5 Things About Which I am Excited

1. Cold. I heard today, from a man well traveled across these our lands, that there still exists a place where the high is 75 in May. I laughed in his face and told him no international squad will ever take down the Dream Team. Not in a million years. We got A.I. meng.

 

2. Passion. One are in which I have lacked severely for the past few weeks. I am excited to be near Brett, Jay and Zach, and I say that without a trace of sarcasm (any you might have interpreted comes from your own prejudicial nature). These three, even more so Brett, have taken a fledgling idea and made it a reality. That is the kind of inspiration I need to be around. I am looking to Mr. Farmiloe to bring out the best in me, and maximize my potential in a way that will support the trip as a whole.

 

3. THE Rough Draft LP. I spent the first 12 years of my life tap-dancing and playing tennis, hardly the hardened Curriculum Vitae of a rapper. Well get over it. We got a CD, and it's coming soon. Oh, you're from the streets? You're a rapper? Cool. Do you have a CD? No? Huh.

 

4. Atlas. I bought a huge Rand McNally Road Atlas with a graduation gift from my aunt and uncle. It's sweet on its own, but will be sweetified when I add whatever I will. Writing, pictures, map outlines, notes. It should be some kind of extravaganza. I'm not sure what the point is. When I figure it out I'll let you know.

 

5. ?. I'm excited about a million things, but really this is the true inspiration. ?. Who knows. What is so amazing about this trip is that there is literally infinite possibility and zero guarantees. I am excited to find out what this trip brings. I am excited to be surprised. Basically I'm excited, and you should be too. 

Street Cred Feels Good

So much has happened in the world of Class ProJect in the past week. Like to hear it? Here it go!

First, we submitted our freshman album effort entitled, "The Rough Draft LP" to be mastered on Monday. A finalized version of the music that we have been working on for the past calendar year will be arriving in my mailbox this Saturday. Anybody in the Tucson area who would like to Join us for an album listening party this Saturday night, give me a call. As if that weren't exciting enough, I received a phone call from Ryan Clement, the mastering professional at Mix Makers (our mastering company) today. I was thinking that he was calling me back to confirm the payment that I had over-nighted him earlier this week. I soon found, however, that this was not the case. He had called to inquire as to who had done the mixing of "The Rough Draft LP". This made me understandably nervous as I thought that maybe he had found some maJor flaw in our mixing practices. I reluctantly told him that the mixing was done by myself and my older brother Scott (aka Scotty Green), again expecting him to point out inconsistencies in the album we'd spent countless hours "perfecting" to our taste. He paused. I cringed. "People usually don't send me something mixed so cleanly. They usually try to do some sort of rough mastering before they send it to me. But you guys definitely knew what you were doing with this." I smiled. Trying to disguise my happiness, I informed him that we know nothing of mastering, and that that is why we had sent our proJect off to him. He laughed and reassured me that our mixes were a model of what any mastering company would want from their clients. My smile became grinch-like. I thanked him for his call and told him that he could call me to compliment me anytime. He laughed and hung up. I did the same.

I knew that we had put forth our best effort with mixing our tracks, but these professional kudos gave me a sense of accomplishment beyond words. Actually.....two words might be able to describe it..........street (and) cred. It is one thing for another MC to approach me and tell me that he likes my flow, beats, rhymes, or any other element of our stage show, music, etc. After all, (whether I admit it or not), I am a rapper. It is another thing for a fan to approach me asking how they can get a copy of our album. I do have an album coming out. It is another thing still to be approached by a booking agent with an invitation for Class ProJect to perform at such and such venue on such and such date. I do do shows every chance I get. But all of these experiences can't compare to the feeling that I got after hearing Ryan's kind words on our mixing efforts. The main difference is that people who mix well, usually have a piece of paper that says that they should know how to do so. I do not. This was the first time that I had received any sort of "validation" for my efforts as an audio engineer. It felt good.

