What could be more out of wack than three white men discussing rap music? That’s right. Jesse Stern starts us off with an off the cuff remark about rap music and George Leger III takes over discussing the state of modern rap in Southern California. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of rap I like for it’s originality, it’s beat, it’s wild-blue-yonder approach. Yet listening to George talk about the artists he’s hearing about from the youth group he works with, is definitely an eye opening and mind expanding situation for myself and Mr. Jesse Stern.
Find out my expression and how I react to a group that I’ve never heard of. Actually all the groups that George mentions are groups I hadn’t heard of until he mentioned them. Jesse takes it all in stride. What ended up happening afterwards is that I’m now more aware of some of the new modern rap coming out of Southern California. Not necessarily a bad thing.
What say you? Who is rapping stuff so awesome that you can’t believe they’re not uber famous yet? Give me some names so I can flesh out my measly commercial rap collection.
White Men Discussing Rap
There’s a lot of really cool rap out.
Productionwise it’s so minimalistic.
Uh Hmmm.
That I… it’s like driving on ice.
Do you do a lot of rap?
I do where I work ’cause the kids, that’s what they want to do.
That’s what the kids are doing these days…
They’re not producing music. They don’t even know what music is. Well, that’s not true. I can’t really say that, ’cause… You know. They. It’s been really intriguing with them to try and turn them on to other kinds of music.
Uh Hmmm.
And other stuff because they’re so into this ridged little clique of music. ASAP Rocky, fuckin’ ah, SPM, South Park Mexicans. Yeah.
Is that a band or a style.
That’s a band.
Ok.
I was about to say if that’s a style, it’s way off my radar.
There’s a band down in Orange called FUNK.
They’re just called FUNK?
They’re just called FUNK. And like all the gangsta kids love ’em. They’re all like, I want FUNK man. I hear it. Like who the fuck is FUNK? FUNK is the they’re a band man.
Funk is that guy right there. He got the funk.
Well, they’re, you know. Eh, South Park Mexicans, SPM, there’s like four or five guys, that’s all they talk about when they talk. ASAP Rocky is one of them.
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Give me some more rap to check out in the comments.
Enjoy your day!
– Jody
For those of Unity 42 and beyond who are not aware, I am part of a side project. I had a musician friend come to me wanting to write a sports anthem and thus started a new project. I can say that don’t kick the baby is smart advice, but Don’t Kick The Baby is also the name of the band or rather the project.
What did we do? We wrote a soccer (football for our worldview friends) anthem. It’s called Go Get The Goal. Much like what I did for Do You Want To Play, we did numerous versions for different leagues. So far we’ve covered the US, England and Australia. Coming soon we’ll be doing versions for Latin teams, and then we’ll be going after many more languages and countries. Our goal is to cover the world with a soccer/football anthem.
As of right now 4 of the 7 albums we’ve done are on iTunes and Amazon. Later this week should see the other 3 being released. We’re excited. We’re so excited we have a Twitter handle and an official website as well. They’re still in their early stages. We’d love it if you’d follow us on twitter and tweet about us as well as finding us on Facebook, spread that gospel of soccer.
It’s said that Don’t Kick The Baby is smart advice, but the smarter advice is to get the song then go out and get the goal. You’ll be happy you did. We’ll be happy you did. I’ll be happy you did. It’s a super win situation.
A few days ago I was made aware of a nice little fact that had escaped my awareness. Back in January I was interviewed by SESAC about things I had going on musically. The writer of the article managed to whittle a two hour interview down to a half page write up inside SESAC’s Spring 2012 magazine.
Makes me wish I was the mug on that cover. However, I can understand the desire to go with a well known quantity. Not far off is the day where I’ll be that known quantity – minus all the drugs and abuse. Beside the nice writeup that Tommy Lee gets, I didn’t know he was a SESAC artist until now, there’s a another person inside those pages whom you may recognize. He goes by Jody and you’re here on his website.
Initial feedback that I’ve heard from friends is that the article is really well written and looks great too. One thing I really dig about my P.R.O. SESAC, they are detail oriented and do things with paid attention to that detail.
At this point I know you’re wondering to yourself ‘how do I get to read and/or see this article about you Jody?’
Good question. The answer lies in clicking right here -> SESAC Spring 2012. [or you may have already clicked on the cover image…]
Take a moment to read it, enjoy it, then make me happy and proud by spreading it around. Click on the share button [below] and pick all your favorite services. You’ll feel instantly better when you do it. Right as rain as “they” say. All because you helped a musician inside SESAC’s Spring 2012 magazine get a further reach on the web with your good deed.
More coming soon.
— Jody
p.s. – have you signed up on my email list yet?
