“Take A Picture” video online sooner than soon.

Single available on iTunes now. Get it HERE

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Ok peeps. You guys asked for them in the last post so here’s your chance to score some tees. We’ll be making these T-shirts to order so if you want in here’s what you gotta do:

• Send an email to daviddallasmerch@gmail.com with the colour you want, your size and your address. We’ll email you back the bank a/c number and a reference to use for your deposit.
• Orders have to be in by 5pm next Thursday (19/08) i.e a week from now.
• As long as you’ve deposited your money by Friday(20/08) your T-shirt will be sent out the following Wednesday. Too easy.

Mens and Womens Tees available. Men sizes S – 2XL. Women size S – L

All T-shirts are $45, postage INCLUDED (within NZ). Shipping to Australia T-shirts will be $50, postage INCLUDED.

All T-shirts are black. All officially tagged as seen in the photo above.

There’s NO other stock, so the T-shirts that people order will be the only ones that exist until we can afford to do another run. Ha.

Ddot White

Ddot Yellow

Ddot Blue

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Wow

“Big Time” video got posted up on Kanye’s blog. Crazy huh? Our boys Special Problems are on a roll.

In more “Big Time” news hop on over to the Aye-Bro site and check out all the cool remixes dudes are submitting for their competition. If you’re keen to enter just follow the instructions here, entries close on the 29th. After which I shall be picking a winner. Props to all the dudes that have entered already and to Harris for puttin the comp on, that shit is cool.

We’ll actually be having a contest of a different sort starting right here next week, more on that tommorow though. I gotta finish up this song I’m working on then have a beer.

Shotty

p.s “I Get The Feelin” at Radio and TV next week!

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I ain’t even gonna get into the obligatory “sorry, I’ve been away” blog post cause you all know my reasons – rest assured, I’ve been workin.

I just got back from the U.S. this weekend, admittedly I did have internet access over there but I didn’t feel like writing some half-ass ramblings in the apartment when I coulda been out doin shit in Manhattan. Time was limited, and there was experiences to be had.

All in all it was a mental trip, which I could go on and on about but I’m just gonna go ahead and mention some of the random highlights.

• Whilst walking back from getting a slice of pizza at 4 a.m(hangover prevention measure) we bumped into Adrien Grenier (a.k.a Vincent Chase from Entourage) about a block up from our apartment. Admittedly he was trying to bounce out quick when he noticed fans approachin, but once he heard our accents he and his friends were intrigued as to what the fuck we were doin there. Jordache was yellin out “Aquaman” and Che was as excited as I’ve ever seen him. He proceeded to state how much he loves Entourage, hand him a copy of my album and tell him how it was the shit. Adrien then got his friend to film us talkin shit for some upcoming doco he’s doing – comedy.

• After my showcase in Williamsburg, we found out Just Blaze was spinnin at a club walking distance from our apartment. This shit was a no brainer so we rolled over with our friend Aroha. As you’d expect we got there and the place was rammed, bouncer wasn’t lettin noone in – let alone a party consisting of 4 dudes and a chick. Aroha wasn’t having it though, so she rolled up and had a word to him – once again the accent caused him to be a bit more lenient than he would have been. She followed this up by mentioning she worked for Serato and it was a done deal .. NZ in the building! Walking inside a club in N.Y to “Shook Ones” was one thing, but when we hit the bar and “Give Up The Goods” dropped I damn near lost my mind. To top this off, I swear the club looked like the “Quiet Storm” vid… red lights and all that. Fucken solid. Oh yeah, if you ever get the chance to see Just Blaze live, I’d suggest you attend.

• The night before we were leaving New York, I made a call and found out that our accom in L.A had fallen through. Me and my cousin had mixed the dates up and he would be in Vegas for the majority of our stay there. Could’ve been crisis time but Callum was in effect on Expedia and within 15 minutes we’d booked a hotel by L.A.X and a rental car. Flew out from N.Y the next morning, landed in L.A picked up one of them Chrysler P.T Cruisers(which Che would manage to crash later, LOL) from the rentals place and stopped off at the hotel. It was suprisingly rather plush. After a quick freshen up we were off to the infamous Do-Over party in Hollywood.  The Do-Over is a long running weekly party held over the Summer in L.A. It’s held on Sundays from 2 till 10 p.m(?!),  outdoor, AND it serves food. The guests are kept a mystery every week, and everyone from Peanut Butter Wolf to A-trak has spun at it. Just to give you an idea of how buzzy America is, we arrived and the first person we saw step out of the party was Fat Lip from the Pharcyde.  The party was rammed and it had such a good vibe to it. We ate vegetable lasagne, drunk beer and mimed M.O.P. – you can’t fuck with that. Shouts to Maya Jupiter, Aloe Blacc, Mibbs from Pac Div  and Jamie for looking after us. Legendary Detroit House DJ Theo Parrish had been spinnin earlier, and being that he was staying at the same hotel, he decided to catch a ride home with us. The 45 minute ride home was straight up entertainment. Theo is funny as fuck, stand up comedian status even. I only wish we could have recorded his views on L.A’s strippers and homeless people, shit was killin me. Oh yeah, even he was suprised when we told him  “Put Ya Hands Up For Detroit” gets mainstream radio play out here – haha.

Anyways, there are many more tales but I will digress for now. I’m sure I’ll recount some of my experiences in depth in the days to come. For now all I want to say is shouts to Che, Callum, Jordache, NZ On Air, NZMIC and everyone else who helped me get there or shared the experience with me. That was tight.

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This is the first part of a discussion I had with Sam Hansen a.k.a PNC via MSN. I figured I’d break the convo up and give you guys the 2nd half tomorow, I’m all about reducing the need to scroll down. Featured on Something Awesome’s “In The Mood”, PNC should need no introduction. I’ve collaborated more frequently with him than any other artist in my career, we’ve rocked many tours/stages together, and apart from being a top notch rapper I also consider him a good friend. We had a good yarn and these were the results

D.Dallas says:
when did you write your verse for the song? was it last year?

slickVANxl says:
yeah

D.Dallas says:
i gave you the song with my 2 verses and the hook ay

slickVANxl says:
yeah i think so

D.Dallas says:
did you spend many hours labouring over it trying to defeat me on my own song?

slickVANxl says:
yes

D.Dallas says:
why would you do such a thing? i thought we were mates

slickVANxl says:
im a fake friend ©Jaz-O

D.Dallas says:
Haha. For collabos do you prefer gettin songs like that and jus havin to slot in your verse, or do you like gettin the beat and comin up with the whole thing from scratch

slickVANxl says:
ummm, it depends. its easier to just slot it in, cause all of the work is done for you far as a subject matter and the other dudes flow or whatever, but making the song together i think you probably come up with a more cohesive package

