Brandon Elliot Smith

I survived.

I've been ghost--obviously--but things are starting to look up for me again. Check this guy out. Brandon Elliot Smith. Amazing on keys, heck of a voice. "I Survived" is one of the best songs I've heard from him, and it's getting radio play. Maybe it's worth calling in...who knows? It's definitely worth listening to.

Brandon Elliot Smith

By the way, because of a certain young lady...it's the time of my life right now lol.

Thanks, Tim!

This came in the mail Saturday in response to the interview seen below. Made my weekend.



Free music? You serious? Hell yea! Lol.

Doesn't stop here, folks. You need this album in your life.

"Authentic art does not compete."

Interview with Tim Dillinger

Today, December 8th, 2008 marks the release of Tim Dillinger's first book, Snapshots: a collection of journal entries, epistles, and other prosaic introspections.

I was able to chat with him about the book on Yahoo IM (endorsements, please--no, really), and the majority of the interview appears unamended here. Tim's book can be purchased in download and print versions at http://www.lulu.com/timdillinger. You could also take the scenic route and go to Tim Dillinger's site; there's a link there that will take you to the book purchase site.

Snapshots is, as the title suggests, a collection of short prose stories, some song lyrics, journal entries, and other lexical arrangements that show the spirit of Tim Dillinger. [Bolding and emphasis below is added by the editor.]

RevKris: ok, so my first question will be for those who may drop by the blog who have never heard of Tim Dillinger, the artist, the writer, the anamolic white boy with some crazy soul
RK: so could you fill them in quickly as to how you see yourself, who you are as an artist, as a person, or whatever you'd like to disclose

Tim Dillinger: i think the easiest way to describe myself is to say that i'm a seeker. i despise boxes and have sought throughout my life and my short career thus far to question the boxes that we put on ourselves and try to place over others. for me, that has meant exploring quite a bit of terrain: asking questions regarding religion, race, sexuality, musicality and culture. In the big picture, my seeking has required that i attempt to find, in embracing individuality, our commonalities.

RK: commonalities in what way?

TD: well, that's where the can of worms opens up. in my mind, the greatest commonality that we have is that we come from the same place. we are spirit. we all have the same creator, regardless of the name that we give him/her. to me, if we can embrace that general premise, the premise that we were/are created in the image of god, then we should be able to agree to disagree about theology, philosophy...the details of our faith.

RK: and faith is one of the first things I noticed that you confronted in "Snapshots"
RK: if I may ask, what was your direction with this book?

TD: originally, i conceived it to be a collection of essays and poetry. the process began and it just didn't feel like a fit to me, as i originally wanted it to be far more essay driven. then i began re-reading my blog entries and journal entries from the past two years and realized that those entries, blended with my poetry, told more of the story i was interested in sharing. so, i began printing them out and kept the essays i felt were most vital (about reba rambo and teena marie, respectively) and began "collaging" the pieces to find their flow.
TD: i was most interested in sharing my journey to find an "integrated " life: something that merges the worlds of spirituality, sexuality, culture and artistry with some sort of balance.

RK: I see
RK: now your journey starts with a very interesting quote...it hit me as soon as I read it
RK: "imagine before you sleep/ dream while you're awake/ sleep to collect the energy to live the dream"
RK: why start here?

TD: well, i wrote that one night while journalling...and i was thinking about how much unconsciousness is encouraged in our culture. we talk about dreams, but never really take action on them. in christianity, people live for an escape (the rapture) and never actualize themselves here in this place. i started consciously dreaming while awake about eight years ago, but what i didn't realize was that i started dreaming while awake all those years ago on the floor listening to reba rambo.
TD: in a sense, i guess you could say, i returned to that child place about eight years ago, where you dream out loud before societal "norms" take that permission away. imagine the things we could accomplish if we never stopped dreaming and consciously living to actualize those dreams...after all, those dreams and visions are all god-given. i've been very blessed to see so many of my dreams already come true....but that has come through not being willing to submit to convention...

