New APT Mixtape, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind)” is HERE!

Gentlemen and Ladies, to you I present proudly…

THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT (a.k.a. BACK ON MY GRIND) – The BRAND NEW A.P.T. Mixtape!

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

Click http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=223462  to download! (For mixtape insights, scroll down below the track listing!)

Track Listing for “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind)” (Highlighted links have a music video for that song!):

01. Intro – The First Black President (feat. Barack Obama and Katie Couric)
02. The Next Black President – Produced by Chris I
03. Back on My Grind – Produced by SINIMA Beats
04. Killed the Beat (feat. Myxtape) – Produced by Myxtape
05. Shine 4 Obama (feat. Luther Vandross)
06.#1 (feat. Jay-Z) – Produced by ME!
07. Go Hard – The Unofficial Remix (DJ Khaled, Kanye West and T-Pain) 
08. Another Unnecessary Interlude
09. Crank Dat (Yeah!) – Produced by Fire Kraka 
10. Your Mom’s a Ho! – Produced by Mister KA
11. You Ashy (feat. Black & Broke) – Produced by Black & Broke
12. Where My Money At – Produced by Mister KA/ 
13. Get Your Paper (feat. Paul Ma$$on)
14. Interlude – T-Pain Sings “O-bama O-bama” on 106 & Park
15. O-Bama Mega-remix (feat. Tyga) – Produced by ME!
16. Smile 4 Dad (Letter 2 My Father) – Produced by SINIMA Beats 
17. BONUS: A Rhymestyle Podcast Interview with A.P.T.
18 .BONUS: The A.P.T. LP Preview (Short Version)
19. Outro for The Next Black President

INSIGHT INTO A MIXTAPE:

First, I want to thank everyone who downloaded “The O-Bama Mixtape,” and/or purchased “The A.P.T. LP!“  It’s been my dream for a few years now to expose my music to a wide audience, and, between these two albums, I have been able to fulfill a good portion of that dream (the other part, of course, is being able to make a living off it – I’m not quite there yet, but I’m working on it daily!)

It’s funny how things come about in life – I wanted to get noticed in the music biz, so I started this website with the goal of putting out ONE music video a week, every Sunday, for a year.  Video/song number five, “O-bama O-bama,” was a song I put together almost as a joke, yet it ended up becoming WAY more popular than I could have imagined.

As a result of its sudden popularity, I had people asking me when I’d be putting out a mixtape.  At the time, I was only on song number 7 or 8 so it hadn’t dawned on me to even put out a mixtape of full songs, as I was concentrating on just doing ONE song a week.

But lo and behold: I started making more songs, and thought: “Hmm… instead of making all these songs and putting them out one by one as the videos were made, maybe it would be a better idea to release the music first, THEN make videos for the songs on the albums so that they’d be fresh and new for people being exposed to them each week, thereby making them want the song THEN verses LATER!”

“The O-Bama Mixtape” was put together in a quick amount of time – almost 2 weeks – but I was able to do it fast because I had been recording material throughout the months prior, and didn’t really have to record that much new stuff.  I also knew that, given the momentum of the song, it would be a great way to let people hear my talent outside of just parody songs (even though I put quite a few parodies on the mixtape).

Long story short: “The O-Bama Mixtape” was released on July 27th, 2008.  Prior to the week of the election, it had been downloaded over 1300 times. 

I was pretty happy with that number, though I was still wishing that more people had gotten it.  I didn’t know too much about the rate at which mixtapes get downloaded, so I just assumed that 1300 was a good number, given that not too many people knew who I was.  Plus, I assumed it was bootlegged by even MORE people – hey, it was free anyway, so what did I care how people got it in their hands?!?

And then, the week of the election came.  On the website, I’m able to check my blog stats daily (i.e. the number of people stopping by to view my site), and I noticed that, as election night neared, I was starting to get more and more traffic to my website.  Between September and the end of October the daily rates had gone down to about 200-300 people per day… but during the election week, the numbers were shooting up into the late hundreds, then the lower thousands.

I also started to notice that “The O-Bama Mixtape” was starting to pick up numbers in terms of downloads.  It went from 1300 to – and I’m not making this up – 2450 the day of the election!  As of now, it’s been downloaded over 3000 times (and I’m pretty sure that number will go up even more once Obama’s Inauguration time comes around!)

More importantly, though, my album, “The A.P.T. LP,” was starting to sell units!  In the week that Obama was elected, I sold about 25 copies of the album, both the MP3 version AND a few mail-order CDs.

On the day before the election, the number of viewers at my site was around 2000.  It was then that I realized I had yet another opportunity to let people know about my music – all I had to do was advertise for it, and make people aware of some new product I had coming out…

Only problem was: I didn’t HAVE anything coming out!

I had nothing planned – no new album, no merchandise, NOTHING.  Clearly, I had to think of something…

I looked through the catalogue of songs I had to see if I had enough to put together a new mixtape that I could advertise.  As it turns out, I actually had MORE than enough songs to put together a decent mixtape, plus I had beats for songs not yet written, save for the chorus in many occasions.

