I had the privilege of working with The Artist Formerly Known As Siege a few years ago. I still remember the day I met the dude, he was putting together a showcase of all the hottest artists in Japan & invited the Effect to come out. One thing that stuck out about him was his drive. Siege was THEE definition of grind. He was always somewhere doing something with his music. We were always cordial, but never all that close. When I left Japan, I lost contact with him, until maybe around Christmas 2007 (maybe earlier). I was browsing myspace pages & happened to go on his.

I was floored.

Dude was spitting for Christ (Living Witness was the song I 1st heard). I remember getting so inspired by his new spirit that I wrote something myself (and y'all know don't no rappers do nothing for me). So I hit him up & we chopped it up, he offered his testimony & immediately I saw a true desire for the Lord. A few months later, he drops his mixtape Rough Transition.

He calls it Rough Transition because #1 he accepted Christ & in the process he killed his alter ego. Siege, now going by Ricky Gentile, always had a knack for knowing his own lane. And a lot of rappers can rap, but they don't know how to translate that into their own brand. Ricky can rip a mic AND has a very impressive song writing game. I had a copy of his secular album & wasn't too crazy about it. He was talented, but it was obvious he was catering to the clubs & all that. I always had this feeling there was something better inside of him that he was holding back. And the Lord definitely brought that out on this mixtape.

This mixtape is definitely "riding music". I threw this on the ipod & let it play. The standouts are "Reppin' The King", "Welcome Back", "Kingdom Come" (my favorite) "Held Accountable", & "Take A Second".

I'm not gonna sit here & tell you WHY it's a dope CD. With secular hip-hop getting worse by the day (creatively & in every other aspect), I feel like Christ is getting ready to rise up holy hip-hop into the mainstream. Stream this through soundclick, download it, hit him on myspace, thank Him & thank Ricky. No longer do you have to sacrifice the message for music.

Listen to Ricky Gentile- Rough Transition

Download Rough Transition
Hit him on myspace http://www.myspace.com/rickygentile

Ricky Gentile- Rough Transition Mixtape Review

6:25 PM

• Share it :

Ricky Gentile- Rough Transition Mixtape Review

I Co-Sign This New Music

Read More

obviously by the lack of updates & my overall unavailability, I've been BUSY!!!! working, wrapping up my military stuff, picking up my child, driving 4 days from WA to OH, 3 flat tires, getting a new job, and dealing with everything the devil pulls (along with everybody that allows themselves to be used by him), I'm worn out. waves on frizz, scruffy beard, i'm chillin...

this is how i've spent my last 3 weeks:

Nintendo Wii
Olympics (basketball, T&F...Phelps?? not so much)
potty training my child
figuring out Twitter


I expect these things to be risned & repeated for the next month...no music, I'm taking a break, but I am accepting beats, edoublef@gmail.com

I'm On Vacation

12:36 PM

• Share it :

I'm On Vacation

Dear Diary

Read More

*rewinds to 3 weeks ago*

Me & the Mrs are sitting in Sunday service minding our bidness & praising the Lawd. 1st Lady randomly asks if anybody has a song in their heart for God & would they like to share it. My wife, being more bold than me grabs my hand & raises it, along with a few other people from the congregation that pointed in my direction. I wasn't ready, nor did I have a desire to do anything musical. But I can pull up several instances of Biblical figures that didn't wanna do anything. So I got up

Uhhhh...errrrrr...ummmmmm...I did "Dreamin"...why Dreamin?? Cuz the 2nd verse I can recite from memory without having to give it any thought at all. I had grown acustom to just listening to my own music for entertainment, not to memorize verses for battle, ciphers & shows. So a lot, OK all, of my newer tracks I don't have 100% embedded in my skull...

"...cuz he taught me one thing...uhhhh...awwww man I forgot"

*watches as his wife hits her forehead with her palm*

*feels like less of a man*

I think the unexpectedness completely caught me off guard. And I used to live for stuff like that. I know for a fact that God used that to humble me, cuz sometimes I like to smell myself, and I smell good...in the booth. Wife says that she knows pastor saw something in me regardless, even though I felt like the worst.

*Friday afternoon*

My pastor left me a note asking if I wanted to perform at Sunday service. He said the Lord "put my music on his heart", and I know that was God cuz he aint even know that I did music. But I prayed about it & instead of moving on it, I waited on God. He provided but I felt like He wouldve blessed it if I wouldve moved on it earlier.

*Sunday afternoon*

My church went to 2 services this week, 10am & noon. So I performed "Keep Going" @ 10 & "Put In Work" @ noon. I'm not gon get into all the details, but I will say the church liked both songs. And they kept saying

"I need that in the car"
"There IS Christian rap that sounds good"

I heard a bunch of stories of parents trying to find clean rap for their kids & the kids didn't like it, and in a few cases, neither did the parents. And they wanted CDs of mine to give to them to escape from the radio & TV. Then I had adults tell me they only listen to the radio cuz it aint nothing else to listen to. (Will blog on that later)

"Hand em 2.5 right??"

WRONG...I told God a while back I was tired of giving that CD to people. That music doesn't reflect my current walk AT ALL. I feel like I'm a few steps ahead. Its pretty much a secular CD with sprinkles of Christ. So...God says,

"Put out another CD"

I'm thinking "what about a title? A theme? A concept? You want me to just throw a bunch of songs on a CD & hand it out??"

