Now on iTunes – The O-Bama Mixtape II: Vote Obama Style!

Well, it’s finally here…

Introducing my NEW A.P.T. album, “The O-Bama Mixtape II: Vote Obama Style!” Click the picture above or HERE to preview/order the album on iTunes!

Track listing:

1. The Next Black President
2. Vote Obama Style (Gangnam Style Parody)
3. I Wanna Do Nicki Minaj
4. Imma Fool Wit It feat. Kaptain Kutta
5. I’m Never Ever Gonna Vote for Romney (We’re Never Ever Getting Back Together Parody)
6. Words With Friends
7. Pick Up Your Face feat. Johney Capo and DJ-T
8. Christmas in Paris (Ni**as in Paris Parody)
9. Zone Out
10. Your Mama Is So Ugly
11. Obama Milli Remix 2012 (A Milli Parody)
12. Rich Man’s World
13. Ooh, I’m a Model feat. Genellyn
14. Black President (Rack City Parody)

Insights into the album:

In 2008 when I released the first “The O-Bama Mixtape,” I had NO idea what I was doing in terms of how to market myself. I had a hot song out at the time with “Obama Milli Remix” but didn’t really know how to capitalize on it or the wave of momentum it had. I released the album as a free mixtape, thinking only a few people would download it and that nobody would want to pay for it.

Fast-forward to the day of the election, and I wake up to find that the mixtape got downloaded over 8000 times… in ONE day.  doing the math, had I decided to charge for the mixtape and only 10% of those people – 800 – had decided to purchase the album, I would have made close to $5,000 in ONE day.

Ever since then, I’ve always wished I could (a) have another out that would hit as hard as “Obama Milli Remix” did, and (b) have another shot at marketing and promoting the album in a way where it would make an impact AND bring in some money.

Fast-forward 4 years later…

I knew I wanted to make a sequel to “The O-bama Mixtape,” but didn’t want to do it if it was going to be a waste of my time. I released a few songs earlier this year about Obama, but none of them were getting the views I felt would be needed to put the album together.

Then, in August, I heard about this song called “Gangnam Style” by a Korean pop artist named Psy.  After seeing the video – which had over 100 million views at the time (and has over 200 million now) – I KNEW I wanted to make a parody of it. I go into further detail in one of my earlier blogs, but in short: I came up with the idea to make a song about Obama using this song, then went and made an EPIC video for it that closely mimicked the original source material.

Well, after I put it up on YouTube, it started to get views. A LOT of views. In the first week alone, the video garnered well over 50,000 views. As of this writing it’s up to 95,000…

More importantly, though, the speed at which the views racked up have been FASTER than they were for “Obama Milli Remix.”  I already had “Vote Obama Style” up on iTunes (which, thus far, has been getting a LOT of purchases, but I won’t know how many until November), but wanted some of my other Obama songs to get attention as well.

I hadn’t really recorded enough songs lately for a new album (except for “Imma Fool Wit It,” originally released by Kaptain Kutta earlier this year – I just jumped on the beat ’cause I liked it and the song was siiiiick!). However, I HAD released a mixtape last year – “Justin Beeber Must Die!” – that had a lot of good songs on it but didn’t get the attention I wanted. I also had recorded songs earlier this year for the “Rapping My Life” project that fizzled out.

Since not many people had heard these songs, I figured “Hey, why not take some of those songs, mix them together with your Obama parody songs, and put the album up on iTunes?”

Okay, great idea – but what would I call the album?

This is where having a knowledge of the marketplace comes in. The original title was going to be “The O-Bama Mixtape II: Back in the White House.” However, with Psy’s “Gangnam Style” becoming a bigger hit by the day, I knew I wanted my songs to pop up in the iTunes search engine when people went there to find his song. In order to do that, my songs also had to have the same wording in it. Of course, I couldn’t name every song “Gangnam Style” parody…

BUT… I COULD place that title in MY album title so it would be attached to all the songs!

