And here's the full version of the 'Drop The World' video...still dope.
Aaaaaand here's the final blog I wrote in the Movin' Up From Down Under series...
Week #8: The Mix
There’s nothing better than the feeling of ‘accomplishment’. Well, maybe there are ‘better’ feelings but it’s pretty damn good, you gotta admit. We were starting to feel like we’d accomplished something just by booking flights for the trip and locking in a bunch of meetings, radio spots and other various musical activities. But in reality, we’d barely started.
So the flights were booked. Accommodation was in the process of being booked. We’d locked in radio spots and stuff. Sweet. This sorta thing would be easy from now on, as it’s just more of a maintenance process, constantly adding to the framework that we’d set up – more meetings, more radio, more everything. Now that we have our dates, we’re good to go.
The one thing that this trip was based on, though, was to promote our latest mixtapes – Notion’s ‘World Domi-NoTiOn’ and Cee & Bekah’s ‘The Soul Movement Volume 2’ – and the fact that The Movement Fam was officially a crew. It was like our ‘coming out’ party. Pause. So around the time we decided to do this whole trip thing, we had both mixtapes in various states of completion. None of the tracks were mixed, we had no DJ’s confirmed to blend the songs, no artwork, Notion had no logo, and we still had a bunch of songs that needed finishing. For folks that work full time, and are trying to plan a trip, that is a huge amount of work to get through in the space of a few months.
Notion is the engineer of the crew. He doesn’t even really like that term much just yet, as he’s still technically only learning. He’s killin’ it, but. At the time of arranging the trip, he was working nightshift four nights a week. This in itself was insane, as generally nightshifts are split up so as not to make you go crazy. He was originally doing five nights a week but cut back, which was a great move. So he’d work Sunday night through Wednesday night, with Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. The catch was he had to convert back to day time hours in those three days, then get back to staying up all night by Sunday. Definitely not good for the body.
So while we were all spending every spare moment writing and recording and finalising all the songs for the pool to select from, Notion had to fit in the mixing of every damn song. In total, he mixed well over fifty songs (which took on average three hours per song initially, and then the changes would average an hour or so per song) in the space of two months. I had us on a tight schedule – as I knew we had so many other things to arrange, we couldn’t afford for the music not to be ready. Dude was sitting on like four hours sleep a night for a while there. Poor bastard.
The mixtape stuff turned out great in the end, but damn it was close. Australia’s only platinum DJ, Nino Brown, kept his agreement with us from the year before to still mix our mixtape, which was a blessing as he did a great job and it was dope to attach his name to our project. The kid DJ Crusador, a DMC finalist, came through in the clutch to mix Notion’s project, and he killed it. The artwork was the problem. The homie who does our artwork is in the UK (haha we worldwide, baby!), so that was difficult to arrange. We had many a long night on MSN finalising every small detail of the cover art and logo, which got changed a gang of times.
Because we pushed it right to the last minute, we weren’t able to press up a full run of mixtapes for the trip – we ended up doing 100 of each with an ‘Exclusive International Edition’ stamp on them to make ‘em something special just for this trip. That worked out pretty dope. But the stress was constant from June until September. Something always went wrong. People always bailed on us. It was a headfuck. Sometimes we felt it would all fall apart. But I think we’re the kind of folks who push things to the last minute and end up coming through with the goods.
The whole preparation stage was an amazing learning experience. I can only imagine what it would be like arranging a huge tour. Fuck that lol. But what came out of it was I solidified my networking skills and am now confident that I know what I’m doing. I know that the Fam can work to deadlines, and that I can rely on the people in my crew to make things happen – they’re as hungry for this as I am, which is one of the most reassuring feelings you can have in this business.
Next up, the trip…
Plug of the week: Gotta shout out our blog, www.TheMovementFam.com. It only really got started in early December, and already it’s killing the Cee & Bekah blog, which we never really pushed but utilised as an information source for The Fam since 2007. It’s got a bit of everything – stuff about The Fam, music in general, comedy, videos, fashion, sport, models…whatever you want!
