Lately, I’ve been doing some introspection and been feeling like my 3 blogs haven’t had much direction or form. This has diminished content as well as motivation so I’ve taken the last few month to brainstorm ideas. On June 20th, Summer Solstice, I plan on rebooting all my blogs with refined content that I hope you guys will enjoy. In the meantime, if you want to see what I’ve been up to follow my instagram @jamesrevelsiii Have a great day!
James Revels III
If you are a musician and currently in a rut. Watch this video made by a couple of my friends in West Chester, Ohio and I guarantee it’ll get you pumped.
Video made by Columbiano with Voiceovers by Juel Anthony (Link to his sound cloud below the video)
Today’s the day! The first single “Genesis” from 5 track album “Escapism”. Genesis depicts the story of how I created music in 8 days; an allusion to how God created the world in the book of genesis in the bible. Listen below in the embed and if you like it consider downloading it for $1. I created the lyrics, instrumental, art. I even mixed the song myself. This is more than music, it’s a creative project. If this is the type of music you want more of please support it. I’m a one man team, working an $8 per hour, part time job trying to juggle my passion for creativity.Every play is crucial and every penny counts. I thank those faithful who have supported me over the years. If you happen to not have 4 quarters laying around, at least share it with a friend and convince them to share with a friend. Good music also needs good fans. I hope you enjoy this aural story that I have penned for you. Thanks for being a part of my creative process. Without further delay Genesis….
(Rap Genius Lyrics Found Here; Normal Lyrics Below)
[Verse 1]
Day One, I invent paper,
Then look around I found myself on a college ruled acre
Looking east, I go there and prepare
To get sustenance from vegetables shout out to nature.
Day Two, I invent pencils,
Then trace my brain, outlined on the page with a stencil.
Puffing lentil between dentals before Popeye;
Laser focused on nowhere with my blind hawk eyes.
Day Three, I invent Rhythm. I’m that guy.
The whole ecosystem bobbing head with him.
Visions of the future seems my creator hid them.
“Seconds. Where y’all going?” I’m starting to miss them,
Day Four, I invent poetry.
Before Yiruma, I found the flow in me.
Other animal ridicule; jokingly,
Then I destroy the close minded, openly
[Hook]
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
Day Five, I invent melody.
To give my words time to play with some company.
Add a little counterpoint and a couple timpani.
Then accidentally smoke a whole forest. Hickory.
Day Six, I invent Hip hop.
From there, I figured that I would never stop.
Now I don’t know who it was who invented pop or country.
It’s not me so hold the phone.
Day Seven, I invent the microphone.
Hmmm. I wonder.
That was me thinking I should invent the first song
And that song is what’s been playing all along.
Day Eight, I invent humans.
To give a way this soul food that they’re consuming
After putting my elaborate plan to movement,
I fade away to nirvana with my favorite Buddhist.
[Hook]
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
[Verse 3]
Invented paper to savor this emotion.
Wrote this genesis of rhetoric, unlike electric can’t resist.
This sets the precedence for the rest of this dissonance.
I’ll speak this stream of consciousness even without an audience.
Heart of a lion cloaked in a brown human pelt.
Mind your business. Enjoy your ride on conveyor belts.
What do you when everyone wants to escape?
While I’m on a mission to go find myself and relate.
Sleep is for the dead, I’ll live forever so I’m restless.
Me, myself and I the only one on this guest list.
Party of one. Celebrating our essence.
Not a graven image that we paint for the masses.
Can’t accept your bills your social currency is counterfeit.
Died ten times. I’m out of lives now that I think of it.
The conclusion, I’ve included is a great revelation
Every ending’s followed by the light of a genesis.
Here’s a preview of the track art for the song “A More”. A song about a man’s close amor, wanting “a more”.
When you think of musicians and artists you usually refer to them with a pseudonym. A fake name that they give themselves to be identified throughout their career. I have nothing against it’s use but, personally it’s not for me and here’s why.
So those are the reason’s that I use my real name instead of a made up one. Stay tuned for updates on my upcoming Hip-Hop Project “Escapism EP”. It’s a 5 track original EP that is an escape from the current norms of hip hop. I also released the album cover yesterday (also designed by yours truly) Check it out. If you like it hope you stay tuned as I get ready to release the first single “Genesis” in the next couple of weeks.
There are many types of intelligence that exist in this world. There’s social intelligence and academic intelligence, but I want to focus on two I am intimately familiar with; analytical and abstract intelligence.
We’ve all heard the saying “Think outside the box”. Well, analytical intelligence is the exact opposite of that. Analytical people will look inside the box, describe and break down every thing inside the boxes. They may even get lost in the boxes inside the boxes! This type of intelligence is great for understanding the nuances of specific objects. It’s like taking a magnifying glass and notating all the like cracks, crevices and colors. This lends well to math and science. The problem with this intelligence is that getting lost in the details is all too easy.
Abstract intelligence is the counterpart to analysis. Theses are the ones who “think outside of the box” and realize that all ideas are in one big box with infinite smaller boxes. Stated simply, abstraction is the act of generalization; stripping away the specifics and focusing on the similarities. For instance, “Color” is an abstraction of the specific colors “Blue” and “Orange” or “Sport” is an abstraction of the specific sports “Soccer” and “Baseball”. An abstraction is, like a big box that you fit other smaller boxes in to connect them together. This lends well to poetry because you can abstract two unrelated words like, “bullet” and “shark”, into a simile such as “The shark swam like a speeding bullet”. Abstract minded people usually are good at creative writing, art and music. The problem with abstract thought is that if the relation between the two ideas is too loose communicating the thought could be disastrous.
