Planet Asia Freestyle

This past weekend The Dune Sea Crew put on another amazing show at The Dunes Bar with Planet Asia & Copywrite and if you missed it, you truly missed out on a sick show and that's all I'm gonna say about that! Well lucky for us (not so lucky for them cuz they had more touring to do) they got stuck here in Yuma for the weekend and I got to play host for a while and entertain Planet Asia  & Tristate. The first thing I did was call up the homie Sam P,  cuz there was no way we were gonna roll in my beat up truck and as always Sam came thru and we got to roll in his brand new Dodge Challenger. So we swooped em up from the Quality Inn Hotel and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch UofA lose an upsetting game against UCONN and believe it or not they were both going for Arizona along with the rest of us at BWW. After that is was time to dip to my good homie ASE and Gloria's house warming party. Now you might say at first, what the hell you doing taking these dudes to a house warming party (that's probably the exact same thing they were thinking) but you don't know how my homies do it. There was a full bar, lots of bomb mexican food, beer (my favorite) and cake... Oh  and there just happened to be a mic and this is what happened: 

                                           

Ben C The Mastermind - CheeFlow is Back

 If you know me, you know I love getting ear treats in my inbox and this week I got one from those kids in TMP.  This one is of Ben C The Mastermind flossing his skills over an Evidence track and he is for sure flossing.  I been letting folks here in Yuma know for a minute now that these kids are the future and as its looking like the future is now. Right now they are making some noise here on the local scene, but if they keep it up they will be soon seen by many more.  If you seen the last video I put up of this kid you know what he can do over an MF Doom track, well now its time to hear what he can do over an Evidence track. 


 CheeFlow is Back by AllThingsAwesum 

Bencer Von Doom (MF Ben)

I seen this video a few weeks ago and I kinda stuck with me. This is Ben C of a local hip hop group TMP.  I dig it cuz its creative and out of the box and to me, dude really captures MF Doom's flow and cadence (Yes those are his own lyrics). These kids are the future of hip hop in my town, so you better get familiar.   

Whistle Blowing - Citizen Aim & Jonny Awesum

Here is one of the only fully recorded and mixed tracks I did with my best friend Citizen Aim. We wrote this song after CJ (Citizen Aim) was inspired by some things he saw in the news bout actors and musicians running their mouths and sounding like fools. CJ called me up and told me the idea and I went over and we wrote this song. 

I have a few other songs I have recorded with him, but after he passed away I no longer have access to his hard drive where all the music is stored. I hope you dig the track and you can download it if you like. 

 Whistle Blowing - CitizenAim & JonnyAwesum by Dune Sea Crew

Interview with Qwel for UTD

Go check out the interview I just did with Qwel of Galapagos4 Records over at UnderneathTheDesert.com 

Banger Management

For those of you that don't know already, I host a radio show along with Kenjo LaChapelle called Banger Management. We always bring a fresh topic to the table to discuss and we play nothing but the hip hop bangers from the underground and above. You can catch us every weekday at 7pm MST on Power 928 www.power928.com and you can interact with us on twitter @BangerMGT www.twitter.com/BangerMGT or on Facebook: Banger Management Group 

If you are from here in Yuma, AZ you know the radio stations suck are no local DJ's representing the people of this town (well unless you listen to country). From time to time we have special guests Viva La Tiva, InkWell and Sarah "Nemo" Howard all bringing different views and fresh perspectives to a wide range of our crazy topics. When they are up in the studio you know its gonna be a crazy show.

What drives us is that we are here for the people that want a change and some options in this dry desert town. We will be doing interviews with local artists and artists coming here on tour. We are gonna be hitting hit hard here in 2011 to bring you what you want and what this city needs. 

The great thing about our radio show and the station as a whole is that you can listen to it just about anywhere your go. If you have your computer, laptop or smartphone all you have to do is go to the Listen Live page and click on the button that is right for you. If you have a droid you can download the XiiaLive Lite app for free and search for us under Production Allstars. 

I hope you choose to tune in and support the movement! 

Are you putting out?

Whether or not you think so, you are. Let me break it down to you and tell you the reason for the blog before I go any further. Earlier today when I was at work a customer approached me with an item that was in the clearance aisle, but the only problem was that the item was not on clearance and when I confirmed to him that the item was not on sale he got upset and started to take out his frustrations on me, as if I personally put it there to trick him. His attitude started to affect me and started to get me heated and I could feel my blood pressure climb and forehead start to sweat. I wanted really bad to respond back with a the same attitude that he was giving me, but since my job was at stake I knew I couldn't so I just smiled and put the item back in its proper location.

The customer and I only interacted for maybe 2 minutes at most, but it was enough time to send my mind down a path it was not on in the previous 2 minutes. However I started giving my time and energy to the situation and I started dwelling on how his attitude was not right and how I wish I could have done this and I wish I could have done that and my blood pressure was still climbing after he was on his way and out the door.

Now this is the type of thing that can really ruin your day once you let it build and believe me, your mind has many building blocks to give this monster life. I had to stop myself and think "Why am I giving this stranger so much air time"? It was like his negative energy (for lack of a better term) was transferred from him to me and now I was to carry it around and give it to some poor customer that maybe just rubbed me the wrong way.