And thus, the OFFICIAL album title is… “A.P.T. Presents – The O-bama Mixtape II: Vote Obama Style (Gangnam Style Parody)!”

Now, some of you may be familiar with my previous works, including the songs that reappear on this album. For those not familiar, though, here’s a brief synopsis of all the songs:

1. NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT – First appeared on the “The Next Black President” mixtape. It talks about how Blacks now have a better shot at being President thanks to Obama.

2. VOTE OBAMA STYLE – A parody of “Gangnam Style” talking about Obama’s reelection campaign, as well as my disdain for Romney.

3. I WANNA DO NICKI MINAJ – First appeared on the “Justin Beeber Must Die” mixtape. Discusses my desire for wanting the hottest rap female in the game!

4. IMMA FOOL WIT IT – First appeared on Kaptain Kutta’s “Red Dream 3” mixtape (I think). Just a track where we’re slick-talking about how good/crazy we are!

5. I’M NEVER EVER GONNA VOTE FOR ROMNEY – A parody of Taylor Swift’s “We’re Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Talks about Romney’s habit of flip-flopping his views.

6. WORDS WITH FRIENDS – First appeared on the “Rapping My Life” album. The beat was made using sounds from the actual game, and talks about how good I am at beating people in it.

7. PICK UP YOUR FACE – Features Johney Capo and my bro DJ-T. First appeared on the “Justin Beeber Must Die” mixtape. A track for all the haters out there that didn’t believe we’d make it!

8. CHRISTMAS IN PARIS – A parody of Jay-Z and Kanye’s “Ni**as in Paris.” Features me as Santa Claus talking to kids about why they’re not getting gifts this year.

9. ZONE OUT – First appeared on the “Justin Beeber Must Die” mixtape. A song about having the worst day possible and trying to relax afterward.

10. YOUR MAMA IS SO UGLY – First appeared on the “Justin Beeber Must Die” mixtape. There’s a joke that says you can tell how fine a girl will be when she’s older by looking at her mom. This song talks about that…

11. OBAMA MILLI REMIX 2012 – A parody of Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli.” Ever since I made the first “Obama Milli Remix” people have been asking me to make a sequel FOREVER. And so, here it is, with basically the same words plus some changes to talk about Romney instead of John McCain.

12. RICH MAN’S WORLD – First appeared on the “Justin Beeber Must Die” mixtape. Talks about the ups and downs of making it.

13. OOH, I’M A MODEL – Featuring Genellyn.  I wanted to make a minimalistic track that didn’t have many words to it, that girls could also dance to.

14. BLACK PRESIDENT – A parody of Tyga’s “Rack City.” That bastard stole my “Obama Milli Remix” song from me back in 2008, so this is light revenge for that. LoL. But really, it’s a GREAT track talking about re-electing Obama for President.

And that’s it! You can download the songs individually, or get the album – either way, I appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the songs!

-A.P.T.

Get the album NOW – click HERE!

Osama bin Laden is Killed. Obama Secures 2nd Term.

Above: My “Obama Milli Remix” song, with graphic by Brandon James.

Well, by now everyone who hasn’t been asleep for the last 6 hours has heard the news: Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center back on September 11, 2001, was finally killed by U.S. troops in Pakistan, where he was hiding out in a mansion. 

Much credit has to go to the troops on the ground who were able to trap him inside by fire, then go in and get the job done. It’s been a long 10 years and it took many operations, careful planning, allying with allies that weren’t always so welcoming to us, percision and swiftness.

Most importantly, though, it took a competent leader to command the troops on when to move in. A leader who, after listening to months/weeks of intel from his army, had to choose the precise moment to give his men the “okay” to attack.

And that man, my friends, was none other than President Barack Hussein Obama.

Because of him and the brave men and women serving our country overseas, this threat was taken down in a swift manner that saw NONE of our troops get killed in the process. It is a testement to both the great leadership of this country and the training provided by our military that an operation of such high magnitude went off, in the end, without a hitch.