Second, Knomad and MC Lee finished the artwork for the album yesterday and sent it to our mass duplication company today. Here's what it looks like:

Here's the what the actual CD will look like. I'll show the rest as soon as I find out how to convert .tiff files to .gif files. Noah'll probably do a whole blog post on them (*hint, *hint, Noah).

Third, we booked our second show for the week that we will be in the Los Angeles area. Now, in addition to our show at the Majestic Ventura Theatre on 7/7/07, we will be opening up for Midnite Theory at the Malibu Inn Bar on July 11th. We'll be going on stage around 10ish. hit me up for tickets to either.

Lastly, Class Project's long-awaited trip on the 2007 Pursue the Passion Tour is only four days away. While it officially begins on July 2nd, we do not actually take off out of Phoenix until the 4th of July. This will be the beginning of a 3 month, 14,000 mile journey to document career stories and rock crowds all around the country. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that we will never forget.

What may seem like a lot to occur in a small amount of time is actually just our collaborative efforts coming to fruition all at once. I never thought that anything like these things were possible. Looking back on all of the hard work that went into all of it, I now see that we MADE these things happen. I believe that possibilities are only as limited as one allows them to be. All truisms aside, what is truly rewarding about my current situation is that I never really listened to anyone, myself included, that shot down the work that went into accomplishing these feats. I sincerely believe in everything that I am doing with myself right now. that might be the first time that I truly feel that way. And just like hearing Ryan's kind words earlier today, it feels good.

Rap Academic

            Does rap music have a place in the classroom? It's a valid question. The knee jerks toward no. Racist, misogynistic, violent and counter-cultural texts are rarely examined without vital context from a professor, and I dare not speculate as to the context in which MIMS(MUMS?) will someday be posthumously put.

           

            I got to thinking about the legacy of my craft after reading an article in National Geographic, which is not exactly my default source of inspiration in hip-hop. I stared at the "Hip-Hop Planet, p.100" on the cover of the magazine, then read it with the suspicion of a particularly contentious auto mechanic reading a hyperbolic review of what he knows to be a lackluster Chrysler 300.

            James McBride is a writer and jazz musician from NYC. He's also black, which I admit adds credibility to his voice. Having seen "Rapper's Delight" performed in a living room also qualifies him well. The tone of Hip-Hop Planet is apologetic. It is a fifty year old man coming to grips with the reality of a global movement that has passed him by, and even further, that he watched it as he went.

 

            Four years after Mr. McBride received his master's in journalism from Columbia, I was born. In middle school I heard BIG, Nas, Jay, and Wu-Tang. High school brought alternative rap, in the form of living legends and Atmosphere. Now I choose music not by genre, but rather by the whimsical musing instant gratification so precious to this, the digital age of music and reason.

 

            If rap is the soundtrack of my life, the viewer is experiencing serious cognitive dissonance. I do not look to music to embolden my struggle. The entire body of rap music says nothing about who I am, or where I came from. It the first, but not the only, musical genre to which I claim fan-ship. Yet even I know clear as day that at its roots, Hip-Hop is the most significant cultural movement of our time, but if it does not soon become popularly considered so we will lose our opportunity for first person perspective, and rely on hindsight some time down the road.

 

            Does rap belong in the classroom? Yes, if only to teach rhythm, meter, rhyme, cadence, enjambment, etc. I do not, however, know a teacher, nor a textbook, who authoritatively places NWA in the framework of race tensions in Southern California during the 1980's. Many articles have been published, but they are often obscure. Hip-Hop histories teem with "beef 'tween east and west coast," but rarely examine the socio-economic conditions of the Bronx in 1980.

 

            Yes rap belongs in the classroom. Rap music (DJ + MC) is a model of American ingenuity. Why throw out the old when it can be reused? DJs borrow the best from any song, which in turn creates not only a new song, but also a new identity (positive or negative) for the borrowed song. Rap invades, and it asks no permission to leave its footprints everywhere.