RK: well convention typically leads to stagnation and mediocrity, as it's easier to bring everyone down than to raise everyone up
RK: which is why I think it's awesome that you allow your readers to see the world as you did from the very beginning, even if they have the added bonus of the articulation of the idea

TD: well thank you. i was very fortunate to be raised in an era of christian music that is much different than today's christian music. the artists were dreamers and pioneers. there was no genre or real "industry" per se. they were creating the music of their inner most beings because it was what was natural to them. therefore, there was no dogma, no legalism...it was simply a free expression of their individual perspective and experience. reba's work was foundational for me because i would end up dealing with alot of what she wrote about: self-acceptance, the possibility of "i can", and being a child/dreamer in an adult body.
TD: because that music is my first memory, i believe with everything in me that's why i've always seen the world in a very general way from the place that i do now...the difference is i understand more of the details of that perspective now as an adult.

RK: Reba Rambo is one of the first stories you talk about in Snapshots
RK: It's the first actual snapshot
RK: and the story that precedes the picture makes it all the more poignant
RK: what was it like to be standing literally right next to someone who changed your life before you knew it had a direction?

TD: it's an indescribable feeling. it's funny to be a poet and not really have words for what something so monumental feels like. the night that we took the picture in the book was the release of my album, the muse, and i remember sitting right at the stage entrance listening to her and flashing back to being that kid in the living room. it felt completely unreal, yet entirely natural, if that makes any sense at all. perhaps the kind of natural--or real--we spend our lives searching to find...and then when we find it, it feels so real, that it's a little uncomfortable.

RK: a kind of full consciousness?

TD: yes. a remembering of sorts. because i always tell people that i KNEW her before i ever heard her music or met her in person. i've had that experience with a handful of people. i was able to actually put that aspect of it into words this past year with another friend who upon meeting me said "i remember you"...and i remembered him.

RK: I can tell you right now that what you just said is going to throw a lot of people

TD: lol. well, i mean...we have to keep in mind that we are spirit. we have seen it all and been it all before. that's what de ja vus are. simply moments where you "remember". the more work we do to become conscious, they more forefront our spirit can become with our natural bodies.

RK: speaking of spirit
RK: (and by the way, I hope you're enjoying my segways)

TD: (i am...you are brilliant)

[Don't you just love this guy? lol]

RK: There's a picture of you
RK: in which you're standing with a mic in hand in front of a church, to the left of a raised pulpit
RK: you
RK: are standing maybe 10 feet away from the musicians...looking kinda stiff actually (no offense)

TD: lol. yes. lol.

RK: and you talk about--I'm guessing--your first holy ghost encounter?
RK: at least, that's what church folks would call it

TD: yes. the finding spirit essay.
TD: it was another one of those "rememberings". i walked into that church as a teenager and knew that it was home. i remember the feeling as if it happened yesterday and i knew that that place would be intregal to whatever was going to happen next for me. having a place to experience and express what i felt with spirit brought more of "tim" forefront, because there was nothing that i had to hold back. we were a go-for-it, get-loose, get-with-it-right now kind of church...services could go from 11 am to 5 pm when the spirit was high...and being in an environment that didn't just allow free expression in worship, but encouraged it was so freeing to me as a little surpressed kid who felt so much inside.
TD: that experience has made it much more difficult for me to co-exist within the current church structure--even within affirming congregations--because so many churches strive to be the kinds of churches they see on christian television. mega churches. one church i was involved with here in nashville said that he wanted his service to transition like "the david letterman show"...and they wanted to give me 15 minutes to do praise and worship. church, for me, has always been about experience, not showmanship...heck, even my non-gospel show is about experience, not showmanship. i think that again, church has become a corporate experience, and we view the kinds of demonstations i grew up with as embarassing or no longer relevant...and i couldn't disagree more.

RK: so they were basically telling you to think your way through the praise and worship...

