Fabolous has always looked out. When my very first official single “Used 2 Be” was released, he lent his talent to a then unknown artist looking for a break. More recently, he featured on “Addiction” and showed up for both videos. When I heard his album was almost finished, I made it a priority to get him into the studio so that I could reciprocate his good will:
I picked up the talkbox the night before my SOB’s concerts. I’m still learning how to get the sound I want from it, so I’m always practicing with it in sessions. The riff I’m playing was just for fun and is only recorded in the video footage. Keri Hilson happened to be in an adjacent room and stopped in to hear what I was working on. Glad she was inspired to touch the record. Her talent is clearly evident. Shout out to Funk Flex, DJ Clue, Duro and Lenny S for appearing in this post and continuing to support me & NextSelection.
There are only a few big studios left in New York. Sony and the Hit Factory closed a while ago, and Right Track on 38th just closed as well. Though I have my home studio, there’s a certain magic in knowing that there are other creative people in the same building in different rooms making records. “Precious” happened exactly that way. I ran into Jim Jones in the lobby of Chung King one night and minutes later he had ordered some keyboards and a guitar for me to the room in which he was working. We did this over two days. The second day, I came in fresh off the red carpet of a Valentino fashion week event. I believe one of the best aspects of music is its ability to bring people together. Shout out to Damon Dash and Jim Jones for valuing my creativity. You can get the single from iTunes now by clicking here.
When you make music, it’s rewarding when an artist is excited enough about what you’ve created that they want to make an investment in exposure. This includes spending on radio promotion and in the best case, a music video. I introduced my friend Armen to Dame and Jim and I believe he brought a great sensibility to this clip. We shot this as an outro to Jim’s current single “Blow The Bank”. His album drops Tuesday. Special thanks to my girl DW for coming through in the clutch even though her agency restricts her from appearing in music videos. Enjoy:
This video is about 12.5 minutes long so make sure you have the time to let it load and watch all at once. Here’s the back story:
I was booked for this gig in Morgantown, West Virginia on Friday, March 6th. I arrived at the airport that morning only to find that my flight to Morgantown was cancelled. Not delayed – cancelled. My resourceful road manager, Shiv did some negotiating at the ticket counter and was able to get us (me+shiv+my band+evan) on a flight to Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh is about an hour’s drive from Morgantown so we called the show’s promoters and asked them to arrange a car. Long story short, we arrived in Pittsburgh to learn that the driver they’d arranged had some other obligations. We had two options – rent a car at my expense or wait for 2.5 hours at the Pittsburgh airport. Rather than possibly miss soundcheck, I chose option one, rented an Expedition from Hertz and drove myself to Morgantown.
We made it to soundcheck, ran a few songs and though I was concerned that it would be a challenge to fill a venue of that size, I brushed it off and resolved to give my all no matter the situation.
Back at the hotel before the show, I passed the time working out a set list for my gigs at SOB’s. As the night wore on, I got the feeling that we had some issues. First, the promoters called Shiv and pushed the call time to midnight (a full two hours behind schedule). Then, Wale hit me from the venue to say that the money situation was “iffy.” When midnight came, my concerns were validated as the promoters pulled up to the hotel. They were 80% short on our back-end fee.
My gut told me to do the show. I’d paid for my band to rehearse. I’d paid for our flights. I’d paid for the rental car. I was in West Virginia missing a conflicting gig in Paris. Most of all, I knew there had to be people who had paid to see me and had waited since the doors opened.
When I finally hit the venue, Wale had the crowd rocking. When he finished his set, it was past 1am and people were tired or wanted to hit the club so many of them left during the 15 minutes it took to plug in and set up. The ones who stayed were expectant and supportive and witnessed this freestyle live at the end of my set:
I’ll always remember this moment and am posting it for everyone who has ever had a dream clouded by circumstance. Know that you can clear the clouds and focus your energy on realizing that dream – even if the scale is smaller than you desire at the time. Make every moment count. Thanks for reading and watching. I love you for that.
I’ve been writing some new songs and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy watching records come to life with a band. This one is called “Zodiac” and I wrote it after my album was turned in. You can see me singing parts as I hear them in my head for the instrumentalists. Based on this rehearsal, it’s a strong contender as a bonus number in the set list for my shows on March 11 & 12. The energy is magnificent:
Shout out to Travis (keys), Dwayne (bass), LeShawn (drums) and Chris (guitar) for KILLING this.
I recorded this record with Slim a few months ago on my birthday (Sept. 25). It just so happened that he was celebrating his birthday on that same day as well:
I happened to be shooting a fashion story for Vibe magazine earlier in the day with four of the girls from my first “Addiction” video. Two of them, Gaye McDonald and Jeneil Williams, accepted our invitation to sit in on the process as they had the evening free. I also invited DJ Clue to the studio. When he likes a record, I can get an early co-sign and a commitment on some influential radio spins. The version I played him included my original rap verse (the album version features Fabolous). Slim’s deal as a solo artist is through Asylum Records, headed by Todd Moscowitz. You can hear and see Todd at the end of the clip predicting that this record would be a hit. Last week Slim moved over 430K downloads of “Good Lovin” on iTunes. Todd was right.
So much to write about this video. First, I had a concept that I shared with Shiv and the two of us fine tuned it into a treatment. I shopped it to some directors and when they told me how much they expected it to cost ($200K), I decided to direct it myself to give my staff an incredible learning experience. Two weeks into the planning and production process, I ran into Tyson Beckford at the G-star fashion show and invited him to direct the video with me. I could write a book about the production of this video – scripting, rehearsal, styling, filming, editing, sound design, color-correction… Instead, I’d like to focus on three themes:
1. You can do anything you decide to do as long as you have the resources and relationships to do it.
2. Don’t worry about your figure, outward appearance, or financial status with regards to your personal relationships. If someone loves you – they will love you as long as you are a good person on the inside. That goes for friends and lovers alike.
3. When you have something good, it’s inevitable that people will want what you have, and some will even try to (and succeed at) taking something you’ve worked hard to achieve. Your response? Achieve higher heights and greater success.
This is a big one for me. God bless and much love!
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