New NON JUAN Album?? (Well, kinda sorta…)

Last year I began working on a website – www.NonJuan.com – that featured a character named Non Juan, a puppet who was terrible when it came to getting with the ladies.

I worked dilligently on the project last year with another person who was my business partner at the time.  My initial conception of the site was he’d be a puppet who showed guys what to do in order to NOT get women, so that they would do the opposite.  Meanwhile, my partner’s conception of the site was that he’d be an end-all, be-all character designed to obtain sponsorship for other things.

This is where he and I often clashed.  I understood how using him to market other things would be a good idea, but I thought he should have a baseline of an idea so people would know what he was about prior to them looking at him for what he could sell, while he just wanted me to try out all sorts of things with him until an idea stuck.  In the end, I think both of us had good and bad things about how the character should operate, but we just weren’t on the same page…

But why am I telling you all this?!?  All you care about is how this blog relates to the title of the article!

Well… in the midst of doing the Non Juan project, we decided he should have a musical album.  That album – 909s and Heart Flatlines (a play on Kanye West’s “808s and Heartbreak” album) – featured songs by Non Juan where he talked about trying to get girls (and ultimately failing each time). 

Above: The album cover for Non Juan’s “909s and Heart Flatlines” – still at iTunes! Click HERE!

The album itself is actually quite funny and, in my opinion, some of the best material I’ve written song-wise.  However, the album didn’t really sell that well.  Part of it is because he didn’t really have that much of a following, which is important when you’re trying to launch any new artist be it man, woman, or puppet.

Prior to launching the album, I had suggested to my business partner that we release it under the A.P.T. brand first since I was already selling songs each month under that name.  All we’d have to do is put it under the name “A.P.T. (a.k.a. The Obama Milli Remix Guy)” and title it “A.P.T. Presents: Non Juan – 909s and Heart Flatlines” and we’d get sales. Why?

1. As I keep proving over and over again with my albums, because I include the words “Obama Milli Remix” in the title, all of my songs (currently 31) show up anytime someone types it in. I have at least a minimum of 500 people buying my songs each month – that’s practically FREE advertising for my new stuff!
2. The majority of new artist who launch successful products do so by first being associated with someone already established.  Eminem was helped by Dr. Dre, Drake was helped by being connected to Lil’ Wayne, and I feel as though Non Juan will have a better chance of selling by being connected to me.

My business partner didn’t want to do this and, at the time, I was willing to go along with whatever his suggestions were.  Lo and behold, the album didn’t sell.

Now that we are no longer working together and I have control of the Non Juan brand, I’ve decided to re-release the album.  It will now be called “909s and Heart Flatlines – The DELUXE Edition!”

The album will feature most of the songs that were on the first release (which, by the way, is still up on iTunes – click HERE to preview/download songs from it), and will also feature 6 new songs, including:

• “I Walked In on Mom and Dad” (“Best I Ever Had SPOOF”)
• “U Can’t Get Her Back” (feat. me, A.P.T.; produced by K.K.O.F.)
• “Oprah State of Mind” (Empire State of Mind SPOOF feat. Tamika Keys)
• “I Want Your Body Girl” (The Valentine’s Day Song; produced by K.K.O.F.)
• “I’m Friggin’ Broke” (I’m on a Boat SPOOF feat. C. Clemmons and me, A.P.T.)
• Plus a SUPER-SECRET new parody!

Depending on what my money is looking like, the album will either be released by the end of this month or next month.  Either way, all the songs except the last SUPER SECRET new parody have been recorded, mixed and mastered.  I’m glad to be re-releasing this album, as I know it will sell and I’m REALLY excited to have people listen to it and buy it!

That’s all for now!

-A.P.T.

Rebuilding

Well… my world was certainly rocked yesterday.

I spent over 32 hours straight the 2 days before (from Saturday til Sunday morning) editing my album, “The A.P.T. LP,” with no sleep, resulting in me not feeling too good on Monday. But that wasn’t the bad part. No, the bad part was when I went to check on my YouTube views, only to discover that my page had been taken down.

No page, no videos, no views… and, most importantly, NO advertising for my album.

Yes, all those videos I had that included links to my site where people could get my albums and mixtapes were taken down. Takes quite a toll on your album sales when you can’t even tell people where to find your stuff.

So, what do I do now?

Rebuild. Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild!