Back when George Bush Jr. was President, I made a prediction that he would win a second term.  I didn’t think he necessarily deserved it, nor did I (or many other people for that matter) think he was doing that good of a job. However, it was during his first term that another dangerous threat to the U.S. – Sadaam Hussein – was captured. At that moment, I knew there’d be no chance he could lose.

With the killing of Osama, President Obama has all but secured his second term in office.  The election is 18 months away, and the immediate effect of his actions today will be less then than they are now. However, just the fact that he was able to keep a MAJOR campaign promise (he said he’d kill Osama while on the campaign trail), one that was so important and dear to the hearts of all Americans who lived through the 9/11 time period (and even moreso for those whose relatives and friends didn’t survive the attacks) is going to make voters place him back into the White House for 4 more years.

And I, for one, am VERY happy about that. It means we get to have a competent Black man in office for a few more years, which is definitely not a BAD thing. Plus, everytime stuff like this happens, the sales of my song go up in iTunes. So thank you, Mr. President, for helping this country’s morale today AND for increasing the money in my pocket at the same time!

-A.P.T.

Taking a Break…

Hey everybody!

Well, I’m exhausted.  After almost 3 months of making new videos, I’ve decided to take a break for a while.  I’ve got some other things going on that will be taking up most of my time so, in terms of music videos and YouTube videos, I’ll be chillaxing a bit.

I may have one or two more videos dropping depending on if I have time, but seeing as the majority of songs on “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back” already have videos for them, I should be good for now.

I’ll still be updating this site with various blogs, though, so you’ll still be able to read up on what I’m up to.  That’s all for now!

-A.P.T.

I Performed! People Came! Food Was Eaten!

JOIN ME ON USTREAM TUESDAY, MAY 18TH 2010 AT 4:30 PM PACIFIC (7:30 PM EASTERN), FOR A LIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT MY NEW ALBUM,
“THE OBAMA MILLI REMIX GUY STRIKES BACK!” Follow me at http://www.ustream.tv/aptsongs

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I performed on Saturday!  It was great!

Yep, after 4 long months, I finally emerged from my cocoon to perform at the Zabumba Bar and Restaurant in Culver City.  I invited some of my friend to come see me a few days before…

…and then it dawned on me that I needed to actually practice before going on stage!

So, I spent two days practicing with T. Whistle (a.k.a. my performing partner-in-crime) to make sure we had the songs and stage movements down.  By the time Saturday evening came, my voice was starting to go a bit, so I drank a LOT of tea and saved my voice for the performance.

But I digress! It was great!  About 13 of my friends showed up – most of whom had gone to Hampton with me, so it was like a mini-reunion – and I was the opening act. I got up on stage and RIPPED through a couple of songs from my already released album, “Attack of the Obama Milli Remix Guy!” – “What Had Happen Was” and “Obama Milli Remix” – before getting into two songs off the NEW album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!” – “I Knock Your Lights Out” and “No U Ain’t.”

The crowd was energetic, the ladies were pretty hot, and by the end of each song they were all chanting the choruses – a good sign that I’m on the right path in terms of song creation.

Now that I’ve performed, though, I’m actually eager to do it in some more places.  It’s definitely good promo for the album – coming out June 8 – and it’s just fun to be able to get on stage and rock out!

That’s all for now – be sure to join me tomorrow on uStream, where I’ll be discussing particulars of the album.  I’m OUT!

-A.P.T.

How Many Tracks Are the RIGHT Amount of Tracks for an Album?

JOIN ME ON USTREAM TUESDAY, MAY 18TH 2010, FOR A LIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT MY NEW ALBUM,
“THE OBAMA MILLI REMIX GUY STRIKES BACK!” Follow me at http://www.ustream.tv/aptsongs

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In gearing up for my album – “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back,” out June 8th, 2010 – I’ve been going through tracks and trying to cut down the amount of songs on the album.

