WHTVRINNIT – Ep.065: Belief, Faith, Optimism

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.065: Belief, Faith and Optimism – A recipe for continuous growth, development and progress. – 0800YOFAM – Whatever Innit

Description

Why belief, faith and optimism are an essential trinity in both our professional and personal journey’s through life, and how they ensure you never give up but remain consistent on the mission you set out on. —

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Transcript

I learnt such a valuable lesson this week which made me reflect on the past few and realise that regardless of how confusing the journey, how long you have to toil away in the dark and desolate battlefield, eventually the seeds sown will sprout into strong forests of influence and bear the fruits of reward.

It’s tough at times because there isn’t often a constellation to navigate from per say and you may get flashes of light from time to time to help you on your way but there’s no substitute for faith and optimism… Believe.

Do you believe in yourself and your abilities?
I’ve struggled with this for years as I didn’t want to accept the inevitable, I didn’t want to accept that in order to grow I had to stretch myself by placing myself in some pretty uncomfortable situations which intimidated the hell out of me but you’ve got to believe.

Why?
Well life is often like a dense jungle and a lot of us are the little sprouts out of the soil that are trying to grow, but often times the sunlight doesn’t penetrate the upper canopy to the forest floor so we must adapt in order to survive.
You’ve got to adapt and remain steadfast in your mission to grow from the forest floor, through understory and canopy to the emergent layer by meandering throughout the days to catch the light and water in order to grow.

Believe… Throughout your journey you will encounter setbacks such as being trampled by larger creatures which requires you to adapt to your new set of circumstances. Rather than see it as a negative, put your optimistic lenses on and see it as a restart; a chance to fortify your roots whilst rebuilding sideways. Rather than growing upright into the shade of the canopy, your growth is in a different direction and you’ve found a place where the sunshines though a gap in the emergent layer.

Believe… Growth comes with its own challenges which can be likened to all the weird and wonderful creatures that utilise your branches to transport, shelter and nourishment. You have both a duty and a responsibility to serve your purpose not protect yourself from your ecosystem with venomous spikes or leaves, how are you contributing to the betterment of the ecosystem?

Believe in equilibrium both internally and externally because you are your own PR machine. Be mindful of the spells and illusions you cast on yourself in both the perception of self and that which you portray to others. We are all superheroes with our own unique set of super powers that can be honed and utilised for the greater good of humanity however we’ve got to believe.

When the road is rocky, when it is dark and desolate, when your view becomes distorted and obscured the one thing that will propel you through the hardest and harshest of times is your faith. Do you believe but more importantly do you have faith in yourself that you will make it to your destination?

When I left the band and began my journey inwards without a penny to my name did I believe I would be in the position I was in now; being able to create on my own terms and be somewhat self-sufficient in the supply line? Yes. I had faith that it would work out even during my most darkest times where I questioned myself, explored other roads and was trampled. I grew in a different direction, I meandered to the little rays of light, I adapted to each circumstance and placed myself in situations where I could grow exponentially. My belief and optimism has led me to a place where all my endeavours have converged and I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have faith.

Belief, Faith and Optimism are the holy trinity of development because they allow you to reflect and keep going. They allow you to problem solve and analyse the root cause in real time because when you are hit with setbacks you see them as a restart, when you are faced with a bumpy road you begin to adjust the hydraulics on your vehicle and mitigate for punches to smooth the rough ride.

The trinity of BFO allow you to keep going, regardless. They allow you pause, reflect and reassess the journey and change the course if need be as growth isn’t linear but a series of valleys and peaks. When you believe you’ve scaled the obstacle life tends to show you there’s even more work to be done but this time around you have much more tools of experience in your arsenal of insight to draw upon.

A lot of us have times where we feel lost but they are the times where we must reflect by journeying inwards to realign with the vision and have unwavering faith in our belief that one day we’ll get to our destination. There are many signs along the journey, with some pointing you wayward but if it weren’t for his belief, optimism, faith, and the grace of the Gods, would Odysseus have made it back to Ithaca?

