stop Cock-Blockin’” video is one I made at home using iron-on transfer paper and a crappy iron. For this reason, the part where Obama’s picture is on my shirt looks kinda faded, as it did not transfer on 100%.

HOWEVER, the shirt that YOU would order will be professionally pressed! It’s the perfect shirt to wear to celebrate Obama’s historic victory!  It will also make for a very good item to wear around Inauguration time!

I also have mugs, hats, a mousepad, sweatshirts, and T-Shirts (Men’s and Women’s) available – just go to www.cafepress.com/APTsongs for all the info (pricing, descriptions, etc.)!

Because I’m selling them through Cafe Press, they will make the shirt and send it to you automatically. Basic shipping is relatively low in price, and they also offer faster shipping methods as well!

If you have any questions, contact me at aptsongs@wordpress.com!

-A.P.T.

One-Song-a-Week: Song #28 – Stop Cockblockin’

Note: The “Stop Cockblockin’” video is now available for FREE Download!  Click HERE for more info!

Above: The “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” T-shirt!  Available in all sizes!
Short-sleeve, sweatshirts, mugs, hats, and iron-on press design also available – click HERE for info!

This week’s music video is for the song, “Stop Cockblockin’!!” from “The A.P.T. LP,” produced by ME!!

DOWNLOAD FOR .99: Click HERE!  
Available on “The A.P.T. LP” – Click HERE for purchase options!

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

This is one of my all-time favorite original songs that I’ve written – yet, like many of my songs, it actually started off as a parody!

Let’s travel back in time to spring of 2007, when an artist named Huey had a humongous hit song called “Pop, Lock, and Drop It.” The song was playing just about everywhere, from the clubs to the radio – yet, because I had neither a car or went out clubbing too much (nor did I watch too much TV at the time), I had NO idea of the song’s existence.

I think I was at home one day when I finally saw the video for it on B.E.T., and found the song to be annoying but infectious. Sure enough, I found myself singing its chorus – the title of the song said over and over again – on a daily basis.

And when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before I start thinking of my own words to put in place of the original words.

Sure enough, I soon changed “Pop, Lock and Drop It” to “Cockblockin’? Stop it!” I thought it was pretty funny, and I envisioned a parody of the original song where I’d be telling a girl’s friend to stop blocking any action from taking place.

One problem with parodies, though, is that, if you can’t remake the original beat to a song, you can’t legally sell it. However, for some odd reason, copyright law allows you to do a parody of a song without having to pay the original person royalties, so long as you are able to remake the beat and have it sound slightly different from its song of origin. This is why I could make “Obama Obama” and sell it – I wrote the words and remade the beat.

With Huey’s song, though, I didn’t really want to go through the hassle of having to remake a beat. Sure, it sounded simple enough to remake, but I thought, “Why do that when I could just make an original song instead?”

I didn’t really plan on making a beat for the song, but I was fooling around on Fruity Loops one day, and ended up making a bouncy-type dirty south beat that I thought would go perfect with the song. Of course, at the time, all I had was the chorus – “Stop Cockblockin’! Stop Cockblockin’! Stop actin’ like a punk and stop cockblockin’!” – so I knew I’d have to fill the verses in with words of some kind.

Luckily – or unluckily, depending on how you look at it – coming up with words wasn’t that hard. I just thought back to all those times I went to the club where I’d be trying to talk to a girl, and her girlfriends would come up and ruin the flow of the conversation… or, if we were dancing, they would completely interrupt our good time and take her friend way from me.

For example: in college, I was at a party, and I walked up to this girl, and we started dancing. She looked back at me (it’s the look girls always do to see if the guy they are dancing with is attractive enough for them to continue on with) and kept on dancing. We were having a good time…

…and then, out of no where, her girlfriend runs up to her, yells “NOOOOOO!” like it was a bad drama movie, and pulled her girlfriend away from me!!!