Now, in this day of and age of music where an artist can post up their own songs on iTunes, one could technically post up however many songs they want to, collectively, on ONE album.  The service I use allows you to post up an album for $46.99, and the LIMIT for the amount of songs you can put on that album is – are you ready for this? – one HUNDRED songs.

A new artist might look at this and think: “Oh man oh man, that’s AWESOME! I can put up an album of 100 songs, and it’ll only cost the buyer 9.99?!?  I’m going to post ALL my songs up right now!”

And logically speaking, it would appear, at first, to make sense.  After all, $9.99 is a BARGAIN to pay for so many songs.

BUT…

An artist who did that would be lucky to sell even ONE album.

Placing TOO many tracks on an album – especially for an artist that’s unestablished – is a DEATH sentence for your career.

A few things new artists should consider:

• Music is a activity of choice and time.  When someone sees your name or hears about your music, they are making 2 choices: (a) whether or not they want to get to know your stuff, and (b) how much time they want to invest getting to know you.
• If they don’t know you, they don’t want to hear much from you.  This is why when record companies have a new artist, they start off by releasing ONE single at a time.  It’s a way for them to say: “We have an artist you might like.  We  know you don’t want to hear a lot of music from this unknown artist, but give this ONE song a chance.  If you like it, there is more, and we can tell you where to get it.”
• If someone DOES like the ONE song you put out, they may want to test out more of your stuff by buying your album… but if there are too many songs or it’s too long, their brain starts thinking about how much time they’ll have to spend with you (via listening to your album) and they may back off.

Remember: things often work the OPPOSITE of the way we think they should.  One assumes that offering more songs at a discounted price would make people want to buy their stuff, when in actuality they’d be better off putting together an album of 10 to 12 songs.  The possible consumer will see the album and, instead of thinking:

• “Aw, this album doesn’t have enough songs on it! I’m not gonna buy it at all!”

They will think:

• “Hmm, a new artist, eh? Well, I liked that one song… I guess I could buy it.  It’s only 10 songs – what’s that, like 35 minutes? I can spare some time listening to this!”

As for me… well, I’ve had a hit song, and I’ve released an album on iTunes, “Attack of the Obama Milli Remix Guy!” That album was 12 songs long, which sprawls out to about 46 minutes.  It’s long enough so people think they’re getting a good deal, but not so long that people will start to get bored with me.  Yes, I’m an artist and I think my songs are the shiznit, but I also know that, after a while, no matter how good an artist is, people are going to want to listen to someone else.

And if they just want to listen to my stuff? Well, having a shorter amount of songs will leave them wanting for more, which only helps me to sell the NEXT album (coming in… oh, wait, let me get this NEW one out the door first before I start talking about THAT)!

-A.P.T.

Secret #1 To Get Your Music Video Viewed on YouTube: Timing

JOIN ME ON USTREAM TUESDAY, MAY 18TH 2010, FOR A LIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT MY NEW ALBUM,
“THE OBAMA MILLI REMIX GUY STRIKES BACK!” Follow me at http://www.ustream.tv/aptsongs

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Over the past 2 years I, Aaron P. Taylor (a.k.a. A.P.T.), have learned a lot about how to put together songs and music videos that grab people’s attention and gets lots of views.  It’s the reason I’m able to get people to buy my music on iTunes despite getting limited radio play and not performing nearly as much as I should.

Now, if you’re an artist reading this who IS getting radio play and IS performing… but isn’t making any money… then I’m sure some of my info would be very valuable to you.

So, in the interest of… well, just wanting to help people out, I’ve decided to share a few secrets on here from time to time to help some of you upcoming artist out there get you and your songs the attention you need to start making people pay attention to you.

SECRET #1: TIMING YOUR SONG/VIDEOS WITH CURRENT EVENTS.

What do the following three videos of mine have in common:

Music video for A.P.T.’s “Obama Milli Remix”

Music video for A.P.T.’s “Imma Let U Finish” featuring Kanye West

Music video for A.P.T.’s “Kate Gosselin is a B!tch”

All of these songs/videos deal with different topics and have different rhythms.  They are also 3 videos I’ve made that have garnered over 10 million, 40,000 and 27,000 views respectively.