I went back and read the terms and conditions of YouTube, and have a few theories as to why they may have taken my stuff down. One, I had quite a few videos up where I used other people’s beats without permission. Two, I was advertising my products on the site, mentioning the price in the process. Apparently if you’re not paying YouTube for ad space you aren’t allowed to do that. And three – and this is my uncle’s theory – someone from either McCain or Obama’s campaign took it down. My site was getting a LOT of attention and subscribers, and, with the Democratic/Republican conventions happening this week and next week, more and more people would probably be seeing my videos – and lord knows that might be disastrous for their campaigns!

Regardless of the reason though, I always like to learn lessons from my mistakes. The first lesson: if you’re going to use other people’s beats, get a license saying you can do so. That way, you can legally use them and not have your stuff taken down.

The second lesson: don’t put your eggs all in one basket. I placed all my videos on YouTube, but didn’t even consider uploading them to MySpace, photobucket, or other sites where it would have been hard for them to take down every post I had out there.

And the third lesson: utilize MySpace more. The site is set up so musicians can advertise and/or legally sell their music. Now that I know how to gain friends on the site, it should be easier for me advertising-wise to get to more people, and, hopefully, sell a few albums.

Am I down about all this? A lil’ bit – I had high expectations for how this whole album would roll out, and now I have to re-think my strategy on how to get people to know my stuff is out there. But hey, I’ve always been a person able to get knocked down, pick himself back up and try again, and this time is no different.

By the way, my new YouTube site address is www.youtube.com/APTsongs. There’s always a chance it could be taken down, but for now it works.  In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out a way to re-post up my videos on this site – because wordpress doesn’t allow for HTML code, I can’t just load up the vids at another site and paste them on here.   Worst-case scenario, I move all this stuff to blogger.com, where HTML code is appreciated!

-A.P.T.

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

Well… that Sucks…

Another week, another video…

Hey, wait a minute: where’s the video?  Oh, wait, that’s right – YOU CAN’T SEE IT!

So, I woke up this morning to upload an ad for my album, “The A.P.T. LP” onto YouTube.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I go to click on my YouTube page… only to find that it’s been disabled!

Yep! They disabled it.  ALL my videos were taken down, and my account was suspended.

Why?  Well, after reading through the site’s terms of use, I think I may have broken quite a few rules, including:

• Using other people’s copyrighted works (i.e. any remixes I did to other people’s songs without their expressed written permission)
• Using the site to advertise my projects for the purpose of making money (i.e. telling people how much my album was vs. just telling them where to get it without mentioning price).

So… talk about bad timing!  I mean, I JUST released my album yesterday, and now all my videos and ads for it have been taken down!

Oddly enough, I’m not frustrated about it… yet.  I think for right now I’m more in the “What step do I take next” mode.  The first thing I’ll probably do is open up another account and try to repost some of the videos with original content.  The only thing that sux is, I had so many subscribers on my channel, and now I’m essentialy going back down to zero.

On the plus side, I have a lot of MySpace friends now, so I’ll probably just work on cultivating more of them.  And, for future videos/content, I’ll know to only film or release stuff that I personally own.  So, in essence, it’s a learning experience, and at the end of the day, I’m just glad I didn’t get sued!

I’ll keep you all posted – in the meantime, get the album, “The A.P.T. LP!” Only 5.99 for the MP3, 7.99 for the CD!

-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!

Promo Video #4,5 and 6: The Scary Maze Game, Recording Expenses + “Obama Obama” Remix feat. Tyga

Sorry I haven’t been updating as frequently as usual… actually, I’m not sorry – I’m mixing together an album!

Right now, as I type this, it’s 8:39 PM. And the album is still NOT done.  Why?  Because I do EVERYTHING last minute.  I’ve been “working” on this all day, but won’t really start kicking things off until around 9:30 or so.  The album will be posted before I go to work (sometime around noon), and I may or may not post this week’s video before then also – if not, I’ll just post it up after I get home from work.  It’s already done, so all I have to do is add the intro and ending to it, and voila!

Anyway, here’s promo videos 4, 5 and 6.  The fourth one is footage I took of myself playing this very scary maze game online – watch the video for my reaction!!  The fifth one is me talking about how much it actually cost me to put this entire project together.  In short, I need to sell at least 76 albums to break even.

Promo video number 6 is a remix I did to the “Obama Obama” song.  I thought people would be tired of it by now, but it still gets close to 5,000 views per day on my page, plus other people have posted it as well.  However, the reason I did a remix is because this rapper named Tyga, who is, ironically enough, signed to Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment label, took my “Obama Obama” beat and made his own Obama song.  I wasn’t too mad about this, until I figured out he’s actually performing it and getting PAID for it, while I sit here in my apartment going, “WTF?!? That should be ME performing it!!