So… yeah. Needless to say, the song wasn’t that hard to write

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. For the chorus, I always envisioned having Lil’ Jon for the vocals. Of course, I’m not famous enough yet to be in the same circle as Lil’ Jon, so I’m basically doing the best Lil’ Jon-sounding voice I possibly can. If anyone knows how I can get in touch with Lil’ Jon, PLEASE let me know – I’d still love him to be on the chorus!

2. The person doing the woman’s part in the song is my friend Michele, a.k.a. Ms. Theory. She has been a great help in many of my song projects, including “Crank Dat (Yeah!)” and as the voice of the girl breaking our date in the “Back to the Future” video.

3. The last line of the second verse is said similar in style to the last line in Huey’s “Pop, Lock, and Drop It.” The last line in that song went, “…. pop, lock and drop it,” and mine goes “So you can tell your friend that if she’s cockblockin’, stop it.” I believe I actually had this line of the song first before I went back and wrote the rest of the verses!

4. I was originally going to make this song 3 verses, with verse 3 being a chant of some kind. But the song was already approaching 4 minutes. In the world of music, it’s important to know when you should add more to a song, and when you should go ahead and finish it up, and I think this one was fine having only 2 verses.

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

Man, oh man. I’ve wanted to shoot a video for this song for the longest time, and I’ve had DOZENS of ideas for what I wanted to do.

First, I wanted to film it with me walking out of a club, screaming, then walking down the street filming myself mouthing the words to the song. Only problem: I don’t have an MP3 player, and trying to carry a laptop while carrying a camera AND mouthing song words was NOT going to be possible.

Second, I wanted to film it as though I had just gotten home from the club, frustrated that I didn’t get any, and I was going to sit down at my laptop and blog an angry post about it. But that seemed too… boring.

Third, I was going to try and either get one of my friends or my brother to be in it, and I’d act like I was telling them the story of what happened at the club the night before. Only problem: let’s just say, coordinating times with people for when I want them to do stuff is always a problem, and at this point I’d just rather do everything myself since I know I can rely on me to do the takes how I want AND do it at the time I’d like it done.

Finally, I settled on an idea – I would film it in our downstairs bathroom, and act like I was at still at the club but phoning my friend to tell him that I was about to take a girl home.

Then, before I started filming, I remembered that the second verse of the song has me talking to the girl as if I wasn’t trying to take her home. How could I say the verse in the video if I was still at the club, and hadn’t actually taken her home yet?

Then it dawned on me: I could act like I already took her home, and that the lines I said to her at the club made her comfortable enough to go home with me. Genius!!

After much setting up of camera angles, I was able to post my camera on a box sitting on a towel bar to film myself doing the song in the bathroom. After I filmed there, I went to the kitchen to film the “wilin’ out” version of me (i.e. the crazy version of me doing the song, as opposed to the more subdued version in the bathroom).

As for my clothes in the video, they consist of blue jeans, a U.S.A. jacket I bought from some store in Hampton, VA that no longer exists…

…and my very own self-made “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” t-shirt!

Part of the reason I held off on making the video was because I wanted to have this T-shirt to wear in it so I could start selling it. I wanted to do a test run of it first, though, to see if the shirt would actually sell. So, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a long-sleeve shirt ($5), 2 short-sleeve shirts ($8), and some iron-on paper.

Once I got home, I came up with a nice-looking design (which is COPYRIGHT-protected – I WILL sue if I find out copies were made) and test-ironed it onto the short-sleeve shirts…

…and the designs didn’t stick too well. “Aw crap,” I thought to myself, “so much for THAT idea!”

2 days later, though, I wanted to give it one more try. So, I got out the long-sleeve shirt this time, and ironed the design on the shirt. Lo and behold, it worked this time! (Well, most of the way, anyway).

So now, I have “I Voted For O-Bama! O-Bama!” T-shrits available for sale in the merchandise section! (NOTE: If you buy the shirt, it will NOT be an iron-on, but a professional printing of the shirt. The iron-on was just for testing purposes so people would know what the shirt they are buying would look like).