I also had some collaborations stored up that hadn’t yet seen the light of day.  Back when the “O-Bama O-Bama” song came out, I posted a video on Youtube telling people to e-mail me if they wanted to do a collaboration.  I ended up recording 2 “official” collaborations – one with Myxtape on the track, “Killed the Beat” and one with Black and Broke for “You Ashy” – plus an unofficial collabo with Paul Ma$$on on a song he did called “Get Your Paper.” 

Lastly, there were songs I had made videos for – “Your Mom’s a Ho!”, “Where My Money At,” “Smile 4 Dad,” and more – that hadn’t been placed on any of my mixtapes.  Some of these were songs I released prior to “O-Bama O-Bama” though, so they didn’t get much exposure.  And, because I don’t have the lease rights to these beats, I wasn’t able to sell them (or else I would have put them on “The A.P.T. LP”), but per the beat holders’ site rules, they COULD be used for mixtapes!

Once I decided that I could actually put together a mixtape, all I had to do was think of a name.  That part was actually easy: “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back On My Grind).”  I figured if Obama won the election it would be a great title to use (and if he lost, I could just call it the First Black President instead).  As for the tag line – Back on My Grind – it was the name given to the beat I used for the second song.

I placed an ad up for it the night before the election.  And I’m glad I did – the next day, my site was viewed over 4,000 times! And, in the days that followed, my views hovered above the 1500 per day mark, meaning that more and more people were being told of the news about my upcoming mixtape!

And now it’s here!  I actually finished this whole thing a couple of days early, so I spent the last few days mixing, mastering, and even recording a new song – the “Go Hard (Unofficial Remix)” – that I ended up making the first video off the mixtape!

Now for the fun stuff!  For those of you who like mini-insights into songs, here are the tracks with all the commentary you could shake a stick at!

TRACK 01: Intro – The First Black President (feat. Barack Obama and Katie Couric)

My last mixtape started off with O-Bama talking about why he was running.  Now that he won, I thought it would be a good idea to recall that historic night with a news announcement of the win as well as part of his acceptance speech.

TRACK 02: The Next Black President (Produced by Chris I)

The beat on this one is siiiiick!  As for the song, it basically talks about how I feel I can achieve anything now that he’s in office, including being the NEXT Black President!  Incidentally, the chorus of the song is inspired by Diddy – in one of his songs on the “Press Play” album, he says: “The potential to be the first Black President/I-tunes, download me in every residence.”  Seemed fitting to use here!

TRACK 03: Back On My Grind (Produced by SINIMA Beats)

This is what I call a “Fighter Track.”  It’s one where you just pummel the beat over and over with words, almost to the point of over-whelming it.  When I heard the beat, I knew that’s how I had to go at it.  The song’s not really saying anything – just showing my skill and talking about how I’m still handling my biz!

TRACK 04: Killed The Beat (feat. Myxtape) (Produced by Myxtape)

An artist named Myxtape sent me this track and asked me to spit vocals on it.  His only instruction: “Make sure you kill it!” So, I took him literally, and killed the beat!  His verse on here is pretty sick, too – you can check out more of his songs at www.myspace.com/myxtape!

TRACK 05: Shine 4 Obama (feat. Luther Vandross)

After the “O-Bama O-Bama” song got big, people started trying to make their own versions and claim it as their own.  My uncle thought it would be a good idea to create another Obama song, only for the grown and sexy crowd (and a song that was a little less crass – no mentioning of Michelle’s behind in this one!).  I found this Luther Vandross track called “Shine” and made a song called “Shine 4 Obama.”

TRACK 06: #1 (feat. Jay-Z) (Produced by ME!)

I actually recorded this track back in 2005!  I recorded some accapella vocals from various Jay-Z songs, and sampled the music from the Guile fighting stage ot “Street Fighter II” (yes, I look for samples EVERYWHERE!!) to make this song!  It’s basically me talking about how I’m better than everyone else.  Typical rap track, with a not-so-typical soundtrack!

TRACK 07: Go Hard – The Unofficial Remix (DJ Khaled, Kanye West and T-Pain) (Produced by The Runners)

I heard this song quite a few times in the past week, and became such a fan of it that I HAD to do a remix to it!  This was the last track I recorded for the mixtape – I basically found the song, found the beat, and edited it to where Kanye’s first verse was left in tact, while the second verse was blank for me to spit lyrics about how hard I go on the mic.  How hard it is?  Listen to the song/watch the video to find out!

TRACK 08: Another Unnecessary Interlude

An unnecessary interlude, talking about dumb stuff.

TRACK 09: Crank Dat (Yeah!) (Produced by Fire Kraka)

This was the ninth video I recorded for YouTube.  It was one of those songs where I heard the beat, started freestyling some dumb lyrics, and thought it would be good to put out just to show that I could make those types of songs (even though I usually don’t).  Lo and behold, it became one of my more popular videos on YouTube.  And as they always say, “Give the people what they want!” I recorded it because every time I went to a club, people were doing the “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” dance to EVERY song.  Thus, the chorus of this song – “No matter what the song, you gotta crank that (yeah!)”