In the Holy Quran it is said on countless occasions that “We are best of planners” so with that in mind trust in your instincts and believe in the path you walk because Allah won’t lead you astray, the road of unwavering belief and faith will only lead to the one where you’ll have an abundance of peace and fulfilment. So continue to believe, have faith in your destination and propel yourself through every restart and obstacle with optimism. What are you learning from each test and what experience can you tap into to nimbly surpass each perceived obstacle en route?

Hit me up across the socials, I am @whereisko and you’ve been listening to 0-800-YO-FAM Whatever Innit.

Nos vemos el próximo sábado (we’ll meet again next Saturday)

Khalism Live – Ep.012: Flava

Created a beat in 10mins using my newly acquired Native Instruments expansion Bumpin Flava. As someone who came up within the era that this is based upon but never had access to the techniques, machines and sounds, Maschine helped me create something that can sound like it was straight out of 1999.

I’ve been putting off purchasing this for ages because I never really had a spare £44 but when Native Instruments had their shopping event, I thought it was the best time to purchase as it went down to £22.

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.064: What would you do if you won the lottery?

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.064: What would you do if you won the lottery? – 0800YOFAM – Whatever Innit

Description

Answering the all important question of what I’d do if I won the lottery. My response may leave you dazed and confused. —

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Share your grand exit from your day job in the comments

Transcript

What would I do?
Well I’d disappear. That’s the long and short of it. I feel like I’ve been in a mindset of downsizing for a few years now and it began life when moving out of the family home on the cusp of being sold into my own place. I got here and thought to myself what all my actual belongings could fit in one suitcase or even a rucksack, I’d have freedom to move anywhere I please.
My 27″ iMac was perhaps the only thing from stopping me moving overseas but once I traded that in for a portable MacBook things changed. I still have my Mic, monitors and soundcard however the core of my belongings are either archive memories like books and vinyl, with the rest being clothes which I’ve always thought to myself that I’d one day travel with just the bare essentials like documents, cards, chargers but buy underwear and clothes as and when they’re needed. Real minimalist stuff.

What do you mean you’d just disappear?
I’m not a flashy person and I’m reserved. I probably will never tell anyone about my windfall either. I wouldn’t buy a house but maybe suite at a hotel which came with a service charge which covered amenities. I wouldn’t buy a car either nor deposit large sums in family accounts. I’d make some investments and be philanthropic but as I said before I wouldn’t tell a soul.
Money changes people especially those who feel entitled to it and begin spending your money for you. I’ve seen it play out on countless occasions. I find money vulgar when flaunted but respect it much more when the movements come without statements.

Seriously?
On a real. To quote Yeezy on his song from Graduation’s The Good Life feat. T-Pain “Money ain’t everything not having it is.”

What would you do about work?
I’ll likely, in this ideals fantasy, stay working until I figured out my next move was and slowly phase myself into a role which didn’t take up a lot of headspace or energy but then again I’d terminate my employment with immediate effect or take a sabbatical.
I’ve lived out the scenario in my head on many different occasions. Maybe a customer gets hella rude because they have a greater sense of entitlement and I tell them to do one and walk out ensuring I throw a wad of cash in the air as I exit on a busy Sunday afternoon.
Speaking of exits, I do often live vicariously through a moment which I feel deserved a bigger audience. It would have been the perfect exit to never return but there were so many flaws in the performance that I’m not surprised that it weren’t the final moment.
Had it of been me I think I’d not of repeated the same sentence, I’d of said it once, grabbed my stuff and walked off into the sunset never to return.

What about family and friends?
I’d pay off mortgages, create trust funds, invest in dreams etc but as I said before money changes people and I’ve seen a lot of spending of other peoples money or sideying.

