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.