Lastly, since I was going to be selling Obama-related stuff, I thought it would be funny to do a re-enactment of the club scene using political figures. For this reason, I put together stick puppets using familiar politcal figures’ faces.  The part of me in the story retelling is played by “Obama,” while the girl being hit on is played by “Michele” and the cock-blockin’ girlfriend is – who else – “Hillary!” (I’m sure Bill Clinton would agree with Hillary being a cock-blocker!)

All in all, this was a fun video to make for a song I absolutely love!

Some Insights Into the Video Shoot:

1. I shot most of this thing at 1 AM in the morning on Wednesday, while the rest of my housemates were asleep!

2. The bathroom used in the video is the downstairs half-bathroom. There is also a bathroom upstairs, but it has a tub in it. I was originally going to act like the bathroom was in the club, and I don’t believe many clubs have bathrooms with tubs in it!

3. Many of the ideas or things used in this video are throwbacks to other videos I’ve done. The bathroom-as-location idea? Also used in “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls” (video #2) and “It’s Over” (video #8). The Kanye West glasses? Also used in video #2. Me talking on the phone? Also used in “Back to the Future” (video #6). I guess this is what happens after you’ve filmed 28 videos!

4. The design for the “I Voted For O-bama! O-Bama!” shirt was ironed on. However, since I still haven’t quite figured out how to get the design to stick 100%, some of the lettering had to be touched up using permanent marker. Again, for the actual shirts being sold, it’s being made professionally, but I didn’t want to spend excessive money on ONE shirt if it ended up not selling. Let’s hope it does!!

5. I was going to use popsicle sticks for the backing of the puppets, but I had no idea where to buy them without having to buy actual popsicles – and, given how cold the weather has been, I was definitely NOT going to do that! So, I found a cardboard box instead and cut out thin rectangles to glue their faces to.  Genius!

6. Estimated time for video editing: I can’t remember.  I was editing the video while doing other stuff throughout the course of the day.  Now that I’ve moved to D.C. I’ve actually picked up a social life, so I’m usually editing something then getting interupted to go hang out.  If I had to guess, though, I’d say about 4 or 5 hours.

That’s all for now! Incidentally, I only have ONE more video to shoot for the songs off my album – still have no idea what the video will look like, but here’s hoping I think of something soon!

-A.P.T.

E-Mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

New A.P.T. feat. T-Pain – “Everybody Else” (Radio Contest Entry!)

Above: A video explaining the contest in full! Voting ends soon, so vote today!

Another week, another video in the can…

So, check it out:  T-Pain is having a radio contest whereby he uploaded a beat with his vocals on the chorus and asked artist to make a track to it!!
 
The song is called “Everybody Else,” and it’s HOOOOT!
 
Anyway, I made a song for the contest, and posted it up on the radio station’s website!
 
AND NOW, I NEED YOUR HELP!
 
All you have to do is click on the link below, go to the site, and listen to the song.  If you like it, you can register with the site (it takes only a couple of minutes, and it’s FREE) and vote for the song. 
 
Note: there are a LOT of entries at the site, and the way the voting works is, they pit different versions of the song against each other and allow people to vote for which one is best.  I don’t know how long it will take before you get to my song, but when you do, DEFINITELY VOTE FOR ME!!
 
Whoever ends up in the top 20 (out of a possible 1000 entries) gets to have their song personally listened to by T-Pain, and the winner will be signed to his NAPPY BOY label!
 
Here is the link – even if you end up not voting, PLEASE check out the song (they count up song plays, too, which certainly will help me get noticed!!)
 
http://www.ourstage.com/music/channel/163-t-pain-step-in-the-ring/BQPIDVFCVTJX-everybody-else
 
Enjoy!
 
-A.P.T.