TRACK 10: Your Mom’s a Ho! (Produced by Mister KA)

This was the third song I made into a video.  It talks about your mom.  And guess what? She’s a ho.

TRACK 11: You Ashy (feat. Black & Broke)

These were the very first guys to ask me about doing a collaboration.  The song concept itself was funny, and I only had to write 8 bars worth of lyrics, so I said, “Sure!”  The song talks about… well, people being ashy! Put some lotion on your skin!  You can check out their stuff at www.myspace.com/blackbroke.

TRACK 12: Where My Money At (Produced by Mister KA)

This song was the eighteenth music video I recorded.  Actually, I recorded it BEFORE I started my sight, but I post it up much later.  Sadly, this song is based on a true story: I had a money deal go bad involving some iphones that turned out to be fake, and I was so mad that I wanted to find the guy and beat his ass.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it in REAL life, so I did it in a song instead!

TRACK 13: Get Your Paper (feat. Paul Ma$$on)

Another collabo, only not originally requested by the artist.  Paul Ma$$on sent the track out to a bunch of people; however, he only recorded over the first two verse parts of the song – the third verse area was left completely blank!  So, since I had a music program and liked the song/beat, I recorded a verse over the untouched area of the song and sent it back to him.  When it came time to put songs together for this mixtape, I asked him if I could use it, and he said, “Sure!”  Mr. Ma$$on is a REALLY good artist, and you should hear some of his other song – which you can, at www.myspace.com/PaulMa$$on!

TRACK 14: Interlude – T-Pain Sings “O-Bama O-Bama” on 106 & Park

Just like the title says: T-Pain went on 106 & Park, and, while talking to the hosts about registering to vote, guess what song he starts singing?!?

TRACK 15: O-bama Mega-remix (feat. Tyga) (Produced by ME!)

So what happened was this: I created the song, and provided it for a FREE download.  Another guy on YouTube took the “O-Bama O-Bama” part of the song where there is NO music, and made his own “O-Bama O-Bama” beat, only with a more southern bounce to it.  Tyga contacted the guy and asked him for the beat so he could make his own “Obama” song, promising the guy he’d give him and me a shout-out.

Long story short: He made his song, I got NO shout out.  Worse, people started questioning if I was the original creator – despite the fact that it’s ME saying “O-bama O-bama” in the background!

Unfortunately, I don’t have the clout yet to go around suing everyone who steals my good ideas.  At the same time, I thought it would be a bit hypocritical of me to be mad about him stealing my song, seeing as I got the idea from Bangladesh’s original beat and Lil’ Wayne’s original song.  (I was more mad about the fact that he was able to perform the song in front of LIVE audiences and get PAID, while I was not.)

So, instead, I decided to fuse the two versions together and create an “O-bama Mega-remix!”

TRACK 16: Smile 4 Dad (Letter 2 My Father) (Produced by SINIMA Beats)

A song I created the week of Father’s Day, and the fourth song I directed a music video for.  It’s a love-letter to my father, who passed away when I was 9. 

TRACK 17: BONUS TRACK – A.P.T. Podcast Interview With Rhymestyle

This is a bonus track for those interested to learn a bit more about me.  Rhymestyle, a rising music industry insider, has a pod cast show he does almost every Friday, and back in August he asked me if he could interview me for the show.  Uh… heck yeah!  The questions and conversation are pretty interesting, so it’s definitely worth a listen!

TRACK 18: BONUS TRACK – “The A.P.T. LP” Preview

Why? Because I’m still trying to earn money, that’s why!  It’s a mini-sampler of 5 songs from “The A.P.T. LP!”
And that’s it!  I hope you all enjoy the mixtape, and be on the lookout for my next official album, “The Great Black Hope,” out Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 – i.e. my BIRTHDAY!!

-A.P.T.

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

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

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

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Insights Into the Video Shoot:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-A.P.T.

E-Mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

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

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

Another week, another video in the can…

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

The Road Less Travelled + This Week’s Video…

Another week, another video in the can…

I’m glad I had my camera with me when I saw that guy dancing on the train last week, ’cause I had NO idea what I was going to do in terms of a video otherwise.  This week’s video is a little more planned out – it will be a video for a song off “The O-bama Mixtape,” shot simplistically with some good camera angles, and I’ll try to make it funny, too.

Anyway… in making these videos, I realized something: a lot of the decisions I make are spontaneous.  The idea for this site was an idea that I had for about 2 days before I made it, and most of my videos aren’t usually thought of too way in advance.

But it’s not just videos; it’s other decisions I make in general.  I had the idea to move to D.C. in late August, and by the first week of October I was catching a bus up here in hopes of finding a place to stay.  I repeat: in HOPES of finding a place.  I didn’t know if I actually WOULD, I just assumed it.

That’s another thing I’ve been realizing: I put a lot of faith into doing the things I do, oftentimes “assuming” that the things I want to happen will happen, regardless of if there is evidence of that thing actually being able to happen.

A perfect example: everybody – and I mean EVERYBODY – told me that it was expensive to live in D.C., and that there was NO WAY I’d be able to find a place to live in the price range I wanted, which was between zero/month (ha ha ha) and $600.  Even when I told people I’d be willing to have roommates, they STILL said I wouldn’t be able to find anything for under $700, and that I’d probably be living in the ‘hood, i.e. a bad area of town.