So, rather than do a diss song or snap at him, I fused his version together with my version, and created an “Obama Obama Mega-Remix.”  Instead of making a real video, I put up all the info about my album dropping tomorrow, along with mentions of “The O-Bama Mixtape” and a call for people to tell Tyga to shout me out.  I put it up 3 hours ago, and it’s already gotten a LOT of views – talk about a great advertising idea!

Enjoy the promo videos, and get “The A.P.T. LP” tomorrow, Sunday, August 24th!

“The A.P.T. LP” Promo Video #4 – Scary Maze Game Reaction

“The A.P.T. LP” Promo Video #5 – Recording Expenses

“The A.P.T. LP” Promo Video #6 – “Obama Obama Mega-Remix” feat. Tyga

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

 

 

The O-Bama Mixtape Cover – Made by a Fan!!

“The O-Bama Mixtape” cover – you like it?

It was created by a fan of mine named Aaron Thompkins, a graphic designer and clothing maker who, apparently, does EXCELLENT graphic work! 

I guess since he made such a great cover, I should do some advertising for him.  So, if you’d like something done by Mr. Thompkins, here is his info:

Aaron Thompkins
AaronThompkins@UCMEdesigns.com
http://www.UCMEdesigns.com
http://www.BoKnowsAmerica.com
Phone:757.291.5804
Fax:757.887.2251

-A.P.T.
E-Mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/notoriousapt

Critiques of My Songs/Videos (i.e. The Development of Thick Skin)

Another week, another video in the can.

That’s 10 videos so far, people!  (11, if you count “Hey Jesse Jackson,” which I count as half a video.)  When I started this thing, I had no idea how long I’d be able to keep it up for.  Now, I’ve gone from trying to figure out a video at the last minute to having video ideas for songs 3 to 4 weeks ahead of time.  I guess it’s true what they say, “practice makes perfect!”

Okay, so, since what I do is considered “art,” there are going to be people out there who like my stuff, and people who don’t.  One of the reasons people do not go for what they want to do in life is that they are afraid of getting any kind of negative criticism.  They feel like if someone tells them their work isn’t good enough, or that they are downright terrible at what they do, their self-esteem will shatter so badly they won’t be able to recover.

However, I’ve always taken the opposite approach.  I’ve always welcomed criticism because I figure that, in trying to become good at what I do, I’m not going to get everything right immediately, yet I may not always be able to point out what I’m doing wrong.  Unfortunately, most people are so worried about keeping a person’s self-esteem up (lest that person punch them in the face), that even if that other person does mediocre work, they’ll still say “oh, great job,” thinking they are helping the person.

This is FAR from the truth.  In actuality, it’s HARMING the person in the long run.  They’ll go along doing the wrong thing thinking it’s right simply because no one stopped them to say, “um, you could be doing that a LOT better.”

I’m fortunate enough to have people in my life (my brother, David, and my friend Michele come to mind) who don’t mind telling me when I’m doing a song or making a beat that either sucks or could be made better. Heck, I think I let my brother hear 4 or 5 songs late last year that he said wasn’t showing off my true writing potential.  After being mad at him for a couple of hours, I realized he was only saying that stuff because he saw potential in me to do really GREAT work, as opposed to just trying to get by with anything.

Because I put my songs out on the net, I get many, MANY chances to get feedback about my songs.  Some of it is sent directly to me via YouTube/MySpace/Wordpress comments, and the majority of it has actually been pretty positive.  However, I like to go to other sites that I’m not a member of and read what other people think about some of my stuff – it’s a great way to get an unbiased view of my work since I’m not the one directly asking for the feedback.

Of course, most of the sites have posted my “Obama” video, so the majority of critiques have been about that song.  The overall response is positive, but, like all art, there have been people who posted comments that weren’t exactly the nicest in the world.  I don’t like to promote negativity, so those comments won’t be mentioned here; needless to say, though, I find it hilarious that a person NOT liking the song would actually take 2 minutes out of their day to express WHY they don’t like a song of mine.  It’s like, regardless of if they liked it or not, they still spent time focusing a portion of their lives on ME – so, in the end, it still benefits me!

But like I said before, I accept all kinds of criticism, be it positive or negative.  I was a theatre major at Hampton University for 5 years.  That’s FIVE years of being critiqued for stage performances, improv skits, class acting assignments, and thesis work.  Once you’ve had practice hearing good and bad things about yourself via numerous performances, you develop a thick skin for the comments you’ll receive about others for anything you do, for the rest of your life.  Someone saying a song or mixtape or video of mine “sucks” isn’t all that damaging to my psyche – especially when 19 other people are standing next to that person saying the same body of work is “great,” “uplifting,” and “f–kin’ awesome.”

