Holiday Hangover

A Creative Rest, A Record Club and A Trip To LA

I sent out two newsletters in the same week two weeks ago so I skipped sending one out last week because we all deserved a break from my nonsense. Hopefully you missed me. If not I regret to inform you that I am back with yet another heaping helping of nonsense. This is more of a life update but there’s a treat at the end.

As usual hit up the Rec’s N Effect section to see what I’ve been vibing to lately. Those publish on Fridays.

I haven’t released a new episode of The Almanac of Rap because I’m currently on what I like to call creative rest’ (sort of like how singers go on vocal rest to repair their voice) and it’s mainly so that I can fight burnout. It’s a period where aside from organizing ideas I’m not actively working on the creative part of the show. If anything I’m doing the admin/tech support stuff like registering TheAlmanacOfRap.com and AlmanacOfRap.com or figuring out how to revamp elements the show or just restructure things in general.

While AOR is a little over year old (It debuted on Nov 22!) this is my second time on ‘creative rest’ since I started doing this show. Does that make me sound lazy? Two breaks in a year!? I like to think that it makes me sound well adjusted and mindful of the rigors that come along with a self produced podcast but it’s been about four weeks since the last episode which may as well be four months in internet time. Which honestly does sound kinda lazy (lol)

It’s also the holiday season and I won’t blame my inactivity on the holidays but I will say that I like to give myself space to deal with them. There is something about the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas specifically that just feels like dead air or some kinda hangover between holidays. It just feels hard to focus on anything so I’ve learned to lean in and focus on nothing. (That was a bit of a stretch because I am constantly doing something but it sounded good!)

One thing that I’ve noticed during these periods of rest is that there is a moment where it begins to feel like a phantom limb. With that said I’ll be bringing it back soon. In the meantime I am obliged to tell you guys that my album SAFESPACE is now available at Fatbeats.com. It makes a great gift for yourself or a loved one but more importantly me which makes it a win/win for everyone involved.

And speaking of records the Macon Public Library in Bed Stuy has a Record Club that is essentially a book club for records. I went to the last one and the discussion was all about Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik by Outkast. It was nice to have a space to wield the vast yet seemingly useless body of rap facts that I typically reserve for my podcast. What made it even more fun was that it seemed like the entire room was just as into the minutia of Outkast/Dungeon Family folklore as I was.

Sidebar: you guys really liked my last post about Andre’s album. It kinda makes this post feel toothless but in the words of our Christmas Queen Mariah Carey “I’mma do the best I can with what I got!”

I don’t know how long it’s been going on but it’s been at least one calendar year because they said they’ve been doing rap records all year in honor of hip hop’s 50th birthday. They are taking votes for next month’s album right now and if you happen to be in Brooklyn you should RSVP and check it out.

And while I’m on the subject of New York Public Libraries lemme just throw a Fuck Eric Adams in here. For the people who are not New York residents he’s our current mayor and his budget cuts have forced a few NYPL locations to shut down on Sunday. I don’t want to bring the vibe down by harping on how awful he is but he’s such a bum ass loser who seems hell bent on making things dumber every day.

In closing I’d just like to shout out everyone that I casually bumped into while I was out in LA last weekend. The trip felt like a string of serendipitous moments. I went out there to DJ for Michelle Buteau and randomly ended up on the same flight out with DJ Spinna who invited me to a party him and J Rocc were doing where I bumped into Rhettmatic who invited me to a party he was doing with Large Professor. It all lined up perfectly!

These parties were on two separate nights and the first night my friend Will got me way too high but I still made it to the function where I bumped into a few homies. I mostly just stood in the crowd zoning out to Spinna and J Rocc doing a B2B set that was so seamless that it felt like one person was spinning. The next night Rhettmatic and Large Pro tore shit up and King Tee just happened to be in the building to do his verse for All In The Same Gang, needless to say I lost my shit then fanboyed out and got a photo with him.

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A post shared by @donwill

And since I’ve broken the seal on name dropping as soon as I got off the plane in LAX I bumped into Nile Rodgers and I felt compelled to reintroduce myself to him by telling him I DJ’ed his show in Philadelphia. I am almost certain he didn’t remember me but it doesn’t matter, he’s Nile Rodgets!

Shout out to my guy Low Key for holding me down. I bumped into so many people that I haven’t seen in years and it was really cool catching up. It reminded me that even tho LA is far away I’ve got people out there. And apologies to anyone who found out I was out there after the fact. This trip wasn’t leisurely so I just went without telling anyone I was going but next time I’m putting everyone on notice.

Speaking of which I’ll be in Denver on 12/17 and Austin on 12/18! These are the last two dates on the Full Heart, Tight Jeans tour with Michelle Buteau and both shows are at the Paramount Theater in their respective cities. It’s gonna be a great time and you can expect a full recap post after it’s done.

Man, for a guy that’s on ‘creative rest’ it doesn’t sound like I’m getting any rest at all!

PS - This was more of a life update than anything so if you made it this far I feel obliged to reward you with some sort of music.

Here is a version of Tell Me that predates Groove Theory’s version of Tell Me. Amel wrote both and she even appears on this version. Does this mean she’s covering her own song? Probably, I have not done the deep dive on it but I do know that if you want to know more about what happened to Groove Theory you can check this podcast with Bryce Wilson to get the scoop on that.