D.Dallas says:
yeah, but our songs cohesive ay… we’re just on that wavelength ay

slickVANxl says:
yeah cuzzy

D.Dallas says:
lol

D.Dallas says:
how far through writing your album(Bazooka Kid) were you when we did this song ?

slickVANxl says:
i think it was about half way, i think i’d done the first three singles, and had about 5 or 6 others half done

D.Dallas says:
we hadn’t done “V.S.O.P” tho ay?

slickVANxl says:
nah, we did that at the very end of my album recording. I gave you the demo, and then about 2 months later we recorded it

D.Dallas says:
heaps of people been mentionin how it’s “buzzy hearin PNC on this sorta beat again” when commentin on “In The Mood”. What you reckon your next stuff is gonna be like, you gonna rap on “those sorta beats” again

slickVANxl says:
I dont really know. The thing is, I never set out to rap over a certain type of beat, its just the moment when I first hear it that determines  whether or not I get the inspiration to do something to it. I think, being a third album, I’ll have more focus on what works and what doesnt though

D.Dallas says:
what you mean what works and what doesnt, as in what works with your voice or?

slickVANxl says:
I mean more overall a combination of what I think is gonna make the strongest records with my abilities and also what is gonna make sense to people and work, which is just sensibilities you learn the more music you do

Alot of artists I look up to have that same progression. Hov, Outkast etc

D.Dallas says:
hard, were you happy with how the song turned out?

slickVANxl says:
yeah its mean

D.Dallas says:
don’t you reckon Jay had it sussed on the first go, then experimented for a bit. Then at Blueprint had come full circle?

slickVANxl says:
It depends how you look at it. I think for the artist Jay-Z wanted to be, he sussed it on Hard Knock Life

D.Dallas says:
yeah i agree. cause he wanted that appeal

slickVANxl says:
yeah, he wasnt happy with just making the respected classic

D.Dallas says:
do you feel like Rookie Card is your Reasonable Doubt in that sense. Or were you already Hard Knock Life-ing it at that point?

slickVANxl says:
haha nah. Cause I dont think Rookie Card is like some next level shit I was one that I never could repeat ya know, I’d compare Rookie Card more to something like Southernplayalistic

Just a young cunt having fun, learning to make music, with some flashes of brilliance! haha like What You Expect bro

D.Dallas says:
Haha

- part 2 tomorow-

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The following is a discussion I had via MSN with Jordan a.k.a Jordache, one half of West Auckland production super-duo Fire & Ice. F&I produced 6 of the 12 songs on Something Awesome, aided in the completion of 2 other songs, and Jordan guested alongside Young Sid and Niko on the song “First Time”. Needless to say, he played a substantial role in the creation of this album. Never short on humour, here’s what he had to say for himself.

D.Dallas says:
is there anything you want to get across to the people in particular about fire and ice? That’s my bad interviewer question.

Jordan says:
she said she likes me… she said she needs me…. she wants to see me.. coz i’m the shit… probably just that aye

D.Dallas says:
hahaha

Jordan says:
haha nah i dunno ay

D.Dallas says:
when did you start sending me beats for this album again?

Jordan says:
many moons ago

D.Dallas says:
woulda been like 07 ay

Jordan says:
2 years? yea

D.Dallas says:
Did you have in mind what you thought would fit me or were you just doin what i told you? i.e tryna give me what i was askin for

Jordan says:
yea. i think i just gave you what we had, haha. But tried to give you stuff that sounded different from your Frontline stuff.

D.Dallas says:
do you reckon it’s important for a dude who makes beats to go with his gut as far as what he gives to the artist? Like if i’d said, oi i want beats that sound like Pitbull. Would you be like “nah you don’t suit that”. Or would you jus try and give me something like that?

Jordan says:
yea the way i look at it now is like the producer is as much an artist as the artist, if you know what i mean… like its important for us to make music that represents us and what we like.. so if you had asked for pitbull type shit i probably wouldn’t have told you not to do that, if that is really what you wanted to do, i wouldve just said we dont make that.

And then i wouldve laughed at you when you dropped your pitbull single. Oye Loca!

D.Dallas says:
haha. Ok, so you feel like fire and ice has a sound then?

Jordan says:
yea i guess.. you could say we have a ‘soulful’ vibe.. kinda hate that term ay.. but yea we tried to give you our sound.. like the Frontline sound was quite moody and dark.. so i thought it was important for you to come out on our stuff with a more lighter side, otherwise there wouldn’t be much difference between David Dallas the solo artist and Frontline the group, ya know

D.Dallas says:
hard, shucks you guys are soulful

Jordan says:
hahah

D.Dallas says:
i feel like we got a good vibe going on this album, like the stuff you were sendin me after i’d done the indulge me demo was all on point.. in the right direction for where i was goin.  Why do you reckon that is?

Was it cause in your head you had an idea of how you wanted the album to sound or what?

Jordan says:
yea i guess so, it continues from being different from the FL stuff, like when you were in Frontline i always thought it’d be mean if you did  ‘lighter’ songs.. and when i got the indulge me demo back it was mean, so i tried to send you more stuff on that buzz

coz i dont think we actually discussed what direction the album should head in.. i think we were just on the same page

D.Dallas says:
are you happy with how the album turned out?

Jordan says:
yea definitely. its my favourite hiphop album from here. its just cool. Evan killed it on the mix too, made us sound mean, with our budget time-stretching and such haha

D.Dallas says:
haha

Jordan says:
what happened to that other song you did over ours? it had 16th hats on it too.. i think it was called phillip? i never got a demo of that

D.Dallas says:
fuck, i wrote one verse and had a hook in my head. Never got it demo’d up tho cause shit was in disarray at that time

Jordan says:
haha

D.Dallas says:
i might needa pull that out

Jordan says:
yea. i need to clean that up. drums suck. mud clap

D.Dallas says:
you had a big hand in this album outside of the beats you made. i.e hookin up your friends like Niko and Toma for vocals and arrangement/instrumentation duty. What made you decide to be so helpful/hands on?

Jordan says:
i guess i just wanted to put on people who i thought had talent.. had to put on for the West ya know haha.. but yea i liked where the whole thing was going so i tried to get involved as much as i could

Toma’s a close friend of ours and i met Niko through him, they’ve been working on stuff for a while, then we started working with them as well.. so when you told me you were looking for vocals it was only natural for me to try and get them involved

D.Dallas says:
what made you decide to get your rap on? who gassed you bro? LOL

Jordan says:
drugs, haha. i was drunk and smoking a joint at my mates when i decided.. was thinking bout the demo and thought i could rap about that lol.. first rap ever on a song with dave and sid.. fuck it lol.

