What Election Night Means to Me + This Week’s Video

Another week, another video in the can…

Next week will be my 26th video.  I started this whole “One-Song-a-Week” project on the last Sunday in May, with the goal of making at least ONE video a week – preferably every Sunday – for ONE year.  The goal was to get myself an audience for my songs, earn some money, become popular enough to where I could start touring, and get national recognition, which would, in turn, get me noticed enough to get signed by a major record label.

So, how have I done so far?

• Audience for songs? Check – and a rather BIG one at that.  I regularly get about 200-300 readers on this site daily, a drastic pickup from the 10 to 12 I got when I first started.
• Earn some money? Check – but not as much as I’d like.  I’ve received donations, and have sold quite a few singles, as well as copies of my album, “The A.P.T. LP.”
• Become popular? YES, if only for one song – “Obama Obama,” which ended up being a bigger hit than I ever, EVER, expected.  Popular enough to tour? Not yet.  I got one offer during the summer to do college gigs (never heard back from them, though).  Yet, despite posting my E-mail address all over YouTube, I have yet to receive any offers to tour with any big-name (or small-name) musicians.  Guess I still have to grind a lil’ harder!
• National recognition? YES! Of course, when you do a song about a popular Presidential candidate and put it to a beat that’s eerily similar to the hottest song out by the hottest artist, you’re bound to get national recognition.  This, of course, is in hindsight, and even if I HAD known, I would have never guessed the song would have gone global!
• Major record label deal? NO. But to be fair, I didn’t send off any demos to anybody during this whole “Obama Obama” craze.  How dumb was that?!?

The truth of the matter is, having a song like “Obama Obama” taught me quite a few lessons about how the industry works:

1. Industry rule #4080 rings true: Industry people are SHA-DY!!  I had radio DJs AND up-and-coming MCs (I’m talking about YOU, Tyga) trying to take credit for MY song.  In the case of Tyga, he was able to tour around the country performing his Obama song, while I continued to work at a crappy job where I dealt with crappy customers all day!
2. MAKE SURE ALL YOUR STUFF IS COPYRIGHTED AND AFFILIATED WITH ASCAP or BMI.  That way, if people try to take claim to your songs, you can show proof of creation.
3. It pays to have people to help get you to the next level.  I probably could have toured off this stuff, but I don’t have any managers or connections that would allow me to link up with other artists.  I could have been an opening act all summer, and been fine with it!
4. If you aren’t going to perform, make sure your marketing game is TIGHT.  I was able to make some money off the instrumental of the beat, as well as having my song available for download.  Even without having major marketing dollars, I was able to make a profit off my songs.

Most importantly, though: TAKE A HOLD OF OPPORTUNITY WHEN IT COMES TO YOU AND RUN WITH IT.  I kept telling myself all summer that I didn’t want this song to be the one I got famous off of.  I didn’t want to risk being forever known as “The Obama Guy,” when I’ve clearly done 24 other videos so far outside of that one song. 

At the same time, had I known better, I would have done the opposite: I would have branded myself as “The Obama Guy” (in the same way that “The Obama Girl” did) and done enough clips about Obama online to gain national attention for it and earn money that way.

Of course, I still would have probably had that conflict of “if I had done that, would I have been taken seriously as an MC?”  I read one of Russell Simmons’ books where he talked about designers coming to him and wanting to add baggy jeans and jerseys to the Phat Farm clothing line.  He was tempted at first, but didn’t want to change the image of his line just to make a few quick dollars off a fad that would go away and leave his line in jeopardy.

So, in a sense, I didn’t want to be tagged as “The Obama Guy,” then have to struggle once the election was over to carve out a new identity.  As of right now, I have fans that watch my videos weekly – not as much as the number of viewers who have watched “Obama Obama,” but every fan base has to start somewhere, and I’m not trying to look like a sell-out to them, no matter how big or small it might be.

So, what is “The Obama Guy” doing for election night?  I was going to go to downtown D.C. and party at some place being hosted by a local radio station.  But I’m not really that much of a party guy – I think, instead, I’ll be heading home to catch “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” coverage of the election results.

