Dice Dilla Pregunta

R&S Music & The Philadelphia Record Company Present the Dice Dilla Pregunta Mixtape.
Features: The Roots, J Dilla, Dice Raw, Charles P Bailey, Rick Friedrich, and Yameen Allworld.
Engineer: Fabian Thompson
Executive Producer: Rick Friedrich
Cover Art: Dewey Saunders
Thank you all for your support.

AK Chronicles v2.0

Word, so life has completely changed since me and my job parted ways. After the initial "I'm Free... Actually Free!! Never Going Back, Suckas!!" parade came to an end, I had some difficult realities that I had to face. Besides the obvious financial uncertainty, I was forced to look at my music career as my sole business and means for survival. Many sleepless nites, and irritable days followed with seemingly no justifiable cause. And then, it hit me... I had to ask myself one question:
Am I happy with where my music career is at this point in my life?
The answer was a resounding, NO. So what now?

It's funny how everything you'd ever need is usually right in front of your face. For quite a while now I've had the opportunity to go work as an engineer, at the biggest, most notably successfull studio in Philly (for no compensation of course). It's like music industry bootcamp. 12-17 hour days (mostly nights), 3 artists a day, 5 songs a day....pwhew! but everyday I get to learn from the hottest producer in the city, and listen in on meetings between the producers and management team of the most successful hip hop band in the world (hint). It's all so familiar, yet so foreign.

I must have been in The Studio thousands, literally hundreds of times before, but never like this. For the first time, I am the "button pusher"...the participant observer of the producer making the music, the recorder of the artist singing their songs. I honestly don't think that the people I work with everyday have any idea that I make music, and do my thing, nor do they particularly give a shit. This is the Big pool, and I wana be a Big Fish! But for now, I'll be the "record it again" guy. But know that my time is coming... Tick Tock.

Signing off
AK da Rula

AK Chronicles V1.3

Ok, it's been a few days since ive updated this life of mine so you know I been on the grizzie (*grind for those not so hip on the urban vernacular) and now its time to reflect. Well, we had our first all ages show in Brooklyn last Saturday, and it was dope. By far the smallest stage ive ever performed on. I almost impaled myself with Rah's bass like 5 times but it twas all good. I love and hate these out of town gigs. I love playing for new people because they always lose their shyt since nobody's ever seen anything like us. Also, seeing the die hard supporters that drive from Philly or wherever anytime we play, feels great. I hate losing money, my personal funds, everytime we leave the state. Travel expenses for multiple cars kills me, even on a short trip to the city. But I say "don't blame me, blame your manager!...Oh wait, that's me, sheeeit". Brings me to a great point...I NEED A MANAGER, BOOKING AGENT, WITCH DOCTOR, SOMETHING! Help a brovenor out, if you know anyone that can actually do something, connect us. I'm looking for paying gigs, or free gigs opening up for bigger acts, and that's my spiel.

Now on Wednesday, Phrequency had their 1 Year Anniversary and I was definitely there for this who's who of the Philly Indie music scene. I hit the stage for an impromptu raw ass drummer & DJ set, which people were really digging. I will perform for food, on the real, it really doesnt matter to me, the exposure is a necessity.

And we finished up our 4 song sampler for Chicken Wing Tumble Weeds. They would be the new songs to the right==>. This is a taste of what we been brewing, I feel the clock ticking but I'm trying to make it in my favor. 'Tighten up the belt and take a chance cuz you don't got shyt to lose'is how im goin for the new year...getting it started early.

And today's unneccesarily racist cartoon...


AK da Rula, Signing off.
Peace

AK Chronicles V 1.2

"We wish Fabian the very best—his last day at The Food Trust was October 19. We know he will go far with his many talents, passion and dedication – to music and children’s health!" So my home gurl sent me this from a work email I assume. I really Purrciate that. Teachers, colleagues, and friends have been calling and writing me all week. For some reason people think I could be depressed or on suicide watch...must be that whole recession thing I keep hearing about. Maybe they are right and Im just too focused to realize that my life is spiraling out of control...or something.

For my people, I am fine. Pork Fried is stronger than ever. Ricky is losing his mind in a great way, he's talking 100 bangers before February and I believe it. I'm finally learning what it is to be an artist "If you gotta spray paint out your butt onto a canvas to create your art, then that's what you gotta do to give people yourself." No anal paint shop for me though, but I am debunking some of the myths of the Modern Day Rapper/Singer/Reggae man. Im gonna have alot of really good music for people soon, and those tough times will have to be dealt with when they arrive.

