#StoriesAboutSongs

7 - 3rd Down Instrumental by RedefineHipHop

5 - Same To Me Master Instrumental by RedefineHipHop

These are dark times

Ripe for some from the heart rhymes

Here’s mine, heartbreaking like the prison pipeline

It’s fight time, late news if you’re just now seeing the clues

A REMINDER for those who I am passionately speaking to

We can do anything we truly strive for

We live through some hard times, fighting these mind wars

I find FLAWS in self then I alter my views

Like water; fuse with any state you could possibly choose

This is my BLUES, anxiety is eating time more

I REFUSE to walk this world hindered by blinders

Keepers or finders, resulting in a plus or a minus

I trust I’m the finest person I could be in this moment

No question, my kindness known to be my prime opponent

This rhyme, I wrote it thinking of my FINAL moment

That time I don’t know it, you see, death doesn’t need a motive

I need to focus, third wiseman, he’s devoted (a poet)

The seed I’ll sow it, to see the mysteries decoded

My needs compulsive, passion as vast as an ocean

My love explosive, balanced doses of pure emotion

Here’s to hoping, we can pick up our pieces together

This is a letter…. whiting out the red in the ledger

Whiting out the red in ledger

Yeah, writing what you read in the letter

Low fruit or high risk, grow through a crisis

Or cave to your vices, lose sight of what life is

It’s priceless what you can learn from what the price is

I write THIS in a state of being that feels lifeless

The MIC IS my confession booth, the truth’s timeless

Despondent but still hope that I’m known for my kindness

And guidance, and never choosing finance over science

So let me smell the roses while the sun shine on my iris

Is this some form of a cure or just a virus?

Disguises; the devils game plan to surprise us

I realize this, hence all the effort and the wryness

I’d define this as a time capsule of where my mind is

Thoughts transition to words under prime conditions

Primal visions, rhymes that arouse suspicion

A mile a minute, I guess the direction’s intended

But then again, time and distance doesn’t measure commitment

Or consequences, we only catch the truth through glimpses

The proof’s expensive, cost your peace of mind, plus interest

My brain’s a prism, I went from pot to piston

You got to listen to fully comprehend my mission

I fought the system, sometimes all you gain is division

At times it feels like it was all for naught

But I sought for wisdom

NOT permission

My rules were written

By the same person riding the rhythm

I rhyme with conviction

Inaction is not a decision

It’s its own wormhole, which is not so forgiving

The fallen has risen, reborn with ten times the ambition

From crawling to sprinting, let my chest rip through the ribbon…

In record time, and now it’s on a record and spinning

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

Ending or beginning

Befriending or pretending

Giving or lending

Grimacing or grinning

Endlessly preparing, this is a planned flaw

I’m oversharing, in contrast to man’s law

So I ask ya’ll, what’s the last straw? What do you stand for?

The answers help me tell the coons from the panthers

A hint of what their stance is, a bettering of chances

Unsettling enhancements, improvements, advancements!

As sands shift, time is aligned with the planets

And the rhyme…walks a fine line like semantics

Childish antics are not the way I choose to emote

But I’ll admit, denying it's a slippery slope

The world’s cutthroat, I’m on my last dose of hope

Or so it seems until the next song gets wrote

The wrong approach is not the route I choose the most

When views oppose, I find a way to juxtapose

For friends, not foes, yeah, let’s just suppose

It’s a must that a bust these flows

My muse is prose

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

In record time, I’m still expecting mine

I’m next in line while I’m still perfecting rhymes

Beat from Craig Mack's "Project Funk Da World" Album Interlude

Improvised + Edited & Performed by 7X3=21

Engineered by Serious

Photo Image Licensed courtesy of Picfair

So, Thursday night I happened to randomly listen to Craig Mack’s “Get Down” on the Project: Funk Da World album. And, let me say first that I was fan of Craig Mack, but not just from the singles that were hits. For example, my favorite on the album was “When God Comes”!