What would you do?
First things first I’d just travel. No luggage. Just my MacBook, my camera, drum machines and maybe a USB mic and some headphones. Anything I need I’d pickup on the go. You can get underwear and toiletries everywhere, besides I have a wardrobe full of clothes and I pretty much only wear small fraction or rotate the 10 items.
As well as travel I’d invest in organisations doing work on a grassroots level which makes a change to peoples lives for the better. There’s so many people out there who have great hearts and visions for change but all they need is the funding.

What about your partner?
That’s actually a sticky one because as much I could say “Babe I hit the lotto” I can’t exactly say “You can’t tell your family or anyone else”. I mean I can say it and expect secrecy but humans will be human innit. My family will know, well the ones I’m close with anyway.
It all changes here because for instance I’m trying to settle up and roam the earth whilst creating but my partner may want to settle down here and invest in property etc. I’d invest in her and give her a portion of the winnings because then she can pursue and do what she’s always wanted.

Most importantly I think winning the lottery buys you so much time to concentrate on what it is that you love to do and allows you move at your own pace because you’re no longer selling your time for money anymore. Hence why I wouldn’t buy a house, get a car or flaunt it, I’d just wander the earth exploring and learning about lives outside of my own.
You’d have so much control over your time and what you think about and do due to no longer needing to be pigeon holed into society to survive that you’d grow more closer to God. You’ll be far less distracted when there’s nothing to worry about other than being blessed with a next day to live a life of peace, prosperity and progress…

That’s my answer, what would you do if you won the lotto?

Hit me up across the socials, I am @whereisko and you’ve been listening to 0-800-YO-FAM WHATEVER INNIT.

Nos vemos el próximo sábado (we’ll meet again next Saturday)

Unboxing the Roland SP-404 MKII

Sometimes you’ve gotta do what you gotta do and from the moment I set eyes on this likkle gadget and its capabilities I was sold. I admired the way in which it was truly digital and integrated well into most settings, allowing you to manage the samples and loops via a desktop app and also utilise it as a sampler. When I saw people using previous generations I was often perplexed as there was no visible waveform editor or synthesis however the fact that it seems like you can work on this then connect with a computer to continue, made me intrigued more than anything.

You know the vibes and how I get down; I begin watching a whole host of YouTube videos and getting accustomed to the idea of ownership. The deciding factor for me is was it’s size, power, potential and capabilities to capture on the move with added portability. It was everything my recent purchase of the MPC Live 2 wasn’t as when taking it out the box and holding it, the SP-404 MKII was hella light. After watching videos by Jade Wii, Ave Mcree, Cookin’ Soul, Accurate Beats, SPVidz, and of course one of the Don’s of SP-404-verse, Dibiase, I decided to order it on a crisp Saturday morning before popping out on a later October date day.

I was pumped! I discovered Reddit’s SP-404 community somehow and began getting involved with in the upvoting whilst waiting for my time to arrive. It would be nearly 6 weeks between ordering and receiving my new weapon of choice. In that time I had also attempted to sign up to the SP Forum however as it was relatively early days in the release the only folks who had them were the agents who got sent them.

Mine arrived last week on a Thursday afternoon with the delivery driver leaving it on a porch and not ringing the doorbell. If truth be told the only reason I dared not report the guy is because his name sounded black and I didn’t want him to get fired. My partner kindly exited her conference call to collect it but due to the box that Westend DJ dispatched it in, I asked her to open it up just to check.

So here we are. The moment of truth. It’s arrived and I’m somewhat shook to turn it on and begin my experimental journey with it. I have no idea how to use this thing. I have no idea how it actually works sequencing wise or even drum input wise. I don’t even know if it can do polyphony for bass lines and melodies. I think I copped it because I wanted to be able to groove on the move. I really don’t know where to start to be honest but this is my unboxing, again before popping out on date day. My pack of SD cards are begging to be opened and used. I got around to registering the serial number earlier and somehow downloaded the software but yea, I’ll keep you updated with my progress. Stay tuned and connected…

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.063: The price is going up

Summary

How much do you value your time and do you need to limit the supply to create scarcity so people appreciate the privilege of getting a piece of it?

