Getting back on the wagon. Beeboy back in effect. Starting with Thug-o-Nomics, the delusional gangsta rapper that gets caught up in his own hype.
Category Archives: music
Thug-o-Nomics: Tats
The Main Ingredient
So, life has been moving at light years per second, lots of things going on around me concerning my family and just dog tired from working one of those necessary jobs. Not necessary like, the world depends on the nature of my work, but like, I guess I’ll take this shitty job because the economy is pretty much the second worse in America’s recorded history. That’s why it’s been over a month between posts, inspiration hasn’t exactly been lacking, but motivation…and energy haven’t been close companions. No new art or writing has been created by these hands, but an old verse that will be lost to the ages because my group recorded it before we has ready access to a CD duplicator and had to rely on tape decks, DATs and an 8 channel digital recorder (maybe even a zip drive), this verse popped into my head at random. You can figure it’s kind of old based on the technology I mentioned, but I feel like I was spitting darts of pure fire. The verse is from a song I recorded with JMS Injah(aka Blu Jemz of the Hardy Boys) in the early 2000s. it was titled the Main Ingredient.
Here goes my verse, that I somehow remember even having not heard it for about 10 years:
The Main Ingredient.
Me on the Mic again, When I spit it’s liquid nitrogen
Moving like the wind, lighter than air, walk on hydrogen
Travel on clouds of nimbus, battle on Mt. Olympus
Shift the orbit, don’t believe me count the inches
That’s how powerful my strength is
Lyrics flood your senses like a tempest
Been resting in the trenches
Knowledge cleanses, flush out the bad like a menses
A week of torture – the speech enforcer – you seek the author
I pen the scholarship anonymous, rip through realms of consciousness
Marx up your Lenin like a Communist
Set the stage for where the drama is with three accomplices
Recite ancient mantras from the monoliths of Stonehenge
Bring the apocalypse, reach the heavens from an obelisk
Raise your hands if you’re sure, pump your fists if your’re positive!!!
Filed under Art, Entertainment, music
Prayer
Another A.B. Do Well Gem, from the “album” A.B. Conversations,” now up on soundcloud.
Lyrics
Verse 1
In the name of the Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Make my voice an instrument to flow surgical,
Gotta make it personal – It’s just introspection,
God I’m asking you to give me some direction
Make the path I walk Straight, already mastered the crooked
Crooklyn Masters wrote the booklet on the hustle
Sons Know how to Push It
Church on every block ’cause we gotta praise here
Can’t have seeds in New York, Hell’s the only we raise here
BX to Bed-Stuy Counting down the final days here
So we can stay up to Speed, New Yorkers, Just a tougher breed
Airs polluted, gotta huff and wheeze just to breathe
Wonder why we spit the sickness, and dabble in illicit business
From bootlegs to blow to get the dough
Get my flicks from the corner box office, not HBO
Kids selling Buddha heads oregano
Take you off the scent throw in stems
Nothings ever gonna change, yo, here we go again….
Verse 2
Cold nights got me dressing in layers, stressing the prayer
‘Cause they cutting off the heat
Gotta pay the light bill earn just enough to eat
Trying to Stay thankful.
Keep my name on the tongues of Angels
Keep my Wax on the tables.
Ask the most high a favor
Keep me out that Fire, Like the Ohio Players
Need stay warm so I bundle up
Surface from the underground railroad tunnel up
Out to win not to be the runner up
– For honorable mention
And let these devils embezzle my 401 pension
And get off scott free, Mr. Miracle, Baqi.
Leave this Apokolypse, the Darkseid of Metropolis
Trying to move up to the East Side
They target apartments in the sky
Got folks afraid to cry while other people pray to die,
It don’t rain no more what we see is mother nature cry
Verse 3
I’m seeking richness and forgiveness
Pray for Paradise, while I live and in the after-life
Keep me out the hellfire’s Fahrenheit or Celsius
don’t need to be the wealthiest, but comfortable
when I’m old I need my brain to be functional
Gotta guide the youth
Too many manipulate and hide the truth
Like the Queen in Snow White with poison inside the fruit
and they provide the fruit
I’m out to grow mine organic
Know my relationship is give and take with the planet
When my people bury me I want to die because I’m elderly
or pass in glory holding weaponry, leave a legacy
I got a plan, but God knows what’s best for me
In the end, who else I really got to question me?