Anyway, the start of “Get Down” has this dope beat that is just an intro that Craig Mack speaks over, and I was always disappointed he didn’t rhyme to it, and then, maybe I”m tripping, but I couldn’t think of anyone rhyming to it, so I got curious how it would sound. But if I forgot and someone who did rhyme to this, please remind me, so I can hear that too!

Craig Mack talks over pretty much the whole beat, so I just quickly “chopped” a couple small pieces of the beat and stitched them together, and then did a long improv rhyme session and wrote down the parts I liked, and then stitched them together, and did some slight editing, to create this.

I wanted to tap into my MC energy from ’94, especially when I would do more abstract styles, and I tapped into the energy of a lot of favorites of that time; Craig Mack (R.I.P), Easy Moe Bee’s production, Wu-Tang (esp GZA, Rza-beats/rhymes, Ghostface, and hints of ODB), Parrish Smith (beats/rhymes), K-Solo (style), Redman, Digital Underground, as well as some of the early pioneers of these types of styles; Sir Ibu and Divine Force.

All that said, I don’t know who produced this, I’m assuming Easy Moe Bee (??), but anyway, I don’t own the rights to this obviously, so not sure how long this will or can stay up, but I just did it for fun and wanted to share, and celebrate the ’94 greatness Craig Mack and Easy Moe Bee…

-7X3=21 (transmitting live from ’94…you suckers!)

LYRICS:

Now here’s the problem with these suckers that be trying to front

They getting on my bad side, which ain’t what they want

And just ONCE, I make the rhyme of the rhyme of the month

(The Source)

Rhyming to funk, or whatever (bleep) I want

I said want twice, I guess you could say that’s the price

Of letting emotions run rampant, put my soul my ice

My hold my on mics, not just tight, it’s vice

This grip wouldn’t slip if you doubled your price

I’m outta your range, you could soy that I’m proud to be strange

My personal gains, based on what I put my brains

Could I explain the way I wrote the rules to my game?
Sadly no, it’s natural like the blood in my vein

What has became of mankind

Feels like the planet’s insane

Reason in chains, fighting demons like Sutter Cain

Like sudden rain, sometimes you gotta plan ahead

Man or myth? Yeah, that’s a random switch

A phantom glitch, as common as pants (?) legs

That’s not an error, more like, water under the bridge...

Something To Say [Mastermix Edits By Freddy Fresh] by RedefineHipHop

Songbird (The Sound Unseen) Instrumental by RedefineHipHop

Meditational Chaos Instrumental by RedefineHipHop

These are the sounds of some neighborhood birds in Douglasville, GA, captured in approximately an hours worth of field recordings, that were then edited, blended and tweaked with effects in Ableton. As for the process...

I'm at my parents house currently, and so once I decided to make this EP dedicated to the bird(s) I became more determined to capture a good field recording of it. After failing a few times with the phone, I invested in a reasonably priced tool made specifically this task, the "Tek Bird Recording Observing Listening Device Extreme Sound Amplifier Ear Bionic", as Amazon simply names its, and connected that to an old digital recorded I had for doing interviews. After spending a few hours outside, over all sorts times of early mornings and middays, I was able to capture a variety of songs from the bird(s), often with its neighborhood associates chiming in as well. I went through all the bird sounds, about an hours worth, and find short little song parts to make one bar loops of, then I sent those to Serious for him to clean them up best possible. Then, they were sent back to me and I sprinkled them throughout every song, except the first and the last song. In the first song, I ask the question, "How to get that songbird to sing?", so I'm setting up trying to capture the bird's songs. Then, for the last song, that's my form of meditation, so most things outside are blocked out, but then the EP ends with the "Songbird Symphony", which is a collage of my bird field recordings featuring the birds of Douglasville, GA. I hope they are ok with their music being shared in such a way. I will sit outside and play it for them today too...

Oh, and AFTER I finished the project, my curiosity finally got the best of me and I started to search and see what type of bird it was. After spending a good part of an afternoon a few weekends ago, listening to online clips to all the most common birds in Douglasville, GA, I narrowed it down to three possibilities, or maybe combination thereof (listed from most likely to the least), Carolina Wren, Brown Thrasher (or maybe another type of mockingbird)), or the Northern Cardinal.