Yeah – I hear that I’m “f–kin’ awesome” a LOT these days.

So, the point of all this is simply: if you have a goal or a dream, expect criticism.  Don’t let it slow you down, and remember that not all negative criticism is bad.  If anything, you can use it to re-route yourself into the right direction, and prove the ones throwing the criticism at you wrong.  It’s worked for me so far, and it can work for you, too!

-A.P.T.

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

The O-Bama Mixtape: Here It IS!!!

Above: The YouTube ad for “The O-Bama Mixtape,” available for FREE download now!

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM HERE 4 FREE:
http://www.zshare.net/download/161959272f9df90d  

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

Ladies and gentleman… it’s here – “The O-Bama Mixtape!!”

Wow, what a fun project to put together!  I’ve made CDs before, but this was the first one that was ever requested by others outside of myself. 

After the “Obama, Obama” song started to take off, people started messaging me asking, “yo, do you have a mixtape coming out?”  I thought, “that’s not a bad idea,” and got to work on it. 

And it’s done! And it sounds great!

Aight, so you know I can’t just give you a list of titles.  If you’re like me, you like to have an idea of how the songs were created. So, what follows is a list of titles, along with a mini-blurb about the song itself:

1. “The O-Bama Mixtape Intro” – Starts off with a clip from an Obama speech, followed by the song, which talks a bit about the choosing of Obama as President.  The beat used is from the Baby song, “I Run This.”

2. “I’m Gonna Make It” – Talks about my current situation, and my dreams of making it in the music biz.

3. “Obama, Obama” – The popular Lil’ Wayne “A Milli” remake where I talk about all things Obama-related.

4. “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls” – Dedicated to all the big, beautiful ladies out there.  Funny and poinient, too!

5. “Erectile Dysfunction” – A parody of Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Eruption” that proved to be very popular at my brother’s girlfriend’s brother’s college, VCU.  It’s about… well, read the title, duh!

6. “The O-Bama Mixtape Interlude” – A very, very short interlude about how I hate interludes.

7. “I Just Want The Paper” – Produced by me, and featuring Notorious B.I.G. on the chorus, this song talks about wanting to have money, regardless of if I get anything else.  Very catchy and club-ready!

8. “Can’t Leave Rap Alone” – Features Jay-Z on the chorus.  Basically a slick-talking track where I talk about why the rap game needs me!

9. “Blow It All” – This is what I like to call a “skill track.” My flow on this one is fast, and talks about what I’d do if I had a big wad of cash to blow.

10. “True Lyricist” – Using the Tupac “Ambitionz Az a Ridah,” I wreck havoc on all those so-called “true lyricist” who whine and complain about not getting airplay against someone like Soulja Boy or Lil’ Wayne.

11. “I Put On (Remix)” – Has Young Jeezy on the chorus (couldn’t find the beat without him on it), where I talk about moving from VA to GA, trying to survive, and other things involving me

12. “Hey Jesse Jackson” – A remix of the Outkast song, “Ms. Jackson” where I go at Jesse Jackson for his recent negative comments about Barack Obama.

13. “Kick Bush” – A remix of Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick Push” where I go at President Bush for his… well, his lack of being a good President.

14. “Flashing Lights Freestyle” – Not really a freestyle, but I take Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” and talk about Hollywood and the Paparazzi, as well as the stars that have been confronted with it.

15. “The O-Bama Mixtape Outro” – The last track where I give out all my contact information!

 So, there you go!  Download the mixtape, and let me know what you think!

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM HERE 4 FREE:
http://www.zshare.net/download/161959272f9df90d/

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

-A.P.T.

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

The O-bama Mixtape: What to Expect

First off: I hate mixtapes.

Actually, let me rephrase that: I like the songs and exclusives that are usually found on mix-tapes; I just hate having to listen to them.  People do a LOT of annoying things on mix-tapes that hamper my listening experience.  DJs feel the need to yell all over the track (can I just hear the damn song without you yelling “This is DJ so-and-so” on the chorus?!?), parts of the song get rewound back over and over (if the song is halfway over, why scratch-and-rewind it back to the beginning? That is SO annoying!!), songs cut off instead of fading out… and these are just a few of the things I find annoying about them.

Me, I like to put out whole albums that have a cohesive feeling to it.  At the same time, though, I do make songs and freestyles that would not be fit to put on a regular album.  With that said, I was recently asked if I was going to put together a mix-tape.

