Mean it like you say it

I'm sittin thinkin on how to live life.
my family don't approve of what I'm doin with my mind...
doin with my time...
they don't see the vision I see written in the sky
think I should be resting when the sun sets, settlin for 9 to 5 grinds
I found wings hidden in my rhymes
so I put my back into learnin how to fly
instead of breakin it tryin to survive.
sellin your brains for short change an wonder why
them people don't respect you, the one's you're givin neck to
they know that you're a jewel represented by a fool
so they say they will connect you
to pipelines. sippin from they wealth like a life line draggin you to hell
so I write lines. wealth I'm investing in myself
I'll play stealth til I emerge from the shelf
puttin all my energy to cards that I'm dealt
sleepin on us might just be bad for your health


NDANGR

Now -N- Lata Vicstape coming January 2011
for your free copy join our mailing list HERE
www.reverbnation.com/ndangrspecies

For the Artists

Do not base your success on how well you breach the ignorance of the masses.  That is not success and even if you accomplish this goal to satisfaction, it will not fill you. 

You will never find success unless you know what success is.

~hallah

Pridesgiving, Thankstaking

A few weeks ago I was just sitting around in the AM and a thought about Thanksgiving popped into my head. The "story of Thanksgiving" is the perfect example of the difference between the evils of the new world and the virtues of the old world, the social disease that infected the European colonizers and the naivety of the native peoples.

The story of Thanksgiving roughly breaks down like this: [The settlers came to the Americas but did not know how to subsist on the land. They began to starve and things got worse as fall deepened and winter approached. The natives, seeing this, had much compassion for the alien visitors and taught them how to plant and harvest on the land. A feast was had in celebration of human victory over hardship and the food was shared by all.]

So on this particular morning that idea crossed my mind in a different way that went like this: [The settlers had little and the natives had enough. The natives being thankful for this but lacking a prideful society shared because without pride being thankful for what you have prompts you to share because you would want everyone to have enough. The settlers were thankful for this but being from a prideful and greedy society took more than what was necessary until the natives no longer had. For their generosity, the natives were destroyed.]

I next thought to myself how this happened nearly everywhere in the world. Where the colonizers were welcomed and shown generosity they took and destroyed. But this translates into our society today, born out of this settlers disease. Every day we are all proud of what we have, especially when faced with those who do not have, and what do we do? We continue to take more, hoard more, "stack" more, focus more on ourselves and our own because we are all infected with this now ingrained ideology no matter what background we come from. 

What to do...? It is truly complex to do surgery on yourself and detach something that seems to be connected to every organ inside of you. However, that is what we must do first as individuals and then as a society.

~hallah

The Worker...

The things the worker buys with his wages are first of all consumer goods which enable him to survive, to reproduce his labor-power so as to be able to continue selling it; and they are spectacles, objects for passive admiration. He consumes and admires the products of human activity passively.

He does not exist in the world as an active agent who transforms it, but as a helpless, impotent spectator; he may call this state of powerless admiration "happiness," and since labor is painful, he may desire to be "happy," namely inactive, all his life (a condition similar to being born dead).

The commodities, the spectacles, consume him; he uses up living energy in passive admiration; he is consumed by things.

In this sense, the more he has, the less he is.

- Fredy Perlman, The Reproduction of Daily Life

Sum Shit of Life

There are points in it.

These that apply pressure

to numb the heart and stimulate the mind

constantly redefining your freedom

but there are never answers here

no answers...

no solutions on this soluble surface

of solitude and floating minds

tethered down together where emotions combine.

Would it be cowardice or courage to want out?

I find myself looking for an escape from my mindstate, my physical

then awake to a situation that seems much more critical.

-HallaH

Look around you

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.  You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder.  He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it.  You do not need to send him to the back door.  He will go without being told.  In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.  His education makes it necessary." -Carter R. Woodson

What does this mean for the freedom of choice you think you have? Look around... If everyone is supposedly different but most are doing the same things, doesn't that tend to suggest some sort of standardization of action and thought?

Find You and then Be You.  Do something different. Do You.

...with all of the wealth our society has attained we will be undone by our ignorances. trading in the pain for the mundane is a shame- the war is coming...the war is here

Consequence of the casual

If you are to fail...let it be because what you did didn't work and never because you didn't work hard enough. Let it be from things outside of your control so that you may live with a clean conscience. In short, always try your hardest in what you do.  Life is a short joke with a long punchline, so tell it well.

~ "Either write something worth reading about or do something worth writing about."~

With that being said...here is a small Maf Maddix news update:

- New album "Black Nationalist Porn" co-released with Dread Mighty Sine is in post production.  We are working on marketing and finishing up a few loose ends.  It should be available sooner than later and it should be a banger. 