I’m saying, I’m getting on his good side now,
Because too many people in the hood die foul,
Said I’m getting on his good side now
Because too many people in the hood die foul.
Verse 4
To all the non-believers, seeking heat beyond a fever
There’s a place for you, it’s not safe, I’ll pray for you.
Gotta READ the Bible’s lengths
Not HEAR about it in revival tents
The true and authentic word, is bond
Wouldn’t keep my people in bondage
Won’t deny what my people accomplished
Look where civilization is cradled at
The essence of life who gave you that
Hold your breath he’ll take it back
I breathe, for now that’s the proof I need
If I’m looking for the truth I’ll read
The Qur’an in Arabic, ties in to the Celestine Manuscript
The Old Testaments words are therapists
Any faith can breed a terroist
If they don’t follow the text or form various sects, they go Dave Coresh
Take a leap of faith or Baby Steps
I’ll follow God’s words, you can take the rest
Filed under Art, Entertainment, life, music, Poetry, Spoken Word
Rebel Yell
Audio:
Lyrics:
‘Bout to do something bold and aggressive
Redirect my whole perspective
Rope the ‘Precious’ on a golden necklace
My spoken message knocks the wind out your solar-plexus
Kids about to enter hell when I’m running’ through your Splinter Cell
You’se a krill I’m a killer whale
Top of the food chain until my mood change
Big up Pen spit poison and produce flame
Introduce slang parallel to Wu-Tang – Only carry loose change
Don’t walk around with big bills to break
Gotta hustle up and look into real estate
Front me an advance, I’m buying property in France
I’m known in a couple camps as the trouble man
Wanna put a couple hundred grand in the mother land
You wanna pimp me out but I got other plans
I want to see you pump your hands if you understand
And you sick of seeing truth stretched like a rubberband
–Won’t Lie to y’all, I’ll put the fear of God inside of y’all
–Inspire y’all reveal facts they’ll never tell
–Holler if you hear me it’s the Rebel Yell
–You heard, if not I’ll say it louder, you heard if not then I’ll Holla
Blast a pistol just to start the race
Shooting blanks at the stars and space
Spit a dart just to scar your face
Drop the bass to bang dents in your armor plate
Kamikaze leaving no harbor safe
But it’s not absolute, I escape in a parachute
Got ginseng and ma-ca root, aphrodisiac
Born to lead the pack in a foreign legion hat
Sitting on a camel leaning back
We come in charging all my dog’s barking
Swords sharpened, carvin’ markings in your Spartans
My peeps run the streets your troops just patrolling ’em
North Korean explosion, split the atoms of plutonium
British Knights control the flow of opium
Collaborate with the triads, and supply labs with dime bags
Flood the streets let a little time pass
This is how the pacify the population, keep a hold on global domination
Watching me, I peeped your whole operation
Identified your plans for genocide
Birds of prey gonna bang on your enterprise
Want to see the truth, just look me in the eyes (uh) just look me in the eyes
–Won’t Lie to y’all, I’ll put the fear of God inside of y’all
–Inspire y’all reveal facts they’ll never tell
–Holler if you hear me it’s the Rebel Yell
–You heard, if not I’ll say it louder, you heard if not then I’ll Holla
In my youth I was uninhibited, high spirited
Broken down by images of lynches
Found out I was underprivileged,
Studied the builders of the pyramids
Figured I don’t gotta an invalid
Got plans to make the pilgrimage
Gotta get into it get involved get interested
In my own progression,
Learn the right way to hold a loaded weapon
Got a right to bear arms in defense of my rights
On anybody make a threat or attempts on my life
You got a badge, But I don’t bow to your flag
I’m playing by a different set of rules
Middle finger to the federals
White hoods, want us hanging by the testicles
FDA, American Medical, allows poison in our vegetables
Put cyanide and tar in cigarettes
Sign of the Times, like the Prince cassette
Barely making it in this Strange Relationship
Face it, I ain’t really made to be a patriot
to a land that holds nothing sacred
Laid it’s foundation in hatred
Built it’s economy trading my people
my people work the fields from see to can’t see you
Blinded by the root of all evil
–Won’t Lie to y’all, I’ll put the fear of God inside of y’all
–Inspire y’all reveal facts they’ll never tell
