Shout out to legendary Maryland rapper Substantial (Stanley Robinson) By Anthony Andujar jr

   My friend Radaie and I were chilling as we waited for a friend of ours (KG) one Friday afternoon. Radaie and I were discussing about music, rappers and producers that we know of that either had some great lyrical content, quality, unique beats and rhythms etc. Radaie had me listen to Kendrick Lemar's tracks from his early work with songs  like "Kiesha song" and then we spoke about Kanye West and how he approached hip hop by blending things that were unacceptable and making it acceptable examples: Graduation,  808 Heartbreak, merging backpack rap with certain qualities of other rap, introducing different genres to a larger audience in the way Thom Yorke , Massive Attack, and Damon Albarn have etc.) Radaie and I spoke about admiration for Tyler the Creator in terms of his instrumental production and his primal energy with wordplay that reminds people of Eminem back when he first came into being in the early 2000's.

 Midway in the conversation we spoke about how despite the thug /gangsta rap stereotype that sadly tends to plague Hip Hop alongside Trap music, a marginal group would tend to say that there are barely any rap lyricists/artists who speak about hard hitting stories and positivity. Radaie and I elaborated on tracks like "Kiesha Song" by Kendrick Lemar, "Culture of Fear " By  Thievery Corporation (feat Lift),  Lupe Fiasco,  and a few other rap artists that have lyrics that present societal conscience and themes about society and the willingness to rise above the struggles as well as molding their environment and not the other way around.

 We then spoke about Real Hip Hop Turn tabelists /beat makers such as Dj Shadow (Endtroduction album, the less you know the better, The Outsider)  , James Levelle (UNKLE :Psyence Fiction), Flying Lotus  and Nujabes. As soon as I spoke about Nujabes and his work with other rappers like Lupe Fiasco , Shing02 and Substantial, that's when it came to a point that had to be discussed. There are tons of great rappers out there that speak about positive , uplifting, truthful , conscience subject matter like Substantial.  Albums such as :

• To This Union A Sun Was Born (2001) , Sacrifice (2008),  Home is where the Art is (2012), Jack N' Jill : a Jill Scott dedicated album (2013) , Substantial Vs Samurai Champloo: Beats, Rhymes and Strife are examples of positive work and creative content that promotes positivity as well as well written lyrics.   Personally, he's been one of my fave rappers since the  7th grade (2008)  due to being introduced to his work with Nujabes from the Samurai Champloo Anime.  His work has always been influential to my I illustrative works and written works. 

The point is that there are a lot of great rappers that have great lyrical content , skill , and positive conscience in their music. But sadly people are sleeping on them because they are either too caught up on Mainstream /radio mainstays or channels that never give up and coming quality rap artists the kind of recognition or air play that thy deserve to have. It goes for all genres of music. There is nothing wrong with mainstays, but when people only know of then and barely know or acknowledge the artists that are out there , mainly being seen at either face value or not being known at all.  What in trying to say is,  Music isn't dead, and each genre is not dead, it's just that the real quality artists aren't given enough of an opportunity to get there air time to cement their work. If it's not that, it's possibly because of a kind of stigma , or that some people who think that they know hip hop when all they listen to is trap  are missing out.  Not to hate on Macklemore , but there have been rappers who've been around for years and have spoken about social content and usually got shunned by the mainstream because nobody wanted to hear about cerebral content and positivity.  

There are still lyricists out there. There is still a lot of great music out there. It's just a matter of whether or not people want to give them the time of day and make a change of pace. 

Here's a link to one of Substantial's Substantial  vs Samurai Champloo : Beats , Rhymes and Strife : I hope you enjoy. And to Substantial, Thanks for all of the work that you do for the youth and also for inspiring many others to pursue their education,  who love the arts in finding their voice and mindset in life and learning the transition of boyhood to men in progress . Thanks. Ant. A

http://substantial.bandcamp.com/album/substantial-vs-samurai-champloo-beats-rhymes-strife

Welcome back. Fall session of 2014 entry by Anthony Andujar jr

First , I want to say welcome back. It's been possibly almost three months since I've made a recent written post/entry. Long story short, I did a summer session taking two art classes (since I am a Fine Arts Major) that were taught by the cool Professor Julie A. Nagle. After completing the session and classes as well as having a new found appreciation for using charcoal (Burton if you see this, you now have me convinced. Haha.)

  In the weeks that I had left to enjoy my summer vocation I took interest in catching up reading some comics and looking up video game cutscenes movies /walkthroughs of games I may never get a chance to play or ever have the time to purchase. I took the time to watch games such as Outlast (along with the Downloadable content :Whistleblower) courtesy of watching Dashi Game's YouTube channel for the hilarious commentary to get me through the game's scares and interesting storyline.

  I also looked into old gems such as Edios and Crystal Dynamics Legacy Of Kain games series. I started from Soul Reaver 1 to then watch Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance which had some very great story telling and interesting setting that focused on elements of Shakespearean tragedy, irony, fate, illusion of choice, dreams/ nightmares , gothic settings, vampires and revelation. Given that it was made in a very interesting time of the late 90's - early 2000's where there was this era of heavily dark and light story telling.  Pretty much as you can see, I've been very interested in a lot of mystery, noir, thriller based stories that have influenced my art style due to the use of charcoal and the balance of light and dark elements.

   For my English 102 class my professor assigned the story "Where are you going, where have you been?" By Joyce Carol Oats. I read the short story and I liked the subtle eerie atmosphere that seems to appear in a lot of things I like which goes like this as a premise in most mystery stories:

   things seem normal, but almost too normal to the point where things start to feel a little off. You don't know how or why, but you know it's this unsettling feeling that draws you to feel that way. Little by little as you search for the answers to the unsteady feeling, You realize that the seeds planted has been around you this whole time. It's just waiting for you to realize where it all began. And in that sense,  the dreary feeling of irony rears it's head and you realize the scary joke that loomed right in front of your face the whole time.

It's stories like that that do so well in making things feel all too familiar due to how close to reality that the tension of fear tends to extend with it's literary, psychological /physical reach. No matter how real or fictional a story is, the fact that the fear of the unknown goes beyond any words goes to show how well done and executed of a theme that is expressed throughout the world around us is. No matter how grand or minimal the fear,  the over whelming feeling grabs us and pulls us in. Whether the protagonist faces the fear all the way down to the very end is always an unsure case based on who is writing a story of almost any kind. With that said, that's what has been of interest to me as of late. The gripping narrative, subtle flashbacks, the need to see to everything all the way to the very end is something that I believe any reader, or writer can agree on. If you know how to manipulate the feelings of the audience, then yore doing something right.  That's something I seek more and more in story telling and in art. Not the fear aspect, just the general emotions and roller coasters that give readers the kind of fulfilled journeys that is worth revisiting from time to time. Nothing is better than finishing a story of any media and giving a large sigh of relief.  Nuff said.