What’s an Artist 2 Do?

Bottom line: Being a starving artist is growing old!

The New Year has fell upon us, as usual, and I am putting all the eggs in a basket for sale. I’ve been a creator for a long time and for whatever reason, I feel…ashamed (?) to seek money for my work. I would rather be a hoarder of my music than to sell my work for profit. And even if I do sell something, I don’t make it be known that something is available (marketing). SO!

Can I whore my music without negating my audience? Does MY audience resonate with me enough to understand my starvation..? Maybe I am relying too much on my artistry and not enough on my Hustle? Maybe Im thinking too much about it? Maybe Im doing TOO much thinking and not enough action?

I guesss there is only one thing to do…

NÜK

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First and Foremost

I feel it is of upmost importance that I continue, and maintain, to write my blog on the 1st & 15th. I owe it to people (and myself) on SO many levels. Check here to catch up.

Rest In Peace Minnie Bell Lewis…

Ill never have a relationship with another person like her! My dads mom was THEE illest woman besides my mother that I have ever met. I couldn’t begin to tell y’all stories about how she was displeased with how disgusting & not funny Bill Cosby was when she went to go see him. This was before she heard about him slipping them woman them drugs. She will be missed and NEVER forgotten. Her wake is November 4th…most deffinately can’t wait to exchange condolences with my family this weekend.

Got married last month!!! Love my Wife and the Life we are building! four children and a house. I think we doing alright with our lives on the path to more than what we have! Most important of all, we got each other…and that’s we never had before…so that’s a beautiful thing! The plan is to reinvent our lives within the next 6-9 months. You can watch some of it unfold on the ÜTubes. Speaking of….

That 30 videos in 30 days thing I did a while back, yeah, that didn’t happen! But I will be attempting to do that again. Plus I got an updated phone so I can be like that cool people and post on the instagrams n shyt more often than I give a fuck about. I think. But yeah, I guess that does matter on a few levels. I figure it was worth mentioning on some level, for some reason…I kinda wanna be like Prince and don’t even have a cell phone. But that’s another post for another day.

And I’ve been thinking about have I would go about posting in-between the 1st & 15. So what I will be doing, I’ll just post either a series or a random thought…kinda like how I’ve been doing but with a bit more structure. I got a few thing I want to delve into in the coming weeks, but for now I think I’ll be ending this rant because I need sleep…

I really do…

Thanks for getting down to this point!

NÜK

“”Don’t forget about your granmas love!”

The Sketches Project

Musically, I’m not one to release music unless I feel it is Perfect! In that quest for perfection, I tend to ignore my surroundings. Getting lost in a certain train of thought happens so frequently that I tend to forget the reason I embarked on a quest in the 1st place. Although I have in the past, I don’t tend to create “Mixtapes”, (ain’t they CD’s anyway?) mainly because that’s not my lane. I did create an outlet of sorts though.

Enter Sketches:

“Sketches” is a series of EP’s I intend on releasing before a full length LP. Before I release my “Untitled” album, I will be releasing THREE (3) EP’s.

“Sketches vol.1”

“Sketches vol.2: #Unbalanced”

“Sketches vol.3: Mosaic”

The above EP’s will release when they are ready in each case. I want the 1st set of “Sketches” to showcase my climb out of depression. Each EP will describe a certain thought process I had while living under the conditions that will be outline within the music. Each project will have different characteristics that will make it unique in and of itself.

I would like to continue The Sketches Project forward with the release of “Sketches: Collage” after my “Untitled” LP.

One thing at a time until then…

NÜK

“Only art & music have the power to bring peace.” – Yoko Ono

Gangsta 2 Da Core

This SONG has a very interesting history that I’m glad I can finally explain! The song actually was started before I even got to Pittsburgh. I originally wrote this song a few months after I completed the track with MC Breed back in 2004. The 1st version of this song was actually me tacking 3 verses I had wrote to another beat over this West Coast sounding track. My cousin M. Frank came up with that whole situation…he hated that version…I rewrote it, rerecorded it, then released the song…it was SO bad! That instrumental didn’t work well with my vocals either, in my opinion. I needed something different…

Enter Flawless of The Olympicks

Track 5: Gangsta 2 Da Core

I have been knowing Flaw since his stage name was Snax. And I do believe that is around the time I acquired the instrumentals from him. Before him and The Olympicks became big time producers for Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and whoever else, he worked with me! He threw me this track back when we were all green to how the recording process worked. I mean, we could record songs, but not knowing how to make them radio quality held us back a lot. Live and learn. Learn then teach.

