#afrodeezee

[afrodeezee-blog]

Thank you to all of my followers who have supported me lately, it means a lot cuz I've been having a rough time lately. I'm sorry I can't always respond to stuff right away or at all, but it's because of low spoons. But just wanted to let you know I appreciate y'all!

[afrodeezee-blog]

Can I? - Afrodeezee

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Ooh boy. Figuring out how to sing in my new vocal range is very difficult. It’s almost low enough that I can sing an octave lower than this, but not quite. And I don’t know how to transpose for shit, in fact, I barely know what that word means.

Anyways, here’s a video, just for fun.

(Note: it’s supposed to be a duet so I’m singing both parts)

[microphonefiendsnyu]

Sleep-Rhyming and Hallelujah!

(this is where we post reflections, right?)

Mackenzie Taylor

Class 5

I really enjoyed hearing verbatim from MCs about how they write. I am always interested in other musicians'/artists' creative process. Not so I can copy them or because I think there is a “correct” way to write or even that there are certain “better” ways to write, but because I think the exchange of ideas on the writing process helps one to come to more informed conclusions on how they personally write their best. Everyone goes about writing very differently and a good result isn't necessarily correlated with a certain kind of writing process. I saw a lot of my own writing process in some of the MCs that were interviewed and even got ideas for what methods could work for me/how I could improve the methods I already have. For instance, Crooked I (on page 147) talks about how sometimes he writes rhymes in his sleep, so he has a tape recorder ready by his bed to record them in the middle of the night. Something Cormega said really hit home – the frustrating and disappointing experience of thinking of a rhyme, going to sleep and telling yourself you'll write it down in the morning... only to have completely forgotten it by the time you wake up. I often write rhymes in my sleep or as I'm starting to fall asleep, so I'm usually too lazy or hazy too wake up enough to write them down. I think that if I had a tape recorder readily accessible, it would make it so much more convenient for me to “write” down the rhymes I come up with in this setting. Also, sometimes I come up with rhymes when I'm actually dead asleep – I'll write an entire song, verse and chorus and whatnot, and sometimes even write the full instrumentation, and it will sound so dope, and these dreams are usually very very vivid when I am having them. But I won't realize I'm asleep, so I'll furiously write it down in the dream... and when I wake up it'll take me a minute to realize that the pen and paper I had in the dream weren't the pen and paper I have in real life. So with that, I really wonder if it's possible to ever remember the songs I write in my dreams. Maybe if I learn how to lucid dream I could. I don't know.

When I was reading the text “Sermons Classified According to Structural Type,” I read it while replacing each instance of the word 'sermon' with the word 'rap' so I could more easily relate it how I could apply this knowledge to my own writing of rhymes. “The strength of a sermon is so often in its structure:” I think this is an important point, and also relates to something said back in the text about writing. An MC in the content text said that often MCs are good at one thing – either flow or content – and it's a really good MC who can master both. I'm definitely on the content end of the spectrum – I have more of a skill with writing and the actual words, but when it comes to spitting them, I keep finding that my flow is repetitive or sounds stilted (and I'm really trying to work on that). So even though I have the words of my “sermon,” it's structure is lacking. And it's the structure that ties the whole thing together.

I like thinking about rapping and spoken word in the context of sermons. It makes me think of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was an incredible speaker and I would almost constitute his speeches as spoken word for the artistic way his words flowed. His pauses, emphasis on certain words, changes in volume, etc. really grab the listeners attention and gives them goosebumps. Thinking of sermons brings to mind my experiences sitting in church as a child (only black churches really, because I never got the same kind of experience out of white churches) and the call and response and the “amen!”s and the dramatic pauses in the sermons. Everyone was caught on every word of the sermon because it was just that beautifully articulated. Much of what I saw sitting in these churches really bares a lot of resemblance to some aspects of hip-hop and spoken word. P.S., check out this dope music event coming up this saturday night and the promo vid (if you want to see me reading a book in a library while a friend dances next to me, twerking on the wash sq arch, etc) : (I am the master of ceremonies and founder, and fellow classmate Zach is performing under Kitty Mane) ch-ch-ch-check check it outtttt- http://youtu.be/htnlsEKrs_g https://www.facebook.com/events/451469091551587/