Is The End Near?

            What comes to mind when you think about classic albums in Hip Hop?

            "Illmatic” by Nas, “Straight Outta Compton” by NWA, “The Chronic” by Dr. Dre, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” by Wu-Tang Clan, “All Eyez on Me” by 2Pac. Those are just to name a few. Hip Hop, in my opinion, is the greatest genre in the music industry, but it’s lost it’s spark as time went along and still is.

            KRS-One said, “Love yourself and your expression, you can’t go wrong.” That’s the problem with Hip Hop now. So many people are just doing it for the money, the fame, the girls, and not for the love of music. When that happens, you have labels taking advantage of rappers with no business mindset.

            Now, don’t get me wrong. You have artists like Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and many more artists with great business savvy minds. That’s why they’re so successful. They don’t let the fat cat executives take advantage of them. It’s like Eminem said in an interview a while ago and in the song, “Syllables”. He said that artists, if you can even call them artists anymore, are only concerned with having a hot beat and a catchy hook, lyrics don’t matter anymore.

            Eminem is a great rapper and he’s the best to many people. He has had a few classic albums himself. “The Slim Shady LP”, “The Eminem Show”, and his biggest was probably “The Marshall Mathers LP”. Personally, I’ve liked every Eminem album, and his latest album, “Recovery”, has definitely had some critics in Hip Hop. Many rappers have been criticized for having a “poppy” sound and not Hip Hop. I agree with that. Nobody knows Eminem for “Love The Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna, one of the princesses of pop today. That’s not the Eminem I’m used to, but I understand the album. He went through emotional issues and had to get it out. I’ve had to do the same thing with my music. Regardless, Eminem is still one of the only true emcees left in Hip Hop.

            I blame two sources for the slip and dying of Hip Hop. 1. Record label executives who are concerned about making a dollar. And 2. The ignorance of rappers today. These catchy hooks and hot beat rappers, rappers who are only concerned with hyping the club up and not concerned about lyrics, rappers that listen to the label heads and only do music for the dollar. Lyricists tell us stories and make us feel emotions. They speak for us. Nobody can feel anything from a rapper chanting the same chant 27 times in one song. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

            Things want change though, but this is just how I feel. You could call this venting. Record labels are not interested in artist development because they want to make the quickest dollar as possible. It’s also hard for many artists to make the music that they want because labels want to stick to the same philosophy and that’s to make catchy songs to catch a person’s ear. Albums aren’t selling. Illegal downloading is still going on. Concert ticket sales are going down. The music industry is collapsing. Hip Hop is a big example of this. The artists who are selling? Eminem, Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne. Those are artists who are actual lyricists and aren’t concerned with catchy tunes. So why do labels still decide to make catchy songs and then complain that it doesn’t sale? That’s some food for thought.

            Let’s save Hip Hop and the whole music industry. I know I plan to.

Nobody’s Gonna Stop Me: My Stardom Is Born

It was around Christmas time and I was doing my usual online promo. I had just released my song “Man On The Moon”, which is actually a Kid Cudi song that I remade.

DJ D. Scott, a DJ at College DJ Online Radio, saw my promo and wanted to spin my song, "Man On The Moon". Of course I let him because I've never had radio play before. He played it and it had good feedback.

First time I got radio play: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11625493

One night I was in the studio and I had actually got some earlier inspiration from somebody in my life and I decided to make a song with a positive image. That's where I got the idea for "Nobody's Gonna Stop Me". The message of the song is to let nobody stop you from accomplishing your dreams. You do what you want to do! I had gave it to DJ D. Scott to world premiere it and when he played it, everybody loved it and it gave me a huge buzz.

"Nobody's Gonna Stop Me" world premiere: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12000530

Here is the official release of "Nobody's Gonna Stop Me" on YouTube:

I was asked what my next step would be after this single and my answer is, I'm working on my next mixtape. I'm carrying my buzz from "Nobody's Gonna Stop Me" and hopefully I can deliver a bigger hit and a establish a even bigger buzz with the mixtape. I'm just grateful for all of the people who support me in the music industry. It can be tough at times.

Be on the lookout for my next mixtape, which I'm expecting to release early this year!

Is this love?

            What do you do when you have no idea what you’re feeling? What as human beings are we exactly supposed to feel?

            You’re supposed to be happy because you have a person in your life that you have as a lover and a best friend, but at the same time you have so many other emotions inside of you, but you have no idea what they are. You don’t know whether you should be happy or really scared to lose each other. You’re in a confusing state. You’re significant other has the same feelings as you and those feelings are confusing the exact way as well. Confused about emotions in their mind and heart.

            What is it? Is this love? Or is this something much more deeper than love? The feelings are mutual and the feelings are deep, but neither one of you exactly understand these feelings that are inside of you. The worst part is that they won’t come out and can’t come out. Both of you try your hardest to understand what exactly it is that you both feel, but it’s impossible.

            Both of you are scared of what could happen or couldn’t happen. Each day from the time you both wake up to the time you go to sleep, you’re on each other’s mind. You both could talk to each other 24/7, literally. Feelings come out everyday; new feelings and old feelings. Still, there is something inside of you both that you just don’t know what it is. Words can’t explain it and it’s overwhelming.

            Love is defined in the dictionary as, “a strong positive emotion of regard and affection.” What if you’ve been hurt multiple times by the word, “love”? Not just you, but you’re significant other as well. What if the people you thought you “loved”, actually didn’t mean as much to you as the current lover and best friend in your life? You’re each the person in their dreams. The feelings go so much more deep for each other than any other person you thought you “loved” before. So I leave you with two more questions that I previously asked. Is this love? Or is this something much more deeper than love?

Welcome To My World

I’ll go ahead and start by introducing this blog and I. My name is Andrew Powell but I’m also known as D-Powell in the music world. I’m currently a student and I major is music business. Musically, I rap, sing, produce, executive produce, make graphic designs and album and mixtape covers. I try to do everything so I’ll have multiple back up plans as well as multiple ventures. If I don’t make it as an artist, I’d like to be a producer or an A&R when I graduate. I’d like very much to get into the music business and I’d like to expand into other industries as well. I like to call myself an entrepreneur. This blog will cover everything about me, my thoughts from my material in music, random thoughts going on in my head, life, sports, etc. I’m a hip hop head, sports fanatic, I have a craving for intelligence and intellectual material, and I love being a businessman and love the world of business. My blog will cover every world that interests me and it will be a ride for your head. My new slogan has been “open your mind” and you can see my logo for that in the about me section. Thank you for reading my blog and I look forward to bringing many forms of entertainment and intelligence to your mind.