TD: they basically wanted a cute, A&B selection: not praise and worship. i had no idea how to do that. i remember they had this huge countdown clock on the wall in the back and they would send someone to hold up their fist if you ignored it. i just kept doing things they way i knew to do them until i was no longer welcome...lol.
TD: praise and worship is something that one must give themselves over to. an intimate experience that serves us the best when we can simply let go...let all of the self-consciousness give way to the rising of spirit within us: which is actually the real us. that realization is why i think pastors seek to so control praise and worship. what would happen if the congregations all began to find their true selves....

RK: the blackberry industry would fall apart completely, because people would start to realize that the best things in life go unplanned by human hand

TD: ah yes.
TD: people have lost connection with their humanity. it's why customer service suffers. it's why people can say such cruel things on the internet. it's the reason people can so easily brush off world events. we forget that we are one collective body...not individual entities with keyboard glued to our hands.

RK: very true
RK: now I have a story for you
RK: because I suppose I could call you a sort of experimental artist, with your searching nature and your openness to the move of the spirit
RK: am I close enough?

TD: yes.

RK: ok good
RK: so this past easter service, I was asked to bring and direct one of the songs for the combined choir
RK: typically I have my own on fourth Sunday, but for big services, we put everybody together and have everybody collaborate--more-or-less
RK: anyway, I decided that I was going to challenge the choir, and slam together Kurt Carr's "Psalm 68" with Ton3x's "Alive" and "Alive 2"
RK: the idea in essense felt like it would have worked, but somewhere in between the end of "Psalm 68" and the beginning of "Alive," things just fell apart completely
RK: the sopranos were supposed to hit an acapella melody and it's like all 15 of them were singing different notes

TD: lol.

RK: some weren't ready to come in
RK: things just didn't seem to go the way I expected or wanted it to go
RK: and I have no IDEA what the congregation must have been feeling
RK: to recover, of course, I did what I know, I took the mic and said "the devil's not gonna win in here today," and we did it again and again until we got it right
RK: but I say all that to say that sometimes when you bring a new sound to an audience, unless you're particularly happy with it and can convince your audience that they should like it as much as you do, it can be a little difficult to get it to them
RK: and I say all THAT because I noticed in that same story that the comfort level of your audience began to drop with the newness that you were bringing to them
RK: has that experience affected you as an artist, and if so, how?

TD: well, there was a huge shift when i came out. people thought i was crazy. my last album (the muse) had done very well and i was in pre-production on my gospel album...and it was like it was just too much for many of the people who had been following me. my quest has always been to be honest and, like so many of my heroes, tell my story through the music...i am not one of those glossy artists who reveals nothing...it all hangs out with me...and this year has been the hardest year of my life. this year, i understood what i felt like to want to die. i understood what it felt like to never want to sing again. i understood what it felt like to resent the gift and the call on my life. i am blessed to have great friends and mentors who "held the space" for me when i just wanted to, and was making every attempt to, walk away from it.
TD: But...in that, and as a result of that, my vision was crystallized...my confidence was returned...and actually came back stronger...It's the ying-yang effect. If on one hand there is such a pull for me to walk away...the flip-side would have to be that there is a great purpose that i have yet to accomplish...messengers were sent to remind me of that...from out of no where...helped me center again...
TD: i have always believed that there is a "tribe" of people that i am called to assemble...people that will "find" the work just as i found the work of my favorite artists...it's a huge part of the reason i am relocating to NYC in just a few weeks...being seated in a place that encourages artistry...where there is a larger stream of people...being able to create in a place, much like that holiness church i grew up in, that encourages individual expression.

RK: this "tribe" you mention
RK: is this the "team" the healer asks about in "the icon's pen"?

TD: no. the "team" that the healer was referring to is like my personal assortment of spirit guides who work on my behalf...everyone has one...they just may not be aware of it. the tribe i am referring to is an assortment of people that will gravitate to the work because they find some identification with it. one of my other heroes, laura nyro, always referred to her fan base as a tribe, because her ultimate goal, as is mine, is to create community: a community of true diversity.

RK: I see
RK: and when you do create this community, where would you fall in? or would you?

