Tag Archives: A.B. Do Well

February 19, 2014 · 1:36 pm

What Up Y’all? (It’s A.B.)

In my boneheadedness, I believed I was recording into a SHURE SM-57 mic through a Digidesign MBox 2 Pro for the last few months. That was not the case, at all, I was recording into my computers built in mic. That’s ok for skype and taking notes, but, I’m trying to have vocals that start strong. So, I downloaded the driver for it and that changed things quite a bit. Anyway, now that I squared that away I laid out this track that I was performing as an opener, when I used to perform. So, here we go. It’s called, “What Up Y’all? (It’s A.B.)”I recorded a song called “Franklin Richards” over  the track by sTERRYo aka Soem aka TK Lawrence of Sight Beyond Light, the Dub Pistols and the Hardy Boys.  The track is lost to time, but hopefully when I repurposed the beat I created a timeless track.

I also came up with some artwork for it based on the “Keep Calm and Carry On.” posters that were really popular 3 years ago.

WUY-a.b

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, Entertainment, logos, music

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 15, 2012 · 10:47 am

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!!!

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, Entertainment, music

Tagged as , , , ,

August 4, 2012 · 12:00 pm

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

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, Entertainment, life, music, Poetry, Spoken Word

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 31, 2012 · 3:27 pm

Weighs and Means

Weighs and Means

I call this Weighs and Means, because they mean to get away with it
And since they have the means  that we’re supposed to be okay with it

The world has 6 billion people, China and India a third of it
But our government lies and we believe every word of it
Our debt to China is beyond astronomical
If it wasn’t so true it would almost be comical
See if you don’t laugh you gonna have to cry
Play station makes you let the whole world pass ya by
Anybody that tries to keep us down has to die
We went from producers to consumers never asked why
Look around – it’s a privilege to eat natural food
We eat genetically modified animal broods
Snack on Doritos and surf the Internet like it’s radical dude
Bush to Obama was really just a lateral move
Who pulls the strings on the dummies and marionettes?
While real freedom fighters get dragged and carried to death
Puppet masters set up Hussein, bin Laden and Ghadafi, huh
They strong-arm and extort more than the mafia
It’s the mysterious they, the man or big brother
Black caskets for the basilisks to dig a ditch under
Our original flag was a snake that hate to be tread on
Sic semper tyranus not a threat with its head gone
But we only see the tail and get to hear our death rattle
Not really citizens we the goyum – at best cattle
Gotta fight now before we get ground up for burgers
These bastards mastered genocide and try us for murder
Wonder why the masses ain’t bang on the capitol yet
Big banks call, send you letters and harass you to death
They get a bail out while we pay off the national debt
Me I’ll cash out my bank account for some traveler’s checks
About to unplug and start selling mangoes in Tahiti
Visions in the mind better off blind like Stevie
SpongeBob and Snookie don’t help, people turn off the TV
Read a frickin book about it you don’t gotta believe me

I call this Weighs and Means, because they mean to get away with it
And since they have the means  that we’re supposed to be okay with it

Leave a comment

Filed under Entertainment, history, life, Poetry, Spoken Word

Tagged as , ,

July 18, 2012 · 12:56 pm

Rebel Yell

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

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Entertainment, history, music, Poetry, Spoken Word

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 17, 2012 · 2:43 pm

Union Label

After doing some spoken word for a Father’s Day event, after some prodding and audience questions, I decided to record some and I’m starting with a piece I wrote in my first year of college, when I was still working with my rap group Sight Beyond Light. The audio is above via soundcloud. 

2 Comments

Filed under Entertainment, life, Spoken Word

Tagged as , , ,

March 11, 2012 · 5:12 pm

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, graphics, history, life, logos, music

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 8, 2012 · 6:23 pm

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, graphics, life, logos, music, photoshop

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 2, 2012 · 2:52 pm

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?)

Leave a comment

Filed under Art, Entertainment, graphics, logos, music

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 26, 2012 · 1:45 pm

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.

1 Comment

Filed under Art, Entertainment, life, logos, music

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,