Sorry i had to murk you on your own shit ay lol

D.Dallas says:
it’s all good.

sorry i have to not pay you for those 6 beats ay. LOL

Jordan says:
hahaha. shucks whats august doing? i emailed him yesterday

D.Dallas says:
shoosh man

Jordan says:
lol

D.Dallas says:
lets just pretend we’re rich over here

Jordan says:
once i told Toma i was gonna record it at his there was no backing out

D.Dallas says:
is that your first rap ever? did you write any bullshit verses when you were a kid?

Jordan says:
yeah thats my first rap ever.. i never wrote any as a kid.. i didnt even write that verse though.. yeah im Hov.. ‘cept i rapped the last line first and the first line last..

Toma can attest to my amateur recording.. we punched the whole thing, as I came up with ideas haha. Halfway through I thought i was in over my head… then when he played back my voice it was like.. ‘arrgh i sound gay’

D.Dallas says:
i was suprised when you sent it thru to me. Cause you actually text me one time, i think you were drunk – “bro.. i’m gonna do a verse for first time”

I thought it’d be crack up, but i didn’t think you’d do it

Jordan says:
lol that was probably the same night i decided.. Toma tatted me the next day when i was still drunk and i told him.. couldnt go back after that haha

D.Dallas says:
it’s crack up cause soon as you said you’d done a demo, I’d already decided it was goin on the song. Hadn’t even heard you rap.

I just liked the idea of it, it reminded me of readin about 2pac and how he’d put the Outlawz on songs.. jus whoever had their verse ready first was on the song. If you didn’t have the verse, catch you up.

Jordan says:
haha. yeah wasnt scribble supposed to be on it?.. so you weren’t sweating me coming on and being “magazines call me a rockstar…”?

D.Dallas says:
ha i reached out to scribble… he didn’t reach back. that was early on tho, think i just sent him the beat.

Don’t think he could see the vision, LOL.

Do you think your verse measures up to Kanye’s on “The Bounce”?

Jordan says:
being that the actual GingerBread man himself said he was a Monster, i’m inclined to say no.

D.Dallas says:
haha

D.Dallas says:
do you have a gripe with music these days? Is there certain stuff you’d like to hear on the radio/tv more?

Jordan says:
i dont listen to the radio… ever. so i could care less what theyre playing. i dont watch that much tv either so same goes… internet is good like that.

D.Dallas says:
how’d you get the name Jordache?

Jordan says:
you gave it to me haha.. and it stuck.. thought i’d run with it, coz i couldn’t think of a cool rap name… slash rap names are gay… slash i have my own clothing line

D.Dallas says:
is the name catching on? have any females addressed you by that name yet?

Jordan says:
yea, amongst the usual hunk, dreamboat, hearthrob comments, occasionally the opposite sex will refer to me as Jordache

D.Dallas says:
nuff said. “Every daaaay a star is boooorn – clap for him” © Jay Z

Jordan says:
ha, the names all good actually, people seem to like it… that and the fact that i referenced Glendene haha

D.Dallas says:
oh tru, are you gettin the local support? i.e “thanx 4 puttin us on the map g”

Jordan says:
haha.. its all about Glen Eden to be honest.. but thats doesnt really rhyme with green… maybe Weedin’ ?… Weedin’ in Glen Eden… sounds more like im doing community service or gardening with Nana.

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Sheeeit!

I was unaware this was even on the horizon, let alone had already started airing. I put it down to too much Something Awesome and not enough watching cartoons. I’m behind as fuck on Naruto Shippuden too, but best believe I’m bout to remedy all that. I’ve documented my fondness for the original series before, and this one is apparently a re-adaptation which sticks closer to the original manga. Sounds all good to me.

Two brothers lose their mother to an incurable disease. With the power of “alchemy”, they use taboo knowledge to resurrect her. The process fails, and as a toll for using this type of alchemy, the older brother, Edward Elric loses his left leg while the younger brother, Alphonse Elric loses his entire body. To save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm and is able to affix his brother’s soul to a suit of armor. With the help of a family friend, Edward receives metal limbs – “automail” – to replace his lost ones. With that, Edward vows to search for the Philosopher’s Stone to return the brothers to their original bodies, even if it means becoming a “State Alchemist”, one who uses his/her alchemy for the military.

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Yup

Whilst most adults are getting their haymakers and combos sussed on the new Fight Night, my spare time stays occupied with this colourful gem. I recently surrendered my Nintendo DS to the old man as he’d taken a liking to Sudoku on Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training. My old man has never played a video game in his life, so for him to be able to grasp the input method, let alone enjoy the game itself is a fucken testimony to just how clever Nintendo are. I guarantee if I gave him the same game with a traditional controller instead of the DS stylus and touch screen, he woulda been over it in 2 seconds.

But back to the topic – Super Paper Mario…. bro, this is the fucken game. It came out in 07, but I just picked this and Zelda up for Wii when I came back from the states. They were doing 2 games for 60 bucks at Duty Free – fucken steal. To be honest I mostly wanted Zelda, and the handful of other games they had all looked like shit. Titles like Iron Man The Movie weren’t really jumping out saying “buy me” (lol, is there anything worse than movie tie in games ?) so this won by default.

Anyways I didn’t end up giving it a blast till after I saw my nephew doing some cool 3d stuff on it. I didn’t realise that the ability to shift from a 2d perspective to a 3d perspective was the whole basis of the game (hence the paper mario title, and the paper cut out looking sprites).. I just thought it was a Mario RPG. As it turns out it still keeps heaps of the cool elements of a Mario platformer, like breaking bricks and jumping on baddies heads to kill them as opposed to that turn based RPG shit. But on the RPG side, it’s still all about talkin to people, finding shit, managing your inventory, levelin up your character. You also get to accumulate a crew and use all their different skills to further your mish – admittedly it’s only the 4 characters.. but it’s cool being able to switch to Bowser and burn cunts up. I guess it’s kinda reminiscent of Wonder Boy 3 – The Dragons Trap(fucken CLASSIC) on Master System in the way it’s Platform/RPG at the same time. Being that Mario games have always kicked Wonderboy’s(and every other Sega attempt until Sonic) ass on the platform tip though, this is more accessible than that ever was and the concept that things can be hidden in 2d and revealed in the third dimension just pushes this shit over the edge.