TD: well, as an artist, i would simply continue creating and hopefully inspiring those within the community to do the same: to find their voice and expression. my shows are always more of a collaborative effort than something with me as a centerpiece. my background singers are more front singers with me than anything remotely behind me. i have always featured other artists within the context of my shows...so...i hope that i can simply help create the space for others to do the same. i've often toyed with the idea of creating a worship center of some sort, but i don't like the hierarchy of the church, so there would have to be something creative in terms of the structure...

RK: that's a whole new discussion on its own

TD: right.

TD: lol

RK: one last thing I want to touch on with your book (I'm trying not to spoil it but there's so much info in here)

TD: lol

RK: actually, let's talk about the shoutouts at the beginning of the book

TD: ok

RK: the first person you actually thank is "Isis"
RK: what was that about?

TD: well, this past year, i discovered my connection with the Isis/Osiris story via a book called "The Passion of Mary Magdalen" by Elizabeth Cunningham, which landed in my hands at precisely the right moment. I was living a piece of the Isis story and until that realization, the heartbreak I was experiencing made no sense to me. So, I referenced that at the beginning of the book because of how pivotol that experience was/is for me.

RK: Understood

RK: so where can people get "Snapshots"?

TD: people can order it at www.lulu.com/timdillinger and there is a link at www.timdillinger.com that will take them there as well. i'm in the process of setting up some book readings as well, so all of that can be tracked on the site...

…Tim Dillinger has also conducted interviews with the likes of Bishop Carlton Pearson and other talented, controversial individuals. More about Tim Dillinger can be found at his blogspot at http://www.outtheboxwithtimdillinger.com and www.timdillinger.com.

[By the way, Tim gave me some compliments on the blog, and I had to include them.]

TD: i really appreciate what you are doing with your blog, etc.
TD: people need the insight...
TD: so at the risk of cliche, be encouraged.

RK: I appreciate it

TD: you are a great writer.

RK: goes with my long-windedness as a preacher

TD: lol. yes and amen. underneath it all, we're all "bards" and that's what we do. we just love words.

Earthtones!

[There's always a story.]

A couple days ago, my dad was watching PBS, and he called me downstairs repeatedly to check out some of the music that was going on. It was an ode to the oldies: O'jays, Jerry Butler, and the like.

[Yes I'm just now appreciating the O'jays...everybody learns at a different speed, thank you very much.]

I probably didn't show it, because I was trying to prepare a Sunday school lesson for the next morning, but I was actually pretty into it.

So today I was checking out this guy,


And I ran by the page he had in his description.
http://www.myspace.com/earthtonemusicgrp

I Love Music is CRAZY. Enough said.

Snapshots

If you have not heard of Tim Dillinger, you have officially done yourself a great injustice, and I suggest you rectify that by visiting his myspace right away.

I'm serious! Go! Don't even bother wasting time reading the rest of this entry.

But just in case you decided to stick around and finish this first, let me just officially inform you that you need to hear this dude. If iron sharpens iron, then I argue that soul also sharpens soul, and that's what I feel when I hear his voice. I'll go ahead and prepare you: it's a bit unusual. The best voices are.

I got a chance to chat with him about his new book, "Snapshots" (available in about a week), and...

You know how you can tell when someone writes their own stuff? I literally had difficulty keeping to the book within my own mind during the interview, because he's incredibly profound, and he makes you think (which is a bit too real for some Christians, but hey, let me not unnecessarily stir up a blaze...)

You'll find out for real next week. I'll be posting the interview to coincide with the book release.

Until then, find Tim here:
www.timdillinger.com
www.myspace.com/timdillinger
http://outtheboxwithtimdillinger.blogspot.com

It's Here!

Bapostogic mixtape has finally arrived!

(I don't really like the voice on this trailer, but it's interesting.)

I'm gonna have to mull this one over a bit before I write a true review. I like it, but that's not enough for a full review. I will say that of the 20 tracks, my favorites are (in order of appearance):

Gospop Milli Mix
The Blood
The Funky Evidence
A Year Ago 1967
My Father'z House 1962
Make You Happy
Bapost.o.g.i.c

I'll stop right there for now.