On another note, STOP BREAKING INTO Rah's Car, ASSHOLE. The illest bassist in the city, and my homey has had his car broken into like 3 times in the last three months! Nobody's luck is that bad, some degenerate is following him and breaking into his car at gigs. Now, we as performers have a responsibility to promote our shows and generally let our fans know whats up with us. We shouldn't have to be concerned about being vandalized or robbed because we are public figures. We're still broke, this ain't MTV man,that kind of shyt sets us back and makes us uneasy about doing the thing we love...so stop it.


That be all for the day,and remember...Support your local rockstars!
AK

AK Chronicles V 1.1

So, this is what I would call the wonderful uncomfortable struggle. I have been a full time studio rat for one whole week. I have been writing my songs, co-writing and co-producing for other artists, assisting Ricky as an engineer, and confirming our first all ages show in Brooklyn next Saturday. All the while filing for unemployment and applying for day gigs on Craigslist, but no sign of my last paycheck!...and the first of the month is hurdling towards me. I know it'll be here but they making a brother sweat.

Anyways, I have been toiling away with 12 hour work days, cutting on my record (Chicken Wing Tumble Weeds), engineering for singer/songwriter Jeremy Grenhart (who is the truth by the by), and writing SONGS! My theory is proving true so far, I look forward to working every morning...I just dont look at my wallet anymore, lol. I have these moments of doubt that confound me but I refuse to be stifled. People believe in me and want it to work so it must. I always say that I am not afraid of failure, but I just realized that I also must not be afraid of success.

Keeping it short today, gotta get back to this grindage. If you see me in the street gimme a good word.

AK Chronicles V 1.0

Word, so I was fired on monday from my job of two years. I know that doesn't sound like a particularly long time but when you are doing something that you do not love every single day, it can feel like an eternity. I didn't have it bad honestly, I was an educator running the nutrition program in 5 schools in the Philadelphia School District. I taught thousands of kids and had become a respected member of these school communities, but my double life had finally caught up with me.

Every morning I was stumbling awake grasping for air at the crack of dawn and mindlessly going through all the motions of the good working boy, then coming home to work on promoting my events, in the studio on my album, or hosting open mics, or band rehearsals, or performances till 2,3,4 in the morning and then it's WAMP WAMP WAMP WAMP!!! 6:30 again and my alarm is blaring. After a couple years of this I felt like I had gone through a frontal lobotomy. I worked nonstop every day but never actually felt like anything was getting done.

So, when my supervisor (who I have to assume is either jealous of my life, or in love with me) said, "You're Fired," I was like hmm 'I wonder what's about to happen right now, am I gonna start throwing chairs and go all angry black man in this place??!' No, I am actually... relieved. I packed up my shyt, gave/received hugs, kisses, and well wishes from my good ladies over there, and walked out the door.

So... back to the studio, but this time, theres NO paycheck coming next week, NO health, NO dental, NO sick days or vacays. As a matter of fact, NO guarantee of earning another dollar for the rest of my natural born life. Needless to say, I am not fucking around, time to reach my potential or...

An Introduction to The OddiCY

Much appreciation to Perry Lassin for bringing this vision to the masses. This be us doing our thing in Brooklyn and Philly!

A BRIEF History-Act 2

We began honing our talents...Ricky was developing his production prowess and I was busy fine-tuning my phonetical flow, ya dig? Seriously though, these were the days that counted. We used each other to constantly motivate to the next step, whatever that step was at the time. I would have an idea for a hook, and Ricky would realize that he had to step up with the right beat, then I would have to really step up with the verses just to be able to do the beat justice. I would come back with the verses and it would be so hot that rick would have to beef up the beat just to match...etc. We recorded several small projects, each owning its own unique moment in time but nothing really worth mentioning. We weren't shy about letting people hear where we were at, but we just weren't on the level yet. Then came the album: JYAN Music


Now came the performance. We assembled a band of the most talented musicians we knew at the time and began playing for the people...




We kept playing, and more and more people started coming.

Producing music was fun, recording it was rewarding, but my true love was the stage. I've spent my whole life training to be an entertainer and I never knew it.

It came natural to us...so we kept doing it.






...And the people loved it because we loved it, and that's all it ever really takes.