–Holler if you hear me it’s the Rebel Yell
–You heard, if not I’ll say it louder, you heard if not then I’ll Holla
Filed under Entertainment, history, music, Poetry, Spoken Word
Project CBRunway 7: Round 1- The Purple Haze
I may have mentioned that I am a member of the forums on Comic Book Resources. There’s an annual Super Hero design/redesign competition on the Artist and Writer Showcase section of the forums called Project CBRunway and this is the 7th “season.” I’ve participated in the competition a few times and it’s something I look forward to every year. This year hopeful participants had to submit basic costume designs for a hero and villain based on ourselves using a basic template model sheet. I went with the basic themes of positivity and negativity because these are drives and attitudes we all share, but when the mood shifts too far in one direction, you aren’t behaving like your normal self. First I got to work on the positive aspects using the mathematical symbol for plus(+) as an insignia and using bright colors, baby blue, white and yellow to show a positive attitude. And I used the minus(-) sign for the villain and inverted the colors on the computer to come up with that color scheme. Anyway, here’s my submission.
Private Positive and Negatory. Great, right?
MattBib, the moderator of this section of the forums acts as Tim Gunn and gives us wild ideas for our weekly challenges. For the first challenge he came up with the name “Sounds of the Silver-Age” wherein the contestants had to pick an iconic Recording Artist from the 1960s and give that person a super hero costume from the silver-age era of comic books. Comic Book scholars and collectors understand the silver-age to be the period between the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In this period comic fans were introduced to the updated versions of the Flash and the Green Lantern over at DC Comics and Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four… well let’s say just about all the really popular characters over at Marvel Comics.
The Flash went from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen, Green Lantern from Alan Scott to Hal Jordan.
This Explosion of Characters came from what Stan Lee likes to call the Marvel Age of comics.
That’s what comics looked like in the Silver-Age, and as for the Music Icon from the 60s, I chose Jimi Hendrix. His look lends itself to the fantastic automatically. His dress was that of a gypsy pirate, with an attitude to match. Hopefully I don’t have to give him too much of an introduction, I’m guessing enough of you are experienced.
To distill Jimi to his most memorable visual components there were a few details I wanted to keep in mind, the Afro, The Bandana, The Goatee and the Vest. There are pictures out there where he doesn’t don the vest or bandana/headband, but in my head that’s what he always wore. A lot of fans say that he was known to keep a tab of LSD in his bandana for storage, but he would occasionally wind up tripping as his sweat dissolved the tab(s) leading the substance to seep into his system through his pores. As with many of the other contestants, I went to the his catalogue of songs for inspiration for his costumed identity. He’s got so many songs that would be great super hero names, Little Wing, Dolly Dagger, Stone Free, Night Bird Flying and Voodoo Child. For a while I was set on Voodoo Child. The lyrics to the first verse sound epic:
“…Well I’ll stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand- Well I’ll pick up all the pieces and make an island, I might even raise a little sand- ‘Cause I’m a Voodoo Child, Lord knows I’m a Voodoo Child…”
With that bravado and cockiness as fuel I began sketching out his look. I tried bell bottom pants for him and frilly cuffs for his shirt sleeves but that was still saying Rock Star and not Super Hero. The one thing from his signature look that I could borrow from to make him a super hero was his bandana. I just rolled the headband down over his eyes and added some goggle lenses and boom, Super Hero. But nothing really came to me though that said Voodoo child and the Internet wasn’t working so well, so researching the symbolism of Voodoo wasn’t going to work out. Also I couldn’t get the Marvel character Brother Voodoo out of my head. Below are some rough ideas/sketches.