So what’s the common link?  ALL OF THESE SONGS/VIDEOS WERE RELEASED DURING TIMES WHEN THE EVENTS AROUND THEIR CREATION WERE AT PEAK INTEREST.

For example, the first video, “Obama Milli Remix,” was released almost a week after two important events back in June 2008: the choosing of Barack Obama as the Democratic National Committee’s Presidential Candidate, and the release of Lil’ Wayne’s “The Carter III” album, which was the first album in a long time to debut at number 1 with over a million copies in the first week.  The CD’s most popular song, “A Milli,” was being remixed by EVERY rapper known to man.  I decided to go a different route and do a parody of it.  Because I knew the right time to create and release the song/music video for it, I was able to get a TON of views from it (which I continue to get from this day).

The second video, “Imma Let U Finish,” was released 3 days after Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards back in September 2009.  People began posting photoshopped pictures of Mr. West interrupting other events throughout history, and I figured it would be a good idea to somehow make a song using audio snippets from his rant while using these various pics as the focal point of the video.  I didn’t even appear in the video, and it’s gotten 40,000 views – not to mention the money I made off it when I placed it on iTunes!

Now, the third video is a GREAT example of knowing when to capitalize on something going on in the news.  My original video for “Kate Gosselin is a B!tch” was posted up in September 2009, before the “Imma Let U Finish” video.  At the time, everyone was jumping on Jon Gosselin while their divorce proceedings were going on, and I wanted to put a song out that put the focal point back on Kate – specifically, at how much of a you-know-what she was while on TLC’s “Jon and Kate Plus 8” show.

When I first released the video, it got an okay amount of views… however, I had released it almost 3 months after their divorce had been announced, so I wasn’t getting nearly as many views as I would have liked (about 2000-3000 or so at the time).

BUT THEN, almost 6 months later, Kate became a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” And, during her first week on the show, she started getting uppity with her dance instructor.  My friend from college wrote on my facebook wall how accurate my song about her was in terms of calling her out on her attitude, and it was at that point I realized that NOW was a good time to re-post the video, with clips from her DwtS spazz-out thrown in for good measure.

Sure enough, I did.  In the first 2 weeks alone, the video received over 20,000 views (now currently at 27,000).

As you can see, if you’re well-read and caught up on major current events going on, you can make songs about those subjects that, if entertaining enough, will draw people to your material.  It’s really not that hard – just do what I do: go to Yahoo, find a news story you find interesting (I find most of mine in the “Entertainment” section), and figure out a creative way to express your feelings about said subject.  If you do it enough times, people will start looking forward to your videos and will tell their friends all about “this awesome artist who ALWAYS gives their opinion on things going on in the world in an entertaining way.”

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Well, that’s the only tip I have for today.  As we speak, I’m working on TWO songs/videos dealing with things that are either happening this weekend or are on-going.  Either way, both videos are sure to get me lots of views, which is what I need since I’m promoting my upcoming album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!” (Available June 8, 2010, at online retailers everywhere.) I’ll keep u all posted on their progress!

-A.P.T.

Hey, What Happen to All My Mixtape Download Links???

Another day, another wonderful blog!

Okay, so prior to me having this whole resurgence in blogging, I was neglecting this site for quite some time.  I didn’t have much product coming out, either musically or with videos, so I didn’t do a whole lot of maintenance on this site.

Now that I’ve been at this site more often, I’ve noticed something: all of the links to my FREE mixtapes are no longer working!

I posted the majority of the mixtapes up via zshare.net which, at the time, only stored up mixtapes at their links for as long as people were downloading them.  If no one downloads from said link(s) for over 60 days, they take down the link.