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Transcription

I’m not a fan of obligation or entitlement. When I encounter anything that feels like that I tend to do the reverse or even break the pattern. Sometimes you do things to be nice but then when it becomes expected it can easily turn into something which you do in vain to check a box and wash your hands of it.

Respect that I value my time and getting my attention in whichever form it comes is a privilege. It’s only when you start to value your time and presence as such that your whole attitude changes to how your conduct yourself. I’ve explored this on the Khalism podcast in a short clip and also in messages exchanged with many different people who I’ve had convos with about similar stuff but yea…

Value and respect your time and energy, if you feel like anyone is getting too particular with out then stop the flow of abundance and create scarcity in the supply line. That’s how you drive the value and appreciation of something up tenfold. It’s all economics.

I move the way I move for many reasons. I’m not an anti-social person, I’m quite the opposite actually, however I tend to occupy my energy and mind in a variety of ways. I’m someone who’s reserved by choice, I don’t live in my own mind but I meditate, process and explore life in ways where it’s me and God just building. I don’t say that lightly, I just prefer my own company and space to explore aspects of self to create things.

It doesn’t matter where I’m at or with whom I always think about the things I should and could be spending my time doing. The fact that I work 38hrs a week means that I often don’t have enough time to explore the ideas in head let alone finish them so a lot of the times. I’d forgo doing stuff because I’ve never not got stuff to complete. It’s like Michelangelo having the task of the Sistine Chapel on his mind and then being distracted and pulled in all sorts of different directions from the task at hand. It makes shit longer to do.

Me on the other hand try to do what I can on a daily to get stuff done but can’t seem to do it a lot of the time or I can’t really get time to just think and explore without being distracted by so many factors. A lot of the time I distract myself, sometimes I get distracted by energies from calls, other times I get distracted from not having enough time to unwind from my work obligations. 28hrs a lot of time in the week to build up ideas but not be able to exercise them straight away because you’re at work.

I think the secret to being hyper production is to have clarity of the mind. There’s no way to be as productive as you envision with worldly worries on your mind, that’s why the act of creating and completion is more spiritual than anything else. I call it God time because there’s something that flows through you, the type of focus that only comes from devotion and servitude to a higher power. You’ll really got to work out what the purpose is for your powers and what cause you’re using them for. Who are you surviving, what behaviours are you influencing?

It’s deeper than the average…

When I lock in to focus on something I’m very much obsessed and one track minded which comes with its own unique set of problems when you’ve got other obligations. Why do obligations suck?

Well they’re all the things that keep us away from the path to our original disposition and state of being. Obligations can often lead us astray. Obligations can often serve as toxic impositions that become their own mental and spiritual obstacles in their own right. Obligation to some degree breed an air of entitlement and if you experience that, well its time to limit the supply…

This episode was brought to you by Khalid Omari
Peace, prosperity and progress

Whatever innit.

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.062: The day I stopped pursuing a career in showbiz

Summary

Many of our journeys either start after a significant macro moment but mine began after getting swindled by an event promoter who DM’d me on MySpace, which was the crescendo of a short lived and often uneventual micro pursuit to become a Grime artist in the early to mid 2000s.

—

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Transcription

I think I can always track the end of my Grime MC with this one event back in the mid-noughties.

I was crew-less, I weren’t making my own beats that I was spitting on yet, I just had some pretty awesome ideas and a dream to be the best MC.
My MySpace page was semi-popping at the time as I had the iPanema joint that collabbed with Ray Smith to bring to life and a few other ones that we had created.

MySpace was a weird place. I just wanted to be heard. It made a huge difference from pushing cassettes and vinyl around but also it weren’t enough to not have to have CDs pressed to be able to sell because streaming wasn’t a thing back then.
I discovered Lily Allen on Myspace and collabbed with a bunch of others, but MySpace opened my mind to a hellova lot more.