One-Song-a-Week: Song #27 – You’re Outta Luck (Off My New Album, Out 1.7.2009!)

This week’s music video is for the song, “You’re Outta Luck,” appearing on my upcoming NEW album (out January 7th, 2009)!

FREE DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE: Click HERE to download!

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

A lot of times when I write songs, I write them with the intent of making them the opposite of what is currently out on radio.

For “You’re Outta Luck,“ I knew I wanted to write a song where a guy – me – was hitting on a girl, but I didn’t want to make it the traditional rap guy/girl song where the guy is always bragging about what he can buy the girl, where he can take the girl, and how extravagant her lifestyle will now be as a result of dating him.

Instead, I wanted to write a song closer to my reality, only make it funny. I wrote this song last year, and at the time, there were a lot of things I didn’t have, and therefore couldn’t realistically use to pick up a girl. No expensive car, no meals at the most expensive place in town, and definitely no huge shopping sprees.

I decided to write about things I thought would be funny for a guy to try and use when picking up a girl: picking her up on his bicycle, obtaining flowers for her in a very inappropriate place, and taking her for a dinner out at a fast food place.

I can’t remember if I had the beat for this song first or the words itself. What I do remember is, I made the beat as simplistic as possible, and the words just seemed to match up with the beat. It’s mostly drums, mixed in with some cool synth sounds and a chorus that includes a high-rise beat. As for the words to the chorus… well, you’ll just have to hear it for yourself!

Incidentally, this is one of the first songs I recorded with my H2 ZOOM microphone. I think I had just gotten it a couple of weeks beforehand, and, in the course of testing out its recording abilities on my laptop, I recorded this song.

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. I recorded the song using my “low-tone, sexy voice.” I always recorded songs in a regular tone, but that was only because, up to that point, none of the mics I used were powerful enough to pick up my voice when I talked low. With this mic, I wanted to see if it could actually pick it up – and it did! Plus, I figured it would be a good way to pay homage to LL Cool J, who is notorious for doing these types of songs.

2. The original second part of the chorus started out with me saying, “But I’m broke as f–k.” However, since I didn’t cuss in the rest of the song, I decided to change it to “But I’m broke as what?” If there’s one thing I learned from the “Obama Obama” song, it’s that you NEVER know when a song will be good enough to be played on radio, and, since I’m not yet signed, I didn’t want anything to deter radio programmers from playing it, especially if they didn’t feel like editing the song themselves!

3. My favorite line in the song… actually, my favorite stanza is the first 4 lines of the second verse, where I talk about taking the girl out to dinner. It’s hilarious, to say the least!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

Okay, so, once again, my plan was to shoot a video for one of the two songs off “The A.P.T. LP” that haven’t been shot yet. And once again, real life interfered with those plans.

I was going to shoot a video for _____ this week. However, I’m trying to start selling merchandise outside of just music on the site, and one of the things I wanted to do was wear a T-shirt in the video that I’d have available for sale. I bought the materials, and was going to do a test-run of the shirt by doing an iron press-on version.

To make a long story short: I ironed the design on the shirt, and most of it didn’t stick on. Bummer.

I thought of another video I could do instead, but my brother asked me to accompany him to a gig he was DJ-ing. And I don’t miss any opportunity to go out of town, especially when it means I might be able to get some stock footage to use for later videos!

Luckily, when this type of thing happens, I have music videos stored up that I filmed prior to starting this site. So, that’s what you get this week!

I don’t know why, but I had recorded the “You’re Outta Luck” song before my college’s Homecoming weekend, and had made a copy to put on disc so I could listen to it while driving. I borrowed my Mom’s car that weekend, and on the way back, I decided to film myself singing to the song.

I didn’t want to just put up a boring ol’ footage shot video of me driving and singing. So, I added some funky-looking effects to it, and voila – instantly cooler-looking video!

Call it vanity, but looking back, I’m glad I did it – it means I don’t have to film anything this weekend, and I still have a video to put up!