A videogame is a bit of a winner when I enjoy it as much as my 9 and 10 year old neice and nephew do. Nintendo excel at making those sorta games, that’s why they cannot under any circumstance be fronted on.

Now I just need Punch Out ….

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The imagery you see above is the artwork for the “Big Time” single.

Whenever I do this song live I end up talking about how it’s the theme for Something Awesome, cause it wasn’t till this one came along that I really felt I had a direction for the project. Sentimentally it’s one of my favourite things I’ve written, I guess cause it reminds me of a pivotal time which would eventually lead to some of the most enjoyable years of my life (University).  I also feel like it’s such a universal thing :

• Kid goes to school, wants to do something big when he grows up
• Kid nears end of school, still wants to do something big but has no idea what he wants to be
• Kid looks at University courses he might be good at
• Kid goes to University, and crosses fingers that he chose the right degree to crack it

(That’s what i did anyway, ha)

Anyways, the song’s already garnering some spins at radio (much thanks to Mai and Flava for the early support!) and it will be available on ALL digital retailers next week. Stay tuned here early next week for the video, which is being worked on as we speak. Should be grand.

Shotty

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I know I’ve been invisible over the last couple weeks, but hopefully you’ll appreciate the motivation behind the time away. I figure I can now safely announce that Something Awesome is done! Finished. Completed. Vanquished. Conquered…. Clocked.

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been in the studio with Evan and Pete tweaking and arranging these songs to try and make them as good as they can be. We were still adding tiny things on Tuesday so to finally put it to bed and have it mastered a couple days ago is a huge weight off my shoulders. I’m really happy with it, and I’m excited about letting you guys hear it. I’m also looking forward to being out of the studio and not hearing myself on repeat for a little while… at least till the next project. Ha

Anyways, lots of other stuff has been going on in my absence. We lost the greatest entertainer of all time in Michael Jackson. I actually started writing a blog about it the day I found out, but I couldn’t really find the words to get my point across. What I will say is I have NO memory of music prior to M.J. My first recollections of music are songs off Thriller and Sesame St, and being that this guy was in the “Thriller” and “Beat It” videos, our family took an even greater interest than most in his works.

I got a text from both my older brother and sister on the day he passed saying how saddened/shocked they were. Might not sound out of the ordinary, but my siblings NEVER text me. Especially not my older brother .. that ain’t his style. I remember them asking a young me if I wanted to go to the Michael Jackson concert.  This was around the time of him releasing singles like “You Are Not Alone” and “Earth Song”,  being that I had reached adolescence and was starting to think I was cool around then I can’t front – I initially was like “oh.. I dunno if I care ay, he’s rude now”. Whilst I was listening to Montell Jordan or some shit(yup kids are fickle). I recall them rolling their eyes at me and pushing the issue though, like “are you sure ? you used to love Michael Jackson, you might never get another chance to see him”.

As fate would have it they bought me a ticket and ended up taking their annoying little brother to his first concert. To this day it is the BEST concert/show I’ve been to… by a mile, and I’ve seen a few now. I remember me and my boy Daniel talking about it at school for the next 2 weeks solid. Just to put it in perspective, one of my brothers is deaf – and even HE loved it. Now that’s a motherfucken entertainer. Anyways, I text both my siblings back and thanked them again for taking me to the show all those years ago. They were right about not getting another chance, thank goodness for smart family.

R.I.P M.J

Anyways, if you’re wondering about the photo – yup we shot the “Big Time” video. Some of you will no doubt be disappointed at the lack of Elephants, alas video budgets can only stretch so far, ha. We’ve finished the album artwork too, so it is officially on. Exciting times ahead, can’t wait.

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Ha, this looks familiar! Some wicked stuff in this, especially the parts where he’s playing pong or driving down the road. Top marks.

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Been kinda busy on the studio and show tip since we last spoke.  Subsequently all my time outside of making/performing music has been spent:

• Getting the flu
• Having the worst luck ever with my vehicle
• Furthering my quest in Paper Mario
• Meddling with the website design

We did the lil Oz trip a week or so back which was the shit. Sydney was especially awesome, was really surprised to see people who knew all the words to “Indulge Me” at the show – too much indeed. Much thanks to everyone that came out to see us.

As always, a string of extremely late nights combined with untold hours driving had left me feeling somewhat off the pace once back on home soil, nevertheless I’ve been in the studio hard since getting back. Today we managed to record the final bits and pieces that were remaining for the album, which is a bit of a milestone in itself(Though I’m already thinking about recording another song, ha). Also finished the mix on my next single  and it sounds rather grand if I may be so bold. Can’t wait to unleash it to the people.

Speaking of things being unleashed, the bro PNC’s new album Bazooka Kid will be available for consumption next week. I’ve had his album and the new Eminem in my car’s CD player for the last week.. listened to Em’s album once and took it out, it’s been PNC all day since.  Bazooka Kid > Relapse. I’ve got a verse on there too so ya know I condone it.

Oh and if you’re wondering about the photo above, I checked out the Air Yeezy launch @ Qubic last Thursday and was snapped whilst BV-ing PNC from the crowd. I’m on the Tui’s even… desperation.

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I should be in bed right now as it’s midnight and I needa be at the airport in 6 hours, before I duck out though I wanted to send a massive thanks to everyone that came to my show at Khuja on Friday night. It was the first solo show I’ve headlined since releasing my single, and it was fucken wicked to see you guys you come through and pack it out.

With the weather being terrible and the ANZAC test timing and result not being favourable I was thinking it was gonna put the damper on the turn out. Fortunately that wasn’t the case…. shit was tight. Shouts to the homies, all my old mates from Paps that came through, and to Percieve and Edgar from Numbers for doing their impromptu thing. Shouts to the girls from NZ Next Top Model that came through too. I felt like a bit of a lame cause I’ve never seen the show, so I didn’t know who was who – but everyone else who was there did and they were excited no end.

On another appreciative note, “Indulge Me” is in the top 40 for another week at 37 – thank you to everyone who’s picked it up. Too much! I’m gonna go finish packing now, so anyone in Sydney 2moro nite see you at the Oxford Art Factory.

“Indulge Me” available now from these fine outlets:

• Vodafone
• iTunes
• Amplifier
• Digirama

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After the madness that was SXSW we departed Austin for New York, sans P-Money who jetted off to London to make some moves. I’d looked forward to hitting NY all trip, as my performances would be done and bar a couple of meetings I was pretty much free. Stayed at an extremely cute hotel in Soho and got to spend the majority of my time taking in the sights and being well looked after by some fine folk.

