• » Name: Stimuli
• » Location: BROOKLYN, New York
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March on Washington...

I wrote this whole entry a few days ago before the verdict came in on the NYPD officers that murdered Sean Bell. For those of you that don’t know, three of the detectives involved in the 50 shot slaying of the groom to be on November 25th, 2006 were acquitted on all charges. This kind of messed up my mood this morning and has me feeling like we need another “March on…” something CD or some riot music maybe. I’m still going to send what I wrote but keep in mind I feel like ranting about police brutality and the fact that we can lock people up for abusing dogs and evading taxes but you can kill an unarmed man and walk away with being demoted to a desk job. At least I touched on that on my last disc, check out “Murder Me” featuring A-Alikes, Immortal Technique and Steele if you haven’t already or if you’re in a “f--k the police” mood. Oh well, I guess I still owe y'all some explanation to some of the March songs anyway.

Here’s a bright side though, if you pick up the latest issue of Essence magazine with Laila Ali on the cover you may see one of your favorite rappers in there talking about relationships and crap like that. I guess when you drop a CD entitled Love Jones folks think you're an expert. Let's move on...with April almost done I decided to ride out this March on Washington CD until the wheels fell off. I think I pushed myself to a place I didn't know I could go. I listened to “Back of the Bus” the other day and I remembered I really wrote that song on the bus. I wasn't in the back but I was in the middle and I don't remember what sparked it but I wrote it without a beat and I just started thinking about being on the bus during the civil rights movement in the 60s. I was wondering if I would’ve had enough heart to get arrested for breaking an unjust law. We'll never know but I did end up being enlightened in that song and acknowledging my growth by the time I got off the bus. I went from not giving a damn about Rosa Parks on the song to watching the movie "Boycott" and seeing how foolish I sounded. I still don't know if I'm voting but I got a lot of folks talking since hearing "My Life" and "Say Something".

“My Life” touches on the North American Union and Obama's chances of winning and surviving. People ask me for more info about some of things I spoke on and I tell them to research it. I just throw the words out there and let others take their stance on it. I owe some of my supporters of the Say Something project that I started last year. I will still put that CD out but first before I put others on I had to establish myself as an artist who says something. On that record, which has about 60 more bars that didn't make it; I talk about radio not allowing a balance with messages we hear, the unfair judicial system, the fact that rap artists are afraid to be themselves and most importantly the school system.

I went to Mahalia Jackson junior high school in Brooklyn a few weeks ago to speak to kids for career day and it was a surreal experience. I went from class to class giving them my story, telling them I went to college, trying to get them to figure out percentages of recording budgets and giving them insight on being an artist on and off of a major label. Mostly they wanted to know if I knew Chris Brown, if I would rap for them and if you had to be hard to be a rapper. With all that said I enjoyed being able to speak to the 7th and 8th graders but I just wish I was more popular so that my words might’ve stuck. I foreshadowed this whole trip on "To Whom It May Concern" from the March on Washington CD. In my 1st verse I read a letter from a kid at a school I visited that was affected by my words. I actually got one of those messages on myspace and it let me know I'm moving in the right direction. I tried to cover so much on this CD that I had to do a verse about what I couldn't cover. I assumed the role of a critic and confronted myself on the 3rd verse of that same record "You got these online bloggers/hit me wit a message that my music was nonsense/He said Sha u pretend that u conscious/then you make songs about killing’ and being heartless/Then you try to spit for the chicks/now you wanna drop every month like a bitch/how about talking bout real life shit? /March on Washington? You better touch topics nigga talk about the unfair healthcare that we get/speak about the poor getting poorer to help the rich/police brutality, the foster care system/the civil rights movement, the overcrowded prisons"

So what I quoted myself, you get the idea. I know it’s hard to please all listeners and that gave me the idea to explore the politics of rap when I made "Oh Yeah" produced by Astronote from France. I sit around and listen to people telling me what I need to do all the time. Its kind of funny to hear folks say I need to get into beef or I need one hot single or one crazy beat or to slow my flow down but still spit crazy then make something for the clubs but don't make it sound like its for the clubs....I would go crazy if I really tried to please the world. I know there's plenty of artists that go through the issue of trying to breakthrough to radio or mainstream and are misguided. I however am done trying to do anything so all I do is make music about what I see and hear. I keep thinking about those kids and wishing I could’ve made a better impression than just rapping and promoting myself or sounding like some old head rap has been that's trying to deter them from chasing their dream. Luckily MTV2's sucka freestyle gave me some validity. The reality is that a bunch of them wanted to become artists or producers but had no clue about what it takes or what they need to know.

I honestly feel like stopping this CD run after this month. Maybe because I have so many ideas, I don't know what's next or probably because business wise I have to make some major decisions real soon about a label to call home or whether I'm just gonna ride these CD releases into retirement. All of the mixed emotions keep me writing so I will continue. For hard copies, my supporters can go to myspace.com/shastimuli. Check out my new page, leave a comment, buy some music, download some music, bootleg it, whatever. April 29th The Secret is supposed to drop hopefully. Stay tuned for The Séance, The Present, something dedicated to Stevie; an EP and maybe a 21 Questions joint oh I think imma do part 2 to the Love Jones called The Breakup. I'm just having fun with this shit. Sue me

-The Present
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SHASTIMULI

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