I'm on a Jazz tip right now...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis

You know what's awesome?

And I don't get in much to mention awesome stuff.



In case you're not understanding, he's following the ORIGINAL Coltrane sax solo on piano (Motif series keyboard), and later he follows the bass line on the bass guitar while carrying the Coltrane solo.

The name of the song is "Giant Steps" by the way.

Goes by the name of Kevin Wyatt...haven't been able to find much info on him besides this...I'll have to look a bit deeper.

Bad. You hear me? Baaad.

More Ton3x news

It's officially an anachronism to call Anthony Williams II by the name "Tonex" since the release of the Naked Truth Mixtape--or probably even before that, with the release of the song Naked Truth on his myspace page.

The name is now TON3X. Same pronunciation. But "Tonex" is dead, according to an interview by VesselVibe magazine, a magazine I never even heard of until I noticed that Ton3x had it plastered all over his page.

Anyway, the interview is solid. And it's part of the reason Ton3x intrigues me so much...his power, skill, and style as a musician, performer, preacher, etc is something I as a musician can shoot for...for now anyway.

I haven't got my money yet, but when I do, I'm still trying to go buy the Bapostogic mixtape.

Also on the soon to be acquired list:
"Nigger," Nas
"Metropolis: The Chase," Janelle Monae

Shout outs

Ok, I know I haven't been around for this week. I've just been busy with training for PHE (Peer Health Education) from 9-5 all day, and those are my main access hours for blogging. Anyway, finally took a minute to steal away and share a couple of things that were on my mind.

First of all, shout out to the choir. You know who you are.

Let me just say that I'm tired of the bullshit. Straight up. Talking to the director, interacting with members of the choir, watching members of the choir interact, watching behavioral patterns, listening to how they sound on a Sunday morning, listening to how they sound during choir rehearsal...

All in all, it is incredibly fucked up. Back-biting, cracking rude jokes, disrespecting leadership, not standing up for yourself, being fake, being too weak to be strong and too strong to let God be strong, is ruining this choir.

I'm about ready to put y'all on Front Street, because you don't seem to understand how shitty this entire organization is right now. And I'm "cursing" and being real so I don't take any credibility for myself. I wouldn't and shouldn't have had to say anything for you to realize that this isn't right. And I hope you do see it so something will change, though I'm sure nothing will because you've been faking it for the past 4 plus years.

Yea. I said it.

Shout out to David Banner...I guess...



First let me say that there is method to my hateration. Certain songs don't make mention on this blog because they aren't even good enough for me to hate on. For example, this crap.

But anyway, the song was a good idea, and it was a good spin on relationships...granted it had its little commercial "then she sucked my dick" aspect to it, but all in all, it was a good try.

Sample from Weezy's "Lollipop." Good idea. Really. It just didn't work, because first of all, the sample was off pitch from the beat. Secondly, David Banner was on pitch with the beat, so yea...it was weird.

I also think he rode the hook too much, and beyond the first verse, the hook mainly made the song. That is to say, it was riding the success of Lollipop...good idea, probably, but whatever.

You can do better, dawg. And you're smart too.

Soapbox Derby: Gospel Music

A little something to chew on for the weekend. I wrote this maybe a year ago as my "about me" on youtube, and I figured it'd be interesting for you to look at.

"...I selected "Gospel" because it's my driving force. Gospel is how I seriously learned music, and it's one of the reasons I am where I am today. It's where I get a lot of my riffs and chords and what not. I don't, however, like the direction that the Gospel music industry is headed in, and I hate the notion that all "gospel" music is inherently good, because it's all made and grouped by flawed humans. Who are we to even say what kind of music God likes? Know what I mean?

The entire nomenclature of Gospel Music is tricky. The Gospel literally is good news, and is traditionally associated with the overall good news of Christianity: that Jesus is our Savior, died on a cross, was resurrected, and is coming back soon to take His people with him. By that definition, though, a lot of preachers don't preach the gospel very much anymore. Granted, they preach the Bible, and the overarching theme of the Bible is this Gospel story that I described. Yet, preaching verse by verse is not necessarily good news based, especially if someone takes a wrath verse from the Bible and describes God's *bad* news. Know what I mean? And not every gospel song mentions Jesus, but that doesn't mean it loses its ability to minister His name to people.