No intelligence is better than the other. I’d say analytical intelligence tends to be more practical, but abstract intelligence tends to be more beautiful. Although, in practice we use both simultaneously, there tends to be a preference for analytical over abstract. There’s nothing wrong wrong with this but without understanding the balance we miss one half of the equation that makes subjects like math interesting. Math is the analysis of an abstract concept called numbers. While writing composition classes are the abstractions of multiple pieces of writing. By framing school work or problems in this way it could help with finding solutions. If you know all the details and are still stuck, try to find a loosely similar situations that you relate to and try to tackle it that way (analytical to abstract). Or if you are confused on a dense concept, try to ground the idea in a metaphor, by relating the parts you do understand to something familiar. (abstract to analytical).
The paradigm has switched from “Less is More” to “More is Less”. In a culture where we have worn down the soles of our shoes trying to keep up with the Jones, take this second with me to sit down, untie the laces and relax. Don’t worry that your iPhone doesn’t have an ‘S’ at the end. I won’t judge you for it.
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. –Epictetus
Today, we live in an amazing time where we can have anything we want mail ordered to our homes or pre-ordered for pick up thanks to our magic plastic boxes in our pockets. We have more connections with friends and family via the internet and the social media it has spawned. We can swim in and drink clean water. (Well…99% of the time, sorry Michigan) Our cabinets are (for the most part) stocked with food, even if it’s only ramen noodles and canned goods. We are surrounded by so much cheap and accessible entertainment. We have video games, movies, music and, of course, everyone favorite, Netflix and Chill. Don’t get me started on the beauties of nature. This article would be a million words long so I’ll truncate it here.
Check out a little mini series I created called “Word Origins” where I explore the origins of a couple words. Tell me what you think and please subscribe.
So I’m trying to get into the habit of writing daily, so everyday I’ve decided to write 16 lines of poetry/lyrics and if I create something I’m proud of I’ll post it here for you to enjoy. (Ps. subscribe to my YouTube channel for more content) Next week I might do some more cohesive poetry than just hip-hop like lyrics.
I’m outta this world like exosphere.
I’m better than the me of Yester-year.
Outside of the box. No metal gear.
I’m the captain watch what happens when I steer.
Stars below and the future above.
Friendship roots are deeper than subs.
Smooth with speech make any girl blush,
but tomorrows we build is what makes it love.
A heart of a lion. Skin of an elephant.
A wordsmith with elements of eloquence.
Breaking bills is the only time I change.
Numb to the competition. Novocaine.
I may modulate the frequency.
but never degradate the decency.
There’s a vacuum in power of prowess with words
and I’m here to fill the vacancy.
So I’m trying to get into the habit of writing daily, so everyday I’ve decided to write 16 lines of poetry/lyrics and if I create something I’m proud of I’ll post it here for you to enjoy. (Ps. subscribe to my YouTube channel for more content) This week I’m adding an audio visual element.
Take a sip of these syllables as they settle in your heart like arsenic.
My name in the tree of life carved in. This intentional flame arson then.
As far as I came only look back when checking pedometers.
Flow spill out of me like broken glass or a colander.
Quotes in quilted patterns held together by sutures.
You haul me out I relocate your like a mover.
Succeeding now or later, though I prefer sooner.
Flirt with lady luck, though mother nature’s much cuter.
On this boat of life, we all know that death rows.
Capital punishment for he reward of joy, I suppose.
Uploaded to the Over-soul, These words I download.
The wisest men are the ones who say the most with their mouths closed.
So that makes me a fool, cool like frost bitten fingers.
No soliciting, Advice unheeded by deep thoughts that linger.
I see red when friends are blue. Smell ya later. Burnt Cedar.
Trying to get in tune like an orchestra or a singer
Want some more Fire! Check this out!
On most articles on about the pros and cons of college, money is usually the main focus. That will not be the case here. I want to discuss the idea that our hype about college can sometimes harmful to kids who aren’t ready to handle the responsibility.
I have not graduated or currently attend college due to both immaturity and lack of vision upon leaving high school. In high school, I knew I was destined for greatness. I had the highest ACT and second highest SAT score in my class by a distance of 50 points. At one point I had a principal make a home visit and tell my parent I had Harvard level potential. What happened? My answer is naivete and external pressures.
Every year, students are told that they should work hard to get to college and it’s implied that if you don’t you’ll become a social degenerate; a failure. The concept of college is awesome, but the way in which we execute it is flawed and stressful. In my opinion, college isn’t as important as vision and education, but we sometimes stress the idea of “getting into college” more than the concepts of the maturity, independence and goal setting that college allows us to explore in a more controlled environment. This leads to many otherwise promising students dropping out of college, not from lack of intelligence, but lack of maturity that only time and experience can give.
In my case, my father stressed college heavy from day one and after high school he wanted me to get into school ASAP. He didn’t care where as long as it was college. I felt differently I wanted to wait, but I was convinced otherwise. I should have stood my ground because I ended up wasting a load of people’s time including my own. I didn’t have a vision for my future since I didn’t stand for anything I fell for everything. I would got to a bigger college campus and party with my best friend at the time. I would go to class and interact, but I wouldn’t do the homework due to its perceived irrelevance to my life. I was naive, immature and lacked vision resulting in a lack of motivation and my eventual drop out from college.
I also found it interesting how many people expects children who were once raising their hands to speak and potty to be able to manage and plan out their entire life within the several months between graduation and fall semester.College isn’t for everyone and sometimes those people just need time to mature so, to the parents and teachers out there: Do you emphasize college as a life investment that one should take time to consider or do you add fuel to the hype and emphasis college for colleges sake?
Audio SeXXX 