Shouts to Kirk for hooking up 2 of the 3 good dinners I had during my entire stay in the U.S, and to Gala for taking us out to a spot that Questlove was spinning at. Dude played 1.5 hours of straight Wu records, I kid you not. That’s gnarly enough anywhere, but getting to see that in New York city… when you’re a kid from Papatoetoe ?  damn near religious. Also managed to catch the Midnight Youth lads doing a pretty impeccable showcase at a swank venue not far from my hotel. They ended up taking us to an even more swank “Gentlemans Club” after the show, “Gentlemans Club” obviously doesn’t mean the same thing over there as I thought it did – funny that.

Nightlife aside, I checked out some art galleries cause ya know ..  I’m really big on that fraudulent art appreciation shit  – LOL. The Guggenheim is actually amazing tho,  I’d recommend checking it for the architecture alone. I was trying to avoid shopping on this trip cause that wasn’t what it was about, but there’s too many great stores in NY to just flag it altogether.. even picked up a  souvenir which I NEVER do. I was getting sentimental over what a great trip I was having so I  caved and picked up a fitted at Supreme. I know, the classic 5 panel woulda been more souvenir-ish but my melon was looking too big in them on the day. Ha

Anyways, I don’t really have much more to say on the whole experience. To sum it up the whole trip was brilliant and N.Y is the shit. I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

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You might have noticed we’ve been messing round with the site a little bit lately, trying to sort out a few things I’ve wanted and changes I’d like to make. However, the key thing about this site is it isn’t really about what I want at all – it’s about what you guys want. Hence I’d like to hear from any of you about anything you’d like to see on the site, whether it’s a new section, more music/video, more writing about a particular topic – whatever ideas you’ve got they’re all welcome. Hit up the comments and let me know.

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OK – I’m now back into the swing of things. Feel like I’ve fully recovered from my U.S adventure and the 9 flights in 2 weeks which went along with it. Gave you guys some of the sights in my last post, but I figure it’s about time I give you guys a bit of a write up on the whole expedition.

We initially flew into San Francisco, flight over was reasonably pleasant. Decided to watch Twilight – partly to see what all the fuss was about, also because I figured it’d be a good “plane” movie. Wow – who would have thought you could make so much money off 3 locations and a scowl ? Everyone over 15 who has tried to hype this up to me – wow @ you. Touched down on American soil and managed to hop in the worlds slowest immigration line. After finally stepping up to the desk as the absolute last passenger of the 3 incoming flights (I was somewhere in the middle before lining up ?) I input my finger print. Dude at the desk informs me that it didn’t scan properly, and that I’d have to go to the Secondary check room as he isn’t able to scan finger prints more than once from his desk. This sucks I thought to myself.. but no need for panic, off I go to the secondary check where I’m greeted by a room full of the most depressed looking mofukkas you’re ever likely to see. Border Security posters on the wall, worried faces everywhere, people complaining about missing connecting flights, dudes getting questioned about their passport authenticity, officials puttin gloves on for strip searches.. the whole 9. Being last off the planes, also makes me last in this room so I’m standing there thinking “do i really need to be here ? I just need to re-do my fingerprint ?” – LOL. 55 stressful minutes later it turns out that IS all I needed to do, and we’re off to catch our connecting flight to L.A.

Stayed with my cousin Steve in L.A, and got a good dose of L.A life. We were privy to many a music industry story(am I the only person that hadn’t heard the Eric Sermon gay rumours ?), and I got to check out some nice clothes/shoe spots round Melrose. Did a bit of people watching, I’m feelin the fashion out there… same can’t be said for what I saw round the majority of the U.S. On a more nerdy tip I got to see a couple of famous skate spots: Hollywood High and that carwash on Sunset that Greco ollied into on the last Baker vid. Shit is gnarly, almost as gnarly as the food servings in L.A. They aren’t fucking around when they say they do it big in the states. Had some chicken at a Cuban spot on our first night there, I swear the chicken leg didn’t look like no chicken I’ve ever seen. Looked more like an Ostritch leg or something, G.E hard.

Anyways, as you know the main reason for our L.A stint was the Viper Room showcase. It’s funny going inside such an iconic place and realising that it is JUST another club, much like the hundred or so other clubs you’ve been inside in your life. That is until I soundchecked and came to the realisation that it probably has the best sound of any club I’ve performed in. As I said before, on the night the crowd was very industry/rock so it was pretty up in the air as to how the set would go down. Fortunately I think I managed to win them over - being that the sound was so good, I could confidently do my thing knowing that they were hearing the music as it was intended – instead of just hearing some bass, hi hats, and an MC trying to shout over the top of it. And at the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for – for it to be heard as it was intended.

Tired of writing now, more soon….

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This is amazing!  The “Indulge Me” vid is up on the infamous OnSmash and in beautiful high resolution too ?! I have no idea how this came about, and I can’t figure out how they’ve got the video looking so good ?? Initially I assumed it was just ripped from the youtube HD but that looks shit in comparison to this. Maybe they have some super tech skills that remove the youtube compression or something ? Anyways, whatever… OnSmash FTW!

Big thanks to whoever hooked it up. Meanage.

**edit

It’s up on WorldStarHipHop too!

It’s also up on DJ Semtex’s blog now too!

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I’m in the process of finishing up the artwork for my new single, so I figure it must be time to divulge the title and things of that nature. The song’s called “Indulge Me” and is produced by West Auckland’s favourite sons: Fire & Ice. I’ve been hanging out to let you guys hear it since finishing up the mix, in fact, this is probably the most excited I’ve been about somethin since me and Nick took our first song to Bfm haha. Being that it’s the first single from my album though, I guess it’s only right.

Can’t wait.

… and oh yeah, I’m gonna need all of your help with this one. Hope you’s are down

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Shucks, has it been 2 weeks since I last posted already ? What a useless dude. I’ll blame the Australian Open, my inability to multi-task, and some overseas trip planning as the key factors behind this. I’ve also been doing some messing round behind the scenes with the website trying to get it how I want it. As with most things it’ll be a work in progress, but you can expect things to start looking a little different around here soon.

We had a video shoot on Thursday for the first single from Something Awesome. The shoot was good times, and I’ll post up some more sneak peeks of it in the coming days. On the topic of videos, thanks to all of you for checkin out that G.O.T.W Remix vid. I’m stoked with the feedback for it, as we shot that for a G out of my own pocket. The bro Stjohn put in the work, and pulled favours to make it happen so all props to him.

Anyways, don’t forget to subscribe and hit me up on Twitter. I’m going to go prepare myself for Federer vs Nadal. Could be remotes hittin the TV if Nadal comes through, Federer FTW hard.