Some Interesting Video Insights:

1. I filmed it last October while driving back from Homecoming. The highway I was on was I-64 West.

2. I actually shot two versions of this video because, at the time, I was using an online program to make all my videos and didn’t know which one would better sync up with the vocals once I posted the song with the video and overdubbed it. Yes, it was a crappy program.

3. Shooting time for the video only took about 20 minutes. However, adding the effects to this thing took a LOT longer than the actual shoot!

That’s all for now – I’m out of archived videos, so you’ll see something new next week!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT
Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

Download “The A.P.T. EP” (My 2004 Album) 4 FREE Today!

Above: A video telling people to come here and download “The A.P.T. EP.”  Although, now that you’re here, it seems kinda pointless to watch it, huh?

Back in 2003, I decided I wanted to put together a CD.  I used to do remakes of other people’s songs for my out messages on my answering machine, and thought it would be cool to put together a collection of those songs.  Instead, I decided to come up with some new paordy songs, throw in a few original songs, and call it “The A.P.T. EP.” Because I was going to try and use it as my demo for record companies, I added the tag, “This is ONLY a Demo.”

I made the CD and released it in February of 2004.  Of course, I only released it on campus at Hampton University… but still, I was able to sell a few copies, which gave me enough confidence to believe that people would actually pay for my music.

Then I graduated.  And I lost all the CD copies of “The A.P.T. EP.”  And, a couple of years later, the computer I had all the music files stored on crashed.  As far as I was concerned, the music would never be heard from again, except for “Bust My G.A.T.,” which I managed to save (and have, thus far, put on all my albums except for “The O-Bama Mixtape).

Then, I went home the last week in October to help my Mom move.  In looking through some of my old stuff, I managed to come across a couple of copies of “The A.P.T. EP!”  I was so happy to find them and listen to them again – man, did I sound young and inexperienced! – and decided I should put them here on the website as a FREE download!

So, if you’d like to download “The A.P.T. EP (This is ONLY a Demo),” you can click HERE, or on the Merchandise tab above!

Track Listing for “The A.P.T. EP (This is ONLY a Demo)”:

1. This is ONLY an Intro
2. Imma Skitzo
3. Failing (Eminem “Without Me” Parody)
4. An Interview w/DMX (f. Mr. Smallwood)
5. Bust My G.A.T.
6. Phone Skit #1
7. What Do I Do?
8. Phone Skit #2
9. Playa Hate (Destiny’s Child “Say My Name” Parody)
10. This is ONLY an Interlude
11. It’s All Graaavy
12. Why, Kobe? (Tupac “Hail Mary” Parody)
13. Phone Skit #3
14. C.U.Next.Tuesday
15. This is ONLY an Outro
16. BONUS: Girls at Hampton’s Dorm

Don’t forget – the offical new A.P.T. mixtape, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind),” drops December 2, 2008!

-A.P.T.

Laptop Down! Laptop Down! + Next Week’s Video

Another week, another video in the can…

And with video #26, I am officially at the half-way point of my “One-Song-a-Week” experiment. What a perfect time for my equipment to start breaking down!

Oh, what do I do, what do I do? The plug for my laptop is down, and, as of right now, I have no way of charging it up to load up new videos. Boo, I say, booooo! (Note: in case you’re wondering, I’m using someone else’s laptop now to type this. And they have a MAC, which makes me insanely jealous.) So, I have no idea how I’ll manage to upload and edit something for this Sunday.

Meanwhile, I think my camera is on its last leg – it’s got dings on the casing, and sometimes it won’t stay on, even when there are fresh batteries in it.

All of which makes for yet more hurdles I’ll have to try and figure out in order for me to finish up this whole project. I’ve been pretty diligent in terms of posting up a video every week, and, while I do not yet know how I’ll manage to get one up, I figure I’ll be going with my “by any means necessary” attitude and getting it up somehow.