 

            We stand on the edge of history, in the humble terms of hip-hop. If we do not consider literary hip-hop culture, it will cease to be something we can study. Rap has no identity, but rather affects and distorts the identity of its surroundings. It permeates everything. If we don't focus and notice it now, for what it has been, is, and will become, then we risk entering a Hip-Hop dark age devoid of a valuable history.

Thusly It Begins.

One month ago I was stressing a paper titled "El Uso de las Formas de Tratamiento en la Telenovela Mexicana Marina" for my Spanish sociolinguistics class. Two weeks ago I was stressing the LSAT. Today, I find myself a professional musician. Oh the difference a month can make.

As Class Project prepares to embark on the 2007 Pursue the Passion tour I find myself reflecting upon exactly what has brought me to this point. Five years ago I'd never written a song. 12 months ago I'd never performed live. In two weeks I leave on a nation-wide tour. Of all the things that have passed between I can say only that they fundamentally shaped the person I am today, and who I will be in the future.

Goodbye is rough. D-Web left, after a half-decade under the Tucson sun, and the place is not the same. The dynamic nature of a place is never fully realized until the dynamic pieces start going instead of coming. It is one thing to deal with an influx of new people, but to watch their exodus is an entirely different beast altogether.

As I prepare to leave my home, my friends, my family and the city I have known for 23 years, I find solace in nos vemos. When I left Argentina after a six-month stay I was a wreck. Through mutual tears at the Ezeiza International Airport, my friend Julian said:
No hay adios ni hasta luego. Solo nos vemos. Nos vemos pronto.

There is no goodbye. Only we will see each other. We will see each other soon.
There are no goodbyes, only new hellos inspired by the greatness of every one that came before.

We'll see each other soon…

"Class Trip" Tour 2007 and Thank You's

This summer, Class Project will be touring the country working as journalists for www.pursuethepassion.com, a motivational website for aspiring business professionals and people looking to make a career change. During our down time, we will (hopefully) be doing shows in many of the 25 cities that we will find ourselves in over our 90 day journey. The summer showcase entitled "The Class Trip Tour" will take us more than 14,000 miles across the country to promote our freshman album effort entitled, "The Rough Draft LP." Our tour starts off with a show on July 7th (7/7/07) at The Majestic Ventura Theatre in beautiful Ventura, California. From there......uh......I'm not reeeeally sure, but we've got some things in the works and hopefully a lot of things will just fall into position. I'm sure that they will. They have to, right? Guys? GUYS?

Luckily those who support Class Project (or just Noah and I) are amongst the most helpful and proactive people we'll ever meet. A far cry from the apathy which hangs over us with everything not involving recording or performing music (and writing for your website Mr. Farmiloe). That being said, we've got a show in the works with Hey Champ! an electronica fusion group based out of Chicago, Illinois....a hearty thank you to Mr. Hank Weber for that one. Christina Haynes has been working her ass off for us trying to not only get us shows, but also hooking us up with fans, and even a merch dealer who is willing to help us distribute Class Project t-shirts over the internet. For this will we forever be thankful of her. Equally notable are the efforts of my friends and family (and long-time supporters) selling tickets for me out there in Thousand Oaks. JV, Local Legend, Deezy, Momma, Bryan, Brunz Runz.....we couldn't do it without you. Literally. We won't even be getting into Ventura County until a couple of hours before show time and we have 60 pre-sale tickets to get rid of at $10 a piece. A hard sell I know, but its amazing how down you all are to help us out. It is extremely appreciated!!!

As for the rest of the tour, its all kind of up in the air. With all of the stuff that I've been doing to help out with and ensure the success of the Pursue the Passion 2007 Tour, Class Project has unfortunately taken a backseat as of late. With only 3 weeks left until we leave (we take off on July 2nd) we have our work cut out for ourselves. I've jokingly said this before, but "it wouldn't be a Class Project if it wasn't done last minute." I don't doubt that we will be able to pull it all together. We always do.

- J. Foxx