At first I was going to say “HECK NO” because of what I said above.  Then it dawned on me: with all the attention I’ve been getting off the “Obama Obama” song, now would be a perfect time to let people know that I actually have talent outside of simply making parodies of other people’s songs.  I mean, dang, I’ve made 8 videos and only 2 of them have been parodies – I do a LOT of good original songs, too!

So, I decided to make a mix-tape: “The O-bama Mix-tape.”  Pretty easy, right?

Because I’ve already put a few of the songs out as videos, half of the mix-tape will be some of those songs.  I also have songs that I haven’t released yet, but made for my last unreleased album, “Check the Resume,” that I can put on there as well.  The rest of the songs will be songs to other people’s beats that are NOT parodies, but simply songs I can try and show my skills over.

The best thing about the process is that, since I’m the one putting together the whole thing, I don’t have to have all the annoying elements I see on other people’s mix-tapes.  I can simply put the songs together, do a few interludes here and there, and let people listen to the music vs. hearing a dag-gone DJ screaming all over the place!!

And of course, the mix-tape will be a free download.  However, I’ll also be including a link where people can donate money to support me if they like my stuff.  Actually, I already have a link like this, and I’ve actually been getting in some donations, so THANK YOU, and to the rest of you, I could always use a few more bucks to help me out!

That’s all for now – the mix-tape will be finished soon, so I’ll keep you all posted!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

Video Updates + This Week’s Upcoming Video

MULTIPLE “Obama, Obama” Ringtones Now Available!! Preview Them HERE: “Obama, Obama” Ringtone – 2.99 *Only 1.99, this week only (July 8-15, 2008)!

Hey everybody!

Wow, what an awesome 24 hours it has been.  So many good things have happened, I can’t even tell you about all of it yet, lest I end up jinxing myself.

I will say this, though: my “Obama, Obama” video AND song has started to take off.  In the last week, the song has been downloaded from this site 360 times (and counting), and the video has been watched by over 35,390 people as of this typing.  And that’s just on YouTube – the video has been re-posted by other people on other sites, and THOSE sites have been getting views too.  I couldn’t be happier!

But for me, the better victory is the fact that my other non-parodied ORIGINAL songs are also getting quite a bit of views, too!  This past week’s song/video, “The Nigger Song,” has been seen by over 400 people since Sunday and downloaded 28 times.  Meanwhile, my other songs have also been getting decent downloads. 

All of this is great news because it means (a) I’m starting to grow a fan-base, and (b) I’m able to have actual data to show off to record companies should I decide to go out and look for one.  Of course, I’d rather them come to me, which may happen sooner than expected because….

Nah – I’ll save THAT for later!

One rather interesting thing has happened since the “Obama” video has taken off: people I used to know in college that I tried keeping in touch with afterward, yet couldn’t get them to write me, call me, or even post messages on my various walls (MySpace, Facebook, etc.)… have tried to contact me!  I had one girl (name withheld) write to congratulate me, and wanted to know where I was and what I was up to, while a guy who I tried asking for help to get on a while back hit me up to let me know he was thiiiiiis close to making it.

What a croc, right?!?  I tried keeping up with these people after college and they wouldn’t spend two minutes to write me back, and now they suddenly wanna be all like, “Hey A.P.T., what up??”  And I haven’t even made any money off this whole thing yet!  I can’t imagine the type of calls/messages I’ll be getting once the fame and fortune comes.  I can see it now…

“Hey, Aaron – I saw you on Jimmy Kimmel the other night, and just wanted to say: can I come by your hotel room and —- your —-?? I promise I’ll be gentle!”

(For those of you with gutter minds, the blanks are for the words “wash” and “feet.” You sicko, you.)

Even with all the excitement surrounding my current videos, I’m always thinking about my upcoming videos.  I have advanced ideas for future videos – like, 2 to 4 weeks from now – as well as this week’s upcoming video.  I’ve already plotted it out, and my brother (yes, I have a brother) and his girlfriend have agreed to help me via phone, much in the same way my friend Michelle did for the “Back to the Future” video.  Again, still can’t figure out why people in-state won’t help while out-of-towners are more than willing, but hey – I’ll get help wherever I can!

That’s all for me.  I have to go prepare for tomorrow’s next move… more on that later!

-A.P.T.

MULTIPLE “Obama, Obama” Ringtones Now Available!! Preview Them HERE: “Obama, Obama” Ringtone – 2.99 *Only 1.99, this week only (July 8-15, 2008)!

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com