As for the video itself… well, I have two more tracks from my album to do videos for. I know which one I want to do it for… but it really depends on if I can get my laptop working, as I have things I want to introduce in the video that I’ll be able to sell on my site. Assuming that will happen – all I really need to do is either fix the plug or buy a new one (which I don’t want to do since it would cost me a whopping $90 from Wal-Mart) – it should be interesting to see what I come up with…

That’s all for now – see ya Sunday (hopefully)!

-A.P.T.

E-Mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT
Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

One-Song-a-Week: Song#26 – What Do I Do (Off “The A.P.T. LP” – My Very 1st Album EVER!)

Above: Video #26, “What Do I Do” - the official half-way point of my “One-Song-a-Week” Experiment!

This week’s music video is for the song, “What Do I Do,” from “The A.P.T. EP” – i.e. my very FIRST album!!

AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON “THE A.P.T. EP” – Download for FREE by clicking HERE!

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

Before I get into the song itself, let me give you some background on “The A.P.T. EP.” In short: it was a disc I made in college as a result of interest I had built in my music from some of the students around campus.

Much like I did with the “Obama Obama” song, I was known around campus for taking current songs, and changing them up for my voice message greeting. I did this over the span of 4 years, and people knew I was the guy to go to for parodies.

When I hit my senior year, I wanted to put out a whole CD of parody songs, along with a few of my own original songs as well. I bought myself a drum kit and a Pocketstudio, and, over the span of a few months, put together “The A.P.T. EP (This is ONLY a Demo)” I added the “demo” tag because I knew that, since I was sampling other people’s beats (and, in some cases, blatantly re-using them), I had to let people know it was strictly for demo purposes (just in case a big-wig record company guy ever came across it and said, “Hey… this guy used somebody else’s beats!”)

Anyway, I gave a few copies to my friends, as well as some people who didn’t know me too well but liked my music. This was 4 years ago, when I was still in college.

Since then, I’ve made other musical disc (see: “Check the Resume,” “The O-Bama Mixtape,” and “The A.P.T. LP”), and, in the hustle and bustle of life, I managed to misplace all the copies of “The A.P.T. EP” I had made all those years ago.

Then, I went back to my Mom’s house 2 weeks ago to help her pack up the house for her move. In the process of going through my things, I managed to come across two copies of “The A.P.T. EP,” still in good condition!

I was ecstatic! I went to run an errand in my Mom’s car (still don’t have one of my own yet) just so I could have an excuse to listen to the first disc I made so long ago.

Man… it’s weird to hear the first set of songs I made. I made it in 2004, so some of the references on the songs are outdated, and the songs I parodied aren’t relevant any more. As for how I sound on it, I think I was still going through my “trying to sound like Eminem” stage, as a lot of the songs and concepts I used were similar in style to what he would have done at the time.

Nevertheless, it’s still a pretty good listen, and, even in my recording infancy, there were some songs I made on there that stood out.

One of the songs is the one I chose to make a video for this week, “What Do I Do?” It’s a song where I talk about my realization that (a) girls have finally started to show interest in me, and (b) that it took so long for them to notice me that I had no idea what moves I needed to make to keep her interest.

Even though I wrote this song 4 years ago, I remember exactly how it came about. I was sitting in our school’s cafeteria one day, eating alone (which, for the record, was on PURPOSE – I like spending time alone because it allows me to think of creative things to do… like, for instance, build this website!). As I was eating, I saw this cute-looking girl sit about 4 seats to the left of me.

I’m quite an observant fellow, and I noticed that, as she was eating, she kept looking over at me. It was one of those looks that said, “I wish this guy would talk to me – he looks kind of cute!” (Note: that’s not me being vein, it’s me being observant.)

Little did she know, though, that my interaction with girls prior to her sitting down had not always gone the way I wanted them to go. There have been many times in my life where I’d try and go after a girl, only to be shot down with a “No,” or would end up in a situation where I thought a girl liked me, only to be fooled later when, after being the “friend” that was always there for her, she’d end up liking another guy instead.

