Redd Dredd Party & The Rico Blox Video Shoot

I got home Saturday at 3:30 in the morning. I can no longer sleep in with the skills of youth, so I was up at like 10:30 AM. Great party though.

Maybe one day I’ll learn my lesson and show up a couple of hours after the event starts, especially if it’s a party. Sometimes my brain confuses words like show and party and obligation.

Still the weather was nice, I was able to stay in a hoodie the entire night. After the cold and erratic weather, being out without the confines of a jacket felt proper. The cycle ride home was super pleasant, sometimes I take a route I’m less familiar with just to look at parts of the city I’ve never seen before.

Our PRSPCTVS got some love

We hit 250 views on the episode we recorded last Friday. Both Flacko and I have a desire to talk about real life things outside the fairy tale world of music and entertainment. Sure, those are fun things to obsess over, but as people we partake in this bigger thing called society which has a lot more going on than art.

Organic growth is always exciting. Based on the analytics we need to do a better job of hooking people in the first 2 minutes, which is a me thing to figure out. Flacko is sharing stuff as we start, I can come in stronger.

Obnoxis Beats pointed out that a caffeinated hyper me is more engaging to watch than a stoned laid back me. Still, the combination of thumbnail and content managed to get a lot more clicks than most of the content we’ve released lately.

There was a time when I considered 250 views a trash loss. At one point the album reviews had Chris and I fighting a lot on cam, we could pull 300-500 views pretty regularly. Algorithms and attitudes changed, and we became nicer to each other. All of a sudden 100 views was hard to get.

Ever since I started the interviews my reach died on Behind That Suit. Seeing PRSPCTVS, a relatively young channel getting it’s first real algorithm push, without Immortal Technique’s name, is nice. This show takes up the least time of all our content and is the most fun to make.

A big box of merch

After the stream I had to head on over to Snowdon Metro parts to pick up my merch. I now have 30 male tank tops, 30 female tank tops and 20 more hoodies for sale.

We also have patches on the way featuring the third pickle design to expand further. This whole merch game is really cool but it’s also really hard.

It feels like I moved enough of the first batch to feel proper about the income potential. Now I am learning about how overhead translates into actual revenue. Some items are more profitable than others for sure, but I don’t have a magic situation where the products are that cheaply produced yet.

Thankfully some folks want to work with me to teach me more.

Still, it’s cool to have a clothing company now. I realize my costs have to go down if I ever want to charge tax. I know for now I don’t make enough money to care about tax, but I plan on making that kind of money off this.

That box was heavy. I am grateful I took some time to learn proper lifting technique as it was the kind of weight that can give a man back issues. One of my biggest fears is having chronic back pain.

I also filmed a bunch of stuff I will stich into the pilot episode of a video vlog series. But I forgot to film more so for now that one episode is what we have.

Nap time and start times

I tried to take a nap and did not get that far with it. Sometimes I can just zonk out. Usually after 15-20 mins something will wake me up.

Sometimes it’s an idea like, oh snap I forgot to do something. Or the dopamine craving for social media likes kicks in and I need a fix, I wish I was lying. I haven’t been that organized in my life the last few weeks, so everything’s been a little willy nilly schedule wise.

By the end of today I’d like to be back on track with an idea of what I NEED to get done this week. The next N.A.R.S. show (May 25th) and the NYC trip to film more interviews (May 14-19) are the priority.

Still mess that I am I don’t think I got much done Friday evening. I knew I was going out and that the flyer said 10:00 PM.

I floated around doing minor chores but mostly wasting time. Then I got myself ready to be there for 10:00 PM. I cycled on over and like an idiot parked my bicycle in front of a club (it got knocked over and mildly damaged).

The thing about pulling up to a party at the exact starting time is no one else does that. Like for real, I get made fun of for this but on some weirdo complex on being late all the time when I was younger, it’s a compulsion to be on time.

The party really started at midnight

So, for about a good hour and a half I sat around. I’ve been tired lately, like a deep sense of exhaustion. There are a lot of uncertainties for me and some weeks I find myself really struggling to stay on point.