Well I stopped myself and made a attitude change and I focused my mind on the positive things of the day and I noticed with that, I was putting out positive energy and then in turn I was smiling and customers were happy to receive what I was "putting out" and they smiled back and were grateful for my help and my attitude. I was becoming more aware of my thoughts and how I was responding to what other people "put out", because whether or not they knew it they where "putting out" positive energy or negative energy. One way or another they were "putting out".  So I guess my question is not really "Are you putting out" its really "What are you putting out"

Well while I am on the subject. I have only be in retail for a year and a half and one of the things I had to get used to was a large amount of the hispanic community would ask questions like "You guys don't have" or  "You don't know" and it was always starting of with the negative. Now before you say anything bout me being racist I am part mexican and so is my wife and really most of my family, but any way... I started to notice that I was less likely to drop what I was doing to or go the extra mile when I was approached this way because the suggestive / leading question had me believing that we "didn't have" and I "didn't know", it was throwing me off. Its almost like they were preparing themselves for a let down or something, like If I was to say "No we don't have it" they could be like "Well I knew you didn't", but most of the time they were things we DID have in stock. They were putting out a negative right from the jump and that subconsciously took my mind down a negative path, until I realized it and started to tell myself that they are really asking for "this" and I gotta give it my all to find it for them.

So now that the cat is out of the bag and everyone knows you put, try to be more aware of what you are putting out. Nobody wants to catch your nasty STD....

The Future is HERE!

I don't watch cable, I TiVo my shows and use Netflix. I don't listen to local radio, I use Internet Radio and Pandora. I don't watch the news or read the paper, I get my news from all the major news networks iPhone apps and a few blogs. I get my restaurant reviews from an app called Yelp, movie reviews and times from an app called Flixter. I text message people about 10x more then I call them. I keep in contact with just about everyone I want to and more on Facebook. If I choose to look at them I will Skype em. If I want to know anything I will "Google It". If I need a step by step guide on how to set something up or tear something apart, I will "YouTube It".... And I am not alone! The future is here!

Dune Sea Crew Presents: Copywrite & Planet Asia on The Life & Times Of The Crack Belt Theatre tour (All Ages)

  Dune Sea Crew Presents: Friday March 25th, The Life and Times of The Crack Belt Theatre Tour 2011 with Planet Asia and Copywrite! Sharing the limelight are Mannyfesto, Desert State Hustlaz, DJ Rayza, & DJ Dort Vader.

$7 Cover Charge. This show is ALL AGES! Doors open at 9pm at The Dunes Bar 711 E. 32nd ST. Drink specials ALL NIGHT for ladies & gents! (w/I.D. of course.) Dune Sea Crew... You already know!

Some videos from Copywrite and Planet Asia:   

                     

Mic Titan vs Jonny Awesum

Here is a little battle I was in recently. The homies from Desert State Hustlaz recorded it and put it up on YouTube. Hope you enjoy it.

Firstperson i to Jonny Awesum

Ok so a few people have asked me about my name change from Firstperson i to Jonny Awesum so I thought it would be fitting to post it up here on my new blog so I could have somewhere to point them to when they ask. 


First off this hasn't been my first name change. I have been through a few of them, but by the time I started to make a name for myself in the public's eye I went by OcWords.  This was probably my favorite name because it does describe me and the meaning behind it Oc and in 8 and 8 is the infinity symbol when it stood upright. So in other words it was a play on having infinite words.  I always seemed to have trouble explaining this to people, but I really didn't care, because I thought it was just too clever.  Anyways as I was trying to establish this name I heard of another emcee with the exact same name, but spelled Okwerdz.  Okwerdz was making a name for himself in the battle scene  and doing a pretty good job at it. So following the rules of hip hop I hit him up for a battle. I could tell right off he was cocky and sure of himself. We had talks bout setting on up, but the distance between us and the fact we were both young meant it could not happen. Okwerdz' name started to grow more and his battles were tight so I decided It was only right for me to change my name. 


Me and my best friend and partner in rhyme Kwas thought it best if we both changed our names and make them fit the direction we were taking our music. Kwas really wanted to tackle some political and social issues so he came up with Citizen Aim.  I was really stuck and hard pressed to come up with something so I asked him for some suggestions. Citizen Aim came up with Firstperson i and I liked it and it stuck. There was no real meaning behind the name, but it fit with my more philosophical approach to music. So we both went on to make names for ourselves doing shows and open mics with these aliases. 


Citizen Aim was my main drive in music. I loved to write with him or write over his beats and I think we made a great team. We completed an eight song project together under two of our other  aliases "The Sentient & The Siege".  Citizen Aim had a horrible disease called Cystic Fibrosis that hindered his lung function and when it came time to record, he just couldn't do it. I knew the project would never be and even though it was hard to accept, I was a peace with that.  His health was fading fast and I knew this was the end of an amazing journey. 


Around that time, I started to host open mics at the Dunes Bar and I really enjoyed it. I was losing my passion to create rhymes myself since Citizen Aim was most of my inspiration and he was the one to help me count my bars and fit them on the beat and time them out. I loved hip hop and the energy and I knew I had to stay with it. As I hosted more Firstperson i just didn't seem to fit as a name for a host. I wanted something more personal and something with character. Growing up I listened a lot of punk rock and I wanted my new name to show of its influence. I have always loved the Sex Pistols and I wanted something that sounded like the name of their front man Johnny Rotten, but with out the self deprecating bite to it. I came up with Jonny Awesum  and I thought that sounded close enough. Jonny is what my cousins used to call me when I was younger and Awesome is my most commonly used descriptive adjective. Awesum also goes back to me being able able to play with spelling and words. Awesum is the sum of all things we hold in Awe, but anyway....  I think Jonny Awesum fits me and the direction I want to take as a promoter, show host, radio host and occasional emcee dropping  8 bars of fire here and there....