I looked in apartment magazines as well as various websites, including Craig’s List, for almost a month before I moved to D.C., and, admittedly, most people were right – it WAS hard to find a place for under $600 a month.

Fast-forward to last Friday, when, about 5 minutes before I had to run to work, I checked Craig’s List one more time and found a person renting a room in a town house for $500 a month plus utilities, in one of the nicest areas near D.C.!

So now, I have a place, and it’s next to all the best shopping centers, movie theatres, restaurants, and malls, and I’m a 15-minute walk away from the train station.  Who knew I’d be able to get in a place surrounded by everything I needed.

Oh that’s right – I DID.

It’s funny because, last week when my future was uncertain and I didn’t know how long it would take me to find a place, my brother asked me if I liked living this way, where I don’t always know what’s going to happen or how I’m going to get to my next destination.  And I thought about it for about 2 seconds… then I turned to him and said:

“Yes. Yes I do.”

Because, in my opinion, too many people go through life trying to be comfortable at all times.  They get into a job they feel is stable, or move to a city/suburb and just “settle” in, and they get some comfortable that they stop challenging themselves.  They have dreams they want to chase but are afraid they’ll fall on their face. So, instead of trying to do what they REALLY want to do and risk uncertainty, pain, and struggle, they stay in the same place and stop growing.

I like to think of myself like a caterpillar.  They eventually become butterflies, but in order to do so, they have to wrap themselves in a cocoon, then fight and push their way out of it so they can become the beautiful creatures God intends them to be. 

A caterpillar would never become a butterfly if they just said, “I want to be a butterfly, but I don’t want to have to struggle a bit to do so.”  Instead, they would just stay a caterpillar their whole life – which wouldn’t be long since, without the cocoons to protect them they’d just die off when winter hits.

Anyway, my point is, I don’t like staying stagnant, and when things start to get too easy for me, I have to change it up.  My life in Atlanta was steady, secure, safe, and BORING.  Once I started having a regular routine in ATL, I knew it was time to move.  Call it “taking the road less travelled,” if you will.

Now that I’m in D.C., I’m sure I’ll eventually have a routine of some kind – but for right now, I can travel so many more places here thanks to the train system here (much more established and far-reaching than ATL’s MARTA system), and I can expand my horizons a bit.  And – God willing – I just may hang out with some friends, too!

That’s all for now – see ya Sunday!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

One-Song-a-Week: Song #21 – Fly Chick (Produced by Hi-Fly)

This week’s music video is for the song “Fly Chick” (produced by Hi-Fly), from “The A.P.T. LP!”

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

I was looking up beats one day and came across this beat, produced by Hi-Fly.  The beat was called “The Beautiful One,” and, based on the title of the beat, I started freestyling a song scenario where I was talking about a girl.

When I got to the chorus, the words that came out were: “My one and only fly chick/uh huh, she got the keys to the new whip… my one and only fly chick, my one ride or die chick, always by my side, yeah!”

The chorus was really catchy to me, but the last part – “always by my side” – helped me to invision what the whole song should be about.  Namely, a girl that’s always been there for a guy since before he got famous.

I record all my freestyles, and the words I had said were pretty close to the ones I was going to use. However, I somehow managed to accidentaly record over the freestyle!  Needless to say, I was pissed off.  Because the song was erased, I had to go back and actually write the verses.  Good thing I still remembered the chorus!

Writing the song wasn’t really that hard, though.  All I had to do was think back on my own dating experiences, specifically to those girls I dated that didn’t mind me not having a lot of money, or wanting to see me even when I lived at home with my mom, or didn’t have the best job in the world… the point is, these girls were willing to go out with me simply because of my charming personality (and, hopefully, my stunningly good looks).  Although I haven’t dated that many people, there were a few out of the ones I dated who had the traits I talk about in the song, and I figured guys who currently have girlfriends sticking with them through the tough times would be able to relate.

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. This is one of those songs that doesn’t have a regular flow to it.  It has a flow, but a lot of the words run into each other at times, and there are a lot of pauses.  This is actually how I freestyled the original one, and for some reason this flow just seemed to go well with this beat.  I’m sure I could have done the song a bunch of different ways…

2. My favorite line in the song: “Did I mention that the girl can cook? She cooks Japanese, Chinese, maybe even Siamese…”  I just thought that sounded funny!

3. Like I said, most of the stuff in the song is based on a few women I dated.  I did date a girl who would come see me regularly when I lived with my mom who could also cook oriental food; I dated another girl who would be willing to drop whatever she was doing to see me (yet still managed to get her school work done); yet and still, there are girls who I haven’t dated but have made me feel extra-special in our friendship (not in that way, people!).  Ultimately, the goal is always to take those emotions and try to make them relate to others!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

This video is bittersweet, as it is the last video I shot in Atlanta before moving to Washington D.C.!

Since this song is about me giving praises to my “one and only fly chick,” I wanted to have a girl in the video.  My original vision for the song was to film me and a girl going around town spending time with each other.  As you may know, though, getting people to help me out with these things can be a biaaaaaatch!