Well, the last mixtape I uploaded was in April 2009.  The project ended the very next month and, aside from 2 or 3 more videos, I didn’t blog much here or give people a reason to check the site.  So, people stopped downloading my mixtapes from the links, and they eventually expired 😦

I didn’t think anyone would be interested in downloading my old mixtapes.  Not that they’re really THAT old – only about a year or so – but I just figured the fans would be searching out for newer material.  It just dawned on me, though, that if those fans hadn’t heard those mixtapes yet, the music would STILL be new to them.

So, will I be posting the mixtapes back up on the site again?

Eh. I haven’t decided.  Truthfully, there is an advantage to not posting them back up – namely, I can re-use some of the lyrics from those songs and post them on “new” songs with beats that I own or can use in a sellable song (as opposed to when the songs were on the mixtapes with beats made famous by someone else, meaning I can’t sell the song unless I get resale rights that I can’t currently afford).

However, there is something to be said about giving people new (old) music to hear to tide them over while waiting for my NEW album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back” to come out on June 8th. Hmm…

Hypothetically, if I DO decide to put them back up, I’ll have to find a more reliable source to post them where they won’t be taken down so easily.  I’ll do some research on it and see what’s what.

In the meantime, I’ve got some EXCITING musical ideas and videos to share with the fans, some of which will be dropping very, VERY soon.  But I’ll leave that for tomorrow’s blog – adios!

-A.P.T.

A.P.T. Song/Video – “Frontin’ in L.A.”

Today’s video is for the song, “Frontin’ in L.A.” (beat by Mister K.A. beats).

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

Aaaaaand I’m back!

So, I’ve been in song-writing mode for a while now, and I’m putting together a new album called “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!”  I’ve been recording on professional equipment, courtesy of my new roommate.

However, my roommate left town for a couple of days, and took his equipment with him.  While he was gone, I began thinking of song ideas, one of which became this song, “Frontin’ in L.A.”

I was listening through some of the beats I’ve collected on various online sites, and came across a beat by Mister K.A. beats that stuck out to me.  I didn’t know what the song topic would be, but I know I wanted to use the beat.  Then – literally, out of nowhere – I thought of a chorus:

“The cars, the clothes, the jewels, it’s nothin/’Cause everybody out in L.A. stay frontin’/Wooooo!”

As for the topic idea, I think it actually stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend of mine in Hollywood whose been getting his grind on heavy.  I won’t divulge names (Hollywood is already a gossipy enough town, and you never know who knows who), but my friend told me that a particular person who used to be pretty well-known had just asked him for money to pay his rent.  I thought this person was doing pretty well, so it was shocking to hear that this person had asked my friend for funds.

And that’s not the first time I’ve heard of that happening.  There are so many stories of famous people who, upon first glance, seem to be doing well… until a story comes out about them being bankrupt, or being involved in some type of money scandal.  Then you realize just how much of a front people really put on out here in Holly-weird!

I thought it would be a good topic to do a song about.  In the year and 3 months I’ve been here, I’ve learned all about how phony people here make their lives out to be just so they can put up the smoke-screen of “success.” It’s just the way the game is played out here, people!

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. There are SO many truthful statements in this song.  Just a short list:

• I have been on video sets with “stars” who don’t have much money
• Anytime you ask someone “So, what do YOU do?” they always feel the need to come up with an answer that’s impressive
• Statements I hear WAY too much: “I’m working on various projects;” “I know so-and-so” (why am I supposed to care?); and the oh-so popular “My project is about to BLOW!!” Yeah, it BLOWS, alright…
• I have gone to clubs to perform where I had to put on the “costume jewelry,” i.e. the Folex watch, the $10 chain
• I WAS in a Tyler Perry movie – “Meet the Browns” – as an extra in the school basketball scene

2. I downloaded this beat last year.  I was going to lease it, but didn’t have the money at the time. It has since been purchased, meaning I can’t legally sell the song.  I may end up recording it over another beat, or just releasing it for free…

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT

So, after I wrote the song, I was going to put up another simplistic video, much like I did with “Mini Me.”  But for some reason… I don’t know WHY I was needing to look up Tiger Woods’ recent Nike commercial, but I was, and I started thinking: “Hmm, maybe I could use the part where his Dad asked him if he learned anything, and use it as a way of segueing into what I’ve learned about people frontin’ in L.A…”

I set up my camera in front of my green screen, dressed up in some clothes similar to what Tiger wore in his commercial (hat, vest, nice dress shirt), and filmed it.  Then I downloaded some pics to fit certain parts of the song, pasted them all together, then made the whole thing black-and-white.  Oh, and I also added in captioning so people could read the lyrics to the song.