Inevitably people pulled up and I got to talking to familiar faces. Chris Chrome was there, JS #NOREGARD was there. Massive and 7:Thirty of Regulators were there.

I was off, when I’m in a room full of strangers for the most part it’s not comfortable.

I’m trying to learn how to deal with these environments without getting drunk and I probably come off like an antisocial weirdo. To be fair, I am an antisocial weirdo, despite what people think of me.

Daddy Maysr, Redd Dredd and Godfather D were all spinning a blend of Hip Hop and Reggae. I’ve now been to enough of these that I’m beginning to learn the reggae party classics.

A real highlight for me was running into Justice McFly. He’s a really special person to me and you would not be reading this blog today without his efforts to mentor me. It’s been years since I’ve seen him and this is the first time I was out with the persona of Justice, it used to be smoke breaks with his government name.

Both of us have come a long way since we met. Either way the party was fun and the next thing I knew it was way later than expected.

A new day had dawned

I did get to bed before sunrise, but who knows, the right party mixed with warmer weather and I can see how I’m getting home at 6:00 AM. I met some cool people at the party but mostly it was a great vibe and energy. It was at a venue where you could burn inside and high key those are my favourite spots.

Chris in his wisdom was aware we had studio the next day and left early. I had forgotten, shout out CC for remembering things. We knew that we were to be at MCO’s crib at some point.

Turned out that was 3:00 PM which was quite lovely for me. As stated, when I wrote the beginning I was up before noon (Now it’s Sunday) but was tired. I know I did some chores, honestly rolling weed is eating up too much time lately.

I also spent some time with Bonnie. It’s easy to get caught up in a day and then ghost out until midnight. So, if you want to build with someone, you have to put time into them like everything else in your life.

The weather was looking rainy, and I had to decide if I was taking a bicycle or bus. I lied, I was going to bicycle either way and just had to fend off “are you sure?” comments. The answer is yes, I have a bag cover and a rain jacket, let’s goooooo.

MCO supplies the beats

Over the last while MCO has made it clear he is happy to provide beats. Overall, he is a super positive person that has copped both merch and tickets off us. He is the “supportive” people claim don’t exist.

When I arrived, by cycle, Chris was already there. We went through old beats and as time went on a bunch were added to a folder. Chris and I are going to make a group tape under the name CC & HoHo.

Inevitably we move into AI song creation land. I mean Arcade, we opened up Arcade. MCO clicked buttons and the tool just composed ill sounding beats. Sure, MCO can then customize it further tweaking all the sound effect stuff you can tweak, but this Arcade uses AI to just make beats.

Like I can probably plug and play a beat with no knowledge. It may not end up sounding as nice as someone who knows stuff, but holy smokes the future is here.

We agree on some basic elements of the beat and then MCO just added and changed stuff. Turned out we wrote a real fuck boy anthem as the beat got made. It was a new experience for me, I don’t usually write stuff so collaboratively.

I think I like the idea of someone composing the beats I use, but that’s a distinction thing. In theory, anyone can choose the same 5 sounds we did in Arcade. Nifty times.

Off to Laval across the wet Montreal streets

I was on the south part of the island close to Papineau, almost as south as you can get over there. I then had to go as north as you can get. It clicked that I’ve never gone from south to north like this before. Eager to watch Montreal shift before me I set off on my nearly straight with no turns route.

I feel that doing these trips by cycle gives you a real intimate awareness of the city.

It’s Berri, then St. Denis, then Lajeunesse and then you cross a bridge. Then you basically hug the south side of Laval on this one street. Next thing I knew I was at this park, with no idea where to go.

Pretty much the whole trip to Laval there was no rain, granted the roads were wet. Then all of a sudden it rained once I got to the specified park. I was wandering around trying to find this spot Rico Blox had sent a video of.

I inevitably duck under some concrete bleachers and camp out. Rico Blox pulls up in the whip not long after and we link up officially. It’s time for the King of the Jungle video shoot, beat by Leon Stone.