As for this week’s video, it will be for one of the two songs off “The A.P.T. LP” that I have yet to shoot a video for.  The last video from the album will be shot next week.  These are two songs that, in my opinion, should be BIG hits, and I hope to be able to include people outside of just me in the video to give them more entertainment value.

Let’s just hope I can pull it off…

-A.P.T.

One-Song-a-Week: Song #14 – Tha Hood vs. The Burbs

Ladies and Gentleman… I present to you…

“THE A.P.T. LP!”

Available as an MP3 download (6.99) or Mail-Order CD (7.99) – Click HERE to go to the A.P.T. Merchant store for album info!

This week’s music video is for the song “Tha Hood vs. The ‘Burbs” (Produced by ME!)

GET “THE A.P.T. LP” AS AN AUTOMATIC MP3 DOWNLOAD OR MAIL-ORDER CD: Click HERE for info/download link – MP3 Download sent automatically after payment!

INSIGHT INTO THE SONG:

This is one of those songs I created backwards.  Usually I’ll have a song idea and try to either make or create a beat to go along with it.  In this case, I was messing around on my Fruity Loops program and created the beat, and, in the process of doing so, came up with the song, “Tha Hood vs. The ‘Burbs.”

The song came about because I was tired of hearing people complain about how hard life was for people living in low-income areas, more commonly referred to as “the ‘hood.”  People always assume that those living with little money are the only ones with problems.  However, as a person who grew up in the suburbs, I knew that there were just as many issues being faced by suburbanites as there were for people in the hood.

Growing up, I lived a fairly privileged life: I lived in a planned community, went to private schools (high school and college), and have been very good at keeping the amount of drama in my life to a minimum.  Even so, hardships hit people in the ‘burbs just as bad as people from the hood.  My Dad died when I was nine; I got sick a LOT as a kid; and, because I didn’t think like most of my peers (especially when it came to doing stupid stuff), I got teased a LOT.

Furthermore, it was hard to get along with other black kids, who were either trying to act like they were hard (courtesy of their perceived ideas on what it meant to be “black” – thanks, rap videos!), or who grew up in the hood and thought I was trying to act White simply because I spoke good.  Er, spoke “well” – did u catch that?

Anyway, with all this life experience, I figured it would make good fodder for a song. 

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. There’s a line in the song where I say:  ”Down south in Virginia, born and raised/In the suburbs is where I spent most of my days.”  It’s a play off a line from the opening of Will Smith’s TV show, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (“In West Philadelphia, born and raised/on the playground is where I spent most of my days…”).  I don’t think Mr. Smith gets the recognition he deserves for bringing rap to the forefront of people’s consciousness via his family-friendly raps, so this line is a shout-out!

2. All the stuff I mentioned about either me or my brother’s experiences growing up in the suburbs are true.  Our neighbor from across the street had a daughter around my age whom he didn’t want playing with my brother and I because we were Black.  (Our Mom told us to respect her parents wishes, so we stopped playing with her for 2 days.  She wanted to hang out with us so badly, though, that her parents finally relented.  I think they were shocked that we were actually respecting their wishes!)

And the incident with my brother happened more than once while he attended James Madison University. He’d be a passenger in a car full of white people, and the car would be pulled over so cops could search him – and ONLY him – for drugs.  Ain’t that f–ked up?!?

3. My favorite line in the song: “(In the hood) Whole neighborhoods get shot up/(In the ‘burbs) Whole colleges get shot up!”  It’s tragic, but it’s funny when you think about it!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

I actually shot a video for this earlier in the year, back when I had grown my hair out for 6 months.  I was on my way to get my hair cut off, which meant I would have to go back to my ol’ stomping grounds, Campbellton Road.  For those of you not from ATL, this road is like a dividing line between the hood and Black suburbia.  When I first moved here I live in a basement apartment on the suburban side of Campbellton; however, whenever I had to catch the bus or go grocery shopping, I had to walk a block up the street to the ghetto portion.

I live in Midtown now, which is  much nicer area, but since this was the only place I knew of that had a barber shop I liked, I decided to head back to the ghetto and get my hair cut. Whilst doing so, I figured, “hey, why not get a video of yourself getting your hair cut?”

Then, while I was on the train, I said, “hey, why don’t you film a video for your hood vs. burbs song?”

For the video, I wanted to do a contrast from what people normally expect when they think about the hood.  People’s minds automatically go to gun shoot-outs, drug dealers, prostitutes, and other negative images; however, having lived around it, the majority of people in the hood are much like those in the burbs: they’re decent people simply living their lives day-to-day trying to survive.

The shots I took in the video are from areas surrounding the barber shop: the grocery store, laundry mat, Chinese food place, and – of course – Church’s Chicken.  You ain’t in the ghetto until you see a Church’s Chicken!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. I hadn’t got my hair cut in 6 months.  The place I went to in the video was now owned by new owners – they still cut hair, but man was I surprised!

2. Amazingly, as many shots of people that I got in this video, most were unaware that I was filming.  Odd, ain’t it? Guess it’s a good thing my “filming” cam is also a picture cam – most people probably aren’t even aware!

3. Check out the shot of me at the end of the video with my half-hair, half no-hair scalp!

That’s all for now – this song is on “The A.P.T. LP,” so go get it!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Ladies and Gentleman… The A.P.T. LP is HERE!

Ladies and Gentleman… I present to you…

 

“THE A.P.T. LP!”

This project has been quite a learning experience, and a true labor of love for me!  I just spent 32 hours up straight putting this album together, and a lot of hard work went into making these songs!

Here are all the important links you need to know:

*** To purchase the MP3 Version of “The A.P.T. LP” (5.99): Click HERE!

You will be greeted at my Payloadz site by three men dressed as hunchbacks named Sam.  Okay, not really – but you will be able to pay and immediately get the download file for the album!

*** To purchase the CD version of “The A.P.T. LP” (7.99): Click HERE!

CDs will be shipped out every Tuesday and Friday (I don’t have a car yet, so I have to schedules these types of trips to certain days.)  It will arrive in your mailbox in an envelope, which will contain a CD inside a packaging sleeve for added protection.  The CD will have a cover with a list of the songs on the album.

Oh, yeah – here is a list of all the tracks on “The A.P.T. LP”:

1. Intro – “And the Award Goes to..”
2. A.P.T. (What’s My Name?)
3. Hooptie (Guest Appearance by S. Stephens)
4. What We Do
5. Tha Hood vs. The ‘Burbs
6. Smooth Talker
7. It’s Over
8. Stop Cockblockin’ (feat. Ms. Theory)
9. The N-word Song (a.k.a. The KKK-ramer Song)
10. Fly Chick
11. Blow It All
12. Skit – An Interview w/DMX (feat. Mr. Smallwood)
13. Bust My G.A.T.
14. Retirement Home
15. A Commentary on Each Album Track
16. BONUS TRACK: F–k New Orleans (feat. G.W. Bush)

I’m still working on getting each of the songs posted as an individual purchase – for right now, though, GET THE ALBUM!! It’s hot!

More from me later as other things develop!

Recording Expenses + This Week’s Video

I’m starting to see why most artist don’t get paid their royalties and/or monies until after recording expenses are paid.

I want this album to sound right, which means I’ve gone out of my way to buy items and/or pay for studio time that will make “The A.P.T. Album” sound like a high-quality product.  Little did I know when I started this just how much money it would cost for me to do so!

Let’s just look at some of the math, shall we:

1. STUDIO MIC: This was a freebie, as I already had one.  However, what I did NOT have was a way to hook it up to my laptop.  I had to get this thing called an interface which allows me to plug the mic into a box which then goes into my computer. 

Cost of Interface box: $149 (plus tax)

2. BACKUP DRIVE: I wanted to make some extra space on my computer so that my music program would work better.  So, I went to Wal-Mart to pick one up.

Cost of Backup Drive: $79.99 (plus tax)

3. STUDIO TIME: I can’t yell in my apartment, but some of my songs require it.  So, I found a studio in downtown Atlanta where I was able to use their sound-proof room.

Cost of Studio Time: $60 for 3 hours (but I got there 3 minutes late, so 2.5 hours)

4. SOUND MIXING: Fruity Loops sucks ass as a recording studio because you can’t directly record onto it; you have to cut-and-paste everything, and it takes a long-ass time.  So, courtesy of a friend’s suggestion, I got a Magix Studio sound studio.  I did the trial version, and it made putting together a song so damn easy and less time-consuming that I had to get it.

Cost of Magix Studio: $74.99

In total, I’ve spent a whopping $363.98 on this album.  In short, before I see any profit, I have to sell at least 73 copies of the album at 5.99 just to break even.  (Incidentally, I also see now why record companies charge $9.99-$14.99 or higher for CDs – this doesn’t even take into account how much it costs them to package and ship the items.)

Assuming this project goes well, the good news will be that I won’t have to spend any more money on getting items I now have (except for the studio time part).  I’ll also be able to charge a bit more for any future CDs – probably around 7.99 – since people will realize my albums are more than worth the amount. 

Because I’m still finishing up the project, I didn’t have time to film a “new” video this week.  However, it just so happens that I filmed a video earlier this year for a song that’s going to be on the album.  And, since hardly anybody saw that video since no one knew who I was prior to the “Obama Obama” song, I can bring it out of the archives and post it back up!  Three cheers for future thinking!

That’s it for now – get “The A.P.T. LP,” dropping Sunday, August 24th!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Myspace + My First Promo Video for “The A.P.T. LP!”

Another week, another video in the can…

Now that I’ve finished the video for another one of my “The O-Bama Mixtape” songs (“I’m Gonna Make It”), I am now in full promo mode for the album, and I couldn’t be happier.  I’m still mixing, mastering, recording and pasting together songs… but I’ve always been a last-minute person, so even though I’m doing all of this stuff within a week’s time, the album is going to be HOT when it’s done!

Okay, so since I’m not signed to a label, I have to do my own advertising and hype.  One of the ways I’m doing this is by making promo videos each day this week to give my fans insights into the album as well as my life.  It’s advertising 101, basically: the more people know about you, the more likely they are to buy what you’re selling.  Plus, I like the idea that I can talk about myself and people actually want to listen!

Here is the first video I made this morning:

Also, I’ve discovered that more people go to my MySpace page than this site to check up on me.  I like WordPress, but they don’t allow you to post up html code as easily for certain things like MySpace does.  For example, my “The O-Bama Mixtape” was downloaded onto Datpiff.com, where people can actually hear the mixtape before they download it.  I’d love to post it here, but all I’d be able to do is post a link to the site vs. the actual box containing the music on my page.  And, as you may know, people are lazy – they’d rather go to a site where everything is incorporated on it instead of having to click links to leave the site, then come back again.

With that said, I’m still keeping this site open, but I’ll be doing a lot more stuff on MySpace now.  I have over 600 friends there right now, and that number is growing rapidly everyday (thanks, in part, to a Friend Blaster program I have where I can send up to 400 friends request out each day).

That’s all for now – buy the album, “The A.P.T. LP,” Sunday, August 24th!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmil.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

Screw PCs – I Need a Mac!

So, I filmed my music video for this week yesterday.  And the footage came out pretty good.

I went to load it up onto my PC.  After I hooked the USB cord between my laptop and my camera, I started loading the film and placed the camera on the end of my futon.  As I lied back to rest for a little bit, I heard a “thud.”

I look over… and my camera had fallen off my futon onto the floor, thus disconnecting the camera from the laptop!

No big deal, I thought.  The camera wasn’t damaged, and, after hooking the camera back up to the laptop, it was still able to load the film up on my PC.

After it finished loading, though, a problem arose: the film wouldn’t play in Windows Media.  It would play in Quicktime and Realtime, but in order for me to edit the film, I need it to play in Windows Media. 

And it would. NOT. Play!

Damnit!!