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Yup, I’ve succumbed to the temptations of micro-blogging and got myself a Twitter account. For those not familiar with it, Twitter is kinda like those status updates you have on Bebo and Facebook. If you have a Twitter account you can “follow” people you’re interested in, and automatically recieve their updates bout what they’re up to and reply to them etc.

Our bro P uses it, and as he put it to me,  it’s a good way to keep you guys quickly updated on stuff without having to go through and do a whole blog post. Being that it can also be updated by text from your celly it’s pretty handy when you’re away from the computer. So if you’re already up on it follow your boy here, if not sign up bro.

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.. soon as it stops being so sunny and I put the Nintendo DS down – ha. Not sure how many of you are back at work yet, but if you aren’t, hope you’re enjoying it while it lasts. We’ll have something here for you on Monday to kickstart your working year so stay tuned.

Oh, and if you wanna see my thoughts on good beverages, skateboarding and other random shit,  check my blog over at Qubic.

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As far as the E.P itself goes, I really was just dying to let people hear my new shit. It’s been a long time since the last Frontline album and I’ve had guest spots here and there, some mixtape verses etc, but apart from “Get Out The Way” – no actual songs. When you’re the artist and you’re making songs and hearing them all the time it’s easy to lose touch with the fact that other people aren’t exposed to any of it. You could completely change your style up and go through all sorts of creative phases and not realise that the perception of you to the outside world is still based on the last thing you released however many years ago. I’d recorded some new songs about a month back and added it to the Something Awesome playlist on my ipod which has all the songs I’ve done since I went solo. Something Awesome has pretty much defined itself in the sense that there’s a bunch of songs that have a sound and an overall feel that fit together. In skimming through my playlist though, I realised I had a bunch of other songs which I really LIKED but didn’t neccesarily fit with the feel that Something Awesome has.

I was kinda bummed at the idea of just keepin them all in the vault, because these were songs I still wanted people to hear, and I felt that there’d definitely be somebody who’d appreciate them. Once I thought about it a bit more, I figured fuck – I’ve actually got a new body of work, with songs that I really like, which I can give to all the people who’ve been waiting for ages … right now. Soon as that clicked I hit up Pete and Evan and we got to work on the mixing and mastering. Now I’m just wondering how best to give you guys a listen to the tracks …

Once again it’s on.

p.s: Don’t suggest myspace, they suspended my account for copyright infringement when i was trying to upload “Get Out The Way” to the player. Go figure.

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Here’s another entertaining message I received on Bebo from my schoolmate ‘Agent X’ who I spoke previously about here. He’d sent me a message before this and I was telling him his story was sounding too outlandish, he replied with this. Comedy.

Agent X:
Mate…I swear on my mother and wife’s life, this is the truth. Spend a few hours with me on the level, and you will see that I can “produce the goods”, so to speak.

The story doesn’t end there too, these drugs affect your emotions…and when I came home I was crying like a bitch, like a baby, and screaming like an untamed beast I took off my suit jacket and ripped it half in sheer anger and frustration. What I was angry and frustrated about I have no idea.

My girlfriend is just sitting there on the bed looking at all of this going on.

On the way home too, I had somehow managed to buy 20 tins of fresh italian peeled tomatoes. I repeat, 20. So after ripping my suit in half, standing there in my own yellow kark, tears streaming down my face – I proceed to start whipping up a hot steaming batch of ovenbake farmhouse fries at 1am, with grilled tomatoes on the side. I was focused.

Shit that was my only suit jacket too. Had to go to for weeks to work until I could afford a new one.

This is one of the tamer stories. Fuck bro, where do I start…one morning last year I woke up and there was a yellow bicycle in my room. A brand new shiny bicyle, which apparently I had purchased on the way home from Roppongi that morning, according to the receipt in my wallet. What the hell, couldnt explain that one.

Last Saturday I woke up at 4pm on the street in Roppongi. 4pm bro, face down, starfish style. I woke up thinking ah…must be around 10am. No. 4 fucking pm. Went straight to the convenience store still high as a beast, got a Corona, got in a taxi and went to Shibuya and got some drugs. Bought some new clothes, got G-ed up, showered at an Internet cafe – then hit the clubs. Spent around 200,000 yen playing the big star at the bar. Now Im on fucking noodles already and my payday was only just last week. Not a good look.

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I have an old high school friend who exclusively uses Bebo private messages to inform me of what is going on in his world.  I hadn’t heard from him in several years, then out of the blue I randomly recieved a message from him detailing his current exploits. Apart from being the funniest human I’ve ever met, he is living proof that you never know where the fuck people are gonna end up after school.

For example I had this other good mate who lived down the road from me. He didn’t have a rhythmic bone in his body i.e the worst dancer I’d ever seen. Saw him for the first time in 6 or so years when i was in Varsity - said he was working as a stripper at Showboys. Now I don’t know if that requires all that much “good dancing” per se, but still.. I NEVER could have forseen that a dude who struggled with the running man could get on stage and bust moves for women, and I’d known him for most of his life. Anyways, it’s safe to say that my Bebo account now exists largely for the entertainment I gather upon recieving messages from my previously mentioned friend, let’s call him “Agent X”. I recieved this message from Agent X today and laughed out loud at the sheer randomness. Being that this is my blog, I thought I’d share:

had a solid weekend….started friday night…then monday morning i woke up at 230am in the morning on top of some random building in shibuya with only one shoe. i had partially shit my pants with some warm chocolate pudding too. must have been a solid mash up pill that burmese guy gave me at a yoyogi rave.

gotta stop the drugs man…

today is going to be a loooooooong day. got mame emulator installed here on my work computer…playing street fighter. got original, hyper fighting, champion edition..

solid!

Papatoetoe, what.

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I’m gonna blog smarter instead of harder (i.e lazier) and link you to Pete’s recap of our weekend over on his blog. What I will add though, is that the folks that came out to the Whakatane show were a friendly bunch indeed. Sam had ventured into the club before the gig started, and came back saying the people were cool and they were all offering to buy him a drank. However I was still unprepared for the general hospitality of the populace. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere where I’ve had as many different people utter the phrase “What are you drinking bro ?” followed by the offer to purchase your desired beverage. In fact it got to the point where people we hadn’t even talked to were purchasing us another bottle of whatever we were holding in our hand – too much bradas. I had the mean time, and we even managed to find our mate Sam sleeping in the communal kitchen of the hotel – after he went missing for an hour. So I assume he had the mean time too.