Fast forward maybe 5 years or better, I finally had the chance to record the song with my own equipment. At that point, I performed the song in Los Angels California, Springfield Ohio, Cleveland Ohio, & Pittsburgh Pennsylvania a few times. I originally intended for the song to be on my 1st studio LP, I was going to have the beat updated so that it could be mixed properly. Then the accident…

Being that this was an album cut, this song held a LOT more weight to it than the rest of the tracks. I wrote this song with the intent that it could be a single. I also let a lot of my personal and business connections be known on wax. This song is lyrical, metaphorical, comical, and most important: authentic. A LOT of my personality is in this track. On the album, this song was to come before one of my FAVORITE songs. It also set the tone for the next direction of my 1st album, the LP that I’ve spent my entire life writing. Too bad I had to put that momentum on hold…for the moment. I still plan on following through with my original intent for this song. One day it will be heard the same way I hear it in my head.

“Ü gotta ride to the bass/ don’t tell a snitch NOTHING/ even if it’s only just a lie to the face!” – Gangsta 2 Da Core

NÜK

Recorded Revolution

This instrumental also came from my trip to Michigan with Bonez but the way this song came about was with some light inspiration from this crazy white dude. So yeah, I was at the “Walmart of musical instruments” doing what I do best and dude comes in the store one night wanting the chit chat about what I was doing. Keep this in mind, I wore headphone at work ALL the time. So I was listening the the instrumental for this song when he said that it reminded him a song he wrote.

Track 3: Recorded Revolution

Truly, I cannot remember the name of the song dude was talking about but he told me of a song he had wrote about Armageddon . He wanted me to take his lyrics and turn them into a rap song. I was SUPER against this for a few reasons. 1) We signed zero paperwork. 2) He was a member of a PRO and could get royalties. 3) I ain’t finna let nobody write no song for me! Fuck that! But I didn’t tell him I would draw a bit of direction from his words.

I wrote this song with inspiration from The Death of Aiyana Jones, The Shooting of Oscar Grant, The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, & a change of perspective. I also feel this song is a reflection of a change of my mental. This was around the time when I started to question EVERYTHING. I mean, there was NOTHING that was taboo in my search for something that I could call, under/overstand as “Truth”. Questioning myself, my surroundings, my inner feelings and even my personal motives for doing the things that I do. I truly was becoming hyper analytical of myself and the world I reside.

After THREE attempted recordings, I have a final mix that could use a revolution of its own. I did not expect this track to have such a heavy political/conspiracy type angle. I was just writing my thoughts and emotions down about how I felt the the moment. When it is all said and done, I wish I knew what I was doing when I recorded this song. I could have gotten my point across a bit more direct.

“A cloud drops out the sky/ and the whirlwind fly./ Watch the water level rise/ and Ü don’t know why?” – Recorded Revolution

NÜK

G’z Don’t Dance

This song has a few different elements to it that make it special in a certain way…to me. So first, this was the FIRST time I worked with That Kid Beaze after well over 5 years. I actually was someone who lightweight mentored him in “beat making”. He took it to a completely different level and started getting placements with people I wanna work with! My dude is dope! Haven’t heard from him in a while though…

Track 3: G’z Don’t Dance

I had the BRILLIANT idea to make a song for the club, a dance track if Ü will. The only issue that could come from that? I don’t like the club or dancing…go figure. So, my concept was to take one through how I THOUGHT it was like going through a club. I still don’t think I hit my mark for either one of the ideas I had for this song. It eventually became more of a “shout out” type of song. I low key mentioned “The Cream Team” in the 2nd verse just because I was working on an endeavor with them during the time I was working on the song.

After I met my Queen, she had me make a Soul Train music video for the song…I think it turned out nicely. All and all, this song took me out of my comfort zone for sure! I still believe that it could have been different…better even. Tell me what Ü think! I like the feedback more than anything.

“Ü might buzz from the drink Ü sip/ but the bartender love the way I tip” – G’z Don’t Dance

NÜK

Repeat

When I opened up for Bone Thugs n Harmony in Pittsburgh, PA, my cousin Bonez came from Ypsilanti, MI to join me on stage with my brother Dez1Eye. After the show, which just so happened to be my first concert ever, Bonez drove us back to Michigan to hit the studio. I eventually made it up there again the following year to record our track “White Meat”. This instrumental was one of the seven I managed to acquire from that session.

Before returning back to Pittsburgh, I recorded a few songs with my cousins that eventually made it on “The Highway Chronicles: #Interstate”. After I got home though, I had to figure out what to do with the instrumentals! The one that eventually became “Repeat” stood out to me in a few different ways. All I could think about was my commitment to create something that comes from a place my soul spoke highly about.

Track 2: Repeat

Music & Sex!

That is what this song is all about at the essence. I attempted to take the best parts of each topic and combine them into one fluid song. It helps that the music kinda has this repeating-sexy vibe to it. There are a few references that correlate my writing style and personality with both musical/sexual innuendos and metaphors. Plus the broccoli!!! Everybody  love that broccoli part! I had once put on my Myspace page that I sounded like “repeat”, this song is a artistic representation of what I was saying.