I just don't think that the genre of Gospel is as untouchable as many people want to make it. Plus, I believe that people can be ministered to through all sorts of other man-made genres of music, because God is not a respecter of person, so He'll work through what He chooses.

In terms of my original tracks (that you probably haven't heard if you haven't been to my myspace page; /revkris) my main goal is to not put the same stuff out that's been out forever, and my influences are any artists who try to be different for a purpose. It's not enough just to be different, because being different just for the sake of being different is about as mindless as falling into the fads, except for the fact that you're now stupid and lonely. :)

But anyway, I'm not just Gospel. And I have no problem saying that. I'm a musician. That's all. But in every note I play, every chord I form, and every song I bang out, God gets the glory. That's what's most important to me."

Ok...

So this makes 3 Jazmine Sullivan-related posts in a row. But this one was warranted.

Check her out at age 11.



Speaking of 11 year old singers...



This is the song Donovan was featured on.

And by the way...

Need U Bad...

I'd like to see this chick tagteam with her on the song sometime.

Dear Ton3x:

(July 17th)
I jus heard naked truf on youtube
and I am mad dat u cuss people out
u r goin 2 HELL!
but im prayin 4 u
in jesus name
take care
bye bye.



He's so freaking weird.

But he's SO intriguing.

Bapost.o.g.i.c mixtape drops August 12th. I'm excited.

He's got 3 tracks from the album uploaded on Myspace. Patient has been up for a while, but now "The Funky Evidence" and "A Year Ago" are now up.

"The Funky Evidence" has some Lil' Mama influence--if you can't tell from the shout-out. But a thing I like about Ton3x is that he can take something you've heard somewhere else and totally change it up. And not just half-way change it up where it's more like a parody than an original song.

"A Year Ago" speaks for itself...actually feels like it's been more than a year ago. I don't think my current pastor was at my home church when Tonex dropped "Naked Truth"...idk. A LOT has happened in the past few months, though, and it's time to take notice.

The man is a genius.

Listing from Zambooie.
01. Opening/Devotion
02. The Black Maverick
03. Heartfixa (f/ Japhia Life)
04. My Attire
05. The Funky Experience
06. A Year Ago
07. Hurts So Bad
08. Hurting Each Other (feat. The Carpenters)
09. Make U Happy (feat. David Cassidy)
10. Hup!, Come all the way (f/ Omega)
11. Bapost.o.g.i.c.
12. Gotta Give
13. Jesus Saves
14. The Difference (feat. Gospel Gangstaz)
15. Change (feat. The Hawkins)
16. Marvelous
17. Glorex
18. Patient
19. Grace
20. The Baton

The review will (hopefully) be out somewhere within the first week of release.

Put up your peace sign.

These two make a pretty good team.

Found on Chaseology.

"Nigger"

Yea...throwing around the word today. As I said, I have minimal problem with the word, because I haven't had much to complain about. If I were to fake the hurt, it'd take the power away from someone who actually does feel the pain on a regular basis.

Anyway...

A few months ago, Nas released a track called "Be a Nigger Too," and honestly, had it been anybody else in the game, I wouldn't have given it thought. But Nas has been a thought-provoker for me since I started listening to him. I actually liked the song so much that I flexed my writing muscles and wrote a quick verse to it. Not even the beat; the song.

Why? Because even if he's not saying what I agree with in the end, he's also not being stupid. He's thinking.

And the thing about it is, you know this is deep because you can't deconstruct it and make sense of it all in the 3+ minutes it takes to listen to the song once. But there is sense in it.

I won't deconstruct it all here for you, because I'm simply not gonna be able to put it all down here, and I don't know if y'all have time to read it. Plus, that wasn't the point of this entry.

The point of this entry is to address the album that released yesterday.