Two days ago I spotted a tweet about a piece of music. That particular tweet came from a fan of mine. One that runs a few online radio station types like Blip.fm. She goes under the moniker Jalapno. I’m thinking that’s supposed to represent Jalapeno the spicy pepper. The tweet I’m talking about mentioned a song I recorded last year with my buddy Robert Navarro. It’s about how Morning Rays brighten your days. Two fold there, with the sun coming up meaning the world is still here and if you have a special someone who puts a ray of sunshine in your day.
The song was written by me, but it was done for a library. Therefore I don’t own the rights to it for selling and licensing purposes. Though the more it gets around, eventually the better it is for me and for Robert.
As it stands, look no further than here to hear the song:
Since you’re here reading this post, I’m requesting that you share the post as well as share the video too. Heck, while you’re at it – head to the video page and share some of my other videos. Even better, I’d ask you to purchase my tunes, make a video like this, contact me for a license (it’s important to get as YouTube and other places will likely pull it if you don’t get a license from me) then share ’em on youtube, vimeo, or your favorite video site. I’d like to see where the music goes.
Have yourself a fantastic week and may Morning Rays brighten your days.
It appears that a recent request for a copy of a song I’ve written has sparked a little interest across the internet. The song in question makes an appearance in the movie Lucky starring Colin Hanks. Recent traffic to my little corner of the web has shown that there’s a growing interest in this song. Such that people are looking for the words. I’m announcing that I’m posting the Happy When I’m With You lyrics in my lyrics section.
If the interest continues I may very well see what can be done about releasing the song to iTunes and other digital outlets. In the meantime if you’re landing here due to wanting to find a copy of the song and/or lyrics then you’re welcome to purchase the song directly from me. You’ll even get a better version than what could be bought via iTunes or Amazon.
There is one catch…
In order to read the lyrics you’ll have to login to the website. Easy enough to do with your favorite social ID. No extra site info to fill out. Just pick your favorite one and away you go. You’ll get the words directly from me. What can be better?
Thanks for stopping in. Take a look around and explore my sound a little further.
I got an email recently. One from someone who had seen a movie that was released mid year last year. The movie in question actually has me scratching my head about one of the supposed stars in the film. As it turns out, a song that I had a hand in writing and performing called “Happy When I’m With You” was in this movie. In a way, I could say it’s lucky music in a movie.
The flick is called Lucky. It’s main star is Colin Hanks. Son of Tom Hanks. Other stars include Jeffery Tambor, Mimi Rogers, Ari Graynor, and Ann-Margaret. If I were prone to playing the Sesame Street game of which one of these is not like the other, it would be Mimi Rogers. Why? Well, quite frankly due to the fact that she is credited with a starring roll and I couldn’t find her in a single moving image in the movie. That’s pretty Lucky if you ask me.
Music can often make or break a film. While I would like to think the song I co-wrote in the film made the movie, it did fit very well and didn’t break it. How it got in was a little strange and how it got credited was a bit of a mistake. See, I did write the song with Johnny Elkins. I did perform all the instruments (except for the drums, they were done by my buddy Donny Gruendler). I did sing the song. Where it names the artist performing it should have said: The Pieces. Somehow it got credited to me – Jody Whitesides. Additionally, it got credited with the wrong title too.
I’m not trying to hide from something I created. It was an agreement Johnny and I had that it would go out as a band name rather than a solo artist. Despite that, somewhere along the line, there was miscommunication on the credits part and I got named. Not the end of the world. Oh well.
Getting back to the original first line here. Someone wrote me an interesting email. In it, he had stated how he tried to find the song on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital sites and could not find it. Then he went on to explain how he tried to find it on YouTube, other places and then pirate sites. All to no avail. He likened it to a search of Bigfoot and Nessie. This made me chuckle and I was flattered. Flattered that someone would go to such lengths to find a song from a movie.
Needless to say the song was not released on a soundtrack. Johnny and I never thought of releasing the song. It’s a catalog type of track, that wasn’t really intended for sale. However, I loved the email so much and I felt this fan really wanted the song. So we made an agreement. He sent a $1 and I got him a copy of the song for his very own.
I’m going to guess that you’re reading this post right now having searched for Happy When I’m With You as co-written and performed by Jody Whitesides. Which means you’ve seen the movie and now wondering where you can obtain a copy of that song. Which to me is lucky music in a movie. You can contact me and I’ll work it out with you on how to get the song. I also appreciate that you want to purchase it and not pirate it. That means the world to me.
Aw, I’m getting a little choked up. I’m getting featured on Taylor Guitar’s website. This is actually pretty cool. I was asked by Taylor Guitars if I would do a little clip about how I got a particular guitar sound for the trailer Goats. Well, here it is in all it’s glory.
The bonus is, I’ve been asked to do more of them. So stay tuned. As I complete projects that utilize my favorite acoustic guitars (Taylor Guitars ahem hem). Then there will be more of them.
Enjoy
p.s. – There’ll likely be an update before long when Dean Markley also ends up posting this.