One day I opened my inbox to see a message from this guy called Kyle who was asking me to perform at an event he was putting on at 93 Feet in Brick Lane. I was gassed because technically I had never really done a show or performed live on my own before outside of my band. Also it had been more than a few years since my band had broken up and the one I left the one I created to join didn’t really sit right with me so I left after my “I want to spit bars about real life moment”.
I accepted, I really didn’t know the ins and outs of it as I was still relatively young and naive to the live music world outside of Grime raves which our band didn’t really get booked to perform at anyway. However a family friend did hook us up with a paid gig at some Youth Centre in Croydon but it was always a palaver to get the fee from him. Plus not everyone in the band used to show up to the gigs but felt entitled to the £ which boiled over into another palaver and also that £ had to be split about 5 different ways.

Being in a Grime band was different. No one knew how to play instruments. You either was a DJ or an MC, or you dabbled in both. What opened up a new dynamic is when Music Production became more accessible with the arrival of Music 2000. I think I borrowed a copy from a classmate of mine called Zuby. I started using it but lent it to a few friends I was rolling with in the band to start creating stuff.

LC made a track that Jendor would spit on for an Essentials mixtape he put together and Marcel made Drippos. I don’t know why we didn’t change the name of the track in all honesty but I hooked us up with some free studio time at Firm Handed Studio’s which was run by Jr (may Allah bless his soul).
Jr’s actual studio was based out of his flat on Brookmill Road. He had AKAI drum machines and a G5 Apple Mac, a mixing desk in his bedroom with the mic setup in the hallway.
The night we went to record Drippos, Marcel carried his Playstation and recorded each instrument track by track into Jr’s software. I think Jr was using Logic which at this time hadn’t been acquired by Apple, it was made by e-Magic. This is how long ago it was.

I had been to Jr’s several times previously with Ray Ruck to record, mix and feature but also when me and my old mate Jamel went to record our track one Saturday. I don’t know why but I thought it was a great idea to smoke a spliff in Brookmill Park prior to going in to work. I think that was just a wasted session and perhaps the last session me and Jamel did together surprisingly especially considering we were thick as thieves in them days. But it is what it is I guess.

Anyway I digress… The Music 2000 era also intersected with when Home PCs got more affordable and crack versions of software to create music were doing the rounds. A band member Marlon was the first to have the Home PC setup and to make beats with Fruity Loops and guess what? The next year or so I asked my mother if she could get me one.
The were crazily expensive to a degree. My mum bless her paid about £600 for a Compaq PC that had like some inconceivable amount of RAM and maybe an 80GB hard drive. That was enough for me to start installing Fruity Loops from Jamel’s brother Nayhum who reluctantly gave me the installation disk and my brother loaded up Sony Vegas and Soundforge, both of which I used to start crafting my stuff and doing up CDs to listen to.

I can’t lie my beats were… Aight but trizzash. I was still recovering from that moment where I previewed a Music 2000 beat during a set and the band plus the extended lot laughed at it. They just wasn’t open minded and couldn’t see the vision to be honest. I went back to the drawing board.

Funnily enough when you have your own setup to express yourself you begin to move different. I’d spend a majority of my days responding to my lines, writing bars, recording and making beats and listening back to them. With software like Soundforge I’d add fx to samples and tracks, with Sony Vegas I’d actually start recording tracks. It was here that I started recorded secret mixtapes using a combo of my own ridders and those created on Fruity loops. I guess this was post the mini-disk era where I’d have all buy Music 2000 beats whilst travelling to College in between studying Jay Z, Kanye West and A Tribe Called Quest.

