Talk Is On Clearance, It's Cheap

One of my fellow artists in Duval, the young Urban Champ says in the nicest way that I tend to be "opinionated". I take it as a compliment. I've been pretty consistent on the Duval Scene (and I use the term 'scene' loosely) in my music, personality, and writings. If you know me, you know me through my writings as well as my music, or maybe even a face-to-face conversation. I've worked with many on the scene, and some I consider family even when my behavior hasn't been the best. Bluntly put, I have been an asshole at times, no other way to put it. But I'd like to think that I'm consistent and honest. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to be a jerk, but being blunt and saying too much is preferable to someone who says one thing and does another. I abhor hypocrisy. But something I have said in my blogs before: I would rather be hated for what I truly am than be loved for something I'm not.

Relationships change over years. Duval is not that big, and after time your reputation will precede you in certain situations. I am not the most popular person in any given room, but in most rooms you can find someone that I've helped on occasion. One of my closest and longtime friends, David Robinson (@fromduval), we've not always seen eye-to-eye. We are both headstrong individuals, but we've learned to work together over the years. I truly appreciate the differences between us now and learned the benefits of having someone around that has a different opinion from me.

My brother @tza_unlimited wrote a blog about wanting to bring together like-minded individuals and help the music scene come together. This is something we've attempted on different occassions, and it's not easy. You'll fail more times than you will ever succeed, but it's still a noble cause. Part of why I'm able to work with D.R. is that I realize that I'm not always right and that sometimes someone else is going to have a better perspective than I might. I am not infalliable. It would be nice if some other people would or could realize that themselves.

I'm being very roundabout in what I'm saying because I don't want to call anyone out, that's not going to bring the scene closer together, but I gotta point out that actions speak louder than words. If you really want to help people, you'd do it. If you have a bunch of bullshit you want to sit around and argue about, you'll do that too. Tza summed it up very succintly:

"I personally don’t have any reasons not to reach out or this blog would not have been posted, persons such as yourself or anyone else taking the time to read this and interested in having a go at it should take steps to clear up any concerns if truly interested in working on something. Otherwise continually commenting on the complexities is no more than an effort to hinder what I’m trying to do."

Some will come under the guise of helping you, but have their own personal demons they need to exorcise. I've worked with dozens of artists in Duval over the years. The truth is I've never had a problem going back to work with people for professional reasons. I'm good at what I do. David Robinson, DuvalPhatt, Ms. Chanel, Aaron Jr., and Grizzly (the artist formerly known as Blakhart) are people I think will publically vouch for that. The people I've had personal relationships with, well, that's a horse of a different color. I don't make a secret of my life. Failed marriage, cheating, and everything that comes along with that. Anyone who will take issue with you for personal reasons is someone who you really should be careful of, because that's someone with something to hide. People hate in you things that they see in themselves.

Those artists out there who are trying to get ahead, realize that there is strength in numbers. One or two artists can leak out, or we can nuture and develop our own scene and lift us all. If you're a selfish, weak, scared little artist who can't stand the thought of someone else getting more shine than you, continue your backstabbing, back-biting ways and we'll see how far you manage to get. I believe that if people can't find a way to survive in the Duval Scene (which is treacherous at best), you don't have what it takes to survive outside of Duval, because the view only gets worse as you go up, not better. Soon there will be "journalists" who will talk shit about your music, trolls who will stalk your boards to post hateful shit about you to fulfill their own sense of self-worth, and haters who will hate on you for nothing more than the fact that you have what they want.

I have learned to appreciate the people that hate on me, because infamy is the same as fame to me now. Hate is my battery acid. It powers me. I've accomplished much in the past few months because I ain't addressing the hate, I'm recycling it. Turning it into something useful. If you're wasting time hating me, I'm going to give you some serious advice: don't waste your time. Go find your Dharma and move on. Spend more time accomplishing your goal instead of trying to block someone else from theirs.

And if you really want to help the scene, put out the best music you can. Work with those you can, and keep it moving. Don't waste a second trying to pick fights in blogs. If you're done, be done. It's disappointing when you know people are capable of so much more.

-ere'bodee's favorite mega, blogninja