And now, I present to you the newest A.P.T. mixtape…
“Welcome 2 Cali: The Mixtape!”
Featuring the Asher Roth parody, “I Hate Grad School!” Includes unreleased A.P.T. tracks as well as freestyles and newer songs like “I’m The Realest” feat. Jay-Z and “Y’all Haters Should Know!”
The last mixtape I released was “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind)” back in November. 2 months after it was released, I released my second “official” album, “The Great Black Hope.” Prior to those two albums, I released “The O-bama Mixtape” as well as “The A.P.T. LP,” and I re-released the album I made back in college, “The A.P.T. EP (This is ONLY a Demo).”
The only reason I released these albums was because I figured they’d give me enough material to satisfy the needs of my “One-Song-a-Week” year-long project. And it did – technically, with the combined amount of songs on all the albums I could have easily pulled from them to make the 52 videos I needed to make.
But… after the release of video 43 (“The Great Black Hope,”) I started coming up with new songs. Actually, it started before then – when I settled in to my apartment in Van Nuys, CA, I was listening to beats on line, and came across a Paul Wall beat that I used to make “Y’all Haters Should Know.” It was in this song that I first shouted out, “I made it out to Caliiiiii!”
Then, I sold my mic because I was low on rent money, and couldn’t record anything for a while. Which was fine because I was starting to focus energy on things outside music that would be financially beneficial to me in the future. However, as I approached video 43 and started thinking about what other songs I would use for videos, I realized that, although I had songs to choose from, I couldn’t think of videos to necessarily go with them.
Then, I finally got a brand NEW mic – one that sounds 3 times better than my old one – and I got in the mood to record again. It was around this same time that the whole “Rihanna getting ‘allegedly’ beat up by Chris Brown’” incident happened – just in time for me to make a parody song about it for video 44, “Hey There Rihanna.” (Which, BTW, is NOT on the mixtape since Rihanna seems to have finally gotten enough sense to leave him. At least the song was timely!)
Then, I started writing songs for my other project (which I still can’t talk about quite yet). In the course of finding beats, I would occasionally find one that I couldn’t use on said project, but that I DID think of lyrics for that I could use as my rap persona. An example would be the beat used for video 46, “Fairytale or Nightmare?” It’s a beat that remixes the Fairy music from “Legend of Zelda” – clearly I couldn’t make a song to it and sell it w/o Nintendo’s permission, but I COULD make a song and give it away for free!
And since I was nearing the end of the project, I figured that any songs I made from then on out could just be given away for free, one at a time, without me having to put together a new compilation of material….
…but then, because I was putting out new songs, people started asking me: “So…. are you going to put out any more mixtapes soon?”
Dang… why did someone have to ask that question!
Truthfully, I didn’t think anyone would want another mixtape from me. I mean, dang, I’ve already put out 5 albums in the course of less than a year, and didn’t want to over-saturate people with more music. At the same time, though, it wasn’t like I didn’t have material I couldn’t put together. In the span of 5 years I’ve recorded freestyles, songs, and other stuff that I haven’t released. Plus, it’s nice to know that people still want to hear new stuff from me – I’m still amazed to this day that, even with the “Obama Milli” song finally dying down a bit in hype, people still check for my music!
So, I decided to make a new mixtape called “Welcome 2 Cali!”
This mixtape contains newly written songs released as videos within the past few weeks, as well as one song (“Back 2 The Future”) I released as video 6 yet never put on any album or mixtape. Also included are my “paperstyles” (freestyles that are written down and recorded right away) I released right after “The O-bama Mixtape” came out, and 2 “freestyles” I recorded (one of them last year, and the other was recorded when I still lived at my Mom’s house back in 2005).
And of course, I also have new songs I recorded, including my newest parody, “I Hate Grad School,” a take on Asher Roth’s “I Love College,” and “Welcome 2 Cali,” which takes Lil’ Wayne’s “Prom Queen” beat to make a totally original song (i.e. no parodying him THIS time!).
So, check it out! It’s a GREAT mixtape, and a wonderful way for me to end this project on a GREAT note!
Track Listing for “Welcome 2 Cali: The Mixtape” (Highlighted links have videos for the song!):
This week’s video is for the song, “I Hate Grad School,” a parody of Asher Roth’s “I Love College.”
AVAILABLE ON A.P.T.’S “Welcome 2 Cali” Mixtape – Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
Asher Roth’s song, “I Love College” – is just ripe for parody.
When I first heard the song, I automatically thought of a song with the opposite connotation – i.e., “I Hate College.” But it seemed pretty obvious – and one look on YouTube proved me right: just about everyone and their Mamma had done a “I Hate” song of some kind (“I Hate High School,” “I Hate College,”) or an “I Love” song of their own.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, though, it’s that just because an idea has been thought of doesn’t mean you can’t still come in and make your own. Especially if those other ideas haven’t been presented well. Most of the songs were recorded on lousy mics, or had a crappy video with it, and weren’t really good.
Still, even the sucky songs were getting quite a few hits on YouTube. I figured if I made one with good quality sound AND a decent video, I could, at the very least, make people want to download the song for FREE – and it’s only available on my NEW mixtape, “Welcome 2 Cali,” so hopefully it will do just that!
As for the song itself, I knew that, based on all the complaining I did while in school, I could definitely do an “I Hate College” type of song. It was then I realized that, out of all the song parody ideas for this song I found on YouTube, the only one I didn’t see was one about Grad school! And, with these next two weeks being finals time for most students, I’m sure they are feeling enough stress and pressure to warrant a song like this being out there! (It also helps that I have friends in grad school, as well as my Mom, who complain about doing their work ALL the time!)
The song itself was easy to write. Most of the stuff I did in college in terms of work and tests still applies in grad school (or so I’ve heard), only on a much bigger scale. I decided to keep the same exact flow as Asher Roth did in the original version so that, when people heard it, they’d instantly recognize what I was trying to do.
I also used two different choruses for the song. The first two are the exact same, with me talking about sleeping during a lecture, erasing my paper, and going to college to try and be successful. In the last chorus, though, I talk about how, now that I graduated, I still can’t get a job even with my master’s degree due to a bad economy.
This song is pretty funny, and one of my favorite parodies!
Some Interesting Song Insight:
1. I felt the need to brag at the end about how I didn’t go to grad school because “I’m too busy being successful without it!” Part of the reason: many people I used to converse with back in college were so into the belief that they just HAD to go to grad school to make it, while I was of the thought that it was NEVER about the degree, but about (a) who you know, and (b) what kind of opportunities you can make for yourself. (This, of course, excludes things like being a lawyer, doctor, or types of professions where master’s degrees and PH.D’s are strictly needed.)