So, now I’m in the position where I have to buy a codec transfer program (for those of you that aren’t tech savvy, a codec is basically programming code that tells WMP it’s okay for the file to play on it) for $30 so I can transfer the film back into WMP mode, or not have a video this week.  Furthermore, NONE of the other files I’ve filmed prior to this week’s video will play now, which means, should I need them in the future, I’ll have to transfer all those files, too.

Then, there’s the recording aspect.  PCs aren’t really built to handle a whole lot of artsy-related projects (i.e. filming, recording music, etc.).  They can do it, but not as efficiently as a MAC, which comes with software programmed into it to do those things. 

I got an interface for my studio mic so that I can record vocals that don’t sound like they were said into a pod-cast radio mic (yay!).  Unfortunately, because a studio mic uses something called “Phantom Power,” it takes up a bit more memory on my PC than my other mic did. 

The result? For one, I can’t have any other programs open when I’m recording. This includes Fruity Loops, which I would normally open up to play the beat back while I record – if I do that now, everything slows up so much that the recording and the playback sound choppy. (Luckily, I found an old MP3 Player lying around that I can load my beats up to and listen to while I record.) Secondly, when I record, there will be times where I’ll record a verse, and then go back and listen to it, only to find that there was a split second here or there where the audio jumped and didn’t catch a word or two I said.

Because of this, it’s taking me longer to record all this stuff.  It will still be coming out on Sunday, August 24th, and it will sound GREAT – but instead of putting together a song in, say, an hour, each song will probably take me a minimum of 2.5 to 3 hours to cut and paste together.

Oh, the things I will do to satisfy a dream.

By the way: the album is being sold for 5.99.  The way I see it, if I sell at least 200 copies, I can go out and buy myself a MAC, and use it solely for music-related projects, thus allowing my PC to be used for internet-related things only.

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

A REAL Studio Mic + This Week’s Video

I got a REAL studio microphone!!

To be fair, I’ve had one for quite a while.  Back in December 2007 when I was in eBay selling mode, I bought a complete recording studio off Craig’s List from some guy who was about to move, and couldn’t hold it in storage anymore.  He was trying to sell it for $1200, but I talked him into selling it for $900.  I sold most of the set on eBay for a total of $1300, but remembered to keep a few things that I could use later on.  One of them was the professional headphone set that allows me to hear beats as they really should sound, and the other one was a condenser mic.

The mic itself was studio-ready, but the plug at the end of it was too big to fit into my laptop’s input hole.  And, since I’m having to figure all this recording device stuff out myself, I didn’t know how to connect it to my laptop.  So, it went unused and I used my H2 Zoom mic, purchased for $200 at a music store, as my primary recording device.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago.  After I released “The O-Bama Mixtape,” I started telling people I was going to record an official A.P.T. album to sell.  People started writing me, saying they were actually looking forward to purchasing the album… at which point, I said to myself: “I have GOT to make this thing sound good!!  I need to figure out how to work this studio mic!”

Luckily, one of my friends that I went to Hampton University with is also a musician.  His name is D.T., and he was recording stuff way before I thought about it.  So, I asked him how he managed to connect his mic to his laptop, and I finally figured out the big mystery: an interface!  If you’re like I was 2 weeks ago and have no idea what that is, an interface is a device that acts as a connector between a studio mic with a big plug at the end, and a laptop.  The interface can be used to plug the mic in, and there’s a USB cord that connect the interface to the laptop, thus allowing the sound from the microphone to come through.

I’m so mad that I didn’t find this out sooner!! It makes me want to go back and re-record my entire mixtape!!

But eh, that won’t be happening – I’ll consider it a relic of days gone by when I didn’t know about how all this fancy recording stuff worked.  However, I AM happy that I figured this out before I started recording my album.  I tried to start recording it yesterday with my H2 Zoom mic, but somehow… well… it’s just that, since I’m charging people for the album, I want them to get their money’s worth.  The H2 Zoom was okay to use for a FREE album, but for something like this, I need to sound more professional, and my words need to be able to be heard with no problem.  Plus, some of the beats I’m using sound BIG, and I need to be on par with them!