Once I created my first mixtape The Mockumentary, which was basically started life as me reading from my rhyme books and notepads onto instrumentals to remember, to Ray Ruck I think we began working on tracks together. He really wanted me to go the commercial route and re-record one tracks I made in my earliest days as he saw that as a hit but I was no longer that person. We went on to do Stop, brought iPanema to life with his production tenure and expertise, we even did the first draft of Primark Boy after it was on the same idea CD as the Reason draft of iPanema but it wasn’t hard enough.
At some point during the Fruity Loops era I met G-Moan, Fitzroy Lindsay, who went to PMA in Deptford and he gave me a copy of Reason but in the process got rid of Fruity Loops. I don’t know why but hey. Anyway…

My Myspace Page is kinda popping and I’ve collabbed with Asa who’s now an illustrator and her producer from Sweden, I’m listening to vast amounts of sounds which is influencing my outlook and production style, and I’ve accepted to play at this night being promoted by Kyle.

I roll up and it’s empty as fuck. Literally no one but bar staff. I hit the stage and perform to no one. Come off stage and thought Kyle was going to get my £ but man scarpered. I had been scammed by a janky promoter.
I called man the next day in a rage. I was ready to hunt man down and do some bad things but my Dad looked at me after that conversation he had witnessed and said “Just leff it man”.

As someone who was experienced in stage and show business my Dad had probably experienced that in his lifetime or early days and wanted me to save the unnecessary rage. I think I was moreso embarrassed than anything else. I didn’t enjoy being onstage. I still wasn’t as sharp as I’d be a few years later when I began to truly produce and shape my own sounds and concepts from the ground up. I wasn’t too fluid.

This incident was the start of my journey to where I am today. I had to hit the lowest point and build myself up through honing my skills, exploring the boundaries of my own limitations. Investing in myself and assembling the tools I needed to slowly connect the dots. Now I’m at a place where I feel as though anything is possible with the focus and consistency that I lacked back then.

Autobiography of A Nobody is a nod to my emergence from that era however at the time when I had reached my zenith as a Grime MC and producer, I was no longer in the circles I was in to push and promote. The whole project is a culmination of my journey being bandless and wanting to talk about life to actually doing it.

If there’s one lesson to be learned here it is to keep going regardless. Whether you toil away in obscurity, there’ll be a day when the opportunity presents itself to bring your achieved creations to light.

Keep pushing on.

I wish you all Peace, Love and Prosperity.

If you’re new here, check out the other episodes or if you’re a regular let’s reconnect next week. 12am Saturday.

I’m Khalid Omari and you’ve been tuned in to the podcast 0-800-YO-FAM WHTVRINNIT.

Nos vemos el próximo sábado (we’ll meet again next Saturday)

WHTVRINNIT – Ep.061: It’s Blitz and I Deleted LinkedIn [from my phone]

Summary

The necessary evil that is LinkedIn had to go from my phone as it was starting to make me feel ’empty announcementless’ and void of sharing personal stuff masquerading as a professional reflection or parallel.

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WHTVRINNIT – Ep.060: Time To Ascend

Summary

The Khalism brand ascends to streaming and why podcasts are much more fun and sustainable when you concentrate on having just the one. Also more discipline and regime updates.

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Khalism Live – Ep.008: Noway (AKAI MPC Live 2 x Logic Pro X)

I cannot lie to y’all! The past few days have been maaaad for me. I felt like my day job stuff has been the catalyst of my next set of moves. There’s been a lot of podcast episodes alluding to my internal conflicts but after a conference call on Friday, I checked my email to see an offer from Restream for 30% off the first month subscription. At first I didn’t know it was only for the first payment, figured it was for the whole year but still…

Friday was spent creating accounts for all the services that you I can now stream to and go busy. Some of which were a complete failure like a few of the South Korean ones which are owned by the same parent company but all of the other ones I’m pretty straight on. VK I had to delete after signing up and can’t go again until sometime in 2022 as you’ve gotta use something a lot of don’t have multiple of, and there’s also some which I couldn’t understand the language or effectively translate via Google. All in all I paid my first discounted payment at like 2pm-ish but probably didn’t start my first stream until about 8pm and it was probably a disaster out start.