However, I figured I could try and ask for some help.  My friend Jessi, who I went to Hampton University with, also does music and is constantly filming herself doing random things and placing them on YouTube.  Since she was already doing these types of things, I shot her an email and asked her if she’d like to be in one of my videos.

Imagine my surprise when she said “Yes!”

Of course, this was about a month ago.  She told me she’d send some footage within a week.  2 weeks later… LoL.  Ah well, I had some other videos to shoot, but she finally sent me some footage that she shot from her MAC computer (and I am insanely jealous that she has a MAC!).

Once I had her part, I had to figure out how I was going to do mine.  The scenario I had set up was that I was on the road touring, but had taken time out to send my girlfriend a song called “Fly Chick,” which she then made a video of herself dancing to, along with shots of her doing other stuff around her house.  I had to figure out how I wanted to show myself as if I was on tour.

My first idea was to film myself singing the song while riding a bus around Atlanta.  But, anyone who lives in Atlanta knows that a touring musician who is popular is NOT catching a MARTA train around ATL, and nobody would believe I was using it as a tour bus!

After much thought, I decided I could film it at the Hartfield National Airport, located at the end of the southern trainline in Atlanta.  I could act as though I had a few hours before my flight took off, so I decide to use my laptop to check my email, and – lo and behold – my girlfriend sent a video to me as a “thank you” for the song!

Pretty simple concept.  All I did was go down to the airport, film myself walking around singing the song, then film myself on my laptop.  To my surprise, though, I didn’t even need my laptop.  It turns out, the Airport supplies pay-per-minute computers with internet access.  So, rather than pull my laptop out the bag, I simply filmed myself “using” one of their computers (at an angle where you couldn’t see the screen so that I didn’t have to actually use the computer, and have to pay $10 for something I didn’t really need to use.  It’s called “creative filming,” people!)

I didn’t have time to edit the video until Saturday due to the time I spent trying to unload my apartment and move.  I thought it might be an easy video to edit – WRONG AS USUAL!  Between me catching a bus to Richmond to visit my Mom, then catching another bus to D.C., eating, trying to find a place to live AND finally getting back to my brother’s house, the video almost didn’t even make it up on YouTube Sunday.  But, like I said, I’m dedicated, and got it up on the site with 20 minutes left to go!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. My friend shot her footage on a MAC, and her colors were – no pun intended – imMACulate.  I had to add a bit of color boost to my footage so that it would match up with her color scheme.

2. Yes, I actually walked around the airport mouthing the words to my song.  And yes, people were looking at me funny while I did it.  But what do I care??

3. Incidentally, the song was playing through the headphone set around my neck.  It actually played the song pretty loudly, and I was surprised no one walking near me said anything!

4. I actually brought two suitcases with me to the airport.  I was going to use the smaller one as my carry luggage, and use the bigger one to sit my camera on for certain shots.  When it came time for me to sit at the internet terminal, I stacked the small suitcase onto the bigger one so I could get a good angle.

5. Edit time for the video:  eh, I don’t really know.  I did a lot of moving around this weekend – if I had to guess, though, I’d say about 6 or 7 hours.

That’s all for now – enjoy the video and I’ll see ya next week!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

One-Song-a-Week: Song #20 – A.P.T. (What’s My Name) (Produced by HiFly)

This week’s music video is for the song, “A.P.T. (What’s My Name),” produced by HiFly.

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

Snoop Dogg. Dr. Dre.  Lil’ Boosie.  Eminem. Lil’ Wayne.

All of them have one thing in common.  Okay, actually, they have a few things: they’re all rappers, they have lots of fans, and have made LOTS of money off their stage names.

Part of the reason for that is because they’ve drilled their names into people’s head through song.  And not just the occasional self-mentioning of their names in a few of their tunes.  I’m talking about the fact that they’ve made popular songs where their name is the chorus of the song.  People hear these songs in the club, and – through the power of direct suggestion – become familiar with the names of the artist repeating his/her name.

When I was recording songs for “The A.P.T. LP,” I knew I wanted to have a song where my name was in the chorus.  Actually, I figured that out WAY before this CD was even a thought, and the chorus to the song – “What’s my name? (A!) What’s my name? (A!) What’s my name? (A. – P. – Taaaaay!)” – has been in my head for almost 4 years, along with the opening lines, “Lights, camera, filming and ACTION/A.P.T.’s back with a passion…”

That’s all the song I had for 4 years.  I would walk around freestyling the rest of the song, and was eventually smart enough to write down some song lyrics during one of my typing song sessions (where I type out random lyrics and hope they will fit into a song).

I had an idea of how I wanted the beat of the song to sound, but I couldn’t seem to actually make the beat.  Then, I went online and found a guy named HiFly who had an array of beats.  There was a beat he had that sounded simply epic – it sounded like a beat that should open up an album and announces to the world that THIS is the official start of the album.

When I heard the beat, I knew I wanted to use it for a song, but didn’t know which song.  After I started trying to think of a chorus to go with it, I realized that the “What’s My Name” chorus would go perfect with the beat.  I gathered together some lyrics I wrote, and WHAM!  I had a song!