It all sounds pretty simple, but editing this thing together probably took me a good 6 to 8 hours.  It made me remember why I’ve taken such a long break from making videos, but it was worth it for the end result!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. I decided to go with the chipmunk-sounding voice over as a contrast to the deep voice Tiger’s dad had in his commercial.

2. The REAL reason I used captions? I wasn’t able to use my roommate’s studio mic, and had to go back to my USB radio mic.  It’s an okay mic, but it doesn’t always catch the end of words well, despite my excellent enunciation. So, I put them in to make sure people knew what I was saying.

3. Also: I used pics in certain places because I had only finished recording the song the day before, and didn’t really know it.  So, on the parts where I messed up the wording, I could use pictures.

4. Because I didn’t know the words that well, I had to print them out and place them on the top of the camera.  However, I couldn’t make it look like I was reading the words, so I placed the camera farther away from myself.  The words were placed above the lens.

5. There are several pics in this video with me and celebrities.  Specifically:

• There’s a pic with me and the guy who played “Mini Me” (taken at a Playboy Mansion party I attended – for FREE)
• There’s a pic with me interviewing former music video vixen Vida Guerra (whose name I pronounced incorrectly – thanks a LOT, Game!)
• There’s a pic with me and The Archbishop Don “Magic” Juan

I placed them in the video, not to show off, but to stress the point: all of these people are famous… however, that does NOT mean they’re rich, or well-off financially.  That’s all part of the “front.”

6. The picture used on the line “How else u gonna score an L.A. chick” is Jovana, who I went to college with and now lives out here.  (And, in case you’re curious, her dress is yellow – but u can’t tell that since she’s in black-and-white.)

Aaaaaand that’s it!  Okay, so I’m clearly doing videos again.  This time, though, there’s no schedule for them – I may put another one tomorrow or next week or next month – but they’re all leading up to videos for my upcoming album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!”

-A.P.T.

One-Song-a-Week: Song #42 – Ambition Remix (feat. Z-man and T-Bone)

This week’s video (if you can call it that) is for the song “Ambition (Remix)” off “The Great Black Hope” album!

AVAILABLE ON “THE GREAT BLACK HOPE” ALBUM – Click HERE for download info!

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

There’s really not too much insight into how this song came about.  These two guys, whose performance names are Z-man and T-Bone, wrote me and asked if I’d be willing to do a song with them.  They told me to check out their music page and listen to their songs; if I heard one I liked, I could message them back and request the beat and song so I could jump on the song.

When I checked out their page, the first song I heard was a track called “Ambition.”  I liked the lyrics to the song and the concept – they were talking about making it in the music biz despite all odds since they had the drive – and, since the title of my album was called “The Great Black Hope,” I figured it would be a perfect fit.

On my end, I kept their lyrics in the first two verses, then placed my verse at the end.  It actually didn’t take me long at all to think up the words making up my 16 bars.  I just talked about the stuff I had gone through over the years while trying to get on, all the way up to the “Obama Milli” song, which, against all odds, was played worldwide.  Thus, my story shows off how success IS possible if your ambition is strong enough and you don’t give up.

Some Interesting Song Insights:

1. At the end of the song, I was going to mention the group’s myspace name… but it was too long, and at the time I was going to say it, I couldn’t pronounce it.  So, I did like I said in the song: I put them in my Top 8 so people who hear the song can just go to my page and click on their picture!