- April 6th is my born day.  Wish Maf Maddix Happy birthday and show your love by copping the album if you don't already have a copy from www.mafmaddix.com 

- April 16th - 18th I will be in NYC shooting the video for my upcoming single off of the BNP album.

-April 17th Maf Maddix + Luse Kanz = N'dangR Species will be performing at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, NYC  (more details on this show to come)

-April 22nd Maf Maddix + Luse Kanz will be performing at The Milestone in Charlotte, NC with Quantum Foundry and Mr. Invisible. (link to download a free preview sampler)

The flow feels nostalgic but the lyrics are futuristic...I like the way you movin...let's rise.  

~HallaH~

Non Jive Progression

When surrounded by distress, take steps an look around 'til you're surrounded by success.
Stay on the move but don't expect to move mountains, it's more possible for you to move around them.

~Maddix

Why Hip Hop is Losing

As a Hip Hop artist I feel that I am entrenched within the culture and movement of the musical genre called Hip Hop.  There are many reasons noted that our music is dying.  Many blame the trash commercial artists who are doing what they do to make hip pop albums and get paid but I would like to turn the blame elsewhere.  

The artist is never responsible for creating a movement just like the prophet is not responsible for the religion.  In both cases both prophet and artist simply reveal something to the world.  It is the followers...those that love what has been brought who stand behind this and mount a flag and say "THIS IS OURS".  

With this being truth, how can you blame an artist or blame people who are NOT a part of the culture for destroying it?  No, you can't.  You must blame those who subscribe to it...they are the ones who falter in hard times or change belief or tastes after a while.

So what is going on in Hip Hop?  Hip Hop bred a generation and what has happened to it?  There are several types of Hip hop listeners: 

-The late 30's early 40's Nostalgia listener: These listeners talk about how dope things were "back in the day"  but what they are really lamenting is their childhood.  These people do not live a similar lifestyle and in fact most often, outside of old school hip hop they listen to little or no new Hip Hop.  These people dismiss it without even listening or supporting.

-The "In style" listener:  These people tend to be anywhere from 26 on up.  They used to listen to hip hop but their style and taste has simply changed.  Hip Hop is not cool to listen to anymore so they listen to other genre's of music.  They like to self identify with hip hop and claim a love however, upon closer inspection, they too keep it restricted to the nostalgic music of their younger years.

-New listeners:  26 and younger who are growing up with the current artists but have much love and respect for the old as well.  These people are in the minority of their age groups and so while they fully support Hip Hop, they are not enough to keep it afloat.

-Fan listeners:  This is an interesting group of people.  In my experience, this group is made up of mostly suburban white kids who are not hip hop lovers.  They are lovers of some other style of music, however they have 2 or 3 current artists that they are into.  They, like everyone else, have respect for the old stuff they grew up on or were told was "classic material". This group is important to cash in on if you are an artist because they support whomever they like to the fullest.  

-Creator/Listeners:  This crowd is self explanatory.  This group consists of people who love the music so much they cannot resist but participate, even if only a temporary hobby.  With the advent of technology and the ease of sharing music, they come off as actual lifestyle artists but they are more so "weekend warriors".  Their love for the culture is deep however their role also serves to dilute the game and confuse the general listener.  The general listener is bombarded with this type via myspace etc and makes the determination that Hip Hop artists are all wak now.  This is not the case...serious artists are on a different echelon and should be understood as such.  There was a time when I was just toying around with the notion of writing and rapping.  I had enough respect to keep it at hobby level.  I did not do shows nor produce public material until I had made the conscious decision that this was to be my life.  Given that piece of history I feel very justified (even if mistakingly) to say to these types "fall back with that hobby rap."

With a crowd like this it is not a wonder to me that the artform I love so much is diminishing and struggling to breath.  I, like my peers in this game refuse to die...because we love it.  For many of us it is how we communicate and express ourselves so, like speech, we cannot leave it alone.

A feeling of discouragement when you slip up

by Ibn Ata' Illah (1250-1309)

English version by
Victor Danner

Original Language
Arabic

A feeling of discouragement when you slip up
     is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds.

Your desire to withdraw from everything
     when Allah has involved you in the world of means
          is a hidden appetite.

Your desire for involvement with the world of means
     when Allah has withdrawn you from it
          is a fall from high aspiration.

Aspiration which rushes on ahead
cannot break through the walls of destiny.

Give yourself a rest from managing!
     When Someone Else is doing it for you,
          don't you start doing it for yourself!

from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston

~Peace 

Tektite Illah aka Maf Maddix

Ok I can account for my time lost.

I've gone through a lot in the period during my hiatus...before and after...

I said I would account for my time lapse so hear it is.

Before my lapse as I had mentioned...I lost my job and ended up having to move to Greenville as a result.  Shit has been mad tough here but through this experience I have been able to focus on things and see life more clear.  I went through a lot of personal hardships that only helped me to see the urgency in hunting my own personal victory again...renewing my spirit.