So until next time, listen to Jazmine Sullivan. One of my Top 10 albums of 2008 (check the ‘Best of 2008’ post on www.TheMovementFam.com blog). It’ll change your life.
Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.
We took a bit of a pause from the Loud blogs lately...bringing it back...second last one I wrote too...
Week #7: Locking It In
Things were looking pretty good. We’d heard back from most folks that our contacts put us in touch with by mid to late June, and already we’d locked in a mainstream radio spot in Seattle; College radio, hair braiding session and a photo shoot in Toronto; a podcast and recording session in Oakland; a session with a bass player and an MC (Jermiside from the Lessondary Crew) in Atlanta; possible radio and shows in Denver; possible shows and studio sessions in Minneapolis; possible shows in Jacksonville; and a meeting with Eternia and an influential gentleman in New York (who happened to get us this very blog). We were vibed.
Now that we had enough information to start booking the trip, we skedaddled off to the travel agent to lock this bitch down. We knew that the earlier we booked our flights, the cheaper it would be, but it was hard because we didn’t know where we were going until we had confirmation from enough folks – and even then, some of the confirmations were sketchy at best.
So we rocked up to the travel agent all excited. Here’s how it went down (dramatic license, of course, has been taken):
Travel Agent: So, where do you guys wanna go?
Cee: Um, pretty much San Francisco, LA, Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, maybe Denver, maybe Jacksonville, maybe Miami. I think.
Travel Agent: Ooookay. Do you know how long you need to be in each city and the dates you want to go there?
Cee: Not really.
Travel Agent: Riiiight.
I think she wasn’t too pleased to have our custom that day. But I gotta shout her out, she was great. It came down to this: in order to get cheaper flights, we had to lock something in soon. And if we went to too many cities, the trip would be stupid rushed and the internal flights would cost a fortune. Plus, we only had five weeks in total, instead of the original six, as Bekah’s work were being assholes and refused to give her the extra time off. So we had to make a call. We ended up cutting Denver as it would have taken a lot more work to arrange shows; we cut Jacksonville as the city is so small, we’d be smarter to concentrate our energy elsewhere; same deal with Minneapolis; and we hadn’t hooked anything up in Miami as yet so that one was reluctantly let go.
Even though it was tough, we now had a basic itinerary. Boom. As long as we had tentative dates locked in, we were good. So long story short, after a bit of shuffling around and triple and quadruple confirmations, we managed to book all the flights. The only thing was if we were going to change a single flight, it would cost us hundreds of dollars. So if shit fell through, we were going anyway. Such is the wonderful ways of the international – and US domestic - airline restrictions. And I realised after that the flight from ATL to NY was on a small ass plane – I don’t fucks with small planes. We wanted to change it; we couldn’t without paying. I said we’d get a Delta flight instead and just miss the original flight, but if we did that, the rest of the onward flights would be cancelled as it was part of the package. Goddamnit.
But once we had the tickets in our hands, we were truly excited. This was real; it was actually happening. It felt like a dream, as I had literally had dreams of being in Canada quite often since being back in Melbourne, and going back overseas – this time, strictly for music – was a sign that we’d been working hard enough to get to this level. And not only were we doing this, we were doing it all off our own back. One hundred percent independent. Man, we were proud as hell.
Bekah and I spent the next couple months slowly booking accommodation whenever we were bored at work and wanted to handle biz (I don’t work where I did at the time of planning the trip so I can say it lol), with the assistance of DJ Grain in the ATL sector. So things were looking good…
Plug of the week: The kid Steve Duck at GroundUpHipHop.com has supported The Fam since the jump, lacing the artwork for ‘The Soul Movement Volume 1’ and even doing the Cee & Bekah logo. He hooked us up with a lil download section on GroundUp for our latest projects:
Notion – World Domi-NoTiOn (http://www.grounduphiphop.com/2008/09/14/notion-world-domi-notion-mixtape/)
Cee & Bekah – The Soul Movement Volume 2 (http://www.planeturban.com.au/download_mixtapes/cee_and_bekah_soul_movement_vol_2)
So until next time, listen to Esthero. She’s a trip. It’s like Portishead, Stephanie McKay and Jill Scott had a lovechild that was reared on Nine Inch Nails and copious amounts of marijuana. It’s good.
Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.
So I caught the email from Duck Down about this one...Sean P was holding the world's first Hip Hop Baby Shower in New York to celebrate the birth of his first daughter, Shaun Price (who is still in the womb).
On the real, this is one the funniest and cleverest ideas for a live show I've heard in a minute, and ONLY Sean P could pull that off (pause). Peep the video from the night, looked classic.
Gotta say, this is Wayne's dopest joint in a minute. Clip looks epic, vibed to catch that one.
Big Sky and 'Fest feature in this Ruby Hornet TV special detailing their recent collab 'Crack The Code'. Dopeness, as always from these cats.
The latest video from Mayer Hawthorne, this time for the classic 'I Wish It Would Rain'. Love it.
The homie Tony Williams, first cousins with Kanye West, is about to drop a mixtape entitled 'Finding Dakota Williams'. Y'all may know Tony from Kanye's recent tours, plus he's been the main voice behind the majority of 'Ye's tracks over the years. Plus, y'all might even know him from the recent collaboration with Cee & Bekah on the remix of his single 'Dreaming Of Your Love'. Can't wait for this one!
Dig this track and dig this show. Wish this sorta shit happened Down Under.
Peep the knowledge:
On the eve of his second world tour and Coachella performance, Motown-influenced singer Mayer Hawthorne schools us on "keeping it classy," L.A.-style.
The homies the Venture Caps drop the video inspired by Trav's blog Wake Your Daughter Up. Dope video.
Wow. I generally don't rate Jamie but this is dope.
Wale doing the Vevo thing, reppin' D.C. Cool vid.
KANYE WEST "Coldest Winter" Directed by: NABIL "ITUNES link below" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.
So Yeezy's still dropping singles from 808s? Hmmm. I dig this track, as depressing as it is. Cool visuals.
Decent interview with Jools Holland. Hov holds it down.
That's right, folks, The Movement Fam has it's own Twitter page. Finally. The rest of the crew done been had one, so the overall crew might as well too.
Follow The Movement Fam on Twitter!
We'll keep you updated on new blog posts, movements within the crew, projects, releases, news...everything!
HUGE shouts to the most prolific MC I know, GNZ, fresh outta Brazil, for adding our collab 'Free' to this latest album, also entitled 'Free'.
Cop the album for FREE!!!
Download GNZ - Free
01.Prelúdio (feat. pro & lomar) nobody beats [08:46]
02.Free (feat. cee and bekah) laudz beats [03:18]
03.Santa Paz - nobody beats & beata prod. [01:29]
04.Puff Puff Pass (feat. superkirikou) zieke sounds [03:17]
05.Incríveis (feat. deone) nobody beats [02:11]
06.História de um Crime (feat. antraz) nobody beats [03:47]
07.Eterno Brincalhão (feat. leittty mc) nobody beats [03:27]
08.Vie Venin (feat. drope) [03:02]
09.Na Minha Cova (feat. mr coronas. jay lan. maxi k) nobody beats [06:35]
10.Totem (feat. erks orion) cozin beats [03:26]
11.Não Se Confunda (feat. antraz & deone) antraz beats [02:56]
12.Revolução Íntima (feat. ienigmatiko) nobody beats [03:32]
So The Fam was just coolin' last night and happened to catch Merriweather's performance on Letterman by accident. Awesome. Real proud to see an Aussie cat from our scene in the big leagues in the US.
Another Emilio video...seriously, dude grinds something crazy. Shouts to Court Dunn on the dope visuals.
Nottz "Shine So Brite" from Raw Koncept on Vimeo.
Super producer Nottz tries his hand at spittin'. Kinda grew on me, though. Beat is nuts. Video is crazy.