Even when I finally was able to figure out if a girl was interested in me, I still didn’t know what moves I had to make to keep her interested. Of course, I know now that if a girl IS interested in you, you don’t really have to DO too much (other than respect her and spend time with her). But for the place I was at in my life at the time, I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say or think of a way to start up a conversation…

So, even though I thought she was cute and single… I did NOT make a move. I just continued to eat, staring straight ahead until she finally got up from the table, in a frustrated, “why didn’t he talk to me” type of way, and left.

After she was gone, I immediately took out my pencil and my writing journal, and started penning the words to the song. I basically wrote out what I would have liked to say to the girl about WHY I didn’t try to holler at her.

At the same time I wrote this song, though, I was still in recording mode for “The A.P.T. EP,” and knew that I wanted a sing-songy type of song, similar in vein to the song Emimen recorded for his daughter Hailey (from “The Eminem Show” – I can’t remember the song name now!). I just so happen to have downloaded a beat from soundclick.com that was perfect for this type of song – I could “harmonize” on the first two verses, then come in at the end with a rap verse that summarized the song.

Even to this day, this is one of my favorite songs that I’ve recorded. It’s an honest portrayal of where I was a that time in my life, but I’m sure the song’s sentiment is one that shy guys deal with all the time when it comes to handling the opposite sex!

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. When I download other people’s beats these days, I make a note to save the beat with the name of the producer – that way, if they take the beat down, I can still contact them and ask them for beat use. 4 years ago, that wasn‘t the case – I did not produce this record, but have no idea who did. And – seeing as it was 4 years ago – I don’t even know if that person is still on the soundclick website. However, to make sure I don’t get sued, I can’t sell the song – thus, this song, along with the rest of “The A.P.T. EP,” is a FREE download!

2. I recorded this track using a 4-track recording Pocketstudio 5, which, at the time, I thought was the best machine I could by to record songs, at an “affordable” price (I think the machine costs me $250 or more). Nowadays I use a computer program called Samplitude, which can definitely record more than 4 tracks. Still, it was a pretty cool machine, and the fact that I could double up my vocals for my songs blew my mind!

3. The second verse of the song is a musical retelling of the events that happened in the cafeteria that day that inspired the song. And, like the song says, I really did go out of my way to ignore her, but only because I didn’t know what I would say to her, and therefore found it pointless to say ANYTHING to her. For all I know, we could be getting hitched today had I made a move!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

I knew I wanted to shoot a video for this song… EVENTUALLY. Just not this week.

I still have two more video shoots to go for songs off “The A.P.T. LP,” and the plan was to actually shoot a video for “Hooptie” this week.

However, I DO have a life outside of making these music videos, and sometimes things have to be rearranged.

I wanted to use other people in the last two videos I have for the album because I feel they are two of the stand-out songs that will be huge “hits,” and I didn’t want to have to stifle my visions for those videos simply because time schedules by either me or the people I want in the videos were out of wack.

At the same time, though, I knew I needed a video for this week, and I already had an idea for “What Do I Do” that was simplistic, easy to shoot, and would get my point across for the song.

The video shoot itself came about by accident. I had gone to a job interview that day, and had used my brother’s car. After the interview was over, I had one simple mission: drive the car back to where my brother works so he could drive me home during his lunch break.

One problem: I got lost! I haven’t been in D.C. that long, and most places I go involve me catching the bus/train. So, even though I had been to his office a few times, it was usually with map-blasted directions, which I didn’t think to print out this particular time.

Yada yada yada, I end up getting to his office an hour later than expected. Because of this lateness, I had to sit around in the cafeteria for 2 hours while he finished up his work day. After I ate some Chinese food, read a book, and called up another place for a job interview, I got bored.

