New Album, “Organzied Chaos,” coming soon…

Hey all:

Just wanted to do a mini-announcement: I am (finally) in the process of writing songs for my long-talked-about album, “Organized Chaos!” It’s going to be an album of original songs (i.e. no parodies) and have beats that range in variety.

I don’t know too much other than that at the moment. What I do know is, since my last album, “The O-bama Mixtape II: Vote Obama Style,” a lot of things have happened in my life (both great and challenging) and within the past week I’ve been starting to get inspired to write new songs.

Up to this point, I haven’t really done a good job at promoting my original albums – I mean, the parody stuff sells itself thanks, in part, to the fact that the works I’m making fun of are pretty well-known – and I want to make sure people buy the songs on this one when it finally does come out.

Incidentally, this may be the last official album I put out – after this, I plan on releasing songs, but probably as just singles. We’re in an age now where singles tend to sell better than full albums, but one well-promoted single can sell MILLIONS. Just seems like a good direction to go in. However, I’ve had the idea of doing this particular album for YEARS now, so I want to get it out now while I still have motivation to do so.

As for when the album will come out? I’m taking my time with it. Right now I’m looking at sometime around July or August – I want to be able to record the songs and find creative ways to promote the album. Plus, if I talk about the album enough between now and when it’s released, I should be able to have a very good first day sales number. Fingers crossed, people!

-A.P.T.

Apple’s Garageband: How to Acheive Full Loudness with Your Song Exports

Hey people:

So… first off, my NEW album drops on November 1st, free download so make sure u get your FREE download of it.

Anyway… so I’m mixing my songs together out of Garageband. Those of you familiar with the program have probably faced frustration at getting a mix together that sounds loud while in Garageband; yet, upon exporting your song, the volume goes down a bit.

This has frustrated me for YEARS, and up until this point I couldn’t figure out WHY the program kept doing that.  After all, I had marked the tab in the “Preferences” menu asking me if I wanted my songs exported at full volume, yet it never seemed to occur…

Just a few minutes ago – after trying to export my songs, then import them into Final Cut so I could turn the volume up and re-export them – I did a search online hoping I could figure out the answer to this problem.  And guess what? I did.

So, you wanna know how to export your songs at full volume? Here’s the solution: do NOT click the little box asking you if you want to export at full volume.

Yes, THAT’S the solution.  If you don’t choose that option, your songs will export fine. So…

WHAT THE HECK IS THE POINT OF HAVING THAT OPTION THERE IF IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY MAKE YOUR SONGS EXPORT AT FULL VOLUME?!?

That’s like me saying “Click on the following link to download my album,” and when you do you only get a sampler of 5 songs… but if you ignore the link and just scroll down, you can get it in its entirety.  WHAT KIND OF BACKWARD-@$$ BULL$#!+ IS THAT?!?!?

Anyway… I’m just glad I figured this out before exporting out songs for my album. But GEEZ, as much as Apple likes to make things simple, did they really have to make exporting full-volumed stuff so dang complicated?!?

-A.P.T.

A.P.T. New Album Update: Album Cover + More

Greetings! First, here is the official album cover for my upcoming album, out July 19, 2011…

Pretty friggin’ sweet, ain’t it? Shout outs to the “No U Ain’t” crew – I took this pic during a photo shoot I helped them out with, and thought it would be the PERFECT photo to use for the cover of this album!

Other interesting tidbits for this album:

1. The majority of the beats on this album were made by uber-talented beat-maker from ATL, K.K.O.F. – he’s sent me a bunch of beats over the years, and I was somehow able to finally come up with a gang of songs for them. Any remaining production will be done by me – yes, I DO make beats, people!

2. There will only be 10 to 12 songs on here (plus possibly some skits).  I’d do more, but realistically I don’t feel like writing more songs than that. Plus, usually after 12 songs I start getting bored with an artists’ album, no matter how much I like them. (Exceptions include Eminem, Britney Spears, and Lil Wayne – the mixtape Weezy version.)

3. Most of the songs right now only have titles and concepts.  The only two finished songs at the moment are “Your Mama Is So Ugly” and “Ooh, I’m a Model.”  I’m also debating about whether or not to put my “No Love” parody, “No Glove” on here.

4. The album will be an eclectic mix of funny songs, serious songs, motivational songs, and songs that will get you movin’ on the dance floor – sometimes all at once!

5. If and when I do videos for this album, I want them to be SPECTACULAR. I plan on spending a gang of money on at least ONE of my songs (like around $1000) because I’ve always wanted to have a professionally-done music video.  Not that I haven’t gotten them to that level in the past, but I want other people to star in it, someone else to edit it… the WORKS. And the rest of them I’ll film myself 🙂

That’s pretty much it for now. I’ve still got a lot of writing and recording to do, and my creativity seems to be coming in spurts at odd times (I just finished writing a song for the album… at 2:30 A.M.), but everything should be complete by the release date, if not before.  Stay tuned!

-A.P.T.

New A.P.T. Album Dropping July 19, 2011

Greetings, fans!

