Yes, yes, y’all.
Let’s go over the news, take care of the housekeeping and tie up some loose ends.
First of all, check out the glorious North American Adonis music video! It was filmed in New Mexico and a million laughs were had. Huge thanks to Zack who made the thing and did an incredible job. He worked very hard on it and it shows.
Also! If you missed out on the Adonis vinyl first time around, you’re in luck. We’ve replenished and this time we’re getting splattered. Go to the Handsmade website and do some browsing while you’re there. There’s some other good stuff on the racks.
Next - the Vertices Radio idea is on hold for the foreseeable future. Those who were into the idea expressed some real excitement and I appreciate that. But the post didn’t get anywhere close to the amount of likes I was looking for despite the fact that it might have been the most-viewed post ever. I get it. I think the move now is for me to keep working on building this thing with good content and whatnot. Maybe I’ll try again when Vertices gets 2,000 subscribers or something. We’ll see.
I also want to thank everyone who has pledged money for a paid subscription service but I’m holding off on that too. So be advised that I haven’t cashed in any of those pledges. That money is still yours.
One thing I had planned for the next episode of the radio show was to talk about the new Arrested Development album, Bullets In The Chamber. I was very surprised by this album. Definitely worth checking out. To give you an idea, give this jawn a listen:
In other news, my own concept of the history of Buck 65 was recently turned upside down. The way I remembered it, I started writing raps in the 7th grade but didn’t record anything until my first year of university. But I recently re-connected with one of my best friends from my high school days, who I hadn’t spoken to in 30 years (shouts going out to my homie, Pork). As we reminisced about our teen years, we talked about how bugged out it is that I went on to have a successful career in music. Then he said, “I still remember your song “Sears Catalogue Gold Chain””. I have no memory of this song whatsoever. For Pork to remember it, I must have recorded it while I was still in high school because we lost touch after graduation. The title sounds kind of amazing though. I am now on a hunt to find a copy of this song. I remembered my first song being this thing called “The Rhyme Has To Be Good”, which was recorded in 1990. Time to edit the books. I’ll let you know if I have any luck finding the song. Maybe Pork still has a copy.
Following up on my last post about selling my house, no buyers yet but spread the word if you know anyone looking to buy in Toronto. Some of my friends south of the border have talked about coming up here in the last few years. Now might be a good time to revisit that idea! I’ve been kicking myself because I forgot to mention the coolest feature of the whole house in that post: there’s a hidden trap door in the floor of the snug/cozy room that leads (by ladder) down to the mud room. Shit’s dope.
Finally, I want to give y’all a heads up that the dates for this year’s Live Convention in Toronto have been announced: September 26-29. As I’ve said before, this is the dopest hip hop event in the world, for my money. The lineup is always incredible (those details have NOT been announced yet). I’ll be selling at the record fair again. It’ll be four days you’ll never forget. Think about buying a ticket for a trip to Toronto. I’d love to see you up here.
I guess that’s it for now. I haven’t done a lick of music work since February. The best I’ve been able to do is take notes when ideas pop into my head. God only knows when I’ll ever be able to act on those ideas. I have a general idea of how I’d like the next album to sound and it’s going to be something quite radical, if I can pull it off. The goal is always to raise the bar. We’ll get there.
It’s like that, y’all.