As for this week’s video, I’m going to do one more song off “The O-Bama Mixtape.”  I know which one I want to do, but there are others on there that I think would make for good videos, too.  I may do them in the future; right now, it’s between one of two songs – then again, I might do one of those “double” videos, where the artist injects a snippet from one song before going into the “real” video for the other one.  I dunno – we’ll see come Sunday!

That’s it for me – only 10 more days until “The A.P.T. LP” drops!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

One-Song-a-Week: Song #12 – Kick Bush (Lupe Fiasco “Kick Push” Re-make)

 Attention Colleges, Universities and More (especially in Atlanta):

Demand A.P.T. to perform in your city at your venue! Go to: www.eventful.com/apt and request a performance by ME - the more invites I get, the better chance you have of seeing me perform in your town!

DOWNLOAD “THE O-BAMA MIXTAPE” – Click HERE for the link!

Hey! If you like the mixtape… help a brotha get his music career started – SEND A DONATION! Click HERE for more info!

This week’s song/music video is for “Kick Bush” (Lupe Fiasco “Kick Push” Re-make)

AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON “THE O-BAMA MIXTAPE”: A.P.T. Song #12: “Kick Bush” (Lupe Fiasco “Kick Push” Re-make)

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

I wrote this song two years ago, around the time Chicago-based rapper Lupe Fiasco dropped his first single, the oh-so infectious skateboarder’s anthem, “Kick Push.” Whenever I hear a song I really like, it becomes inevitible that I’ll start freestyling something to the beat and/or re-creating the song to my own version.

For this one, replacing “Push” with “Bush” was a no-brainer. Having the word “Kick” in front of it was also approriate, as most people are so angry with President Bush’s performance in the White House that the feeling of shoving a boot in his arse is universal.

To write the song, I decided to focus on his two major screw-ups while in office. The first verse mentions the tragedy that struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, and Bush’s botching of the situationg – not only by delaying his reaction to initially hearing about the incident, but also somehow managing to get us into a war with Iraq, despite the fact that it was people from Afganistan who attacked us.

The second verse talks about Bush’s mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina situation. Louisiana and Mississippi were both struck by this high-category storm in 2005, and the goverment’s response to it… well, let’s just say, they were able to get food to Iraqis halfway across the world faster than a state less than 3 hours away by plane. And while people were waiting to be saved in Louisiana, what was our President doing? Going to plays, judging mundane farm contest, and basically doing everything BUT touching down on the ground in those two states and connecting with the people.

Moron.

Anyway, my friend Michele was living down in New Orleans in 2006, and I went down there to (a) visit her, and (b) see the destruction first-hand. It had been about 11 months since the storm hit, and parts of the city looked like it had been hit the day before I went! That, combined with my viewing of Spike Lee’s Hurricane Katrina documentary on HBO, made me think up this song.

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. This is what I consider a “re-make,” not a “parody.” Parodies are meant to be funny, and this one is not all that humorous. However, it does follow the cadance and flow used by Lupe Fiasco in “Kick Push,” so if the song should be funny to those familiar with the original song.

2. The voice of “Bush” in the song is me. I have to say this, because for some reason people think “A.P.T.” is a group, and when I do voices it only makes people think this more. I have NO help at the moment, people!

INSIGHT INTO THE VIDEO SHOOT:

So, the song was written and recorded two years ago. Why release it now?

I put it on “The O-Bama Mixtape” because I always thought it was a good song, and that people would enjoy listening to it (especially true hip-hop heads who LOVE Lupe Fiasco). At the same time, any songs with a major public figure have what I call “limited shelf life.” They are only relevant for as long as that public figure is, which means once that person goes away, so goes the popularity of the song.

In this case, the song calls for the President to be impeached and/or kicked out of office. However, since it’s an election year, Bush WILL, in fact, be out of office come January 20, 2009. Therefore, any songs I have where I talk about him have to be released prior to November, when our next President will be elected into the White House.

