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Random Memory

I remember back in 2013 I was living at my dad's house in the burbs. Hip hop continued to be my savior, the only channel I subscribed to, the one person that would never leave my life. It was summertime, and my siblings, Dad, and I were living together. Every morning I awoke with excitement; hoping my brother or sister would want to hang out with me. It rarely happened - we continue to have a strained relationship. But that's another story for another time.

I collected hip-hop CDs at that time, and I almost exclusively bought them from Best Buy. Dudes like Rick Ross, Drake, J. Cole, Wale, Meek Mill, and more. I would create these documents on my computer rating every song apply many criteria. I'd score them up and write down my overall rating along with the must-hear tracks on the LP. I would get up, grab my CD player and an album or two, make some coffee, and hop on the front porch. I'd sit on the rocking chair and go to town, consuming project upon project scribbling in my notebook, trying to make sense of each one. This was before Spotify was the monster it is today and years before Apple Music. There was no instant streaming, so we had to buy physical copies to play in the car or download it to our iTunes and transfer it to an iPhone. I'm in that space as I write this, and I hate that as soon as I finish I'll be in my current reality. I hate it.

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Some new pick ups!

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Mental Health Journal #1

There is a lot I don't understand about myself. Having BPD and bipolar 2 is not an easy life, or really an enjoyable one; at least when it comes to myself. I've been in therapy for 21 years and I'm still deeply struggling despite all of my efforts, trauma, and pain from treatment. I've tried everything from 2 hospitalizations, 4 treatment centers, 4 outpatients, 6 therapists, 4 psychiatrists, EMDR, TMS, CBT, DBT, exposure therapy, and almost every applicable medication you can think of. There are people out there that can handle this better than me, but the comparison does nothing and is never an accurate way to measure yourself or your accomplishments. I learned that the hard way. With BPD, the pain can get so bad that you feel like you are burning alive at the stake with knives stabbing you in and out all day every day. It is very hard to explain that it is not a physical situation, like a broken bone, being punched in the face, etc. At the same time, it is physical and emotional pain, a 'perfect' concoction of unbearable minutes that never seem to end. Add in depression, anxiety, bipolar, complex PTSD, and being conscious is a daily battle that can make you believe you were not meant to be on this earth. BUT...

I am grateful that after about a month of indescribable pain I am feeling better. I have some relief. Any relief was all I wanted, but the depths of my understanding of my distortions have certainly increased. I've learned that what my brain tells me nothing will help so why try, I am experiencing a symptom of the things I struggle with. At the beginning of last month, I didn't leave my apartment for 5 days at a time. Now I leave every single day, no matter how scared I am. I get bored which never happens. I'm usually just trying to distract myself constantly to not feel what I was feeling. I'm in my 30s now, but I am no longer embarrassed about my age and ability to cope in life.

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The Record Store That Changed My Life

I've been collecting records for about 4 years now, and I feel so lucky to live in Chicago and check out some of the best record stores in the United States. Places like Reckless Records, Shuga Records, Dave's Records, Gramaphone, Dusty Groove, etc. Those are all of my go-to's, especially Reckless and Gramaphone as they are all a 15-minute walk from where I currently live in the city. Many of these places also have online stores that collectors go crazy for.

I wanted to talk about Reckless Records, and why the Chicago chain store saved me from myself.

Reckless Records - 3 locations. Lakeview, Wicker Park, The Loop

Reckless has always been my go-to; a place I call home. When I started collecting records I was in the northern suburbs. I often spent $40 or so on a round trip from my house to Lakeview. It was always worth every penny, and not just because of the selection. It was the ambiance, the feeling of discovering something new, a newfound purpose as a music obsessive. At that time I was also collecting CDs and tapes so I would spend hours there racking up hundreds of dollars per visit. I mostly collected hip hop (and still do), and while that genre, in particular, took up a smaller space in the shop, it was LOADED with gems that I couldn't pass up with any sort of willpower. Towards the end of my digging, I would drop down to the floor to peep the dollar records that lined the entire store. I found a lot of 12-inch singles, old-school records, obscurities, and every genre you can think of. While I didn't know much about the artists or the albums, I would pick them up just to discover something new. Some were awful, but most of them were fine additions to my collection.

In the face of darkness that surrounded my life at the time, the bright lights of Reckless Records gave me hope that the feeling I felt walking in could be a realistic state of mind moving forward. I ended up moving around that area, and the shop moved even closer to my apartment which was both dangerous for my wallet and exciting beyond belief. I think most collectors will tell you they've gotten into financial trouble (or trouble from their spouses, family, etc) due to spending so much money either on an individual record, or a large stack that couldn't be left behind. I still struggle with it although I've sold most of my CDs, a LARGE portion of my records, and even my tapes. If I had kept all of them, I would probably own about a thousand records. Regardless, I'm super happy with what I own and glad I sold some off in desperate times of need. Reckless Records introduced me to the beauty of a record store, forgetting all your troubles and entering a world within a world.

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I’m Back!

It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted on Tumblr. Years upon years. I started Flowsfordays a few years ago and it has become more successful than I ever imagined. I wanted to write a quick note letting everyone know that I plan to post more on discovergoodmusic - looser pieces that I know I'll have more fun with. 

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Instrumental Blessings #2: May 2nd-May 9th featuring @KINBEATS @DrVindaloop @youngpirelli 

This week’s Instrumental Blessings is quiet diverse in sound and style. It was very easy to put this one together as there was so much fire coming in my SoundCloud feed since the last installment. 

KiN - Senorita

Senorita is an oriental inspired hip hop beat that is apparently for sale. I first heard his production with his playlist “Prod. By KiN” playlist released about a year ago. He has collaborated with a ton of artists and has done a lot of solo work too. Although Senorita is more down tempo than a lot of his tracks, I can hear a high energy rapper going in on this. If you are interested in buying his instrumentals you can click here.

Mr. Carack - champion!

Mr. Carack incorporated so many genres into this instrumental blessing. There is a lot going on in this track and it takes a good amount of listens to fully appreciate what he has done here. Definitely something I replayed on the train for a few days. He included some island sounds in champion! most likely inspired from his hometown of Honolulu. I’m hoping this will be a theme throughout his music.

EMP - residue (feat terence mckenna)

This is my favorite track of this week’s series. I love the initial verbal sample and then the quick dive into a simple groovy beat that turns into a dark trap lord movement. Definitely a nice one.

$oudiere - Swisher Sweets w/ absoluteterror

If you take a look at Soudiere’s SoundCloud profile you’ll see his tracks are all accompanied by a cartoon album cover. When I saw last month’s track LOST MY MIND with a picture of Ned Flanders with a semi automatic I knew this man meant business. LOST MY MIND was a dark and deep track. After listening through more of his music I found Swisher Sweets to be another nice one. It is well titled as short and sweet comes to mind at the end of it. You can check out his visuals to LOST MY MIND here.

TWO FRESH. - TWOsDAY III

Producers TWO FRESH. have been releasing their TWOsDAY installments and the series is getting a great response. The third is an instrumental from a song they did with Mac Miller off of his Macadelic project. Listen to the complete TWOsDay playlist here.  

via (DiscoverGoodMusicBlog)

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New Project: Ty Money(@TyMoneySBMG) - Cinco De Money 2

Part two to the highly praised Cinco De Money series is finally here. The first project gained critical exclaim, from major music websites such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. Red Eye Chicago called it “one of the best rap records of the past year.” This time around is no different as it exceeded expectations of what this man could create. 

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I am a diehard Adamn Killa(@AdamnKilla) fan. This wasn’t always so. I was introduced to his music through The Fader and the Back To Ballin mixtape. When I heard the intro I knew the project would be something different and replayed often. Every track brought something new to the overall esthetic of the tape, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I downloaded his previous tape Libra Season and listened to it on the spot. Back to back from Killa and I never felt exhausted by his music. 

Long story short, the WEDIDIT COLLECTIVE have let loose this lo fi banger in typical Adamn fashion. This one features Yung Lean and is produced by instrumental god Shlomo. I’m looking forward to the next release that I’m sure will be another favorite. 

via (WEDIDIT COLLECTIVE)

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New Project - Bohemia EP by Jay Bel 

Jay Bel(@JayxBel) calls himself “Groovy Jay” on SoundCloud and I couldn’t agree with him more. This is Bohemia in a nutshell. This is a crazy EP; not to mention the artwork is incredible. I’d love to know who designed it, but I digress. 

I might go as far as to say that this is my favorite release since the beginning of the month and this is his debut project! Yes, we are only at May 3rd, but calling it my favorite even after 3 days is a big deal with the amount of music I listen to on a daily basis. Bullshit is by far my favorite track. It’s hard to describe, so just hit that play button. 

If you enjoy this EP let your ears bleed with his Groovemeister freestyle released a few weeks ago (in anticipation for the release I’m sure.) Flow is A1 along with wordplay and of course the braggadocios lyrical content. 

I can’t wait to play this over and over again. 

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New Project: Chicopee Falls by Austin Fair

That new new from Austin Fair(@AustinFairTT) is now available for our listening pleasure. With 11 tracks there is certainly a track (or two) for every hip hop fan. I have more than a few. My favorites include Levitate, We Say, Double Digits and Hold It Down. Humbeats takes on most of the production on the project, but Richiee Beatz also lends a hand. Consume above.

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Sadly Slept On #1: la rouge ep - Jaro(@jarotweets)

Today (Tuesday) is the announcement of a weekly series called Sadly Slept On. It will focus on albums and tracks that I missed highlighting that are very much worth going back to. This doesn’t mean I haven’t listened or read about them. I think my fellow bloggers can attest to the difficulty of posting everything relevant in one days time. The music I post here could have been released as far back as years, months or days ago (as is this first post).

#1 is starting off right with an EP I listened to for the first time last night. As you may have guessed I was blown away by it. Although it stretches the boundaries, I found almost all of it very catchy and pop oriented. The samples weaved in and out of the project well (most notably with Unlike You... Ciara anyone?)

Jaro has been essential to the Beach Jesus collective that I rant and rave about here and on twitter, so it was only right for him to put forth a project that stood up to the group’s strong quality music standard. You can download for free (in limited copies) here but there is a Name Your Price option (as this is BandCamp). If you have the means, definitely support this hard worker that never seems to stop making music.

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Austin Fair(@AustinFairTT) is set to drop his new album Chicopee Falls later today, and what better way to celebrate then the video release of one of the strongest tracks, Double Digits. Austin describes the album as “music for the everyday go getter.” As we look forward to that, you can read the mini interview I did with him to get a better sense of the inspiration behind the track and video.

“The Double Digits song and video is just my pledge of allegiance into a life that I know isn't made for everybody. It's me explaining that for the rest of my life I want bigger and better things. That's for me, my family, and especially TTROOP Entertainment.”

“The extra vocals towards the end of the song come from my good friend and AMAZING artist Eskay. He has served as an inspiration as well as a mentor to me since I've started so it was important to me to have his words of wisdom within that song. He brought it all together.”

BONUS: Take a listen to Patty Cake literally released hours ago. This is the official single off of CF. 

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Instrumental Blessings: April 24th-May 1st

featuring @JXHNSCXTT @Bhonstro @SolarSounds @aricogle and @goyamamusic

Big changes are coming to the DGM blog. More features, more interviews, and more weekly series and posts. We are starting off today with something called Instrumental Blessings. This is a playlist containing my favorite newly discovered instrumentals on SoundCloud. This will be dropping every Monday. In the running are tracks from the last 8 days. Keep it locked here and let me know what you think of this series on Twitter. Also follow the blog on SoundCloud for all updates. 

.WAV Riders - JXHNSCXTT

How this track only has 97 plays is beyond me. John Scott incorporates so much musical goodness here, starting off with a jazzy undertone and then progressing into electronic lighting beams and high bass. At 4 minutes and 34 seconds, I never get bored. This is something to play in the morning to start your day off right.

John gave me some insight on the track:

“Making .WAV Riders I was definitely influenced by anime specifically, in my head while making the track I was picturing the night driving scenes in Sin City, a popular 90’s Japanese film. I’ve always been into creating a short moment when making music, a mini movie to play I your head since my songs don’t have words.”

The Austin, Texas native is hard at work on his 5th LP titled Where The Clocks Stood Still which will pick up where his last EP titled Hourglass left off. Although he’s hoping to release it sometime this year this musical perfectionist might wait until 2017 to make sure it is just right.

He’s scheduled to work with some Minnesota and Chicago talent this year including Novyon, Gaines and many more so be on the look out for that.

Alacarte - Bhonstro

The UK always comes through with that instrumental heat. Alacarte starts off with a beautiful piano that moves into some nice tambourine pangs and continues on throughout the track. Similar to .WAV Riders, we get some disco/electronic undertones throughout the instrumental. When I listened to it for the first time the jazz element stood out to me the most.

Bhonstro is part of the London based Deep Matter Collective that is home to a number of artists. Although I haven’t checked out their music, I’m sure they’re nice too. You can check out their website here. Follow them on SoundCloud to stay updated as well.

LoveSwing (Two4Fitz) - Mecca:83

Mecca from Manchester packs a lot into this under 3 minute track. It’s got almost 2K plays and for good reason. Stutter steps and samples permeate and combine. Here is more about the track from the man himself:

“LoveSwing came from an idea I had about creating beats that were dedicated to other producers who keep me inspired. I started with “One4Bug” and this is the next step down that road. Feels good to be trying out a few different techniques and sample sources I wouldn’t necessarily use normally.”

“Fingers crossed it’ll all come together as a full EP in the near future. For now though, I’m just taking my time with these dedication joints and working on them when inspiration hits.”

“Right now I’m celebrating 5 years since my first album, Life Sketches, was released. So I’m currently promoting the 7" vinyl release of 2 fan favourites from that record.”

Aso - Timeless

Another down-tempo track that fits into an early morning playlist. Aso is part of the Mellow Orange record label as well.

Shigeto Hundred Water’s Cavity Remix (Go Yama Flip) - Go Yama

Hundred Waters, a indie pop band from the good state of Florida released a remix EP to their 2015 album the Moon Rang Like a Bell last year and an instrumental from Shigeto was featured on it. Go yama remixed his remix. It’s a beautiful track inspired from single Cavity, with the xylophone as the star of the show.

via (DiscoverGoodMusicBlog)

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As Moosh and Twist(@MooshAndTwist) prepare for the release of their upcoming album Growing Pains, they decide to let loose a single with one of the hottest up and comers in the hip hop world: Lil Uzi Vert. Stamina has all the inclinations of a superb turn up song. Less is more on this track, and each artist proves their calm vocals paired with BKorn’s instrumental makes for something even and enjoyable. Stream and purchase above.

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Better late than never. Saba(@sabaPIVOT) gives us a new track titled World In My Hands with features from Smino and Legit. Saba continues to prove he’s a beast behind the boards. Classick Studios did an excellent job mixing and mastering this one. Sounds high quality from start to finish. 

i-D premiered the new song and included a nice Q&A that you can check out here. They also gave us a nice compilation of music videos from Saba. 

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New Project: G O N E so F A R by Party Michael

Party Michael(@partyxmichael) previously known as Pledge, has just released G O N E so F A R and wow, it is amazing. Some would call it a remix project, but it is so much more. This tape was inspired by Drake’s most-popular mixtape So Far Gone, but Michael has created a totally new piece of work.

He riffs and croons, raps and produces. Much of it is original composition. Each track sheds light on his reality in regards to relationships and “finding self worth” when they go sour. This is his strongest work by far and makes his NEW TRAP $WING sound something to look out for. 

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New Project (Mashup): 6ixKong by Chi Duly

Creative mashup albums are Chi Duly’s(@ChiDuly) forte. He’s mashed up everything from Biggie Smalls and Metro Boomin beats (Juicy Waves) to Coldplay and Drake (Octobers Very Cold). He can now add Donkey Kong and Drake to the list. My Way Aquatic brought me back to the 90′s, as I clearly remember playing this level with extreme difficultly (I was 9, please, no laughs 😬) This is one for the books. Very interesting, very electronic. My personal favorite is Haunted Energy.