Let It Go

Life is a long, difficult journey, especially when you have intentions of being successful. An important part of your life is those that you surround yourself with. Within the past few years, I've evaluated where I am, where I once was, and where I intend on being in the future. The people I associated myself with were very critical in helping me become the person I am. Of course there were good influences, but there were also bad influences that helped me as well, because I learned tremendous life lessons from those people. However, you can't let those people continue to have a bad influence on you, and drag you down to their level. I'm not talking about the people who are involved in illegal activity or people who didn't go to college. I'm talking about the people who are constantly spreading negative energy around you. These people have pessimistic ways that will do nothing but harm you mentally if you keep them around. Allow me to give examples.

Being a college student is one of the roughest moments of anyone's life, and that being said, people need to be encouraged throughout that time. In all honesty, most crews are not gonna be on equal ground to begin with, but that does not mean that everyone cannot be on the same level at some point. If one person is in good standing (academics, relationships, health, whatever) and another one of their people is not, it is your duty as a friend to help that person. However, if that person continues to put themselves in the same fucked up situations, they're bringing on negative energy. You have to let them find their own way out of the problems that they are in or else that becomes your problem as well. Everyone cannot be helped, and some people may get mad at you because you won't continue to help them, but true friends don't force someone to be part of something that they shouldn't have to be apart of.

Another type of person that needs to be let go, is that person you consider a friend but hates on your situation. These people lurk in many crews and need to be avoided as soon as possible. F.Y.I. these people are not your friends and eventhough they possess some qualities that your true friends do, they're faking for some weird reason that they only know. The phrase, "Your closest friends are often your greatest enemies" is true, because these people will talk about you behind your back and envy everything you have, which is a sign of a miserable person. Throughout your friendship they will gather a lot of personal information about you so at some point they can use any negative information against you.

Finally, to all the groupies out there that you may have, leave them alooooooone. You know who these people are, and if you're a groupie, you know who you are and just to afraid to admit it. These are the people who are constantly concerned with what everyone else has and not trying to better themselves so they can talk about what they have. Having a concentration on everyone else, leaves little time for yourself, so cut it out. For those who have groupies and keep those groupies around, whether they are male or female, drop them. They're a waste of time and eventhough they are hyping everyone else up as great figures, they also talk behind your back and start rumors, which generates negative energy. Let them go.

This isn't a diss blog, just a real blog. Feel free to comment

"In My Own World" Mixtape

On August 18, 2010 Artistically Privileged will release their first major project with Double Up's "In My Own World" Pre-Mixtape, which is a preview to his debut mixtape, "In My Own World." The actual mixtape will be released early September.

Double Up has created quite a buzz over the past few weeks jumping from 487 to 25 on the Pittsburgh Hip-Hop charts on Reverbnation.com. He also has over 1,000 downloads on Hulkshare.com featuring songs such as, "Elevator Man," "Fly," and "Magic."

Double Up grew up on the Northside section of Pittsburgh, PA, where he and fellow artist Young Gripp began rapping several years ago. With his versatile style of rapping, it is difficult to compare him to other rappers, but he has music for all music lovers. His debut "In My Own World" is expected to be a huge release for Artistically Privileged as well as the city of Pittsburgh.

You can listen and download Double Up's music at http://www.reverbnation.com/doubleup85

Artistically Privileged

In the Summer of 2008, Ty Miller and Derek Tibbs embarked on a musical journey to create a new record label. The name of that label was supposed to be Low Key Productions, but due to the name having ownership elsewhere, the two Pittsburgh natives were forced to find a new name. This led to the creation of Artistically Privileged in 2009. Miller and Tibbs were both upset with most music sounding similar to one another in the major industry, which led them to take on this new venture.

Artistically Privileged (Privileged spelled incorrectly on purpose) is on a different "edge" than any other label, inventing music that fits the likes of music lovers, while also delivering styles that have not been heard. Artistically Privileged is slated to release projects from Young Fitz, Fly Boyz and newly acquired artist Double Up in Fall/Winter 2010.

To see Artistically Privileged's music site visit http://cityneedsme.blogspot.com/ for more details.

Here's Another Curse: Barry Bonds

The year was 1992, the Pirates were in the NLCS possibly on the verge of going to their first World Series since 1979 and I was at the age of 4. Little did I know at the time that my favorite baseball player would leave for Greener pastures the following season, resulting in 17 straight losing seasons for my once favorite baseball team! How could I root for Barry Bonds when he was on a team that I couldn’t even point out on a map at the time? How could I root for a losing team at such a young age? News flash, I stopped rooting for both, but the love for the team and the greatness of Bonds’ play was still there.


As I watched this past baseball season I was not able to share the same love for the sport that I had as a child with my son, because it continues to fade away. I lost concern for what the Pirates were doing when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup and my favorite basketball team, the Lakers won the NBA Title a few weeks later. My love for the game definitely took a shift to other sports, because my hometown team sucks! I can’t blame it on the players or the citizens of the city, or even the manager. My blame is strictly on the horrible front office. There are no more excuses available other than that Barry Bonds leaving the team created a curse for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Cubs have their many reasons why they lose and the Red Sox blamed their losing on the Babe Ruth trade, but people in Pittsburgh must not be superstitious. The Pirates have had more consecutive losing seasons than any other sports team ever, and yet there is no sign of change. Every year Pittsburgh fans can expect to see one of the team’s top players shipped away to somewhere else, in which they usually become a star, and this past season we saw damn near the whole starting lineup get booted out of the city for a bunch of minor league players. I don’t know about everyone else, but I miss being able to watch a regular season during the summer and not have to rely on figuring out what the Steelers are doing in Training Camp. The Barry Bonds curse may last for many more seasons, but hopefully we can see a winning season next year.