So in my hiatus I created a new website

(pic courtesy of Dread Mighty Sine at the Professional Amateur)

I have my album for sale up there...also some other artist website things so go to it...visit...support good hip hop. Do it for your kids lol.

I also obviously pressed up my album and got that out on the market.

  

(album design by Marcus Kiser)

I also jumped into gear on the social networking thing...trying to delve into that pond to make connections and such so get at me on:

I also got back on the horse and started performing again...it felt good to be on stage rocking the crowd again...Ive learned a lot over the years and I see where some things I have picked up can be put to use.  I come back stronger!

(photo by Meesh)

But most importantly, I remembered what was important to me...what was holding me back...what was no good for me..every so often you need to renew your mind...body and relinquish the old bonds you have carried from point A to B.  I got rid of rusty fuel tanks and strapped on new boosters...

-To my  future...and to yours.

Time Is Of The/No Essence

Special Edition Post:
[photo from]
www.capetownskies.com
















"The fabricated mind relies on time to survive itself.
Transitory phases of many points passing unrealized
through a line of existence until a moment of clarity.
Yes, this is a ray.
It shines projected in one direction
from the source of inspiration towards your soiled self
promoting growth and death simultaneously.
We sit watching this event speaking the false words of time
when the light has always been, just not where we were then
but where we are now.
Where we were waiting for yesterday.
We find comfort in time claiming patience and meticulousness
when what we really seek is one more moment in bed before we rise.
Wake up!
Your life has arisen before you
...and it will set before you know it."

I thought these words...willed them into your mind but I could not will them into your heart. It seems that when the astronaut lets go he realizes that he is as likely to fly as to fall. I thought these things and tried to will them into my life.

and then I received an email from my friend Hanna, who was responding to an email I had sent earlier containing a song I like and some lyrics. That song was "Tensioning" by Sparta. She replied with thanks for the song and a poem she had written back in January. I read it and thought...

"Always waiting for my life to start

Tomorrow never comes to an impatient me

Contemplating on my next mark

not knowing that time is here

Debilitated by my own restrictions

that I condemn so much on every other occasion

Creating a world imprisoning on an

otherwise less imprisoned self

The answers to the questions I seek to not exist

and I am wasting it away on

my opportunity to live."

I thought... "my sentiments exactly."


Peace

The Key To Relationships

There is a key to building a relationship. This key applies especially to those in the position of power and leadership ie: parents, government, employers. As we all know, every goal comes with responsibility. When it is your goal to create a relationship with someone, especially a subordinate, there is one thing that can make or break that relationship. You must value that person. By this I mean, you must value them as they value themselves. You can not place the weight of value on things that they do not themselves put weight on. If you do this, they will cease to value you/never begin to value you and you will have a disfunctional relationship.

This is especially important for family. If you are a parent you must figure out what things interest your child, what things do they find self worth through, what things do they value in themselves and their goals. You must then LEARN to value these things in them. It does not mean you have to like the things or get into it or become an authority on them. You must just express the fact that you recognize and value your childs achievements in an area that they value.

If you do this you will show the other person that you recognize, respect and value in them and their life what they recognize as important to them. When done they will in turn feel respected and valued and will put forth their best effort for you and towards you (normally). Sometimes, however, there is a person who is just on some other shit and they won't return the favor. Let them fall to the wayside...

...building mad decent relationships

Trust is hard...

This is a delicate issue for me as it probably is with many people out there. Because of this I decided to post some quotes on the matter that I feel speak accurately from varying perspectives on the subject. Feel free to add to the list if you have something to add...or not.

"Trust is like a vase.. once it's broken, though you can fix it the vase will never be same again."

"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you" -Friedrich Nietzsche

“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy” -Walter Anderson

“The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are. Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be- and when they're not, we cry.”

“Without trust, words become the hollow sound of a wooden gong. With trust, words become life itself.”

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough” -Frank Crane

“When mistrust comes in, love goes out.”

“The best proof of love is trust.” -Dr. Joyce Brothers

“If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win”

“Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement." -Alfred Adler

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him." -Booker T. Washington

"A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else." -Cardinal de Retz

"Who would not rather trust and be deceived?" -Eliza Cook

"Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired." -Erik H. Erikson

"A good marriage is at least 80 percent good luck in finding the right person at the right time. The rest is trust." -Nanette Newman

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work." -Rita Mae Brown

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."- Samuel Johnson

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity."- Kahlil Gibran

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. "- D. Elton Trueblood

Peace

4our a.m. Frustration

When you are trying to create your own path there will not be a road to follow and this can be extremely rough. Sometimes you may feel that what you thought was your destiny is not and what you thought was your road is not. You must push on because even what you may see as failure IS a destiny and even in that, if done right, there is triumph to gain. This is from me to me but maybe you could use it too.