There is no real back story as to what inspired me to write it. I guess one could say it is just something I wanted to say. Listening to this song is worth listening to it again.

“Take a toke of the blunt, then I drift in the sky/ as I get so high/ then I go for a ride on the rhythm of the instrumental…” – Repeat

NÜK

Phaze 2

I worked at “The Walmart for musical instruments” long enough to acquire some dope friends…like Segments Of The Spine, Jimbo, and this drummer ( who tried to piss on me). One dude who came in after me was my dude B.Fury. I’ll speak about him a lil later, seeing as to how he produced the instrumental of this song, but during that time I was going through this transition of sorts…trying to figure out my next move…not only in the music industry but LIFE.

After almost dying in Utica, Ny in an accident, moving to Pittsburgh was like a necessary evil. During my 1st year, I had to find stable housing. After my pops sorta kinda looked out for us with horrid accommodations, I started to build my network up in a brand new city. I have met a little bit of EVERYBODY that has had a part in the Pittsburgh music experience within the last 10 years except Wiz…but I personally know his aunt. The first thing I did musically was show across the city, but I didn’t have any “merch” to sell. I also didn’t have the financial means to promote and finish recording my first studio LP, so I wanted to work on something different.

Track 1: Phaze 2

The struggle is REAL. But not knowing how to record the music I write was a challenge I have never had before. I didn’t even have equipment to record when I started writing this song! There is a picture floating around of how my first studio setup looked like…but it helped me write! Eventually, I saved up enough money to truly upgrade to something with a bit more quality. The 1st song I recorded once I was able to create a creation station was a freestyle on “Valentine’s Day”. After that I opened up for Bone Thugs n Harmony in March. I left for Michigan in April to work with family for a minute. I came back and started working on “The Highway Chronicles”, my first mixtape that I could try to help fund the cause(s). Before I could even truly start working on that project, I started putting on showcases with EÖS which we title “The Hip Hop Feast”. During that time I wrote and recorded “The Highway Chronicles” and started formulating the concepts around “The Sketches Project”.

On a personal note, my living situation was SUPER fucked up! I needed to get out of my living situation ASAP! To put things simple: I was NOT comfortable in my own skin or house. Still not to a certain degree. There were TOO many power struggles internally that had too much control over the way I was living life. I mean…my brother almost got ate up by a Pit bull at one point during all this. The final straw was truly me being forced over a balcony rail. Mentally, I was running upon the edge of loosing my mind. Even thought about committing suicide at one point. My suicide note ended up being a poem that I included in “NÜK: Drawn Poetically“. At the brink on insanity, I ran into B. Fury.

One of the chillest people I have came across in my life! Fury helped me move through a LOT of obstacles that stopped me from having a decent sleeping pattern, among the many other things. He introduced me to different artist and even entertained my deep thoughts about our place in the Universe. Fury was and still is a grand individual. So one day, he gave me a CD with like 5 tracks on it. The 1st was something he said he made strictly for me. When I first listened, the instruments spoke to my situation. I felt compelled the write something that would allow me to express my frustration and release some needed tension. I Thank him for allowing that to be possible. And even with all that was said in the song, I have 2 more verses that might be released in the future for this song.

“I live a real musical and keep it so literal/ the freight train of thought is smooth and Ü can lsiten to the story on the paper.” – Phaze 2

NÜK

1926

Me and The Queen got married and officially solidified our union on Tuesday at 7PM.
3:36AM I was informed my grandmother passed away…while I was driving a semi truck.

. . .

I’m in a good place – I’m not sure about everyone else beside a few.
As a matter of fact, this will be the only time I speak of this on the internet.
For whatever reason, I felt this needed to be posted…
Don’t even know what to say.

So – for the readers of this post, I appreciate your time for reading!
I’m ok…just in a weird place…but ohkay…

. . .

I made a song for my grandmothers available for free on our website. It has 1926 downloads…seeing as how that is the year she was born. I learned a LOT from that woman. Hopefully I will be able to share some of those things with you.

For now, just live life ya’ll…

Peace.

NÜK

“Don’t forget to pray baby.” – Mini Lewis

Art by Shellie Ward

Sketches vol.1 (Track List)

For many reasons, although I want the physical release to have a bonus track, this release will only have 5 songs. The songs for this projects were NOT created with the intent of compiling them together. Each song has a certain story about its creation that makes the overall package special.

Below is the OFFICIAL track list for “Sketches vol.1”:

1.) “Phaze 2” – producer Fury

2.) “Repeat” – producer Bonez On Da Beat

3.) “G’z Don’t Dance” – producer That Kid Beaze

4.) “Recorded Revolution” – producer Bonez On Da Beat

5.) “Gangsta 2 Da Core” – producer Flaw of The Olympicks

Each song has a story that I feel is unique. I will explain as much as possible about each track moving forward. Also, I hope Ü have enjoyed the artwork for this project as well!

Peace,

NÜK