This is one of those songs where I have to talk about how cool/good/better than others I am.  After all, my name IS in the chorus.  So, nothing too deep – just some entertaining stuff!

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. The second-to-last line in the first verse – “I’m like milk on a shelf, I’m legendary” – I came up with YEARS ago, and have been dying to use it in a song.  It’s one of those play on words that have to be explained, which I actually do in the next line of the song (“Milk – dairy? Legde – shelf?”).  I figured no one would get it otherwise.

2. The second verse of the song is what I called a “verse countdown.” The first line is “I spit a mean 16 on the mic…”  for the first line, and so forth, until the 16th bar when I say “No ONE.”

3. I wrote the last verse a few days after Issac Hayes died while exercising.  In retrospect, the line “I have you slumped over and limp like Issac Hayes” is probably too soon… but heck, I liked it, so I put it in!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

It just so happens that Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, a.k.a…. Okay, I could type this all day… the point is, he has a video blog on YouTube, and for one of his vlogs last week he put up a video for a remix song he did called “Swagga Like Puff.”  The video was so simplistic and basic, yet hilarious… and since this happens to be MY 20th music video, I just KNEW I had to do a parody video of Diddy’s video!

Once again, doing a parody of anything takes work.  I had to study the stuff Diddy does in his video, and watched it at least 20 times before I got the flow down of all the stuff he does in the video.

BTW: My video is much funnier if you’ve actually seen Diddy’s video, which is posted above.  I made some “changes” to the things he did in the video (for example, showing off Pinot Grigio instead of Ciroc Vodka), and it’s pretty hilarious!

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. The king crown worn in the video is from Medieval Times, which I went to back in July with my friend Michele.  I always try to keep props I get when I’m out – ya never know when they might come in handy!!

2. Yes, I actually poured oatmeal into a bowl, mixed it with orange juice and took a bite.  What you don’t know: after the video was done, I actually microwaved the oatmeal with the O.J. in it and ate it.  Prognosis: it really does NOT taste good!

3. The Pinot Grigio bottle in the video? Camanile.  I don’t drink wine, but I had the bottle, and poured water into it.

4. The dancing at the end is BAD.  But so was Diddy’s dancing.  Perhaps, since this was a parody, I should have done some GOOD dancing, LoL!

5. Edit time for this video: less than 2 hours. Heck, I shot the whole thing today AND edited it within about 3 hours total!

That’s all for now – see ya next Sunday!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/APT

One Week Left in Atlanta + This Week’s Video

Another week, another video in the can…

Wow.  19 videos. Well, 19 “official” videos – that doesn’t include the various paperstyle videos and other ones where I’m talking to people.  But 19 videos is a LOT – heck, there are industry artists that don’t put out that many videos in a year, and I’ve done it in almost 4 months!

I’m glad I’ve been doing it, though, because, aside from being a way to express my music visually, they’ve also been like little postcards for myself showing me different aspects of Atlanta.  Now that I’ve got a week (and 2 days) left here, it’s nice to look back and have reminders of this town.

Truthfully, I wish I didn’t have to move.  I really like living in Atlanta.  Unfortunately, I have to face the reality that it’s hard for me to make the moves I’d like to make in the music biz when I (a) don’t have a car to get around to various spots to perform, and (b) when you have no connections.  There seems to be a better opportunity for me to get on in Washington, D.C., so I’ll be heading up there for at least the next year.  My bro is a DJ, and between his ability to talk that talk and my ability to create songs that make people want to rock out (or “rap out,” LoL), we should both be able to get farther ahead in what we’d like to do.

In the meantime, I’ve still got 2 or 3 videos I’d like to film here.  I don’t know what will happen during my transition period, but since I’m commited to doing this exercise for at least one year, I figured it would be wise to film some videos ahead of time just in case I don’t have the ability to film anything during the weekend of my move (though why I wouldn’t is beyond me, but ya never know!)

Last week’s song is already proving to be a success – it’s already gotten 237 views in 2 days as of this writing (the same amount of views “Obama Obama” got in its first 2 days back in June) – but I expected that to happen, given that the song deals with John McCain being a pimp.  As for this week’s video, I’ve already got the idea, and I’m working out the technical details of the video right now.  It’s going to be a stylistic video parody of another popular YouTube music video, put out last week by…

Hmm.  On second thought, I’ll leave that surprise for next Sunday!  I will say this, though: it’s for a song off my album, “The A.P.T. LP,” and if you ain’t got it yet, you’re missing out!

That’s all for now!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

One-Song-a-Week: Song #19 – John McCain is a P.I.M.P. (Produced by Shah Bros)

This week’s music video is for the song, “John McCain is a P.I.M.P.” (Produced by Shah Bros.)

DOWNLOAD 4 FREE: A.P.T. Song – John McCain is a P.I.M.P.

INSIGHT INTO A SONG:

On June 22, 2008, I released my Lil’ Wayne “A Milli” parody, “Obama Obama,” a song that, much to my surprise, took on a life of its own.