We’re off to the South Island on Wednesday for 4 dates so that’s gonna be goodtimes/hectic. In the meantime I’m sitting here making beats for a lil project I’m working on (yeah bro) and trying to get this “Get Out The Way” vid wrapped before we have to cruise. I also learnt to play “On The Hotline” by Pretty Ricky on the keys this morning, so it’s safe to say I’m stylin on em. Fully.

Here’s where you can catch us:
Wednesday July 23rd @ The Blue Pub / Methven
Thursday July 24th @ Millies / Ashburton
Friday July 25th @ Red Rocks / Wanaka
Saturday July 26th @ Subculture / Queenstown

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Ho-ly, it’s already Wednesday and I feel like I’m only just recovering from last week. Had the mean time though, so it’s allll good. Cruised down to Ohakune on Thursday morning with some mates and hit up the snow. Had a sunny afternoon bailing on the slopes there,  and it was all rather pleasant. However I awoke the next day in our chalet to sounds that I’d imagine you’d hear if you lived in Howl’s Moving Castle. I swear it sounded like that scene in I Am Legend when Will Smith and the dog are lyin in the bathtub, clutching the shotgun while all manner of mayhem is going on outside. It was fucken rude bro. They had to close Turoa down for the day, so we made the lil trek backwards to Whakapapa which was still open.

Talk about treacherous conditions, everyone in the whip reckoned it was the most snow they’d seen in their lives and I hadn’t driven in snow before. After the stress of negotiating this fucken icy mountain in a non-4wd,  it was safe to say I didn’t care if it stayed snowing/raining with visibility only 4 feet ahead – I was gonna get my full day on the slopes. Weather stayed shocking, but man.. how fun is snowboarding ?! – sheeit. Che and I stayed out until the last chairlift, so by our last couple runs there was only like 15 others on the slope, bonus. As with most good things in life though, I would pay for the euphoria I enjoyed whilst on the mountain. Upon arrival back at the Chalet my body felt like it’d just been sparring with Mike Tyson or something, I was injured as and ready to call it a day – then the reality hit that we had a show to do that night at the Powderhorn, brilliant. Show was still the bomb though, thank goodness for P and Sam’s energy. Powderhorn gets props for being the only venue I’ve seen that encourages patrons to stand on their dining tables too.

Woke up Saturday feeling like Tyson had beat me up some more whilst I was sleeping, then had to tidy the chalet and say bye to my mates as I linked up with Dirty the squad for our next show. The drive from Ohakune to NP felt like it went for a year, I’m tall so I hate sittin in the back of a car at the best of times. But when you got some golfball bruises on your knee joints, lord have mercy. Car CD rotation went as follows: Wu – 36 Chambers, DMX – It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, Hov – Blueprint 2.1(Ho-ly this album sucks), Dre – Chronic. The arrival in N.P couldn’t have come quick enough, I then proceeded to grab a blanket and lie my broken frame down to watch the A.B’s. Perhaps it was just my mood, but that game was pretty rude ay. A.B’s had that nicely orchestrated try and that individual effort from the saffa was good too, but apart from that it only furthered the draining of my life force. Rolled to our N.P show, which felt low-key like we were at a school social. When i took the stage I remarked to the small crowd that “this must be what Jay Z felt like at Glastonbury”, it wouldn’t have been… but I imagined it was. Had mad fun, got drunk, rolled thru N.P playing P.E – It Takes A Nation loud as fuck then proceeded to not clean our hotel room. Wadams underwent a transformation into Bushwick Bill and kept reciting lyrics from Geto Boys – “Fuck Em”(my new fave song) while Sam was trying to sleep, I could only look on in amazement.

Woke up next day – still battered and bruised, continued to not clean our room and left on the however many hours drive it is back to Auckland. Epic bro.

The End

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Sometimes I wake up in the morning feeling like “fuck everything”. Simple things I would normally derive some pleasure from (TV, videogames etc) don’t feel worthwhile whatsoever, and a general negative/non-productive vibe is in the air. In some situations songwriting can be therapeutic, in other cases it can be like pulling teeth. Seconds,minutes, then hours pass.. listening to the same music on loop, in the same room, coming up with the same ideas you thought sucked when you first thought of them all those seconds,minutes and hours ago.

I’ve often read stories that would lead you to believe that songwriting is  the easiest thing in the world for any songwriter, you know how it goes – “i just felt so inspired, that I went in there and knocked out this classic song in 2 minutes”. There’s no doubt that it can happen like that…. sometimes. Other times though, this shit is work. Though the artist in me would frown upon that description, it is true. All good art stems from inspiration of course, it’s just sometimes you gotta work harder to GET that inspiration and elevate what you’re doing.

I had an idealistic view that it shouldn’t be like that, as if it wasn’t true art unless it came easy. But when I recall reading stories of dudes like Dre doing 24 hour studio sessions, and Eminem coming up with singles in the 11th hour before album release it all makes sense. Now I like to think of it as if it’s no different from  Tiger Woods practicing putting, or Jordan developing his outside shot in the offseason…  there’s no doubt those dudes love the sports they play (as I do with this rap shit), but there had to be times when they’d be like “man I can’t be fucked going to the course/court today” – but you know they still went. And all that work was worthwhile when the inspiration hit on gameday. Art imitates life afterall.

The other day I wrote my favourite verse in probably the last year. I recorded it with super engineer Evan yesterday, and as I was listening back to it it seemed crazy that I was thinking of just flagging the song. I’d spent heaps of time mulling over it and coming up with nothing, or something wack. That shit was WORK. But when the ideas finally came, it’s just as “pure” as I would’ve envisioned songwriting to be in the past. Beautiful.

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Here’s an example of the stuff Nick(41 a.k.a Devonports finest) sends me on MSN daily. Apparently he’s into making movies now. See what I have to put up with ?

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Season 2 of Code Geass has started and it has successfully filled the void it left in my life after season 1 stopped airing and Deathnote finished. I just finished watching episode 3 and I’m already hanging out for next week’s torrent. It’s times like this I realise I fucken love the internet. Not only is it amazing that I get to watch a show that aired in Japan within hours of it being shown, but the fact that there’s some dedicated people out there that actually go through the show, translate and subtitle all the dialogue, all visual language references (like signposts etc), and make it look all pretty. Just so I can click on a link and watch it at my leisure in the comfort of my own home, ad-free – that’s too ill. Fansubbing is the shit.