Are You Grown?

Today I have reached the age of 21, and each year some old person asks me, “How does it feel to be whatever age that I am?” Each year, I feel the same as I did the 364 days prior to that day. However, 21st birthdays are highly anticipated amongst people in America. This is for the obvious reasons of being able to drink, get your gun license, gamble, etc. But today, I feel the same that I did 364 days prior to today. I thought that I would feel a little bit more independent or whatever, but I don’t. I don’t feel more like an adult. I drank when I felt like it prior to today also, so there’s not much difference. The law has put a false idea upon us of when we’re actually adults, so my question to everyone is, WHEN DID YOU BECOME AN ADULT?

I’ve been dancing around the aforementioned question for quite some time, because I told a friend of mine that I was a man on the day that my son was born. My friend said to me, “That doesn’t make you a man.” At the time, I was being naïve and figured that he didn’t know what he was talking about, but that was an eye opener for me. I wasn’t a man at the time, but truly becoming a father made me quickly become a man. I was forced to put away many childish things in my life and learned that there are more important things in life than I what I previously thought was important.

I believe that I truly became an adult, when I learned how to shut up, listen, and pay attention to what was around me. This helped me learn many lessons that I missed out on in the past due to my own ignorance. So, I’m going to take a page out of my friend Corey Carrington’s style of blogs and ask you, “WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE PROPER TIME THAT YOU CAN BE LABELED AN ADULT?”

Where are the Black Leads in Film?

This is a topic that is really important to me, as all my blogs are. What is happening to black actors and actresses in movies nowadays? There was a run from about 1995-2004 where black actors and actresses were given a great amount of lead roles in film, but apparently that time has passed. Some people may be thinking in the back of their mind, "What about Denzel and Halle Berry?" but what about them? There are more stars that are deserving of lead roles besides the 5 or 6 normal stars we are accustomed to watching. Throughout this volume of my new media blogs, I'll touch upon what issues minorities are seeing in the world of film.

For many years I was a movie buff, but for the past two years that has changed drastically. I have lost interest in the quality of films that have been put out. One of the reasons for this loss of interest, may be that a lot of the films do not relate to my life. Is it that there are not that many black people in the films I see? Or is it that the films are not interesting? I believe that it is a combination of both. I must admit that I do enjoy Seth Rogen and his clique's films, but I don't want to have to rely on them to release a film every 3 months to go to the theatre.

Think about the good black films that were released in the aforementioned timeframe, such as "Love Jones," "The Best Man," "The Wood," "Love and Basketball," etc., and think about how these films could relate to more than just black people. Some of the films that are released today do not give people the same feeling that those movies did. This applies not only to the movies that do not feature black people, but also the movies that do feature black people, such as some Tyler Perry films. Yes, he creates great stories, but they are not always carried out properly in movie form. For example, "Meet The Browns" sucked! Angela Bassett cannot continue to star in roles where the character is half her age, and the script lacked a lot of creativity. This goes the same for "Madea Goes to Jail." I appreciate Tyler Perry creating these films, but someone else has to step up their game to compete.

In regards to the actors and actresses that could get some more play, people have to look at Derek Luke, Zoe Saldana, Rick Gonzalez, Keke Palmer, etc. Those are stars in the making that are getting a few roles, but nowhere as many as Denzel, Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, Sam Jackson, Halle Berry and Angela Bassett. I'm not saying that we need more black movies either. I just feel that black people need to be able to watch films where there are different actors than the people we have come accustomed to. People want the same feeling that they still get when they watch the movies I mentioned in the last paragraph. I want to kick it with Taffi and enjoy some movies without having to complain about how old the lead role is, or how this person shouldn't have got that role.

I want to know how everyone else feels about this topic, feel free to comment, whether you agree or disagree.

Just Want To Be Successful

Today, I received a phone call that I thought would be my door to success. However I found myself not ready to walk through this door because there was much doubt in my mind. I wanted this opportunity for a very long time, but something was making me feel that this was not the proper time to take this chance. The person on the phone asked me a question that I couldn’t answer with confidence, because I was not prepared, which made me realize that all of the research that I did on this career could not beat experience.

Awhile ago, I saw a person’s status on Facebook stating that they were about to do their third internship, and I was amazed because I hadn’t applied for one internship at the time. This drove me to understand that the only way that I’ll know what career is best for me is by getting experience. If you are not prepared for your career, there is a slim chance that you’ll be successful. People believe that experience is hard to acquire, but many companies are willing to give people internships if you show passion for that career choice. Not all internships are paid, but there is usually a great chance that you will get hired by that company or a similar one after completing the internship. Even if you don’t know if you want to follow that career after gaining experience, at least you will know that you have the knowledge you need for that career if you change your mind.

I’m not trying to sound like a school advisor, but just as always I feel that people can learn from my experience. I know that God did not want me to take on this job at this time, and I knew that God was working through me when I decided not to take on this opportunity. When I asked the person on the phone how they were doing, they said “Blessed.” I will not throw away this possible career choice altogether, but I will continue to keep my options open before I jump into something that I may regret doing in the future. So, for people looking at a career make sure you really want to do this, and get the experience you need to become successful.