2. Finding the instrumental for this thing was terrible! It took me forever to finally find a site that had a FREE download for it. In retrospect, though, I could have just used my LimeWire program, but that would have required opening up my slow laptop. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it…
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
Since it’s a song about school, I decided to keep it simple and make the video like a school year book. I found various pictures online associated with the subjects talked about in the song, and put them in an order that made sense with the song.
Along with that, I took pics of myself in various forms of book study. I don’t have any actual text books, but the books I read are mostly about financial stuff, or being persistent in goals. I dunno, maybe I’m studying to be a motivational speaker!
Once I took the pics, though, I decided to do a few film shots as well to break up the monotony of it all. Thus, the sequences of me typing on my laptop, studying in my room and – my personal favorite – drinking coffee. You’ll have to see the video to see why!
Some Interesting Video Shoot Tidbits:
1. I took the pics/shot the footage of myself at about 4 AM. I had just gotten back in from seeing a movie and hanging out with friends, and figured, “Hey, long as I’m up, I might as well get my parts on camera!”
2. For the coffee portion to be sped up, I had to move the mugs very slowly. And no, there’s no actual coffee in the mugs – I don’t drink coffee!
3. There are a few parts of the video where I have a picture, and I let it sit there for a longer period of time. One of them is a comic strip and the other is a list called “Should YOU Go to Grad School?” I wanted people to be able to actually read those pics, so I stretched them out longer.
4. Amazingly, this video took a while to edit. With most picture videos, it takes me an hour, MAYBE an hour and a half. This one, though, took about 3 and a half hours to edit altogether! Good thing I was using a MAC and not my PC!
That’s all for now! Next week is the FINAL video in this year-long project, and I couldn’t be more excited! In the meantime, be sure to download my NEWEST mixtape, “Welcome 2 Cali!” See ya next week!
This week’s video is for the song “I Get Honeys (50 Cent ‘I Get Money’ Parody).”
AVAILABLE ON A.P.T.’S “Welcome 2 Cali” Mixtape! Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
This week’s song, “I Get Honeys,” is a parody of 50 Cent’s popular song, “I Get Money,” which came out 2 years ago. I also wrote this song two years ago at the height of the song’s popularity in an attempt to get national attention via riffing off someone’s song. It didn’t quite work out that way – I had to wait to riff off Lil’ Wayne via “Obama Milli” for THAT to happen – but I still deemed it a song worthy enough to make.
Coming up with parodies is fun for me. Because of me listening to “Weird Al” Yankovic so much as a kid, my first instinct when I hear a new song is to think of a parody of it. To me, the best ones come naturally without me having to strain and think about it.
I forget how or when I came up with the song, but I’m sure it consisted of me walking around singing “I Get Money” and changing “money” to “honeys” at some point. In fact, as I recall, it was around the same time I got my previous microphone, the H2 Zoom, and was looking for stuff to record to test the sound levels.
I don’t remember the song-writing process for this too well, except that, because I was eager to record ASAP, it was fast and easy to write and record. The only part that sucked was that, upon downloading the beat, I couldn’t find the instrumental without the words “I GET MONEY, MONEY I GOT” being yelled over the chorus. So, when I recorded it, I managed to say the new chorus – “I get honeys, honeys I got” – over it well enough so that you couldn’t really distinguish the original chorus all that wall.
As for the song itself, it’s not all that funny – it’s more of an egotistical “ha ha, I can get chicks” song – but the video is more than humorous enough to make up for it. More on that later…
Some Intersesting Song Tidbits:
1. This is one of those songs where, while I don’t curse, there are a LOT of adult situation references. This was recorded back before I ever anticipated having a large audience for my music. Luckily, I was smart enough by time “Obama Milli” came out to realize the benefits of being a bit more clean.
2. My voice changes to a higher pitch during the chorus, but I can’t remember why. I think it was because I was trying to sound like the chorus of the original song, with it’s scratched-in sound. Didn’t quite work out too well…
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
First off: For the record, I actually had ANOTHER song and video for this week. However, that video uses green screen, and – since I’m still figuring out how to use it – the video itself is not finished.
Luckily, I made this one early last year, and it proved to be pretty popular on YouTube (around 10,000 views or so). Unfortunately, the YouTube site I had it on got taken down by the YouTube po-po, and I never re-posted it on my new YouTube site. I don’t think anyone will fault me for wanting to re-post this up… but I ain’t got nothin’ else to put up this week, so HA!
Besides, the video has always been very funny to me and everyone I’ve shown it to. The original idea was to have picture after picture of gorgeous women, but I didn’t think it would make the video funny. Then, it dawned on me to take that idea, and bastardize it! The way I saw it, people would start watching the video and be like, “man, these girls are HOT…”
And then, BOOM! – I’d hit them with a picture of one of the ugliest girls they’ve EVER seen! Then, a few more pics of good-looking women, then… BAM! Another ugmo! It was genius!
Amazingly, finding suitable pics of ugly people online was pretty easy. All I had to do was go to Yahoo.com, type “ugly girls” into the search engine, and a gang of sites and pics came up. As for the editing of the video, I used my muvee program, which was the only one I thought I had installed on my laptop at the time, and picked out the “paintball music video” edit choice to add some “excitement” to some of the pictures.
All in all, a really funny video, and one I’m very proud of, especially since it manages to be funny using all still shots!
Some Interesting Video Tidbits:
1. I’m not in most of this video…. until the very, VERY end, when there’s a picture of me being kissed by an ugly, UGLY woman. It’s a pic I took when I went to visit my friend Michele when she lived in New Orleans 3 years ago – we went to the Ripley’s “Believe It or NOT” museum, and they had a statue of the world’s ugliest woman. I didn’t know I’d use the pic for a video, as I wasn’t making them at the time, but when it came time to do this video I knew I had to include it in there somewhere!
2. Near the end of the video, there’s a picture of a guy dressed in women’s clothing and a wig on. This same pic was also used in video #3, “Your Mom’s a Ho.” S/he was one of the “six baby fathers”
3. Editing time for this video, as I recall, was very short. The longest part was trying to think up the names of various beautiful women celebrities and saving them to my computer.
That’s all for now – I have no more videos in my reserve, so I’ll definitely have something new for you all next week. After all, there’s only 4 more videos left to go!
This week’s video is for the song “Flashing Lights Remix.”
Available on “The O-bama Mixtape” – Click HERE for download information!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
This is one of the songs I wrote, recorded, and made a video for BEFORE I started this whole “One-Song-a-Week” site. Kanye West’s album, “Graduation,” had dropped a few months prior, and many of the songs from that album were being played prior to a video actually being out for it.