2. When I got the track, the original one didn’t sound mastered properly.  Luckily, I have a program that allows me to tweak sounds and make things sound better.  On their page, they have the original “Ambition” posted as well as the one I did, and the clarity and spiffiness of the sound is very apparent.

3. My favorite line is one people probably won’t even get.  It’s the part where I say “Philip Banks security threw me out on the lawn (AAAAAAA!)” On the show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Will’s friend Jazzy Jeff was always getting thrown out of the house by Philip Banks.  Hopefully that reference isn’t too “Old School!”

INSIGHT INTO A MUSIC VIDEO:

Actually, for this week it’s more like “Insight into an unmade video!”

After 41 videos, it’s starting to get hard to think up ideas for videos all the time within the given time frame of a week.  Especially when most of those videos involve me and only me.

This particular week was made more difficult by the fact that I had other things to do in terms of other sites I’m setting up.  In addition, the time I would have spent editing today was spent doing an interview for a TV show pilot…

But realistically, I hate excuses, and I’m sure I could have filmed a video earlier in the week and edited it.  I should be more prepared and stop doing things last minute, especially now that I’m starting to gain some momentum out here in Holly-weird…

With that said, though, I couldn’t put up nothing at all, as the commitment was to do a video each week for a year.  (Technically, I could take a two-week break, as there were two weeks when I did two videos and am ahead a bit).  I wanted to post up a song that I didn’t have too much of an idea for a video for, yet was still good enough to warrant posting up.

Then I remembered the “Ambition” song I did.  I had guest rappers on the song, and they live in a different state.  Therefore, I couldn’t have them in the video, and I couldn’t think of a “video” video I could do to it.  So, I figured I’d post it up.  

BUT…

I didn’t want to just post up a blank screen.  So, I filmed the footage of the tape recorded “Family Guy” used this week when they went all postal on Christian Bale’s ass by re-using his rant.  Seemed like a good thing to use when just playing a song!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. I was actually going to use another song this week, and use the Christian Bale rant in-between the song.  But honestly, it would have stretched the video out to almost 7 minutes, the song wouldn’t have been continuous, and I would have ended up filming another video for it anyway.  Besides, I HAVE an idea for that particular song, so I’ll be doing THAT one next week.

2. Estimated edit time: ha! Barely under an hour.  But again, it’s not really a “video” video!

That’s all for now!  Only 10 (real) videos left to go – see ya next week!

-A.P.T.

A.P.T. Music Video Downloads!

Greetings again!

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:

1. Post “A.P.T.” and the song’s title in the title line and in the keywords section
2. 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
3. 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!)

– – – – – – – – – –

A.P.T. Downloadable Videos:

Above: A.P.T. Video #2, “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls!” Download video here – http://www.4shared.com/file/83040486/60c4a27c/APT_Video_2_-_Big_Girl_Shout_Out.html

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #3, “Your Mom’s a Ho!” Download video here – http://www.zshare.net/video/54786977848ff1cb/

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #5, “O-bama O-bama” (re-dubbed “Obama Milli” by the public)! Download video here – http://www.4shared.com/file/82994639/e681bbd2/APT_Video_5_-_O-bama_Milli.html

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #28, “Stop Cockblockin’!” Download video here – http://www.4shared.com/file/83038003/a8ea80d8/APT_Video_28_-_Stop_Cockblockin.html

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #29, “Go Hard Remix (feat. T-Pain, Kanye West and DJ Khaled)!” Download video here – http://www.4shared.com/file/83036645/c1b7eb68/APT_Video_29_-_Go_Hard__The_Unofficial_Remix_.html

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #30, “Back On My Grind!” Download video here – http://www.4shared.com/file/83001200/8cf3056/APT_Video_30_-_Back_on_My_Grind.html

 

Above: A.P.T. Video #37, “Goodbye Bush (Na Na Na)!” Download video here – http://www.zshare.net/video/5453399977ea009e

Note: if you have a request for a video not currently available for download, send me a message at aptsongs@hotmail.com!

-A.P.T.