At this point I meet Shane from Raw Real Podcast who was there supporting Rico. Throughout the night he would go live like 6 times showing the behind the scenes and plugging the song. Another of those real supporters no one believes in. He drove me home after, real hero right here.

448Films does real good work

448Films was our resident video man. Once he arrived, we headed on over to the spot to get set up. He had the lights, fat camera stand and super gimble.

What I remember vividly is him saying you need to light up the back in some way to create contrast. Sereni-T also pulled up and was there to support and show love. A couple of others were around, and we were ready to wait.

I mean literally, the first couple of shots were Rico Blox doing the track solo. Then we did the shots where we were in the background. As far as video shoots go, it was exactly what I expected it to be.

It was fun because we were with good people and the man behind the camera knows how to make movies.

Also, King of the Jungle is one of those songs where it’s just bars. Every time you hear it another line pops up at you like oh, I never noticed that one before. Sometimes you go to a video shoot, and you are just tired of the song when all is said and done, Leon Stone’s beat makes sure this never happens.

Yes, Rico Blox matters, but credit needs to also go to Leon who made an infectiously easy to listen to beat. Then Rico gives you that substance. We just trying to Live Long and Prosper in here.

The warmest of showers

I got home and took a lovely warm shower. By that point I had been out in the cold and wet for hours. I don’t mind it and bad weather shouldn’t stop art from getting made.

I wish more people cycled with me. Bonnie and Chris refuse to join the cycle team. Bonnie has BIXI’d like 6 times but still, no cycle in her near horizons. Boooooooo.

It’s cool to be a part of people’s art projects. In my experience a lot of people want to pull up to these video shoots until about an hour before, so it’s helpful to go. The more of us that show up in each other’s videos, the fatter the posse looks and the livelier the video comes out.

448Films does work magic but it’d be hard AF if like 30 of us would have pulled up yesterday. Still, I was home and supper was underway. The mucky grossness of literal Montreal/Laval weather cleansed off my body.

There were several other events going on later I probably could have gone too. However, that tired feeling I’ve been feeling was there, in the back of my mind. I stayed in and just watched that ridiculously funny Cunk on Earth show.

Lately I don’t think I’ve stopped very much for all the time I’ve wasted. I don’t have a lot of peace inside right now and I think it’s wearing on my general spirit.

I didn’t get the job

I woke up today and didn’t rush into much. I did get to work on this blog and a couple of little things for the upcoming N.A.R.S. event. I need a flyer done asap.

We played Fallout 76, I wanted to see what happens if we streamed past 4 hours, basically right after that my stream died and I think I need more RAM. Chris and I enjoy this stream and who knows, maybe there’s a community we can tap into here. Either way my buddy Jinx from the old work days is part of the posse now.

I have a dream for this Fallout 76 campaign where like 10 rappers’ cycle in and play with us. At least there are now a few of us enjoying the run.

Once I logged off, I saw the email from Indeed saying the job I had a promising phone interview for had moved onto the next step without me. That sucks a lot.

We’re reaching a point in life where I soon need income. I can ride it out a bit longer but it’s starting to eat away at me that nobody wants me. I don’t really know where I fit into the corporate world. This week we explore Fiverr, Upwork and all that. See what freelance money can appear in the next bit.

At least now my blog has existed long enough to show what I can do as a writer.

The future will bring what it brings

That job place didn’t want me but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I have to brush it off and keep applying. Worst case I end up somewhere doing work that feels like I’m going back in time.

It’s not actually going back in time. This phase has a lot of entrepreneurial stuff happening for me which is very new and very exciting. It’s also very expensive.

Once I get some job or another, I think I’ll have more peace in my soul. I see how retirement can kill people. Waking up without a clear set of directions is challenging.

I do fill my day pursuing various passion projects but at the end of the day, income is mandatory. Getting that email before I finished this blog changed my mind state from revelling in the fun to oh snap time get serious.

Just got to remember to count the blessings. Like Shobiz514 was also at the party.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone