Adam WarRock “Advice To Young Rappers”
Off the Donation Drive Album - Donate now!
ALL DONORS GET:
-NEW MIXTAPE ALBUM
-LIVE BAND ALBUM
-SUPER ART FIGHT PIN UP GALLERY!
(all rewards are sent to paypal email)
The Donation Drive is going on. Support adamwarrock.com, keep it free and running for another year, get some free stuff in the process. Also, during Donation Drive, ALL MY FOR-SALE MUSIC IS AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AT MY BANDCAMP PAGE.
And with that, the 4th Annual Donation Drive has come and gone…
The song I posted above, you can get on the all-new mixtape album that all donors get, along with a live band album recorded at The Sidebar in Baltimore, as well as a pin-up gallery by Super Art Fight. As always, any donation gets you all the rewards. Ain’t no tiers up in here!
As of June 30, 2014, I will have been a full-time musician for four straight years. During that time, I have released three albums, toured the country, played at events like PAX, SXSW, and my work has shown up on sites like Time, SPIN, BBC, The Sundance Channel, AV Club, and tons more. Yes, I’m bragging sorta. How unlikely is that?
The point is, when I quit my job four years ago, I was extremely unhappy with my place in life. I was so bogged down with bullshit and had no idea what the future would look like. I thought to myself, “Will it always feel like this?” And as Adam WarRock started growing, I decided to shut out the noise of everything else. To focus on one goddamn thing with 110% of my energy and see what I could make of it. I hadn’t ever done that. I had lived a life of passive resistance to any kind of movement or change. I just let it kinda pass me by.
Because of my backstory, I get asked by a lot of people, “Should I quit my job?” No. You absolutely should not. I mean, maybe you should, but I’m going to go for a blanket statement and say you shouldn’t just stand up, middle fingers out and say you quit. That’s not really how it works, and that’s a pretty surefire way of ending up in a refrigerator box sleeping on the street. What you SHOULD do is take some time, whether that means a vacation, or some self reflection, and think hard about what you love doing. What moves you. So much of life is full of just bullshit. Of just getting through the bad until we get to escape it. That’s the “good” in our lives, the cessation of the bad. What makes YOU happy. How do you make that a bigger part of your life? How do you build something that can grow? And from there, you can start figuring out the plan.
Often, you’ll find it puts you somewhere you never thought you would be; and in there, is the path of life. I never quit my job to be Adam WarRock forever. First, it’s not financially feasible; but also, it’s not what I want to do forever. I bet I’ll always make music, but I want to do more. I want to use my skills and this energy to try my best to do some good, to make a difference in the world. THAT’s what I set out to find when I left my job. And music has been the path that has taken me across the country, allowed me to meet so many wonderful people, and have these wonderful experiences. It’s allowed me to grow as a person, and focus on the things that are important to me.
Y’know what’s important to me? Pop culture is important to me, sure – but it’s what we find in it, that kernel of meaning and truth in ourselves. Those echoes of emotion and sentiment that a TV show, or a comic book, can have in you. It’s watching people rise up and become great, whether that’s on a stage, or in an office meeting, or wherever. It’s helping people find that. I’m starting to figure out how I can make that a bigger part of my life. It may take years, but I’m starting to see the skeleton. And music led me to that. And I will keep making music, as hard as I fucking can; but now, I want to do more. Whereas before, all I wanted was life to just kinda stop, to give me a break. Now I don’t have enough hours in the day, I want to do so much. My body fails me and I want to keep recording, keep working, keep going, and I have to stop. I feel energized in a way I don’t think I ever have felt in my entire life, and that’s because of music. It’s because of nerds and geeks and comics and TV.
If you want to be a rapper, then by all means, you should start. Right now. RIGHT NOW, you should open up a text file on your computer desktop and start writing some lyrics. Then you should go buy a microphone, open up garageband plug it in, and start NOW. Same goes for writing that book, or getting back to sketching, or traveling, or whatever. You should grab a piece of paper, and formulate a plan to do it. Because when you start that journey, no matter how tired you are, how demoralized life and other people may make you, you will find in that a new sense of energy and determination. It will quite literally change your life.
As for me, I’m going to take a short break from the Internet, and work on some new music, and get some of my personal life in order. I will be back with a vengeance (already working on a new mixtape), and adamwarrock.com will continue as it has always been. Free music, conversation, live shows, etc. But there will be some changes in the future. That much I promise you. Because life doesn’t stop, and we shouldn’t either.
I feel like for the first time since I was very little, that the white noise in my life has stopped. All I can hear is silence, the wind… all I can see is this light, and all I have been doing for four years is running towards it. And for the first time in a while, I am starting to see the outlines of that place I’ll end up.
Thank you for coming along for that ride. Thank you for letting me keep going, keep pushing. Thank you for picking me up when I stumble, and encouraging me when I want to stop.
Just… thank you. So fucking much. Thank you, with all my heart.
So one last time, donate and keep adamwarrock.com alive for another year. I promise you I will make your investment worth it ,with every fiber of my being and every bit of my soul. Because I don’t know if I can do it any other way.
And if you want to be a rapper? Email me. I’m always here to talk about how to do that. As much as I can help.
‘Til next time, true believers. Excelsior.
Because I have released almost 600 free songs on my website over the past 5 years of its existence. Because I never accept donations at any other point during the year. Because I have never monetized my Youtube account with ads. Because web hosting isn’t free. Because I’m 100% independent, no agents, no managers, no bookers, no merch people, no interns, no financial backing, no nothing. Because Internet content should be free. Because indie music and great web content should be supported. Because this isn’t a kickstarter. Because you want tshirts and new albums and posters and shows. Because maybe, over the past four years you’ve enjoyed a song or two, and maybe you’d find it in your heart to drop some money in the bucket to help me keep doing this, and doing good things for nerd and geek culture. Because it’s the right thing to do!
Thanks for the support and a wonderful last four years. Help keep adamwarrock.com up and running for another year! DONATE DONATE DONATE!
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