And He said "you have them already"

So later that day I drove around & played my Triangle Effect folder on the ipod...oh crap, I DO have enough music for a mixtape. And even better, later on when I threw all my current tracks in winamp, I had almost 2 hours worth of music. I have to CUT some songs!!!!!

That means, a whole new mixtape in about a month, I have to finish some songs before tomorrow (my last day in the studio) and pray God does the rest (title, tracklist, etc). So now I need addresses all over again & the whole nine...playa

*leans on lexus*
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Review of New Destiny Show (8/3/08)

1:06 AM

• Share it :

Review of New Destiny Show (8/3/08)

Read More

I've had like 4 separate myspace pages, no joke. The 1st one was back in 2005, back when I was still epideMIC (the potty mouth, sarcastic, witty, prideful, lust filled version, not the "fork in the road" guy most of you met during Wake Up 2/Ventilation). This is right around the time I had gotten saved, but I still wasn't living right. The Sunday Christian. Not really because I didn't want to do right, I just had no clue about the Christian lifestyle.

Anyway, I had the little Bible quotes on the page, but my music was still sex, money, and me. So I was unknowingly steering people wrong. I used to be the main one telling errbody to go to church, and I was doing bad just like them.

This is why I believe in reason, season, and lifetime relationships. Everybody and everything that enters your life has a reason and purpose. So this one guy messages me. No clue what his name is, I just know he was a Christian MC from Denver & he was a white guy. So he hits me up and pretty much tells me about myself. About my double mindedness, how useless my actions were, and the damage they caused to those that didn't know the Truth.

I remember not writing him back, but I know initially I was so mad, like "who is this dude and who is he to tell me about my life, he don't know me!!!" But later I realized...

He was right...and even worse, we hate being told about ourselves, especially when its the truth.

See, we know right from wrong. Our mind is good, but the heart is wicked. Meaning the heart can convince our minds whatever it wants. And I know the cats that say they love God but are still out in the world know that its wrong. But we like to convince ourselves that our dirt isn't really dirt at all, and that God loves us anyhow.

Which He does, BUT...He's not big fans of your actions. But because our hearts are so intent on doing what it wants to do, it raises up pride and hardens itself whenever He sends someone to inform you of your errors.

*dumb it down*

Basically, if somebody tells you about yourself (and its right) thank them. Cuz nobody knows you better than you. And turn away from what you've convinced yourself to be true, cuz it aint.

Oh yeah, a month after dude sent me the message, I didn't heed to his warning, and my myspace was "reported" and deleted...God don't play
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

You Don't Know Me

5:16 PM

• Share it :

You Don't Know Me

Read More

*my dark distant, "he's thinking about something mysterious" flick*

*random thoughts as I sit in this boring nail salon waiting on the Mrs. to get her hair did*

-1st off how bored do I need to be to sit in a nail salon and blog???

-EVERYTHING on the radio sounds the same. I've heard Bust It Baby & A Millie more times than I wouldve liked...somebody quick!!! Play something relevant!!! Anybody?? Anybody?? Something without 808s, a synth, autotune (that thing that apparently gives Wayne and Testicular Pain "talent"), and a hook about getting money.

-now I lightweight regret laying something down on A Millie...I did kill that though.

-who is getting all this money in a recession?? Charles Gibson or DJ Khaled?!?! Who to believe?!?! Ahhhhh!!!!!

-theres a girl in here that apparently decided to throw on some makeup cuz me and another guy are in here. I'm reading blogs and he's listening to Nas...I'm pretty sure we're both too preoccupied to notice. Plus she has her hair up in the air, a lazy dress and some lazy flip flops...the only woman I wanna see like that has my ring on.

-turn off #56852246...women constantly on their phone. Now I see why the Mrs. is always on me about being on the BB all the time...it looks bad. I be conducting bidness on mine though...you can't do nothing important on no flip phone

-a good friend of mine lost her mother yesterday. Another friend of mine has a sick mother. Its crazy to see how different their reactions are. The former is excited cuz she knows her mom is with the Lord. The other is scared cuz she doesn't wanna lose her mom. I mean, I understand, but Earth is mad temporary, shoot let one of my people (that's doing right) die, I will be throwing a Coming Home Party, for real.

-one more week!!! Episode 3 of EffecTV recorded Fri 8th through Sun the 10th...that's prolly gonna be the busiest weekend of my civilian life. 16 hour drive from Washington to Colorado. Daughter's 3rd bday party. Poetry night. All day studio. Another 18 hour drive to Ohio. Stay tuned, eyes open.

-if somebody asks you to see Lars & The Real Girl, bust through the wall like Wile E. Coyote. Joint was terrible...same goes for Semi-Pro. I rented Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black & Mos Def, hopefully that goes better...still nothing has been as bad as Juno

-apparently I ruffled a few feathers from my Obama blog, exactly the reaction I expected. Unfortunately, I didn't get as many (logical) rebuttals as I wouldve liked. Again, there's holes in his campaign and his followers, and no I won't vote for him cuz he's black and not vote for McCain cuz he's old & boring. I'm young & boring so what should that tell you??
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Dear Diary #2

4:54 PM

• Share it :

Dear Diary #2

Read More