I created a video for it and provided it as a free download.  Little did I know that making that song would result in worldwide radio play, as well as a few radio DJs and “in the game” MCs (I’m looking at YOU, Tyga) wanting to take it and make their own versions.

Most importantly, though, the song is STILL being played 3 months later, and everyone from middle schoolers to college graduates have been writing me telling me they’ve been hearing my song in their school hallways.

I also get a lot of fan mail as a result, and one of the questions I’ve been receiving lately has been: “So, are you going to do a song about John McCain?”

And, to be quite honest, I wasn’t really planning on it.  I made the “Obama Obama” song because it made sense to make it at the time it was created (one week after he received the Democratic nomination, and one week after Lil’ Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” sold “a milli”-on copies in a week).  I didn’t want to just create a song about John McCain simply because people were asking me to, especially since I didn’t want it to come out sounding like crap.

And then, John McCain threw me a musical lifeline by choosing Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate for the White House.

Mr. McCain has a history of dating fine ladies, and it seems to me that he always has hot girls around him.  His wife was a hottie when they met (so much so that he dumped his first wife just to be with her), and still looks pretty good today considering how old she is.  And then, when it’s time for him to choose a potential vice president, who does he pick?  A woman who is an ex-Beauty Pagent participant!

Clearly, McCain must have some kind of knack with the ladies. 

So, much like with the way I created the “Obama” song, I was at work one day when I just thought of a random chorus:

“He got a hot wife, and a model V.P./That boy John McCain is a PIMP…”

And, once again, I burst out laughing.  Clearly, the chorus alone meant the song had potential.  The question was, what kind of song should I make it?  I was going to do it as a parody… but I didn’t know what I’d make it a parody of.  Plus, I didn’t want to deal with the hassles of having to remake a beat for a song that I wouldn’t be able to legally sell.

So, I decided to look through the catalogue of beats I had stored up on my computer.  I actually had about 3 or 4 beats I could have used, plus I went online and heard a few more.  All and all, though, I wanted to make it an upbeat song to counteract against John McCain’s “old guy” image. I.E. make a song that’s hip so McCain would sound hip.

As for the song itself, it really didn’t take long to write.  I think I was watching TV or something, and suddenly decided that now was the time to write the song.  I went to my hotmail site, typed up some lyrics, and e-mailed it to myself.

The song is broken down into two parts.  Since the song is called “John McCain is a P.I.M.P.,” I figured the focus should be on the two women whom he’s “pimped” already: namely, his wife, Cindy, and Sarah Palin, who came from out of nowhere to suddenly be thrust into the limelight by siding with McCain.  You can hear the song for yourself to hear how I did it, but I tried not to be TOO disrespectful to the women (I learned THAT lesson from the frenzy that insured after the comments I made about Michele in “Obama Obama.”  I’ll probably still get letters, though 🙂 ).

Some Interesting Song Tidbits:

1. For the chorus, I was originally just going to say “He got a hot wife and a model VP/That boy John McCain is a PIMP…” but I figured that would be extremely boring.  So, instead I decided to add at least 2 other lines I could say, thus the addition of “I don’t know his policies but I know one thing…” and “Got girls on his arm everywhere that he be…”

2. Again, like the Obama song, I wanted to do a song with things that related to things mentioned during his campaign.  Thus, the mention of the Straight Talk Express, his wife’s rich bank account, the fact that Sarah Palin looks like Tina Fey from “30 Rock”/ SNL fame, and, of course, the mention of how many houses he has.

3. For the Sarah Palin part of the song, I was originally going to make it 24 bars… but the beat I had only did it in 16-bar format, so I had to cut a few lines.  Luckily, they weren’t really too important!

INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:

I was actually going to do this same video for a different song!  However, with the election less than 50 days away, the timing for this song was much better than it would have been next week.  I mean, the campaigns would still be going on, but you gotta get these things in as early as possible!

I wanted to do something simple, i.e. something that wouldn’t have me editing for 8 or 9 hours like I did with the “Obama” video (as well as a bunch of other videos I’ve made). I didn’t know what the video would actually be until I was watching Conan O’Brien one late night and said: “Hey… I can do it like a talk show!!”

And, since I still don’t have many friends helping me out, I decided to play the host – Johnny Wilkins – and the performer (duh), A.P.T.!  The host would introduce the performer, who is supposed to be on the show performing “Obama Obama,” yet decides to change the song at the last minute for a new song he wrote about John McCain.  The host decides to let A.P.T. perform the song, unaware of what type of song it would be.  Wise decision, Johnny.

Again, I didn’t want to spend too much time editing it, so I decided to do the performance part in one shot, then add a bunch of effects to it (pan shots, color changes, mirror shots, etc.) so that people wouldn’t get bored just watching a single shot.  BTW, it’s funny how the mind works – it will get bored watching a single shot for 5 minutes, yet if you cut and chop it up a bit the mind will think “wow, look at all the scene changes!”

Some Interesting Video Tidbits:

1. People always ask if I have a camera man helping me.  The answer is NO, but you’d be surprised how I’m able to get shots with a little creative thinking.  For the performance shot, the camera is slightly tilted and bobs up and down a bit.  How did I do that?  I placed my mic stand on my mini-table I use to eat on, then placed the camera on my pop filter (the round think I place between me and my microphone so the “p”s and “t”s will be softened when I’m doing a song).  Because the pop filter is filmsy, it bounces up and down when I move around on the floor.  Smart, ain’t it?