Anyways back to Code Geass – I was real stoked on this song they used in the ending credits of Season 1 primarily cause I liked the break at the start. I did some research online and found it was by a group called Sunset Swish and the tracks called “Mosaic Kakera”. Found the video on youtube, watched it for a bit then figured I’d sample some shit and hook it up on Fruity Loops. Again, one of those I love the internet moments. Hear a song on a cartoon > find out who it’s by > get the song > sample it – all in under 40 minutes. This chain of events was impossible back in the day – that’s too ill. Internet is the shit.

Wack beat

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After being on tour each weekend for the last month I barely know what do with myself today. BUT.. my polynesian genes insure that the ability to relax comes rather easily. Much thanks to all the folk who came out last weekend in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin and throughout the T.O.D as a whole. I had a mean time and so did my liver. Special propers to the girl who bit me on the brow in Nelson. Looking in the mirror at McDonalds and thinking you have ringworm – not the shit.

For those of you that read proper stuff like magazines and books, go pick up the new issue of Back2basics. It’s got a big interview/article on me, and interviews with Flowz, Percieve, Eth and heaps of other artists. Mean.

I’d been in the studio with Pete and Evan this week, but we’d been having ‘technical difficulties’ i.e “fucken computers” so we didn’t get much done. Back on it next week though, so I’ll hopefully have more interesting progress to report then. Oh, and if you’re looking for a dece movie to watch in your spare time this weekend check out Gone baby gone. It’s all good, props to Sam for putting me up on it.

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Indeed it is. So subsequently I’m doing my inaugural post on my own website, which Che has graciously been holding down up until now. Anyways what’s news ? I performed at the Kick Push East Coast after party with PNC over the new years break. Got to travel to Gisborne which is always mean this time of year and the show/contest etc was the shit. Big big thanks to Ben and the Kingpin crew and Chey @ ABC for hookin it all up and looking after us. Had a good ass time my bro’s. Sup to all the good cunts I met and talked to on the night also, much love.

So yeah, new day, new year, it’s only right we should be accompanying it with some new music. This month, right here at this website I’m gonna be puttin up a free lil mixtape/podcast you can download and share to your hearts content which basically consists of me rapping over some 90′s east coast classics. More detailed explanation on that later, but we’ll also be following that with a brand NEW song off my upcoming album ‘Something Awesome’. Should be all good ay.

Shotty

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Somewhere along this highway of life, I feel I’ve become involved in the wrong profession. During the weekend I encountered someone who sidestepped this pitfall which has ensnared myself and many others. This person chose the right profession and most likely laugh’s himself to sleep at night thinking of how good he’s got it.

Dentist. Oh how I hate you.

Got 4 wisdom teeth pulled, and a filling on Saturday. Thought I was getting general anaesthetic’d up so I was well stoked. Rolled up to find I had been misinformed and I would not be ‘going under‘, just sedated, and that I’d most likely be awake whilst getting my ‘impacted‘ bad boys out. Fucking wicked I thought. Being awake whilst getting my teeth pulled is right up there with wrestling polar bears on my things to do list. Funnily enough it was pretty mellow and I dont remember all that much of the procedure now. However with my slightly swollen inner mouth and my more than slightly deflated bank account I have to voice my hate for dentistry and the general predicament your teeth leave you in. Pain and dollar signs … it’s all pain and dollar signs.

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So what have I been up to ?? Apart from playing on skateboards and watching cartoons I have been recording a sizeable chunk of my album(yes the David Dallas album), and getting the king of the internet up and running (www.shotthen.com , fave it or die) . On the recording side, the album’s sounding really good. Im happy with it so far and its been an easy process. Not forcing nothing with the songs and just letting them come naturally. Sounds artiste-hippy as but it seems to be workin and me and Nick have been having good times doin it up.

For those that are wondering, yes me and Nick are still working together, he’s recording and producing the album and thus far has the lion’s share of the beats. When he’s not doing epic 360′s on his stunt cycle he’s made me some real hot shit. Good cunt.

As for shotthen.com . Well, click on the link and its self explanatory really. Its basically a site we started to write about whatever we feel like. And also to use as an outlet for… you guessed it whatever we feel like. With the common thread amongst us being our liking for rap music and general sense of humor. We’ve got the mean contributors in Che(DJ mouli), PNC, Smitty, Lotech, Nick and whoever else comes through over time so keep your eye on the site cause big things are poppin, and lil shit is stoppin.. and all that. (If you want to write for us and feel like you’d fit in message me up)

So yeah, thats a summary of what I’m up to. Stay glued to shotthen.com and here if you wanna know more. pZ!

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We’re bombarded with new music nowadays. I in fact dedicate the start of my day to gettin on the computer and checkin out all my regular blogs/forums for whatever new shit has dropped, new album leaked, new mixtape, new remix, new videos etc.. whatever, its all good.However I often wonder whether some of the songs and albums I discovered in the past which I love to this day would have slipped straight past me if they were to come out in this day in age. Albums like Mobb Deep ‘Hell on Earth’ might not have gotten past the initial ‘fuck this is pretty dark’ phase and might have gone straight to the recycle bin with the new Rich Boy album. Back then after I’d jus dropped 30 bucks, I knew I wouldnt be gettin no new music till Christmas or next Birthday(whichever came first). Hence there was no option but to throw that shit back in the CD player and bump it till I loved it.

And I feel enriched for that.

I often wonder with our increased fickleness and this digital revolution seemingly shifting us back to a single’s only world, whether we’re losing the concept of a ‘grower’. Albums and songs that you may not fully get on the first listen, but given the chance and the repeat plays they seem to become better and better. Whilst the whizz bang single you thought was the shit the first time round gets old real quick. Its interesting and Im not all too sure how I feel about it.

However this brings me to the point of this post; the first listen. That key point when you establish whether something is good, shit, or alright. Speakin for myself, the first listen is more important than ever. Being that I’m such a fickle cunt its extremely rare for me to hear something brand new and be like ‘wow.. that was the shit’. Songs that really kick your ass only come along once in a while, so when one does.. you gotta give it its propers. For me The Klaxons – ‘Golden Skans’ was one such song, anyone who’s visited my myspace will know I was so fond of it I even rapped on it.

I was fortunate enough to get sent a cover version of the song performed by a Mr Daniel Merriweather who you may have heard on that Mark Ronson – ‘Stop Me’ (Smiths cover) song which is killing shit right now. I loved this cover on first listen and am still lovin it, it also did the good deed of reminding me just how much I like the original, now thats some beautiful shit.

[See post to listen to audio]

The Klaxons and David Dallas – Golden Skans (the remix perhaps)

Daniel Merriweather – Golden Skans cover

Big props to Unknown, check out his sounds. Good cunt.

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