“The O-Bama Mixtape” was released 2 weeks ago. And guess what one of the more popular songs on the mixtape was? You guessed it – “Kick Bush!” The song has already been posted on numerous websites, and someone even attempted to make a re-remake of my song and post it on YouTube… but he hasn’t gotten many views for his because, quite frankly, it sucks. You can’t just MAKE a re-make or parody people; work and research has to go into it so it catches on!!

Since the song has already shown its popularity, I figured, “hey, why not make a music video for it?!”

Amazingly, I had the idea for this video for two weeks now. I’m basically stealing the idea from “Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood,” only it’s “Mr. Taylor’s Neighborhood.” I’m reading a book I just bought called “Kick Bush: Based on a True (But Sad) Story,” and – because it’s mostly a picture book – the majority of the video tells the story of the song via digital images. Very ingenious, and non-time consuming film-wise – it only took me about 35-40 minutes to film my part of it.

The longest parts of putting the video together was (a) finding the pictures to use, and (b) editing. I was on google and Yahoo for God know’s how long, looking for public domain pictures to use in the video. As for editing… let’s just say, having a PC program sucks monkey balls. I had to publish this friggin’ video FOUR times because there would be a glitch here or there that would pop up in the video after it was done publishing. Also, because I decided to put transitions from shot-to-shot in here, it bumped up the publishing time from 10 minutes to 28 minutes.

Yes, I sat around for TWO hours waiting for this thing to be published right, so people had beter enjoy it!!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. I did NOT film this in my apartment! My shower is broken at the moment, and maintenence has yet to fix it, so I have to use another apartment to shower in. This is the place I chose to film this video because my place was messy, and I wanted another place for people to look at besides my place all the time!!

2. I got the floor rocking chair from Target. Yes, it really DOES rock,, and is very comfortable!

3. The opening shot of the video is the front of my apartment complex.

4. I made the “book-cover” myself using a piece of paper and a red-and-green crayon. The book is actually a journal I used to write in from ages 15 to 18.

5. I filmed myself doing the song twice. The first time I filmed it, the back of the book was showing, but the paper only went to the half-way point of the back end. Since I wanted to give the illusion that this was a REAL book, I had to film it over and over again until I finally had the book at an angle to where the back wasn’t showing.

6. Estimated editing time: a LONG time. The editing was done by 1 PM, but the publishing took until 5 to get right. I need a MAC and a hired editor – this stuff is time-consuming!

That’s all for now – enjoy the video, and I’ll see you next Sunday!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

A.P.T. Paperstyle #3: She Didn’t Want Me (Using the “Here I Am” Beat)

Attention Colleges, Universities and More (especially in Atlanta):

Demand A.P.T. to perform in your city at your venue! Go to: www.eventful.com/apt and request a performance by ME - the more invites I get, the better chance you have of seeing me perform in your town!

DOWNLOAD “THE O-BAMA MIXTAPE” – Click HERE for the link!

Hey! If you like the mixtape… help a brotha get his music career started – SEND A DONATION! Click HERE for more info!

Today’s paperstyle is called “She Didn’t Want Me,” which uses Rick Ross’ “Here I Am” beat.

DOWNLOAD THIS PAPERSTYLE: A.P.T. Paperstyle #3 – She Didn’t Want Me

Like my music? SEND DONATIONS! Click HERE for info!

 

Okay, so clearly, my “One-Song-a-Week” mantra is out the window! However, it’s already the brand name for this site, so I won’t change it.  Plus, I’m still only making one “official” video for a new song each Sunday, and I don’t think the fans will mind too much that I’m putting up more than one song on my site.  Hopefully it won’t affect how many views those new videos get!

With that said, I get bored in my apartment very easily, and am usually spending a good majority of my day freestyling off things in my head.  This happens a lot, and at times it happens when I’m near my laptop.  Some of these freestyles make for good album songs, while some are better used for short songs that you’d find on a mixtape. 

I wrote this song about an hour before I was supposed to go to a networking event with my friend last night.  I literally thought of the idea, started jotting down words, hooked up my mic, found the beat, recorded it, second-layer recorded it, mixed it, and finished the song in less than an hour! 