One of the songs I kept hearing at these clubs – and one of the songs I liked the most off the album – was “Flashing Lights.” It’s a song where he talks about the effect being in the spot light has on his various relationships, and the beat for it was semi-futuristic, souly, and dancable all at once.
I wanted to do a freestyle to it, and did the best I could to find the instrumental for download. Once I tracked it down, I… okay, so I don’t remember if I ended up actually making any freestyles to it. What I DO know, is I downloaded the beat around the same time that Britney Spears, now somewhat sane, was having a nervous breakdown. The paparrazzi has been following her every move for years on end now (this is year number 9) and the pressure of all that, combined with her having had 2 kids and then going through a divorce, was finally catching up to her.
Many people in the news media were, at the time, condeming this girl for the way she was acting. However, I always tend to look at issues in a different light. To me, I could understand why she’d finally break down. Despite the number of videos I’ve done for YouTube (47 so far) and the extreme popularity of the “Obama Milli” song, I am actually a person who enjoys his alone time and privacy. I could not even begin to imagine how I’d act if a swarm of camera people were trying to follow me from the minute I stepped out my door in the morning until I drove back to my house at night. That’s like, 10 HOURS of people following me! I don’t even like being around my family members for that long (love y’all to death, though!), let alone complete strangers!
So, I decided to make a version of “Flashing Lights” where I acted as though I was already famous and being stalked by the camera guys. I also made references to people who had been harrassed by the pap “smears”, such as Anna Nicole (R.I.P,), Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, T.I., Bobby & Whitney, and Dave Chappelle. It’s one of my shorter songs, but I think it gets my ideas across pretty well!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
1. Most of the ideas in the first few lines stem from seeing the things the paparazzi puts people through when they are following them around.
2. It’s amazing to me how, if you speak enough about something, it may eventually happen. I wrote this song a few months BEFORE I dropped “Obama Milli,” yet many of the things I talked about in the song came true. For example, I have a line where I say, “I once did this for the love/now I’m doing it just because…” sure enough, once the song got popular, I had writer’s block for a while because I felt I had to make songs for everybody else to like, not necessarily myself. I also have a line where I say, “…and now I get jerked/by cousins, who wouldn’t even call before.” I didn’t get jerked around by anyone in the family, but I did have quite a few friends and family who I hadn’t heard from in a while suddenly contact me on Facebook like, “What up, how are things going? By the way, I heard your song in the club/on the radio/on my friend’s ring tone…” followed by the requisited, “don’t forget about me when you make it!” Geez…
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
I made this video back before I was aware of a “Windows Media Maker” program on my PC. I did, however, have a program called “Muvee” that came pre-installed with the system as well. It allowed you to take photographs and/or video footage, load it into the program, choose what transition option you wanted to use, and voila – instant video!
Unfortunately, it was the trial software version. Meaning, you could only post up to 50 pictures in a video – after that, they would start to repeat themselves until the song ended.
No matter – since I was doing a song about being stalked by the paparazzi, I figured it would be the perfect program to use. Plus, it had a transition option whereby the pictures would look like they’d been taken by camera guys and put on film. Awesome!
The pics I used were candid photos of me. Pretty simple, since those are the kinds of shots paps usually take. In addition, I wanted to mix in pictures of (a) paparazzi guys at work, and (b) the names of the stars I mention towards the middle-to-end of the song.
All in all, a very, VERY simple video. I actually posted it up back in March or April of last year on my first YouTube site, but since it’s been taken down (again), I figured it was worth re-posting. Plus, because the Muvee program is automated, some of the pics didn’t match the words of the song at the right time. I was able to re-edit the video on my PC via Windows Media Maker, so the video flows much better now!
Some Interesting Video Tidbits:
1. A LOT of my friends show up in this video. In looking at it, I didn’t know I hung out with that many people!
2. The shots of me in the apartment were the only ones specifically taken for this video. I wanted shots where I was looking at the paparazzi from my apartment. The shots were taken when I was still living in my studio apartment in Atlanta, GA. How was I able to take them? Easy – my camera has a timer on it!
3. I don’t remember the original estimated time of editing since, again, I “filmed” it early last year. Today, though, it only took about an hour, and most of that was just re-adjusting the video so it stretched out to the end of the song!
That’s all for now! Only 5 more videos left to go – see ya next Sunday!
This week’s video is for the song “That Boy is Cra-Zy!” from my “The Great Black Hope” album!
AVAILABLE ON “THE GREAT BLACK HOPE” ALBUM – Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
It’s time to get your b-boy on!
This song started out with the beat. After being inspired by Soulja Boy and The Ying-Yang Twins – both of whom were able to make hit songs with beats that didn’t really have a lot of instruments involved in the beats – I decided to make an instrumental that only had drum sounds in it. I used high-hats, whoops, turn-table scratches, and that’s pretty much it.
I had this beat on my computer for MONTHS. Like, I made it back in May of 2008 (I think) and knew I wanted to make a song to it, but had no idea what type of song. All I knew is, with the way the beat sounded, it made for a good old-school rap sounding song.
Fast-forward a few months later: I was coming up with songs for “The Great Black Hope” album, and, because I was short on cash, I had to make most of the beats myself. This meant going back and using anything that was in my arsenal, no matter how odd it may sound, and making a song out of it. I came back to this beat, and…
…well, I still didn’t have a song to it, let alone a chorus.
Sometimes, when I get stuck, I’ll go back and listen to previous songs I made for inspiration. On my very first album – “The A.P.T. EP” – I made a song called “Imma Skitzo.” The song is very much in the same vein as an Eminem song; I basically say whatever I want, regardless of whether it’s insulting or not, and I put together a lot of words and phrases that don’t really cohesively go together. Yet, because of the song title, I was able to get away with it.
I thought about that, and realized that I hadn’t made that type of song in a LONG time. Because of the whole “Obama Milli” song taking off I had grown a fan base, and didn’t want to say anything too outrageous to upset them or chase them away.
BUT, seeing as I still wasn’t selling as many albums as I would like, I figured that the small number of people who might buy my new album wouldn’t mind that type of song, so long as it was ultimately entertaining.
In the chorus for “Imma Skitzo,” the very last line I say is, “That boy is craa-zy!” I liked the way I said it, and thought I could actually make that into part of a chorus. All I had to do was figure out WHY I was crazy in the song, put those parts in the chorus, then make a song up where I said dumb stuff.
I finally figured out the chorus, then went about writing the song. The nice thing about these types of songs is I’m able to do them the same way I do my freestyles – namely, write a bunch of random ideas down, figure out which ones sound the best, place them in an order that flows well, then record!