2. I actually did a second film take where I shot myself doing the song from a side angle, but decided not to use it because it would have added to the editing time.  I like making videos, but I’m also LAZY, and have other things to do besides edit a video all day!

3. The beat used at the end of the video is a beat I made!

4. The ending of the video… I thought of that at the last minute.  I thought it would be funny to have the show go to standby, and just have that be the end of the video.

5. Editing time for this video: a meazly 3 hours, and I spent most of that time playing Goldeneye (yes, I still have a Nintendo 64) while transferring the files into Windows Media format.  Good times!

That’s all for now – enjoy the video!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

Moving Issues + This Week’s Video…?

I’m movin’, movin’, up, up, to D.C, D.C.!

Yes, people, I am moving.  Atlanta’s been fun, but opportunity knocks in other places, and that place would be our nation’s capitol.

It aaaaaall started back in July, when I went to visit my brother in Washington for his birthday.  He bought out a restaurant/bar and threw a big ol’ party for his 25th birthday, and – seeing as my “Obama Obama” song was getting more and more popular – he wanted me to perform it at the party.

So, I did what I had to do: I went to the party, DJed for part of it, then did a performance of the song that KILLED.  Everybody came up afterwards telling us what a great job we did, and it felt GOOD.

But what felt even better was when, a week later, I get a call from my brother saying basically the following:

“Hey man – I got a permanent DJing gig at the place I had my party.  By the way, there were some club promoters there asking about us… they asked if I was the guy who performed the ‘Obama’ song last week, and I said ‘no, that’s my brother, and he’s in Atlanta.'”

That’s AWESOME, I thought – club promoters were actually interested in me and my bro doing performances…

Then reality sank in: “But I’m STILL in Atlanta!!”

And so, an opportunity passed.  And it felt like CRAP.

But that’s not why I’m moving up there now.  I figure that opportunity has passed.  No, the reason I’m moving up there now is because my brother is starting to get more DJing gigs, which means he’s starting to get contacts in the ‘biz with people that are important – namely, club promoters, other DJs, etc. – and it will be easier for me to make moves being around these types of people, as opposed to here in Atlanta, where I don’t have access to those types of people directly.

Furthermore… life in Atlanta, while fun for me, can be lonely at times.  I moved down here knowing that there were a few people I’d be able to hang out with (i.e. friends from Hampton, family members)… yet, when I moved down here, the majority of them never seemed to make time for me.  Not that it’s a HUGE problem, since I don’t mind spending a good amount of time by myself… it’s just that, for those times where I DID want to hang out with people, there weren’t a lot of options, and even with those people, they were still fairly busy most of the time.

So, I’m off to D.C., where I’ll have a brother to hang with (who has a CAR ), a job that will pay a lil’ more than it pays down here, and friends from Hampton who will (hopefully) want to hang out with me.  And, most importantly, I hope to finally be able to accomplish my REAL dream of being a touring musician – or, at the very least, performing at clubs around the DMV area (D.C., Maryland, Virginia – I just learned that nickname 2 days ago!)

As for this week’s video… well, last week’s video took me a whopping 9+ hours to edit, so for this week I’m keeping it as simple as possible.  Oh yeah – another advantage to moving is that I will, hopefully, have people helping me out with some of these videos, so they can be even more entertaining and extravagant!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT

My 1st Collaboration Track!

Another week, another video in the can…

17 videos filmed in the span of 16 weeks, not including the various semi-videos I’ve made for freestyles and paperstyles. 

One advantage of all these videos is that they give me exposure to other artists who are looking for collaborations. I posted up a YouTube video telling people to E-mail me if they wanted me to jump on one of their tracks.

Lo and behold – someone did!

This group from Cleveland, OH called “Black & Broke” wrote me and asked me if I’d do a verse for one of their songs called… well, I won’t give it away yet since I just finished it, but they sent me a track with their two vocals recorded, and the song was so hilarious that I had to be on it. 

I don’t know how well-known these guys are – I think they’re relatively new – but hopefully the song will blow up and become a huge song in their city, then spread like wild fire until we all become famous in the process. 

In the meantime, though, I discovered something while recording the track: recording for someone else really makes me get competitive in terms of thinking up words to a song.  Not that I’m out to outshine the other guys on the track, but it kinda feels like it – like, you’ve heard 2 verses, and you have to come up with something equally good or better, or else you’re not proving that you’re deserving of even being on the track.

I guess what I’m saying is – I have to find other people to do some collaborations with so I can improve my writing!  Then again, maybe I should just act like I’m competing with someone when I write new stuff….

Nah! I think I’ll stick to plan A: finding others to collabo with.  It’s a good way for me to get my name out there, and gain new fans in the process.  As for this track – once I get the okay, I’ll definitely post it up somewhere for the world to hear!

-A.P.T.

E-mail: aptsongs@hotmail.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/NotoriousAPT