Hmmm, none of these really say "VOODOO CHILD."
Voodoo Child wasn’t working out for me as a character and I didn’t have much time to work because the deadline for this challenge was creeping up on me. For some reason I considered Purple Haze. Time was working against me, so I threw together a quick simple cartoony sketch on some Borden and Riley vellum paper without a solid character model and design to work from. As simple as it was I really liked it. I was watching Adventure Time so that world of mirth and excitement may have slipped in and made me feel good about everything. It’s kind of like what I’d imagine an LSD trip to feel like. So from the sketch it was scanning time, soon to be followed by some coloring in PhotoShop. Here are the results.
When working on a character with a purple color scheme, avoid using red.GARISH!!!
I could have gone down the coloring road all night, but it was late and I had to get this in on time for the voting thread to go up. To me A was too much like the Wonder Twins. B was a step in the right direction and C was a step in the wrong direction, ugh. D although it’s basically a simple color swap of A really made things pop for me. It’s what I went with for the challenge. Check out the Project CBRunway: Challenge 1 voting thread and check out the other entries as well. If you’re inclined to vote I won’t stop you. The voting poll allows you to vote for multiple designs so no pressure.
And just for my Ungowa Soul Power visitors here’s a slightly modified image of Jimi Hendrix, The Purple Haze.
Acting Funny, But I Don't Know Why?!? Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky.
Filed under Art, Comics, Entertainment, graphics, history, music, pop culture
A.B. Do Well – Logo
I’m still going through the missing files I have to replace. The logo I’m posting today is the one I used as a solo rapper. A.B. Do Well was the name I went by, and occasionally still use when in the company of those that remember and respect the name. Not a huge group of people, but definitely a sincere group. The name A.B. Do Well was a combination of things, it was a play on my actual name and a mission statement. A.B. is Abdul-Baqi, the name my mother gave me. It’s Arabic and Islamic, Al-Baqi is one of the 99 attributes of Allah, it means The Eternal/Enduring. Abdul is a title in arabic meaning (devout) servant or slave of God. So my first name translates to The Servant of the Eternal (God). Do Well is my intention and/or practice of making sure I put my best into all of my endeavors. Whatever I do the goal is to do it well. A.B. Do Well when pronounced all together sounds an awful lot like Abdul. That was the thought process behind the stage name way back when I was 19 or 20.
As for the logo I was keeping with the esoteric/mystical theme from the group Sight Beyond Light. For that I took the initials from the group name, SBL, and fashioned them into the All Seeing Eye, which is usually associated with the Eye of Horus and typically is a symbol for the sun. It also alludes to the Third Eye, which is a symbol for higher understanding and enlightenment. For A.B. Do Well I borrowed the symbol of the Masons, a very widely known fraternal order that is for some reason considered a secret society. Their symbol is the compass and the square, tools for designing and architecture. The roots of the Masons is in building, generally with stones. But the compass and the square to me represent taking the long view and exercising proper and precise planning to achieve wondrous and dynamic goals that leave an indelible mark on society. That’s a great symbol and philosophy to adopt. A but lofty, but if you don’t dream big, you don’t achieve big. Anyway, here’s a pic of the recreated A.B. Do Well logo.
Nice and simple, but I didn’t use the square because I was saying I had a more rounded view. YOu know how it is, you think you know everything at 20. More than people that have been around long enough to know better. More than ancient orders that have had centuries to think and plan. But like I said, lofty.
I was thinking this is a little to basic and played around with a nice new image based on a more modern logo for the Masons.
I kind of wish I played around more with the logo when I first created it. I’m really liking the update. I guess I have an excuse to start rapping again. This logo shows some growth and refinement. Pretty slick.
Well I’m sure I’ll have another lost logo up soon. Until then, Peace, be well and Do Well.