This song isn’t as crazy-sounding as “Imma Skitzo” was, but I did make sure to mention a few things in there that may make people do a re-wind. Specifically, I mention Lance Bass, Michelle Obama, Toby Keith, and Tyga, a.k.a. the bastard who took my “Obama Milli” song and not only performed it on tour, but tried to take credit for it as well. What a punk!
This is one of my favorite songs in general. The beat is bangin’, and it’s even got a break-down in the middle of the song!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
1. In the “Obama Milli” song, I did a whole 4 lines where I talked about how fine Michelle Obama was and how, if she were single, I’d “hit.” Many people who liked the song took a pause at these lines and thought they were disrespectful. So, for this song, I decide to “apologize” to her, only to end up reiterating what I said I’d do but in a nicer way
2. I mention Tyga in this song because, as the story was told to me, the person who re-made the beat I re-made with the “Obama’s” in it gave it to Tyga on the condition that he’d give me and him a shout-out. Which he never did. Admittedly, him being able to make more money off the song than me, AND perform it, pissed me off more than you can imagine.
3. I figured since “B-boy” is a popular term, there had to be a way to include girls into the equation – thus, the word “G-girl,” which I made up. At least I think I did…
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
I already knew this was going to be a dance video. I just didn’t know how much energy it would take up!
I did the first shots with me wearing the blue sweatshirt top. 2 minutes in, I was dang near ready to pass out. Dancing for a long time is HARD, especially when you don’t work out or run or jog. (In case you’re curious, I have a high metabolism. That’s why I’m so skinny despite never working out).
Nevertheless, I knew that once I started down the dance path I had to finish up. I did four different shots, in four different outfits, at four different angles. Even though it would just be me dancing in the entire video, giving people different things to look at makes it less boring than if I were to simply stand in one place and dance the whole time!
I also wanted to have each dressed up character have a different attitude. I don’t know if I pulled this off too well, but the guy in the blue sweatshirt was the “dance for fun” guy; the one with the low-floor angle was “B-boy dancing” guy; the dressed up guy was the “Dance with flavor” guy; and the guy with the brownish shirt on was the “old-skool dancing” guy.”
Midway through filming, I realized that I wanted to not only take a musical jab at Tyga, but a video one as well. So, for the fifth shot, I dressed up in a hoodie and wore some nerdy classes. I made sure in post-edit to mention that the person I’m doing a bad impression of is Tyga, and people familiar with both versions of the “Obama Milli” song should appreciate my get-back at him.
Some Interesting Video Shoot Tidbits:
1. I filmed this entire thing in my apartment. It’s a smaller apartment than my last place, so figuring out how many angles I can actually use gets harder with each video!
2. The place where I’m dancing with the brown shirt on is my kitchen. I had to move the glass table all the way over near the fridge to have it out of the shot.
3. In the last shot, that fall into the bathroom was PLANNED. It was a last minute idea, but one I figured would end the video on a hilarious note.
4. In the first chorus, I mention making out with Eartha Kitt. In the last part, I mention Amy Whinehouse. However, I cut out the second chorus in the song where I mention making out with Anna Nicole. Why? ’Cause I know how people attention spans are on YouTube, and with me adding the Tyga jab in, it would stretch out the video longer to keep the entire song in. If you want to hear it, GET THE ALBUM!
5. Estimated time for editing this video: about 4 hours. I tend to dilly-dally around now that the MAC edits these things so much faster, so the actual edit time was probably shorter.
That’s all for now – only 11 more videos left to go! See ya next Sunday!
Now that I’ve gotten a bit of a fanbase, there are people out there who have requested some of my videos for download so they can re-post it on their YouTube site. So, I’ve decided to test this idea by allowing some of my videos to be downloadable for FREE!
Below are 7 of my more popular videos along with the download links, including the oh-so-popular “Obama Milli” video and the “Goodbye Bush (Na Na Na)” video!
All I ask is that you do the following when reposting:
Post “A.P.T.” and the song’s title in the title line and in the keywords section
Provide the link to my website – www.APTsongs.WordPress.com – either on the right side of the YouTube page or in an annotation on the video
That you post the video as it was originally made – no alterations, please!
Feel free to send me an e-mail at aptsongs@hotmail.com to let me know you’ve reposted it!
Assuming these videos get a good amount of people downloading and reposting them, I’ll put up some of the other ones later on! (Note: if you have a request for a video not yet available for download, send me a message at aptsongs@hotmail.com!)
On Sunday, May 25, 2008, I, A.P.T., started this “One-Song-a-Week” website as a means of promoting my music. The objective: to release one song/music video every Sunday for ONE year.
On Sunday, June 21, I released a video for song #5 – a parody of Lil’ Wayne’s popular song, “A Milli,” called “O-bama O-bama.”
And since then, nothing for me has been the same…
Above: Video #5 of 52: My parody of Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli,” “O-bama O-bama” (re-dubbed “Obama Milli” by the public at large. No, really!)
Video for “Obama Milli” Now Available for FREE Download! Click HERE for more info!
6 months later, and this continues to be my most popular song. To say it had an impact in the music world would be an understatement. It has been played globally, both on YouTube and radio stations worldwide. It has been re-posted on a countless number of websites and heard or seen by MILLIONS of people. And – most importantly – it actually changed the minds of people who were John McCain supporters, and convinced them to vote for Barack Obama instead.
Not too bad, considering I recorded the song and video in a small studio apartment in Atlanta, GA, using a talk radio microphone and a Kodak 6.1 Mega-pixel camera meant mostly for taking pictures!
I don’t really like to hype myself up too much. At the same time, though, I recognize that people are still trying to find the song, filming YouTube videos to it, or wondering “Who the heck ARE those A.P.T. guys?!?” (Sorry to disappoint, but there’s only ONE A.P.T., though sometimes I wish I WERE a group so I could have a camera guy!)
So, this page is exclusively set up for those searching for all things “Obama Milli”-related. Below, you’ll find:
A link to the page where I give insights into the creation of the song/video
Links where you can purchase the song via my albums or the single itself
Other Obama-Related songs made by me
Hilarious and/or creative YouTube re-creations of “Obama Milli” by others!
My feelings about others claiming my song as theirs (I’m talking about YOU, Tyga!)
Lastly, people always ask me, “How much money are you making off the song?” After all, it’s been played all around the world, and major artists and radio D.J.s have either tried to make their version or used it for their radio promos.
And the answer is: not much.
Aside from selling copies here at my site and on my albums, I really never set out to make money on the song. My only goal was to figure out a way to get my face in the music game and use all my songs as a means of doing that, THEN get paid. And, while I may not have initially made a huge amount of money off this particular song, it IS starting to pay off (in ways I can’t yet talk about… ooh, suspense and mystery!).