KEEP PUSHING...

Take Back Your Eye

In life there are things you do and things you should not do. The choice between these things is up to you. However, once you have committed to some action being not of you, not right or something that you will not do you enter into a pact with the universe. From this point forward, life will hold you to your word. When you go against this commitment you are punished in some way. You are punished because you made a commitment to yourself and broke that, no matter how valid your reasoning. Sometimes you are punished directly and sometimes the punishment comes in the form of negative feelings that you carry. These negative feelings indirectly create a chain of events that will end with some unhappiness. This too is a form of punishment. Over the last two years I have done many things I had formerly resigned not to do. Call it victim of circumstance or a lapse in self control, either way I have committed small crimes against myself and I have paid for them...some I am still paying for.

Take a moment to review your personal experiences to develop examples for yourself.

I write this in hopes that you can relate because as I write this and you read it I am reclaiming the intent to regain my lost stronghold...my self(the decision to do). I am reclaiming it from circumstances that caused me to lose it, I am reclaiming it from defeats, depressions, recessions, etc. I hope that as you read this you will review what you have lost and resign to reclaim it as well. If you have not lost anything because you haven't gained that ground yet, this is also for you. It is time to make yourself better...a person worthy of being a model to others not because of what you have but because of who you are.

...Hallah

Baby, Don't Sleep.

Walking through a field on her journey home,
she fell asleep amongst the flowers;
the sweet scent of her surroundings intoxicating her.
She laid down to enjoy the moment.
A moment of pleasure where what she loathed seemed so far behind,
Her dreams lay just ahead and what she wanted was all around.
She laid down and she fell asleep.
She slept with the idea that nothing would change
as time passed and her feet ceased to move forward.
But time would pass because no thing ever lasts...
And she would awake to find that what she loathed had caught her,
what she had dreamt of was far beyond sight and
what she wanted she could not have.
Her field of dreams and satisfaction had become the stage of her downfall.



There is a moral

Even the illest of thinkers...are only mad decent at best.

*1st thought

It seems that even the illest of thinkers may come against things they struggle to understand.

There is a quote by Jesus (the prophet not the tree hustler) that is one of those things that is perfect on paper and more difficult in practice:

"The world is only a bridge; cross it, build not thy house upon it."

I definitely feel him on this but then there is the pressure...

it comes from around us in this world and it is this pressure that makes it feel necessary to "build your house on the bridge". Group thought is a powerful phenomenon and social trends and paradigms are harder to break than some of us think. most of us adventurous types only break the surface on breaking free. Only the true outcast takes it the full way. It takes a certain level of dedication that makes others question your sanity.

*2nd thought
So what does it mean to want to be successful and what does it mean to want to be great?

Which one do you want for yourself?

Consider this: Success is what one can have on this world and in this time. Greatness is something one has in the next world and throughout time.

To me success is noteriety, wealth and other easily measurable identifiers. Greatness is something immeasurable from close distance...it always takes us more time to realize greatness. Greatness is something measured in lightyears and not minutes. Great is a star exploding and us being able to see it 12 billion years later. Success is achieving a goal or finishing some task that others deem worthy of the attribute "success". Great is an action that is usually recognized much later by those who realize how they have been affected by it. Greatness is a lump of coal that after much pressure, time, and being forgotten can reveal a diamond. I am not saying that these two things don't coincide but one is done for the purpose of reaching "the goal" and the other is done to "achieve the doing" (i think that makes sense) I know which I prefer and I know which feels more necessary to survival.

Which one should you want for yourself?

*interesting point: I wrote this hours before watching this flick Revolutionary Road. When I watched it I saw that it dealt exactly with what I'd just written about. (funny how that happens)*

-Tektite Illah

"It sounds fly in theory but it's hard to apply"

I had this conversation recently with a cat I met not too long ago at the beginning of a funny little experience that ended in me being unemployed (the bad). Out of this situation I learned things and met new friends (the good).


So Jamaal and eye were speakin on how to keep your focus on your goals when the winds are blowing against you (not literally). When things get too rough, sometimes, you can bear down into just "makin it" so hard that you can forget to sleep...you may forget to dream and then you forget to act. Your life force gets drained that way. So I ask myself "how is it that I let momentum slip from me? How did eye lose sight of my action?" I was once a lucid dreamer...but somehow, while still maintaining the dream, I have forgotten my ability to act within it. Have you felt or Do you feel like this?


Dude said something very real that I wanted to share.

He said:
"I am trying to keep the faith and keep the movement moving. I was talking with my girl last night and we were talking about why people don't follow their dreams or begin to follow them and stop. We came to the conclusion that it's because they stop pursuing when things become difficult. But if you can keep the movement moving, things will eventually fall into place." -Jamaal Cowan


some good advice for that dome...


Hallah