In a single from the album, Hero, Nas basically lets all the listeners know that because of his lawyers and his record label, he will not be allowed to call the album Nigger.

So he just won't name the album.

"This universal apartheid
I'm hog-tied, the corporate side
Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it
First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it
But Newsweek article startled big wigs
They said, Nas, why is he trying it?
My lawyers only see the Billboard charts as winning
Forgetting - Nas the only true rebel since the beginning
Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow
Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel
They can't sing what's in their soul
So untitled it is
I never change nothin'
But people remember this
If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids
With new ideas being told what they can and can't spit
I can't sit and watch it
So, sh!t, I'ma drop it
Like it or not
You ain't gotta cop it
I'm a hustler in the studio
Cups of Don Julio
No matter what the CD called
I'm unbeatable, y'all"
--"Hero," Nasir Jones, Untitled 2008.

On behalf of the real artists out there who have something to say, but have to watch how they say it for fear of offending the people who need to be offended,

On behalf of every preacher who's had to preach to a silent house because people didn't want to confront the truth of their words,

On behalf of every health educator who's been ordered not to tell people--who are going to have sex anyway--to at least strap on a condom for your health's sake,

On behalf of any caged bird who's found the courage to sing through the bars of society,

Thank you for saying it anyway.

Michael Jackson

The man is crazy. The man is probably a pedophile. The man has problems leaving his childhood behind. The man lost his Neverland Ranch. The man has been called a "white woman" on many occasions. The man is...let's face it...weird as hell.

But dang...


the man is a genius.

Breezy

Youtube wouldn't let me embed, so this is from imeem.



I'm a bit late on this one, but I actually kinda like this song. My only complaint is that the producer did too much to Chris' voice on the verses.

But there's been something about love songs for me lately...I can definitely appreciate a good love song. The chord pattern (4-1-5-2) on this song is SO difficult to hate, because it's always been a beautiful arrangement, wherever you hear it. The video...you really couldn't muck that up too much because the lyrics are pretty descriptive.

(Annoying musical jargon approaching)
[What's weird with this song though is that after the bridge, they tried to put the song in rounds--

you remember back in the day when you'd be in music class, and they'd have one group of people start singing a song, then they'd have the other group start singing the song maybe 4 counts after the first group started singing, so everyone was at a different part of the song? You remember...you know you remember.

--Anyway, they tried that here. Or something like it. The chord progression changed to a 1-5-2-4 progression, but Chris' vocals stayed on the 4-1-5-2. With the instrumental, and the fullness of the harmonies in the chorus, I'm not sure it worked out.
(end annoying musical jargon)

In lay men's terms, too much was going on and it clashed.

I will say, though, at least the producer was thinking, and experimenting. I just don't think it worked out the best it could.

It's a beautiful song though, minus that part.

Better in Time? Not quite sure...

The song had potential.



I just don't think her producers know what to do with her voice.

And of course, Simon Cowell brought her out as "the next Whitney Houston"...which I can see because she copies some of their riffs and doesn't demolish them completely.

She can sing. Definitely. She can hit some runs and riffs that a LOT of people in this industry can't. But just being able to sing doesn't help you in the biz. Neither is just getting a fantabulous song, which this could have been.

She's just not hitting her height quite yet. We'll see how things turn out for her. Maybe I should have bought the album...but it didn't appeal. I just wish the industry knew what to do with her voice.

The Naked Truth

Hmmm...

This album will present a lot of problems for a lot of people...or at least those who haven't completely deleted Ton3x from their playlists, and still yearn for the old Tonex.

About a year ago, Tonex (before he became Ton3x) released "The Naked Truth" on his myspace page--I guess people say it was "leaked" because it wasn't promoted. But mind you, this was no accident. This was, in fact, a realease (this was actually a typo, but I think I'll coin it) of the things that Tonex had gone through in the church, in the gospel music industry, and in his life.

The mixtape, however, though 20 tracks long, is not simply Tonex complaining about how church people suck, etc. And I could say that the music is a deviation from what we expect gospel music to sound like...but first of all, I could say that about anything, and secondly, this ain't gospel music. By connotation.