Besides, I made a song that helped convince enough people to vote a Black man into the White House – how many people can say THAT?!?
The link to get “The A.P.T. LP” album(released 8-27-2008) which includes “Obama Milli“ plus other great songs like “Stop Cockblockin’,” “The KKKramer Song” and “Smooth Talker!” (Only 6.99 – Instant Download, works on ALL MP3 players including iPod!): http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=170344
The link to purchase“The Great Black Hope” (released 1-07-2009) which includes “Obama Milli”plus other hot songs like “Hands UP!,” “Nothing More 2 Say” and “Things 4 U (I Thought U Loved Me)!” (Only 6.99 - Instant Download, works on ALL MP3 players including iPods): http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=208737
The song also appears on my 2 mixtapes, both of which are FREE downloads:
*Lyrics to “Obama Milli”: First, here’s a video I made for YouTube with the lyrics -
And here are the lyrics typed out:
Intro:
A.P.T.!
Yeah I’m goin’ in…
Verse 1:
Call him “President,” he’s the next new President here
Senator, from Illinois, yeah
His criteria compared to John McCain just isn’t fair
Cause he’s B-L-A-C, so the eyes are on he
Through his pencil, he write legislation, with the country on his mind
And he don’t coat ish, cause he ain’t got time
Every second, minute, hour, KKK wanna devour
He got guards ready to pop ‘em, with their ch-ch-ch-ch-choppers
Every brother, mother, sister, cousin, grandma wanna hump him
Even got Hilary Clinton on the side ready to jump him
Tell the Clintons “Ha ha ha ha,” couldn’t catch him, couldn’t stop him
They go by the party rules, if you can’t beat him, you can’t top him
Thought she’d smack him, couldn’t pop ‘em, Delegates, couldn’t cop ‘em
Bill Clinton couldn’t help her, too bad she couldn’t drop ‘em, woo!
Man, Obama‘s so Illlll…
Verse 2:
Obama goes here, Obama goes there
Sayin’ “Yes We Can” with wife Michelly, he’s hittin’ that derriere
He travel to Arizona, ready to cause some drama
Hopin’ McCain will comment, “Look at that bastard Obama
He’s too young, he’s too hip, Negros always ‘causin’ problems”
His pale-lookin’ face got him lookin’ like a goblin!
Mac-Cain, Mac-Cain, please don’t vote for Mac-Cain
First day up in office, talkin’ ‘bout some heart pains
Call the ambulance, QUICK! All you hear is sirens
His temper isn’t private – Dang, I hate a mad prick
Don’t you hate a mad prick? Plus, McCain’s an old prick
Barack’s a younger guy, So choose him, he’s the right pick
(Laugh) But if you choose the wrong pick
Your step-son’ll probably end up in Iraq quick!
His health clan plan is so immac’late
So even if your broke, and can’t afford to take a doc trip
You’ll be feelin’ much better – not sick
And, he’s okay, but his wife’s sick
And her back’s thick, And her walk’s slick
She’s a fly chick – I’d hit!
Man, Obama‘s so Illlll…
Verse 3:
He’s makin’ history like X, King and Douglas, and RFK
Obama, he’s that “new black,” true that
Red-necks saaaay “He won’t beat John McCain
He don’t wear a flag pin, his middle name’s Hussein,” but
Who gon’ be dat boy dat doubt dat boy dey call “Obama”
Got Republicans sweatin’ like they up in Saunas (whew!)
Even McCain’s 90-something mama
Be ready to pull his lever every hour (Laugh)
And I’d rather eat a field mouse
Than to see John McCain in the White House
Vote Obama in, and I promise
He won’t turn back into some Uncle Thomas (Aaaaaa!)
No Aunt Jemimah or Southern Fried chicken
Call him “Chief Obama,” or “Mr. Keeps on Tickin”
Man, Pastor Wright’s comments couldn’t stop his tally
Even Oprah Winfrey said she was behind him
People, I say this country’s no hope without him
But he’s gotta go out and relate to everybody
He do what he do, like give his wife a hug and then a fist dap
Gotta do that stuff in public, so the hood’ll know that -
He’s black
Gotta use big words, white people love to hear it
If they hear it, they don’t fear him, they don’t know him, but they feel him
That’s real….
Obama… ‘08… White House, a-ha!
* * * * *
*Other Obama-Related Songs/Videos by Me: I never set out to duplicate the success of “Obama Milli.” However, given that he was a popular topic of conversation last year, I did make a few other Obama-inspired songs/videos. Check them out:
Above: Video #32, “The Next Black President!” For song/video insights, click HERE!
Above: Video #25, “The Obama Mixtape Intro (aka A Time 4 Change)!” For song/video insights, click HERE!
Above: Video #19, “John McCain is a P.I.M.P.!” Yes, it’s a John McCain song, but it was inspired by the fact that many people made songs about Obama but not McCain! For song/video insights, click HERE!
The link above is for video #15, “Shine 4 Obama.” It has a sample of Luther Vandross in it; consequently, YouTube took it down. So, I posted it at this link instead!
* * * * *
*Other “Obama-Milli” Related Videos Made by Fans: Many people re-posted the song on YouTube. Below are a few of my favorite ones that I found to be either hilarious, creative, or a take on my song that I found enjoyable!
Above: Two girls singing along to “O-bama O-bama” in a kitchen.
Above: A girl running around in an “Obama” mask campaigning. And guess what the background music is??
Above: Two kids from Chi-town rocking out in their… I dunno, basement?? – to the “Obama” song!
Above: Two teens at a high school in Las Vegas beat-box the “Obama” song!
Above: A woman from France – FRANCE! – drawing a picture of Obama while my song plays!
Above: At SVHS (I’m assuming that’s a high school), the “Obama” song was played during their homecoming rally!
Above: Jerrell Puttin, of “The Obaminators” dance crew, encouraging others to vote by dancing to my “Obama” song!
Above: DJ Ice chops and screws “O-bama O-bama!”
Above: A video of Obama and pals driving in a car while bumpin’ “Obama Milli.” This was also made into a phone video message that got passed around by many!
Above: Two Girls in an Obama mask and a Joe Biden mask do a verse from “Obama Milli!” It looks so scary!
* * * * *
MY TRUE FEELINGS ABOUT OTHERS CLAIMING MY SONG AS THEIRS
“Obama Milli” was released as video #5, in what is to be a 52-video, year-long series of videos.
