Exhaustion & The Goal

I have my days where I don't feel like doing anything. Those are usually the days that I end up doing something major or something major happens for me. Sometimes I feel like I'm being overlooked then when I least suspect it, someone recogninzes me for my music and my efforts. The Goal is simple: capitalize of great heartfelt music. I can't give the details because again, the game is to be sold and not told. If you're on the team then you already know the plan. If you're not on the team then you can spectate. If you wish to join the team then we welcome all positive contributors. I've spent time at home the last few weeks not going out unless it was on business but I've started venturing out again. Trips are tiring but well worth it for The Goal. Some people don't want to take the trips I HAVE TO TAKE but then again, maybe I have bigger goals than they do. Nonetheless, my goal isn't about me and I'm not that much of a self-centered person to think it is. Doing hole-in-the walls to real concert venues has been a great ride and Lord willing I'll continue to do so in my quest of reaching The Goal. Praise God. Moolah.

This Ain't Back In The Day

You know how people romance about how Hip-Hop used to be when people paid dues to get on? You know how they say people had skills back then in The Golden Era? You know how they say music had more substance back then? Well, there was a lot of greatness back then but people's judgment gets clouded in mediocrity. The reason people paid dues most of the time to get on was because the big homies or people in position had the resources. A lot of those people in Hip-Hop then would've probably got out on their own if they had the resources to do so. For example, some people believe there are too many rappers and not enough fans because everybody thinks they can rap. Ok, do you think you were the only person influenced by your favorite rapper? True anybody with the resources to buy a real mic, ProTools, a session board or inbox and some insulation can record at home. However, it's what you do with those recordings that make you a professional. People knock novice rappers all the time. I tell them to do their resarch, keep working and stay humble. Once you swim in the real waters, people will try to eat off you so put yourself in the best position to eat off them as well.
Lenny S told me your internet presence has to be respected and known. Your street presence musically has to be known to if you're in Hip-Hop or at least get millions of people in non-urban areas to like what you do and acknowledge it. I know real DJs that support good music that's presented professionally. However, there are $50 dollar deejays that mess up the art of deejaying. $50 DJs don't care about mixing, blending, scratching or loving music. They'll play for $50 a gig and charge independent artists $50 to play a record once. I despose $50 deejays because they're culture vultures. Everybody gotta eat but respect the game and I'll respect your hustle. After meeting Kool Herc in Miami, I despise $50 deejays even more. You have your beat makers vs producers. Beat makers just make beats and try to sell them to anyone. Producers will sit down, create a track for you and with you based on how the music FEELS. I work with producers. I will beat jack a beat maker and be proud of it. GTFOH. See, there are more avenues in Hip-Hop than ever before but one has to be smart with it. Back in the day people had backing from record companies to develop. A&Rs scouted talent and developed it. Now they sign someone with a buzz, peep their hustle then decisde whether or not to try and put The Machine behind it. We can romance anout back in the day all we want but it's exactly what it is: The Past. Take what you can from it and build your future from it. Peace. Praise God. Moolah.

This Is Not A Game

The big homie put me onto some game that I can't FULLY share because it's to be sold but it involves numbers. There are 32 teams in the NFL with 53 spots. The NFL draft is 7 rounds each year so multiply 7 rounds by 32 teams then figure out 53 roster spots. What does this have to do with Hip-Hop? If you can't figure out the parallels then you might be kinda dense. In St. Louis, niggas are gunning for one spot. Personally, fuck that spot. I am interested in building the maximum capital for Team Voltron. We're taking the necessary steps in building that capital but some fools are more interested in "making it" as a rapper. The fuck outta here with that! Are you thinking as a businessman or a rapper? We got the bars and the music so why would we worry about "rapping". I put my homie onto the info I got down in Miami and I put some nigga on to where I was and why I went. I don't know if it went over his head or what. Fuck trying to make it out of St. Louis. Get out of St. Louis and do it. Miami was a business trip and people think this is a game. It's not a game. It's a business ofgoods, supply and demand. People demand great music so supply the goods all while maintaining your spot out of 53 players on 32 teams with rookies coming in every year. The rest of that shit I learned in Miami is to be sold. Thie blog told you enough if you break the numbers down. Peace. Praise God. Moolah.

The Community

So I rocked a show in Chicago last night. The heads in Chicago really welcomed my crew and showed us love. They didn't even know we came up to do the show from St. Louis until I said something about and they looked at my Cardinals cap. We represented and came back to the crib. I get back and my battle emcee friends are going back and forth about who's the nicest. My homies with established fanbases are talking about unity and I'm on the same page. The way it used to be was politics and bullshit as usual. Now it's about the music, bringing something to contribute to the table and not being a douchebag. If your business is good we'll fuck with you but no matter how good your music is now, we won't fuck with you. I love the sense of community we have in St. Louis now. People are collaborating and fucking with each other based off the quality of music being created here. Anybody trying to shine while ostracizing the rest of the scene here gets outcasted. That's the way it should be. We're all trying to get to the top but at the same time be good people in the process. So, the upliftment of our musical and civic community is the focus as well as getting paid. Praise God. Moolah.