Okay, so after much thought, I’ve decided to release an album of new, ORIGINAL material, set to drop on July 19, 2011! Here are a few details I can share now:

1. The title of the album will be…

“ORGANIZED CHAOS”

The reason for the title? I like different styles of music, as well as different types of beats and sounds. I can do songs to almost all types of beats, yet they all come off as sounding like my own sound.

Another reason for the title is that I plan to show a wide array of flows on the album, as well as touch on different subjects ranging from serious to funny stuff.  Ultimately, it will be an eclectic album that is a fun listen, and one who’s differing styles will come together to create a piece of work that is seemingly unorganized in sound yet cohesively put together – thus, “Organized Chaos.”

Wow. Reading that back, it sounded kinda nerdy.  Eh, oh well!

2. MUSIC PRODUCTION

I have a bunch of beats lying around that I’ve been meaning to use for quite some time now.  Some of these are from friends and/or fans of mine who sent me beats, while others are beats I created a long time ago that I’m just now getting song ideas for.  All of the beats are bangin’ and, for the most part, are meant to give off a party-type vibe.

3. I’ve pushed out this release date farther that most albums I’ve put out – almost 3 months in advance – so that I can do better advertising for it.

In the past, I’ve had to rely solely on YouTube videos and the Internet to promo my stuff.  Now that I will be having regular transportation – I’m getting a car next month – I will be able to do the one area of promo I haven’t been able to do: PERFORM! Yes, now people will be able to hear/see me LIVE, and I can start building a better buzz for myself!

4. Lastly, this album will be available as both a FREE download and a purchasable album.

Why do both? I really just want people to hear my music.  If they want to pay for it, that’s great, but I figure the more people hear it, the more they’ll request it, and the more paying performance gigs I can get.  Plus, most musicians these days don’t really make money off their music (I mean, I do, but that’s beside the point); the majority is made off (a) touring, and (b) pimping out your song for use in movies and T.V..

Therefore, it’s better for me to offer my music for free NOW, so that if any of the songs catch on I can get paid mega bucks for its use later.

That’s all the details I’ve got now.  So far I’ve only recorded one song for the album – “Your Mama Is So Ugly” – but I’ve written plenty of songs and will have the next 3 months to record them.

New A.P.T. album, “Organized Chaos,” drops July 19, 2011! Be sure to get your copy!

-A.P.T.

New Song Coming Soon + The Future of Albums

Hey peeps, what it do, nephew, how’s it hangin’, is u wangin’?? (Shout outs to my man Capo Snake for that last one!)

Aight, enough with the intro, peeps, let’s go!

So, the last video/song I dropped was for “Teach Me How to Snuggie,” thus effectively allowing me to have made a visual for every song off my “Prince of Parody, Vol. 1” album (available on iTunes – click HERE to check it out). And just today, one of my fans asked me what my next YouTube video was going to be.

On that end, I have no idea.  Actually, scratch that – right now I’m deciding between two different songs.  One of them is a parody, while the other one is an original song that’s just plain funny.

In reference to the latter song, the lyrics are already done and the chorus has been recorded.  Normally I’d stick with my M.O. of going strictly with a parody song/video… but when I came up with the idea, it made me laugh so much while I was writing it that I had to see if it would be worth recording.  And when I told the idea to a couple of my lady friends (who will also be on the song), they couldn’t stop singing it over and over after only hearing it ONE time.

Once the song has been completed, I’ll probably put together a video for it, one that’s not too complicated.  I’ve noticed that there are a LOT of YouTube videos that get hits, many of which aren’t all that impressive.  I think the content of this particular song won’t require me to do too much visually, yet I’ll still be able to make it funny.

—

So that’s all well and good, but what about albums??  When are my next ALBUMS coming out, you may ask? Well…

As you may have noticed, the climate of music has changed.  Are people still buying albums? Absolutely.  Are they buying them at the same volume as they were 10 years ago? Absolutely not.

With that thought, it’s dawned on me that putting together a whole album these days may not be the most profitable route to go.  Take a look at recent examples by Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Lil’ Wayne – three artists who have figured out way to sell a TON of copies of ONE of their respective songs.  Britney did it by releasing teaser snippets of “Hold It Against Me” a week before it came out; and, just recently, she spent the last 14 days putting out snippets of the video for it – by the time the video dropped, the world was DYING to see it/hear it/buy it online!

And so it is, I’m considering doing the same thing.  Granted, right now I’m back in full-on writing mode (finally!), so I have ideas coming at me for an official A.P.T. album as well as another Prince of Parody album.  I’ll probably release at least one more A.P.T. album for the heck of it, and concentrate on releasing any future songs as singles as they come to me.  Plus, the Prince of Parody thing is great because I can release an album of spoof songs at any time and have most of the songs off it be popular since they’re essentially remakes of songs already proven to be popular.

Wow.  That last sentence was a tongue-twister.

That’s all for now – new song droppin’ later this week, fam!

-A.P.T.

A.P.T. Album Review – Michael Jackson’s MICHAEL LP

Greetings, peeps!

Well, another album has leaked onto the internet! This time it’s for Michael Jackson’s first posthumous release, “Michael.” Is it worth the buy? Should these tracks have been released, or should they have stayed locked in the vault? Watch the review and find out!

– A.P.T.