Prior to its release, my videos hadn’t gotten a lot of views, except for video #1, another parody I did called “Erectile Dysfunction” (a remake of Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Seduction”). That video had gotten 12,000 views at the time, so when I released the “Obama” song, I figured it would, at the very least, match up to that song’s popularity.
Clearly, I under-estimated how popular it would actually become.
Unbeknownst to me, while I was working on other videos for weeks 6 and 7, the video was taking off like wild fire on YouTube. And – because I had the song as a download on this site – people started getting the song and playing it. Some of these people turned out to be radio DJs (yay!) who ended up being happy to play it on their station.
And it was all good… until…
I was vacationing back home in VA with my family, and one of my friends from Georgia called and said they heard my “Obama” song on radio… only it wasn’t my voice on the verses. Turns out, one of the local DJs took my track, re-sampled the “Obama Obama” part of the song, and made his own version.
I wouldn’t have cared so much, if it weren’t for the fact that people started messaging me, asking me if I was REALLY the originator of the track, or if this particular DJ had taken it. I had to call my entertainment lawyer – who just happen to know the DJ in question – to get the whole mattered settled with that situation.
THEN, I found out that Tyga – ironically enough, a close friend of Lil’ Wayne – had contacted this guy on YouTube who had remade my “Obama” beat into an instrumental with more of a southern bounce to it, and asked him for the track. According to this person, Tyga “promised” he’d give him AND me a shout-out on the track.
Lo and behold, this never happened.
So, Tyga made his “Obama” song and toured around the country performing it – and getting PAID to do so. I know this because I saw all the videos other people took of him at his various tour stops doing the song.
So, how do I REALLY feel about all this?
It’s a catch-22. I can’t be too mad at it because, after all, I DID remake a song by Lil’ Wayne, so I’d look hypocritical if I got mad at someone else…
…but at the same time, MY remake was an original idea! Everyone else took the “A Milli” beat and did a freestyle talking about having a lot of money; meanwhile, I took the beat, re-made it from scratch, came up with the idea to use “Obama” as the subject, spent 3 days writing it, half-a-day recording it, 1 hour filming the video and 8 hours editing it…
…so, for someone else to get the credit for coming up with the idea really irks me.
The ironic part is, I had people claiming I stole the song from either Tyga or the radio DJ… yet, the vocal sample used in their songs is MY voice!
In the end, though, the song did what I wanted it to do: (a) get Barack elected, and (b) get my song exposed to people who were in a position to help me further along with my career goals. Which means that all those people that took my song and made their own ended up helping promote me more than I could have, and it didn’t cost me anything!
- – - – - – - – - -
This is the end of the “Obama Milli” page. The song has given me a great ride these past 7 months, and I hope its allowed other people to search out my other videos as well. After all, there ARE many other videos I’ve made since then, and I highly recommend you check them out!
This week’s video is for the song “Hooptie,” produced by ME!
Available on “The A.P.T. LP” – Click HERE for purchase info!Also appears as a bonus track on “The Great Black Hope,” available January 7, 2009!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
Finally, a video for “Hooptie,” and the last song off “The A.P.T. LP” that needed a video!But first, some song insights, shall we?
Way back in 2005, I was driving around in a wonderful Honda Civic.Unfortunately, I also had a sales job selling a cleaning system (similar to a vacuum, only it uses water) where I wasn’t making many sales.As a result, I wasn’t able to make payments on the car, and it got impounded.
I still needed a car to drive, and it just so happened that one of my grandma’s friends, who was in his 40s and worked at a car dealership as a mechanic, had an old 1982 Cadillac that he was willing to give me for free.The car had many problems with it, but, at the time, free was what I could afford, and I was just happy to have a car to drive.
At least I was for the first month, when it worked.In December 2005, the car broke down, to the point where fixing it would cost oodles of money that I didn’t have.Thus, I ended up selling the car to a mechanic in Richmond, VA for about $50 bucks.
Fast-forward to August 2006.After living at home for nearly 10 months, I decided I wanted to move to Atlanta.I had been selling items on eBay for 7 months, and was making enough money to afford a $500 apartment deposit, 1st month’s rent, and – if I was lucky enough – a car that could, at the very least, help move me down to Atlanta.
While doing my normal routine of going to yard sales on Saturday mornings (to buy stuff to resell on eBay), I saw a car with a “FOR SALE” sign, along with a price tag of $500.I immediately called my Mom and told her I found a car I wanted to look into buying.When we met up with the people, we found out more about it: it was a 1987 Cheverolet Celebrity station wagon, had 125,000 miles on it, and needed to be sold.After giving it a test drive, I decided to buy the car.
In between owning these two cars, I was working on some new songs for the “Check the Resume” album.I wanted to do a car song, but I don’t like to do songs that everybody’s done, and most rappers make songs about their expensive cars with the 20-26 inch rims, leather interior, etc.That’s not my reality (yet), so I thought it would be funny if I rapped proudly about owning a Hooptie, i.e. a really messed up car!
For the beat, I sampled… hmm – on second thought, I’ll keep that to myself for now.Because of the way I mixed it together, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s the song I sampled if I told you.All I know is, when I heard the beat, I knew that this song was the perfect one to use it for.
I wanted to make the song a sing-songy type of song – one where the verses sound like they could be sung just as easily as the chorus.I slowed down my rapping speed, and emphasized words at the ends of sentences so that they’d stretch out more when people said them.
I also wanted to infuse humor into the song by going on and on about owning this wreck of the car.The lyrics are basically me giving a description of the two hoopties I actually owned – in fact, listening to this song made me realize just how f—ked up those cars really were! But, seeing as I don’t have a car now, I was just happy I had something that could get me from Point A to Point B in a fast amount of time (as opposed to now, where I have to walk or catch buses and trains, which aren’t always reliable).
FYI: I intended to film a video for this back in November, but since I took so long to make a video for the song, it’s being included as a BONUS track on my new album, “The Great Black Hope,” out Wednesday, January 7, 2009 (i.e. MY birthday!)
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
1.The original chorus for this song was, “I drive a Hooptie (what!), I drive a Hooptie, n!@@a!”However, even though it sounded crunk when sung, I’ve always had problems with other artist using the N-word in their songs.It sounded like the right word to place in there, but the last thing I want is to be performing a concert, and hearing white kids in the audience yelling the N-word lyrics back to me.So, when I re-recorded it for “The A.P.T. LP,” I changed it to “I drive a Hooptie, homey.”
2. The person saying “Yeah, man, that car is tiiiight!” is my cousin Sheldon, who came down to the south this summer to visit! It took quite a few takes for him to say the line on beat, so I had him record the same line over and over again about 9 times before he had it to where I could use it!