Me And The Project

I'll take the time to actually promote music instead of spamming like lazy douchebags that play with this music do. As you can see my name is Ducky Hines. I make music. The music I make is called backpack trap hop. I grew up on Highland Ave & Goodfellow when I was little. My whole family was on that block. When I was a toddler I spent most of my time with both of my parents. My childhood was split between the old block and Dellwood. Later my life was primarily in Dellwood but I always came back to the old block, still do though most of my friends I played with are long gone and don't come back. I can't blame them. The West Side I remember as a kid is gone and it's worse. I teetered between sports and street life, mainly basketball and making enough money to get fresh. Occasionally I kept an extra arm to protect me from the goonies when I couldn't box my way out. Enough about me. This is about THURRRZDAY NITE LIVE, my passion project of the last year with DJ Shad of TraKCbanga DJs. Oh, and my emcee influences are Biggie (RIP), Busta, Jay, Pimp C (RIP) and most Golden Era greats. 1) TNL Intro - I destroyed Darth Vader's theme and yes, I am a real Jedi. 2) Break It Down feat Mos Precious - it's the story about a girl I met a couple years ago, a tall stallion chick with a really thick body that could dance her ass off. I love this song. It's #9 on DJ Sir Thurl's Loud & Clear at http://www.stlmixtapes.com 3) Moolah On My Mind - it's about how I think about money, simple as that. 4) Capital Of Hate - it's about the music scene, crooked cops and these backwards clown-ass rappers here in St. Louis. The song was inspired by a trip to Chicago. I was literally driving down Pulaski jamming LEP Bogus Boys. It made me think of home and I turned it into something of mine. Shoutout to Moonie and Count though. Don't Feed The Killaz vol 3 is my shit. Gotta Give credit where it's due. #midweststandup 5) Fresh All Day feat Zone Caleone - it's about what we do: have fun, get fresh and party on hood shit. I'm not trying to save Hip-Hop or any of that crazy shit. I'm just giving a microcosm of my life. For the rest, holla at me April 28, 2011. Praise God. Moolah.