Because it was so fast, it felt like I recorded it like a “freestyle,” only I had written the idea on paper.  Therefore, I have officially created a term I am calling “paperstyle.”  Here is the official definition:

PAPERSTYLE (Pa-per-sti-ul): A freestyle verse that is immediately thought of and expressed via writing then recorded immediately.  First coined by A.P.T. on 8-05-2008.

Some of you may ask, “how does a paperstyle differ from other songs that are written down and recorded?”  The answer: most songs have a marinating period – the artist will write the song over a period of time, or with other collaborators, sit on it, come back to see if it needs editing, then record it, re-record it, and then mix and master the heck out of it until it sounds “right.”

With a paperstyle, the process is much, much quicker: the artist thinks of the song, writes it down immediately, records it, and puts the whole thing together in a very short time period (in the case of this song, the whole thing took less than an hour).  Much like recording a real freestyle, the mixing and mastering of it does not have to be perfect, but the quality of it should be equal to that of a freestyle or better, especially since it was written down!

This paperstyle, “She Didn’t Want Me,” tells a lil’ story about me trying to hit on this hot girl twice: once before I got famous, and after I got famous.  I’ll let the song tell the story for me!

Enjoy!  I’ll probably be doing these “paperstyles” on a regular basis, and might even throw in a few freestyles, too!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

The Business Side of This Music Thing

Another week, another video in the can!

It’s cool to do music videos, but it’s even cooler to have videos that go with songs on your album.  “The O-Bama Mixtape” was downloaded 411 times last week – not bad, considering I’m extremely new to most people – and I figure the best way to promote the album is to do videos for a few of the songs. I’ve already got next week’s video half-way done – it’s going to be a visual for one of the more popular songs off the mixtape – and I may do one more video before I start doing videos for the official album, dropping Sunday, August 24th.

Speaking of my album: aside from all the fun aspects of music – making songs, videos, etc. – one has to remember that it is called a music “business” for a reason.  People who are in the mode of creating often forget that there is a whole business side to this thing that includes publishing, royatly credits, becoming a member of ASCAP or BMI, legal things, copyrighting, and other important things that need to be handled prior to releasing music.

And there’s a LOT that a person needs to know.  For example, I finally found a legit website yesterday where I could sell ringtones and make a profit of $.50 per ringtone sold.  I thought all I would have to do was sign up, send in my songs and watch the money come in.  WRONG!

Instead, the website sent me a Licensing Agreement, a W-9 form for tax purposes, an overview of their program… clearly, this was more than I expected to have to do to sell a simple ringtone!

Then there’s figuring out how to sell your stuff, and at what price.  I already have a website I can use that will automatically send people the MP3 for the album as soon as they purchase it, and I’m also considering using CDbaby.com for people wanting a physical CD.  Because of this, though, I have to make sure that I (a) own all the instrumentals and elements of those instrumentals (i.e. no sampling) and (b) have the album done early enough to where I can send them the info and music prior to the release date (though I may just wait an extra week to see how well the non-physical album sells).

So, there’s a LOT of stuff I have to do to get ready for the album aside from just recording (the majority of which is done already).  I’m also pondering how many released songs vs. unreleased songs I should put on the album.  On the one hand, I don’t necessarily want people paying for songs they may have already downloaded for free; on the other hand, there are a few songs prior to “Obama, Obama” that didn’t get downloaded nearly as much (1385+ for “Obama Obama” vs. 20 for “It’s Over”). 

At the same time, I also have songs I released such as “The N!@@er Song” (107+ downloads) and “Back to the Future” (50+ downloads) that people don’t seem to mind paying for were it to be on an album.  Also, I wish I hadn’t advertised the price of the CD already to be 5.99 – I should sell it for 6.99 because I forgot that PayPal takes out fees for this stuff, which means I’ll probably end up with $4 per album instead of $5. 

Oh well – I’ll still make more off it than most signed artist do.  I just hope I can sell as much as they do so I can finally afford to tour, and head out on the road!

Okay, that’s all from me now – if you read the above, you know I got stuff to do!

-A.P.T.