I tried to broadcast a podcast episode recorded of 0800YOFAM – WHTVRINNIT and it weren’t playing the live audio of the podcast during the recording for all who tuned in to hear. It was real amateur night to be honest until I started a stream from the MPC Live 2. For some reason I can’t use my Rode mic to narrate what I’m doing whilst the MPC app is open but now I feel like its kinda minor as I’ve perfected the layout -since changed since these episodes were recorded.

Started out with the drumbeat and followed the line of enquiry to record some vocals a lil hook but rather than do it the lazy way, I broke it down into different tones as if I were recording myself whilst creating the first iteration of the Up In The Ear album. I even started as I meant to go on mixing wise by splitting tones and effects into buses. I know I’m a reformed geezer.

By the second day I was gassed. I think I was amazed at what had happened the night before and spent the whole of my Saturday thinking about what I had achieved whilst enjoying the replay. I was obsessed in fact. I was riding the train to Tottenham Hale for the Sistine Chapel exhibition and started mumbling the bars whilst riding the Victoria line from my interchange to the destination. I said to myself that I should write it down but then apart of me had confidence in my ability, albeit rather my enthusiasm to train my mind to recall and remember the flow. I spent that day doing a lot of other things that I now can’t recall but it’s always fun to spend time with my girlfriend on a Saturday.

When we got home I was ready to get down to business. In recent weeks a lot was on my mind, especially after an interview that felt incredibly frosty and some other work related things so I got busy in OBS with the new layout. I didn’t plan to write bars live and it was the first time doing so using a word processor on the mac rather than phone or paper but it felt incredibly fluid. It made me question why I hadn’t tried it previously. The split screen on the apps too. Man that was dope when I think back to how it went down. I think I just love how the stream captured all of the ideation in real time especially around the hook and the arrangement of it regarding how it evolved.

On a very old hard drive I found a video of me attempting to film myself making beats for YouTube back in 2011. I think my Mac had like 4GB of RAM back then and was hella slow so even if I knew about software to record the screen and edit in the bootleg copy of Final Cut Pro X at the time, I’d be waiting a helluva long time for the renders. I recall waiting about 24hrs one time hence why I didn’t pursue the direction of video when it came to Up In The Ear and the Canon 550D.

Going through my archive in general really reminded me of how far I’ve ventured on my journey and how powerful self belief in your vision is. I literally got up out the mud and worked my ass off, investing in self with no help or handout and practicing on honing my craft for hours on end to get to where I’m at today. I’m still learning all these years later. The secret code is consistency and dispelling any self doubt that one may have. You have believe in yourself and share your passion enough to inspire you to keep going because ultimately that’s how you get better.

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This session was the catalyst for putting everything in perspective in regards to my day job and my moonlighting because when my energy had been going in the direction of the day job, I’d lost sight of my passion and hadn’t allocated enough time for it but that stopped when I was reminded of the fact of what my priority has always been. Never lose sight of your path. Keep striving despite the distractions to settle into the mundane, especially if you were never built for that or cut from that particular cloth.

I think the next part of this session will reflect my perspective and reflections expressed in here but until next time, subscribe to me across the socials…

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The Island (1st Draft Snippet)

October 20 2010, 7:09 AM

Here’s a preview of a project I’m working on called The Island. 

It’s an ode which is:

A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.

Oxford Dictionary of English

I’m really trying to push boundaries in regards to my writing style. I believe that there’s so much more to the use of language over music than just ‘spitting’ sixteen ‘bars’. I set out to paint very descriptive pictures and bring back a form of personal indulgement not seen in popular music since the times of old.

Why should I confine myself to a box like the others, why can’t I become an alternative multifaceted popstar respected for my craft rather than all the smoke and mirrors that surround it?

This is art, this is pure emotion and literary prowess. This is me challenging myself as well as sharpening my skills, whilst bringing back the ways of old in the process.

This is me taking advantage of all the tools at my disposal to convey my art in every impossible dimension, so the audience feel all perspectives in order to stimulate their senses.

Imagine if William Shakespeare lived in the 21st century, what would he do?

Peace and Love

Khalid Omari