3. About 85% of the song lyrics are based on the two cars I had.Specifically: the having one headlight, the engine smoking, the locks not working, spending 3 minutes opening one of their doors, having a couple of windows either not roll down or roll up, my car shutting down when driving too fast, having different colored smoke coming out of the tailpipe, my trunk being so wet due to rain leaking in that it smelled like fish, my bumper’s having rust, my car cutting off after being in reverse…
4. …and the line about “some joker hit and run the front side of my car” – I had just finished up the song, and thought, “Hmm, it still needs a few more lines.” I went out to make a quick run and, sure enough, there was a dent in the front part of the door where someone from across the street had backed out their driveway and hit my car.This happened less than 24 hours after I had gotten my second “hooptie!”
5. My favorite line in the song is the very last line in the second verse, but I had to edit it for video purposes so my cousin could actually watch it.You’ll have to listen through the song to see why!
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
The reason I waited so long to shoot a video for “Hooptie” is because I wanted to get my cousin Sheldon in the video.I figured it would be cool to get him in one of my videos, especially since he had a line in the song.The plan was to catch a bus up to Philadelphia and spend Christmas with him and my other cousin, Samantha, and, in the process, film a video.
But of course, just because you plan something doesn’t always mean it’s going to happen.
In this case, Mother Nature changed my plans: at 5:31 AM I got a call from Samantha telling me it had rained the night before, and that the roads were iced over.Furthermore, one of the major highways had been closed off by the city, and there had already been a report of one Greyhound bus accident – the same bus line I would have caught to go up for my visit.
Seeing as I didn’t want to die, I had to cancel my plans to go up north – and, more importantly, to film my video up there.
As luck would have it, though, my brother had asked our Mom to get him a Wii for him and his fiancée to play.Upon getting the system, the first game he bought was Mario Kart Wii, a racing game featuring Nintendo characters. He opened the game the night before Christmas Eve for all of us to play at his apartment, and it was fun as heck!
The next morning, while waiting for my brother to wake up (I spent the night at his apartment), I started playing the game again to see how many new racing courses and/or characters and/or rides I could unlock.Somewhere, in the middle of playing the game, I thought: “OMG – I could make a video for ‘Hooptie’ by filming myself playing ‘Mario Kart Wii!’”It made perfect sense – it was a racing game involving cars (okay, karts – still, same thing!) and “Hooptie” was a car song, so they could go together!
I started filming the TV screen while playing the game, and decided that I didn’t just want to see a video with me winning all these racing matches.Since the song was funny, I wanted the video to be funny as well – so, I decided to play the game as badly as possible, crashing into things, getting hit by stuff, falling off of cliffs – to match the song’s mantra of owing a crappy car.After all, if I’m doing so badly on the races, my car must not be that good, right?
And, since I filmed it during Christmas week – and because my bro had Christmas decorations all over his apartment – I decided to film it like I got the game for Christmas, opened it up, played it, got frustrated, and gave up by the end.
All in all, it’s an okay video – I still wish I had been able to film the version with my cousin… but when you’re on a deadline, sometimes you gotta go with whatever options are available!
Some Interesting Video Shoot Tidbits:
1.Shooting this video was pretty easy, but the longest take was me filming myself playing all these races with different characters. I wanted the camera angle to be the same for all the races, so I kept the camera on continuously.The take ended up being 29 minutes long!
2. The TV used is actually my brother’s roommate’s TV.
3. For the first driving take, I was actually playing the game with the Wii wheel.For the other two takes – the ones where I’m either going frantic or off-the-wall with the wheel – I wasn’t actually playing the game.
4. My brother came in the room while I was filming one of my races.He asked me if he could get a DVD out of the machine, and I said, “Sure, I’m trying to play bad anyway.” While he was getting it out, I started yelling at him for getting in the way, then had to remind him that I was doing that so I could, hopefully, get it on video (thus adding to the whole “I’m playing this game VERY badly” shtick)!
5. In order to get the shot for the TV, I placed my brother’s ironing board in front of the chair I was sitting in, placed a DVD case on the ironing board, then placed the camera on top of that.Same thing for the shot of me next to the Christmas tree.Like I always say, I ALWAYS find a way to get the shot I want.
6. At the end of the video, I say “Aw, screw this game – where’s that ‘Bust My G.A.T.’ game?!?” Those who have regularly viewed my vidoes each week will recall that video 16 – “Bust My G.A.T.” – was a game I played on Wii in an EBGames store. Actually, now that I think about it, the game was actually called “How to Be a Rapper: The Action/Adventure Game.” But saying the song title was still a better choice!
7. Video discrepency alert! For the part of the video where I race as Mario, I’m playing the 100 cc Race Cup. However, on the “Better Luck Next Time” screen, it says I “lost” while playing the 150 cc Race Cup. This is because, after playing badly as Mario on the 100 cc Cup, I went back and played an actual Grand Prix race so I could get the ending screen – only I accidentally played it on 150 cc! If I had a Wii I’d go back and re-film it… but I don’t, so I can’t. Dang it!
8. Estimated time for editing: Let’s see: I spent about 2 hours this morning before getting ready for work… then I decided that I was tired of being treated rudely at my job, said “Screw them” and stayed home… then I worked on it for a few more hours while watching “Sister Act II: Back in the Habit” and a special on E! about Saturday Night Live.. meanwhile, my computer was extra un-cooperative today, slowing up and/or stopping altogether at times… so, what should have been about a 3 or 4 hour edit time (the amount of time it usually takes when I don’t have any mouthed words to link up with music) took about 9 hours.
The funny part? I could have gone to work today to make money, and instead, I stayed home and edited this video while making NO money. I didn’t want to risk working on this thing bpast a time where an internet place would be open for me to post it up. I don’t know if that’s craziness or dedication… either way, when I get to California, I am DEFINITELY going to puruse a job as a video editor (a good job to have while I’m working towards not having a job, and one I seem to enjoy doing!)
That’s all for now – only 19 more videos to go! See ya next Sunday!
-A.P.T.
It’s Christmas morning – 3:08 AM to be exact – and I can’t sleep.
Not that I wasn’t tired a few hours ago. I was taking a mini-nap about 3 hours ago when my brother came in from his Christmas party at his fiance’s parents’ house, thus waking me from my start-of-sleep. I decided to surf the ‘net before I went back to sleep…
…and then a thought kicked in my head. As I mentioned in a blog prior, I was sought out by a man named Rob Tillman to come up with a theme song for his web page (still in progress). In the talks we’ve had back and forth, he mentioned that, given the number of repostings of my “Obama Obama” Lil Wayne “A Milli” remake currently on YouTube, it’s probably gotten well over 3 millon views.