The Venitians

This is not a post about blinds. It's about women. Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars...get the fuck outta here. Women and men are different but women are different in their experiences, approaches and feelings. You have your super-sensitive women that would not hurt a fly and you have your uber-bitches that feel domination is the only way to live. Now, for me to call all women one thing and generalize is asinine. I am going to merely post about women in  my experience. I've been technically single since December 2007. Now, somebody (a fool out their rabbit-ass mind) may think one needs a girlfriend to get pussy. (I'm grown and this is MY BLOG, get over it) That is totally wrong. Since I have been single, I have not had to try very hard to get pussy. Getting pussy is not my ultimate goal. Getting to know a woman I'm attracted to is. Now, if they choose to use their grown mind and offer some pussy then yes, I'll take it on MOST occasions. If that pussy impedes progress in my lifestyle (my moolah either making or spending) then I will kindly pass for the next pussy. I have not coerced women to have sex with me. I don't have to. I don't even have to chase women as some men do. What I mean by chasing women is doing whatever that woman says in order to keep her happy even if it makes that man broke and unhappy. Some women use the pussy as a bargaining tool. (see Chris Rock HBO special 2008 Kill The Messenger or some shit like that) I don't have to play those games because I know I'm a rare commodity: I'm over 25, I have no kids, I'm a Black Male with a college degree, I live alone and I own reliable transportation. I also dress decent and have musical talent. I'm able to support myself. That is all a blessing and I thank my Lord & Savior for this life. Because of those traits I've encountered women that think because I'm single and I like them, I'm automatically inclined to be their significant other. Then I remind them unless otherwise discussed and agreed upon entering a mongamous relationship that I AM SINGLE. Being single doesn't suck. I can go shoot pool til the wee hours and not have to worry about anyone bitching about how late I stayed out and who I was with. I've had psuedo girlfriends, most recently as of two months ago. This psuedo girlfriend, let's call her SHARONICA or RONICA for short. Ronica is very pretty, has her own hair, likes most of the same music I do, is articulate, has a full time job, her own place and car along with a pre-teen daughter. I could take Ronica anywhere and she'd be cool around my people. On top of that Ronica has a donk. I'm an ass man so Ronica having a donk was a nice bonus. Now, the problem I had with Ronica is that she wanted the girlfriend benefits without the girlfriend responsibilities. For example, she was two hours late for my birthday when I invited her out with friends. I could've flipped out on her but I didn't. I put it in my hat for later. I got hungover on my birthday, she got lost coming to my house and she wasn't happy with me. I got over her not wanting to talk anymore. A couple days later, she called me and we talked. I told her I was more interested in her than the mind-blowing sex we had. Her birthday is a month apart from mine so I bought her a dozen roses, took her to dinner and she was happy. A couple days later I had an event to go to on The East Side. She went out with her cousin, got drunk and drove her ass from U-City to East St. Louis. Not cool. Instead of building with people I needed for business and a damn good time drinking Rose` that night, I took her ass home. I was pissed but seeing as I wanted to be with her, it was an obligation. The next morning at her house I'm watching ESPN and she throws out, "I want some pancakes." I go, "Ok" and keep watching ESPN. Then she comes back like, "Are we going to get pancakes?". I was like, "What?" I previously told Ronica to ask me direct questions if she wanted something from me. She took her saying she wanted pancakes as I should stop what I'm doing to take her ass to get pancakes. I took at is a blanket statement, a declaration. So I asked her, "Well, are you gonna cook some pancakes?" She's like, "Whatever, Ducky". Now she's all pissy a day after I prevented her from getting a DUI because she was BLASTED drunk. Long story short, she wanted to go to IHOP. I'm not an IHOP fan so I wanted to go to Uncle Bill's. Now, she agreed to go since we had to go near my place anyway. After brunch or whatever she's like she feels something is off. That should've been my first clue. I told her everything was cool and went home. Then she had a thing about me starting her car for her in the morning when I slept at her place. 1, she knows I'm not a morning person and she is. 2, I've never heard of such shit. 3, I thought she was goosing. I made her bed more often than she did before I left. I opened doors and pulled out chairs for her. She was selfish. She made it like I was the bad guy when I kept telling her that I wanted to be in a relationship with her. The problem was she was used to running her relationships. I dumped her when she gave lame excuses for missing one of my shows to go out with her same loose-ass cousin. She would say it wasn't working and I'd say it was but this last time I told her she was right and there was no point in me dating her anymore. She was dumbfounded. I told her we were better off as "FRIENDS". She said we couldn't be friends because we have sex. I told her I wasn't interested in sex anymore, especially since I met someone that didn't ask as much with no return. Ronica was a done doodle so she had to go. There was the one girl I worked with that thought she was an exception because she's a white girl with a Double D set and a fat ass. I had to inform her that in St. Louis a lot of those run around so she wasn't as special as she thought. She was used to running relationships too so she had to go once she contradicted herself one too many times. There was the girl that couldn't get over her baby-daddy issues to give me a straight answer as to why I couldn't take her out. Where the fuck they do that at? There was the married woman that loved to have sex and go home to her miserable married life. There's the chick who didn't have her own place or her situation straight but wanted to tell me how to keep my place. She also didn't want me having sex with anyone. I told her she was on some shit I better not get my hands on or it's hustlemania out here. She wanted the relationship where I move out of my place and move into another place with her. I told her that was an ideal situation so obviously that is not going to work with her. There was the chick that didn't give head but expected me to knock her back out. Bitch, you lost your marbles. There was my ex back in 2007 that told me she wanted to be with her son's father but called me three days later saying she made a mistake. I told her she did and I didn't want to have shit to do with her anymore. There's the coworker that says she likes me but can never tell me what she likes about me despite me being an asshole in her eyes. She's 36. Get the fuck outta here. My other psuedo ex is a smarty-art with a doctorate. Yes, and she's older than me with her own house. I met her when she was estranged from her husband. She wanted to jump in a relationship despite all her issues and my "nefarious activities" with characters. I was wild back then but still cerebral. We went on for 18 months. She could cook, clean, and all that but she was too opinionated to the point it irritated the fuck outta me. I had to leave her alone when I took a high-pressure sales job with one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the world. Anyway, I've had my fair share of women and I am not opposed to being in a relationship, a real relationship where I'm happy. It just has to be the right relationship and not just a pretty girl that thinks they got me because they have some "good-good". In the words of John Witherspoon from Boomerang: "Don't get pussy-whipped! Whip that pussy! Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang!" Those wise words have kept me out of having baby-mama drama and all that other bullshit with bad real relationships other cats get trapped in. Also, my dad told me women will trap you if you let them. He's been happily married over 20-something years and faithful to my doll of a step-mother, real shit. So, once the right woman comes along and we can stand each other to be in a happy relationship, I'm off being single. Until then, BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! - Moolah

This Ish Right Heeeerrreee!!!

Right now I'm sitting in a library in Frontenac watching The Show on YouTube and shit like that. It brings me back to what Hip-Hop was when I was younger. This isn't about how people say Hip-Hop was better back then. There were corny mufuckas back then just like it is now. It was just a must that the best of the best went hard at their craft. They also talked about how fucked up the "Rap Industry" is. It seems like most Hip-Hop docs with show footage and performance footage sees even the top dogs complaining about the same shit: labels fuck up, management be on some bullshit, other artists are liars and the same shit going on. The difference is they persevered and made it to the top of "The Game". I fucking hate that term. people say they the hottest in "The Game" and all that bullshit. With the money, time, energy, effort and heart put into this shit it is not a fucking game. It's serious shit and some of us take it more seriously than others because for some, it's all they have. Luckily for me I have a college degree and a nice resume as well as some street knowledge but I take this shit seriously. For some of us it's life and death trying to make it in the Hip-Hop Music Industry as either a performer, producer, manager, videographer or whatnot. Sometimes peoples' feelings get hurt because they feel slighted or money situations are fucked over but that's common shit in "The Game". I invest a lot in it because I love it and I'm serious about it. The people I deal with, friends and/or business associates are serious about it to so that's what it is. - Moolah