P & Q Video and Back Story
I made a bunch of iMovie videos for some of my old songs to put on Youtube a few months back. They’re on my video page here, if you haven’t seen ’em check ’em out, they’re fun low budget takes on the songs I barely had money to record.
But anyways, I fully intended to make one for P & Q back then too. The chorus talked about the if P then Q theory of logic learned in basic algebra, or Sequential One,and I wanted to use the text book Sub-Conscious and I used when we were in high school. A book pretty much every high school student in New York City used since the late 80s. Integrated Mathematics, Course I. I couldn’t find an image for the book online for the life of me, but mysteriously I found it yesterday. I only looked for it because my friend Rah Unique (@rah_unique) tweeted that he was now playing the song using the hash tag #NP, and he shouted me out @countbaqula. So, I found it and it’s very low resolution, but it was enough to make a mock book cover for the song.
I took this and made this:
I may have gone a little to crazy trying to distress and age the book, but I was a man possessed. I was so happy to finally get a basic image that I played around with it for hours. After making the cover it was time to go ahead and make the video. And there it is below, for you viewing pleasure.
Low Tech Records
Not much to say here, this was the logo I came up with for Low Tech Records,the indie record label my rap group, Sight Beyond Light. We used it to press up our first single, New Beginning b/w Illusions; that I spoke about in the last post, and a few other projects. Sub-Conscious released his first full length album, Lyric Lovers Deluxe, on Low Tech Records. I made a little promo album for Sight Beyond Light titled Vanishing Point of View and later pressed up A.B. Conversations, my solo project as A.B. Do Well that was sold hand-to-hand for the most part. I put a few up on CD-Baby, but like only a few I also had some up at a few digital retailers, they’re now closed though. But I still have a Myspace page up as A.B. Do Well. I don’t look at that page much, but you can.
So I think I’ll tackle the A.B. Do Well logo next time around. See you then, if not sooner. I’ve been working on on pages for The Stunning Beeboy and set up a different site for a web-comic. I know you all are on pins and needles, anxiously awaiting his debut, don’t worry he’ll bee here soon.(see what I did there?)
Filed under Art, Entertainment, graphics, logos, music
Sight Beyond Light
Well a while ago my external hard drive said I over worked it and just straight up quit on me. No two weeks notice or anything, super inconsiderate. But when it left it took all the old files I had on it, including the vector file of the logo for my former rap group, Sight Beyond Light. I waited a long time to recreate the image, but I finally did. I also through in the way it was laid out for the first single on Low Tech Records, our super unofficial record label. I mean the music was official, we just never registered it as a business. But that was in 2000.
Anyway, here’s the sticker/artwork for the first single. DJ Eclipse from Fat Beats and NYU Radios Hip-Hop Show, Halftime Radio, was super impressed with the professional presentation. I can’t take all the credit though, my band mate Blu Jemz(formerly JMS Inja) offered his input about the color scheme. Man those were the good old days. The four man crew was A.B. Do Well, that’s what I used to go by , Blu Jemz, Soem(he now goes by sTERRYo), and Sub-Conscious. We would be in the lab constantly. Soem and Blu Jemz made the beats for the most part, but our boys Rio Murray, Omari Toomer and Jon Abrahams also through their sound into the mix. Omari would lend vocals from time to time as well. Enough reminiscing, here’s the logo in question.
The all seeing eye, again I can’t take full credit at all because my brother came up with the initial sketch. I just vectorized it in Adobe Illustrator. Anyway here’s a little video I made for it way after the fact.
Also, I always wanted to go all Dark Side of the Moon with the logo, but other members of the band thought it was corny to rip off the Pink FLoyd album cover. I thought it would be so fitting and cool and at the time I’d just seen the Wizard of Oz Set to that album. There were moments when the synch up worked to amazing effect, but those moments were few and far between. Anyways, here’s my homage.
See that, that’s effing brilliant right there.
Well that’s one design file down. I don’t even want to guess how many there are to go, but I suppose the logo for the label is a must. I loved that old Low Tech Logo. Maybe I’ll have it up soon.
Ungowa Soul Power 