So, being the type of artist who likes to know what type of audience he’s attracting, I thought, “hey, why not see how many instances I can find of people reposting their own home-made videos involving my ‘Obama’ song?”
3 hours later, and I just finished looking at a good majority of them. Man, oh, man…
Above: Two girls singing along to “O-bama O-bama.”
Okay, there’s a little something you should know about me: I tend to underplay my importance on other people’s lives. I’m the person who will pick up and move at the drop of a hat without saying “goodbye” to people – not because I hate them, but because I figure, once I’m gone, they’ll eventually get over me having been there, and it will be like I wasn’t there at all.
Above: A girl running around in an “Obama” mask campaigning. And guess what the background music is??
So, for me, when this “O-bama” song dropped and took off, I really, REALLY didn’t think it would last that long. I thought it would be good for a few thousand YouTube views (not MILLIONS); that it might, if I was lucky, play on a few morning radio stations where they usually play parody songs (as opposed to getting play on WORLDWIDE radio stations); that a few people might visit my site and download it (over 8000 downloads of the song between the song itself, the “The O-bama Mixtape” downloads and sales of the song at 99 cents each); and that, maybe, just maybe, a famous person might come across it and hear it (as opposed to rappers, DJs, radio hosts and celebrities quoting my lil’ catch phrase ad nausea).
Above: Two kids from Chi-town rocking out in their… I dunno, basement?? – to the “Obama” song!
Furthermore, since I did the song almost as a joke, I had NO idea it would have any influence on the election at all. It might sound cocky to say that, but in looking at the videos I just saw on YouTube, it can’t be understated that the song definitely got some butts to the booth to vote.
Above: Two teens at a high school in Las Vegas beat-box the “Obama” song!
And what did I see in these videos, you ask? People of all ages, races, religions, and backgrounds… posting up home-made videos to my song. I saw:
A video of an older Latino woman listening to it on her computer
A video of two younger white girls dancing in their kitchen to it
Young kids in their den rapping along to it
Countless video blogs where people used the song as their intro
A video of a homecoming rally where a guy was dancing to my song in the middle of a gym
Countless videos with people wearing Obama masks, doing silly things on camera while my song played in the background
An awesome video of a guy trying to persuade young people to vote by hip-hop dancing to my song in his living room
I could literally be typing for another 30 minutes about the videos I saw posted that included my song. Clearly, it made a MAJOR impact on people’s decision to vote for Obama! (BTW: CUT THE CHECK, BARACK!)
Above: A woman from France – FRANCE! – drawing a picture of Obama while my song plays!
So, what have I learned from all this? One, it’s made me very, VERY confident in my abilities to be successful. They (whoever “they” may be) say it’s hard to become successful, and even harder to duplicate it. I don’t want to duplicate it, I want to go BEYOND what I’ve already done with this one song.
Above: At SVHS (I’m assuming that’s a high school), the “Obama” song was played during their homecoming rally!
Two, I’ve learned what it takes to make something that will affect a large group of people. Even when I made the song, I knew that if there were people out there who (a) liked Obama, and (b) liked Lil’ Wayne, they would definitely like my song. The secret, then, is to do a focus of the audience I’m trying to reach, and figure out what will best connect with them. This relates not just to my music, but other things as well: books I want to write (or have written), ideas for inventions/products I may have, and so on.
Above: Jerrell Puttin, of “The Obaminators” dance crew, encouraging others to vote by dancing to my “Obama” song!
And three, I’ve learned that, regardless of how much I may try to downplay it sometimes, I do – and can – play an important role in the lives of others, both good and bad. Personally, though, I prefer it to be on the “good” side - this is why I try to keep my music as upbeat and positive as I can.
Above: DJ Ice chops and screws “O-bama O-bama!”
As a sidebar: if there’s one regret I have, it’s that I didn’t get to perform the song live. Actually, I performed it live one time – at my brother’s 25th birthday party in July – but, aside from the countless times I did it in my apartment, I was working so much to support myself while in Atlanta that I didn’t find the time to go out and perform it. Plus, with the way the train/bus system was in Atlanta, I wouldn’t have had a way to get home were I to go to clubs because most open mics started late (around 10:30 PM), and most of the buses stopped around 11 PM. Kinda limits a person’s performing ability.
However, I DO hope to be able to perform the song a few times once I get to L.A. – heck, once I get there, it will still be 10 days before Obama is officially sworn in, so I’m sure demand for the song will be back up (not that it’s gone down - people are still posting up new videos to my song to this day. Believe me, I’ve already checked!)
That’s really all I have to say. After seeing all those videos, I feel really good about myself, and even more positive about my move to California. I know I’ll be able to impact even more people for the good once I get out there, and I look forward to seeing what develops.
…especially when you’re trying to conserve your funds for a big move like I am!
I was really, REALLY not planning on spending money this year on anybody for Christmas. Not because I don’t love them or anything – it’s just:
Christmas feels more and more commercialised to me every year, to the point where finding the gift is more important than the meaning behind it; and
Moving to California means having to conserve as much money as I can
Right now – as in, at this very moment – I have just enough for a deposit on my new place, plus two months rent. The last thing I want to do, then, is spend money I may need to survive while getting settled in California, especially since its such an expensive place to live (or so I’ve been told).
However, everyone kept asking me what I wanted for Christmas. You would think this is a good thing, right? WRONG!
I have found that the only reason people ask you what you want for Christmas… is so that you will then turn around and ask them what THEY want for Christmas. It would be nice if I could say to someone, “Hey, I love you, but I can’t afford to get you a gift right now ’cause I’m about to move,” and they could turn to you and say, “That’s okay – I’ll still get you something, and won’t expect anything in return.”
But, of course, this isn’t the way things work. The way things work is, if someone is going out of their way to get me something, it’s an unwritten rule that I must get them something as well.
This year, I kept the gift-buying to immediate family – mom, brother, brother’s fiance – and it STILL cost me a good bit of money. How much? Eh, not important – just know, it was more than I had planned to spend, especially since, again, I’m MOVING in two weeks!
I don’t feel too bad about it, though. Both my Mom and my bro helped me out financially when I moved here to D.C., with way more money than I spent on their gifts. So, even though I’m not paying them back those monies (since they did it out of the goodness of their heart), I figure, at the very least, I can buy them gifts costing a fraction of what they gave me. Plus, they’ve both always encouraged me to follow my dreams and make it, which I am doing, and their support means all the world to me.
But for everybody else – they ain’t gettin’ nothing! Hopefully, though, they’re not getting me anything either…
…but if they are, I could certainly use some Cinnabon coupons, and a copy of the “Sex and the City” movie on DVD