What kind of gospel music tells you that taking advantage of a woman because she's not what society describes as a beautiful woman doesn't make you macho; it makes you an @sshole?

What kind of gospel music has the singer admit "I still smoke weed, did I mention that"?

What kind of gospel music calls church-goers "niggas" and "motherf#ckers"?

It's not gospel music, plain and simple, because gospel music--or the current industry--doesn't allow you much room to be real.

And bear in mind, there is a time and a place for "gospel music." There's a time for inhuman ministry. For example, you may have been to a church where the preachers and choirs wear robes when they minister. And though the robes look intricate sometimes and a bit extra in design, the original intent of the robe (or so I was told) was to serve as a covering to the man, so that the man doesn't distract from the pureness of God's word. Basically, it was so that God can speak as clearly as possible through the minister, and the man is made blank before the congregation.

And as I said, there's a time for that. The problem with the robes, though, is that they take away the human element from the Good News, and can sometimes make it so unreal and so out of reach for listeners, when in actuality, the Gospel story is very tangible. Or at least, that's why I believe it. Because it's relevant. And though putting the Gospel behind a robe purifies it, what we need to remember is that there's a huge part of this Gospel that ain't a bit pure, and it's us.

And that, I contend, is part of Tonex's message. If you took the Gospel for all it was, and not the cookie-cutter ish they feed you on Sundays, would you still be able to handle it? If you really took into consideration that the whore you passed off a few years ago could make it into heaven before you--hell, end up ministering to you--could you still serve our God? If you saw how filthy God's hand had become from scooping so many people out of their mess, if you saw how absolutely effed up it is for us to make a messiah out of a dude that was crucified as a common criminal, a dude that couldn't even breathe long enough for the soldiers to break his legs, could you still bow down and worship? Have you really thought about this mess? Or did you let church folks do it for you? Do you even KNOW why you go to church on Sunday and not Saturday?

So here comes Tonex with this release. And it's so freaking weird at first...but you just have to be patient and let it play out. But it's a true mixtape; everything runs together. And you can dissect the tracks on second listen, but I'd advise you to get a good hour to yourself and listen to it all the way through once. It's a real testament to the talent and creativity of Ton3x. And it takes you on a journey.

He catches us up at the beginning of the album with "Searchin'," which basically depicts his search for his role as a minister, and his freedom in the industry, which is all most of this controversy has been about.

Then, you kinda float through the album...go through the Vintage Galaxy, slide through the Drunk Boy interlude to get to On We Go (featuring E.B. Williams/Mama), suffer some Shock Therapy, etc. It flows.

Then you get to track 19. The title track. What. The. Hell.

It was weird when I first heard it, because I didn't expect it to come so close to the end of the album. It's SO different from everything else. And even though I've heard it and I recognized it (much like many of the songs on here) from stuff he had on his myspace, it was still weird hearing it here. It was like a wake-up call after the rest of the album got you used to enjoying the melodic aspects of Ton3x. After all this, the Naked Truth still snuck up on me and beat the living hell out of me.

And it gave me an idea of how serious all this is. Every song in this album was a different view of the Naked Truth that is Ton3x. The truth about who he is, the truth about his message, the truth about the God he serves...the truth. The naked, damn, truth.

And apparently, Ton3x is pretty secure that he looks good naked. This here's a hit.

Top 5 picks: Elegant Simple, Blairtree Road (listen to this one at least 3 times), The Love, I Noticed (it's an interlude, but listen to what he's saying...lol) and On We Go.

1. Searchin'
2. Vintage Galaxy
3. Drunk Boy
4. On We Go (feat. E.B. Williams)
5. Shock Therapy
6. The Love
7. Bi Our Love
8. Never (Single)
9. Same Ole
10. Take 2
11. Water
12. Creepin'
13. I Noticed
14. Jenny Jones
15. Gone
16. Blairtree Road
17. Elegant Simple
18. Casa De Oro
19. The Naked Truth
20. FREEDOM: Truth