So, I walked over to the lobby of the building, where there was a desk and a chair, propped up next to a wall that had a background with wallpaper containing green leafs in its design. Being bored, I started thinking: “hmm, it would be nice if I could shoot a music video of some kind here…”

And, of course, I had my laptop and camera with me (like I always do – well, most of the time). I didn’t know how much time I had to record something, but I figured I had at least a good 30 minutes before my brother would be done with his work.

The shoot itself was very, VERY simple. The idea was to simply record myself staring into the camera pensively while the song played, not mouthing a single word until the rap part of the song comes on. This was to give viewers the idea that the song itself was actually being thought by me rather than sung by me. The look I have on my face is one of distant disbelief: for the first 2 verses I don’t blink AT ALL, and when I finally start mouthing the words of the song, it’s still like I’m in a state of “why does this keep happening every time I meet a girl.”

I shot it with the green leaf backdrop because… well, it was better than using a non-decorative wall, that’s why!

Once the video was shot, I packed up my stuff, right around the same time my brother came out of his office and was ready to go!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. After a few pre-production shots, I shot the video itself in ONE take.

2. My original goal was to try and not blink for the ENTIRE video. However, the location of the lobby where I shot this thing had a vent over it, and was blowing into my eyes the whole time. Eventually, I HAD to blink.

3. This isn’t the first video I’ve made where I use ONE shot for the whole video. However, it IS the first video I’ve made where I didn’t use any cut-away shots combined with fast camera movement. (My video for “A.P.T. (What’s My Name)” came close, but there’s a cut with the censor bar in it midway through the video.) Again, I really wanted the emotions to read off my face, and felt that using extra cuts would take away from that.

4. After the 1st minute and a half of holding that camera, my arm started to hurt. That’s why camera looks shaky at times – its not even that heavy, but it takes a LOT of effort to hold something so awkward for such a “long” time!

5. After I shot the video, my brother got mad that I used his work place as a site to make videos. He was all like, “what if someone had come out and seen you?’ and blah, blah, blah. He cares very much about what people think about him – which is all good – but sometimes, I’m just like, “I could give a flying crap about that, I have a goal to accomplish.” Besides, I wasn’t even making noise in the lobby!

6. Estimated time for editing the video: well, the editing itself only took about 30 minutes. It was the publishing that took the longest. Since there’s only one section of the video where I mouth the words to the song, I kept having to republish the darn video because, once it was done, I’d find that the mouthing of words didn’t match up to where they were being said in the song. Estimated publishing time: about an hour and a half!!!

That’s all for now! By the way: This video represents the half-way mark of my little “One-Song-a-Week” experiment. Remember the goal, people: one music video every Sunday for ONE year – only 26 more videos to go!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT
Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

A.P.T. LIVE Radio Internet Interview… TONIGHT!

Above: A.P.T. will be interviewed/co-hosting an internet radio show, BlazeRadio!  LIVE, tonight at 8PM EST/7 CST.  Click the video for info on how to hear it on iTunes!!

These days, I get a LOT of fan mail.  Most of it is from the comments I receive on my videos courtesy of YouTube, but I also get messages from people requesting certain services from me (collaborations, beat usage, etc.)

Occasionally, I’ll get an offer to be interviewed.  These are the messages I like best because they allow me to get the word out about my music and stuff that I’m selling.  And such is the case with one of my recent messages: this college radio broadcast from Alabama – www.blazeradio.org- has asked if they could interview me for their show.  Being that Barack Obama won the election – and, being that I made the oh-so-popular “Obama Obama” song – they want to interview me.

I thought that was pretty cool… but it turns out, they’d also like me to co-host the show for the first hour!  So, I will be calling in to the show to do that tomorrow!

I’m spreading the word out so that others can hear the broadcast if they so choose to do so.  Tell your friends, and pass along the video – it tells you everything you need to know about when the interview starts, where you can hear it and how to listen to it.

That’s all for now!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT