Track1 Advent Commentary by I.B. Fokuz

IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE SONG OF THE WEEK, GO TOHTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ADVENTISHERE TO LISTEN TO IT.

Man, where do I start. First of all, its a pleasure to not only work with another gifted lyricist, but a genius in our modern day times. Like Gilead said, I was very impressed by his first record dark room. I grew up in a christian household myself, so I knew what it was like to be taught about faith and God most of the years as a kid coming up. I honestly believe, that it is more easier for someone who grew up in the church to rebel against their teachings than someone who never was exposed to those certain teachings and accepts it as a breath of fresh air. The whole concept really touch me as a fan. This was one of the biggest reason why I wanted to do this record with him. At the time, he was just dropping DPS, his second album. I decided to link up both of his albums as an continuation with this album. It created a lot of imagery for his next journey and also mine. So here we are, "Advent".

The first track is actually the first song written and recorded, ironically. With this song I felt it had to represent his transition into a new and fully complete artist, so I wrote the chorus in a way to capture his past, his present and his future. His Advent! The first line for example, "I'm seeking, bleeding, leaking through this merit, Love/ It's got me possessed, I'm leaping like I never was/". It's like a search for a free spirit, which we all look for in some part of life, a reinvention of ourselves. Then I said, "Apart of this cycle, and whirlwind of nothing/ This darkroom is plummeting, I bound to shoot, busting/". There I was building imagery on his struggle with God and how he thought he was backed into a corner throughout his obstacles. Then moving on to, "Death Penalty, Blaw, its time to move rushing/ through this outer space that, makes us all function/". Everyone gets to that point, where there is something inside you that drives you, when you've had enough. It's like your on the edge, and no one can see things the way you see it at that particular moment. It's a magical moment in some cases. You learn a lot about yourself and your will in those moments. And ended it with "If you're ready to build and tired of it crumbling, Advent is here now, its time to change something/". That last line represents when you finally reach that point of knowing what you are capable of. It's your decision to change it or let it be. I think today, were not asked that, let alone taught. So a lot of people are lost in there own mental cave because they never knew how special they were to begin with. In a lot of cases we are not perfect by far or blessed to be presented with that type of thinking. In the world we live in today, they just say "shit happens". Nobody cares anymore!

So hopefully with this album, we can reach people that are caught in this state of mind and give them a boost from experience. Reinventing yourself could be one of the best things that can happen to you because there is a stronger confidants and a stronger vision for what the future holds. Well, that's my two cents. Look forward to talking next week about Track 2: Baptism, until then peace.

I.B. Fokuz

Track 1, 'Advent' Gilead7's thoughts

IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE SONG OF THE WEEK, GO TO HTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ADVENTISHERE TO LISTEN TO IT.


Where do I begin with this one? I've never focused on giving commentaries on my song lyrics, but many people have said that I need to. So, in the spirit of refining myself by the advice of others, I move to talk about the opening and title track of Advent: A Modern Bible, 'Advent.'

I B heard my first record, The Darkroom: The Abandonment of Christendom, and said that he related to how I was writing about struggling with making sense of the Christian faith (pick it up @ http://sphereofhiphop.myshopify.com/products/gilead7-the-darkroom or a shortened version on ITunes), and wanted to produce my next record. This was right after I released a conceptual battle EP entitled Death Penalty Shots (out of print, only available as a digital download on ITunes, etc.) record that I B and Collasoul Structure helped me promote. I B was like, 'So in The Darkroom you battled with God, and in Death Penalty Shots you battled others, so your next record needs to show you just being an artist creating after you've proven yourself against the opposition.' No fighting, just feeling. That's exactly what the whole record is, and the first track is just a shadow of that.

It starts with me giving an intro of what Advent is in Christian theology, a season of expectancy surrounding the birth and second coming of Jesus. Several Christian traditions perform rituals around this time that serve to cause believers to reflect upon both the birth and second coming of Christ. In the writing of this song, I saw it as a ritual of my rebirth and you could say a third coming (this being my third substantial project), and in turn my own Advent. It was the gateway into a fresh era with a renewal of how I rhyme, view the world, and contend for divine justice within it.

I wrote another version of the song (maybe it will surface some day, maybe on this blog :-), but I didn't feel like it embodied the 'Advent' experience that I was going through during the creation of this album. So, back to the drawing board. What I came up with the second time around was two verses with double meanings and coded references that related to both my first and second albums, but with the purpose of showing my progression up to Advent. The first verse is simply an exposition, conflict, and resolution of me vs. God, the heart of The Darkroom material. With lyrics such as 'stained the mic with a passion of blastin' at God then relaxing in black holes/of flower children matresses/listen to stars that can't rap kids/I rule a darkroom where I make luminous pass like laxitives/Evil laughter of Canibus/Art institute anti amateurs/Flew on walls, spied on the past, and plastered makeup on damages,' I'm describing this toiling against religious traditions, my own hedonism, and ethical dilemmas by employing the very song titles themselves ('Black Hole', 'Flower Child Neo-Hippie', 'Star', 'Evil Laughter', 'Art Institute', and 'Fly on the Wall') to do this. The verse ends with the admission that while I can put a good whipping on the shell that may house the spiritual life force of the universe at certain points in history (the church, tradition, dogmatism, etc.), I can't attack the force itself. In doing so, I 'kick against the pricks', as the book of Acts reports Paul to have done prior to his conversion. The verse ends, 'I fought God in her own system, recording the war as wav files/And thought because I dissed her being that I was brave child/She healed my fragmentation as I strove to erode her/And hung my negatives crucified on 16 exposures.' In a nutshell, the Darkroom project is a 'record' (pun intended) of how I came to the consciousness that Goddess is and was never my enemy, but my co conspirator in the fight to 'hang my negatives' on these '16 exposures' (the number of tracks on The Darkroom album), and reflect on them to build another tomorrow.

In the 2nd verse, I began with two lines that I felt embodied the Death Penalty Shots album concept, which was to run over all opposition mercilessly. These two lines were 'Bring life into the beat/Mic fight up in the street/Let me cremate your MC career when I compete' At the recording of this album, I'd pretty much had it with the Chicago hip-hop scene, holier than thou Christian rappers and media who had distanced themselves from me because of things I had said, and MCs in general who had clout but were plain garbage. Those two lines demonstrate my rage toward all of that, and I took out a gun of hip-hop pride on that record to fill anyone or anything that stepped in my way with endless holes. But after I did the album (which Okayplayer gave a 3 out of 4), I realized that in putting too much emphasis on my own honor and saving face (I'm reminded of the end of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian), I'd forgot that a universe needs me and you to fight for its survival more than I need to fight for my own vanity. So, I said, 'But no, I slight myself when I cause a rapper some pain/When a sphere is global warming death by tsunamis and rain.' In light of ecological and social catastrophes I grasped the revelation that it's better to call again on the Goddess by a waging '...war with Hindu images of Kali growling/Her two-edged blade slicing demons entrenched within the system/Of rich and richer/Moguls who piss on lower social/My song called hate'll break em, my Love Supreme not supposed to.' Again, using song titles from the DPS ('War of Images', and 'A Song Called Hate'), I communicate that the real battle is injustice on all fronts, the weight of the world. The Goddess can get us out of this, but we have to move our hand as she moves her hand, slicing patriarchy, economic imprisonment, waste dumps in underpriveleged areas, below standard school systems, etc. That's what this second verse is about.

Whew, that was long. See, that's what you get when you ask me to do an exegesis (interpretation) of my songs.
Feel free to leave your thoughts on I B and my walking across the border into our Advent.

Peace

Advent: The Intro Blog

Just put in that Robust album. Not that new shit, but that 'Potholes in Our Molecules'. And in that statement, I'm by no means dismissing new things, but I'm reflecting upon what was so that what will be is that much better. Sometimes, we don't do that. We try to divorce our past from where are now, and because we can never achieve this, we expend needed energy swinging swords at the wind. I've done this. I've been the most guilty of this.

In Advent: A Modern Bible, I, along with I B Fokuz, return to a consciousness of what I tried to split myself from. It's really a consciousness of the fact that it didn't go anywhere. What I tried to split myself from was/is the spiritual. By the spiritual, I don't mean warm feelings you get when you jump around in church and your blood is flowing rapidly. By the 'spiritual', I mean the background realm that pushes us to embrace that which we can only run from by embracing death (word to Qwazaar). It surrounds us. In it we live, move, and are. Advent, this record, is a prayer in hip-hop language . It's an admission that we don't know shit about this all-encompassing, never ending event we call God, yet we are open to any way to become aware of how that which contains our present, past, and future sustains and changes how we live. This involves, the social, economic, the political, the artistic, the cultural, the athletic, the recreational, and oh yes, the religious.

Advent: A Modern BIble is about leaving a mark on the world that those who come after us can follow, leading the next generation into a tomorrow that is more just for all races, colors, creeds, religions, cultures, social and economic stratification, and more. In a nutshell, Advent is the striving toward justice for all, humbleness for ourselves, and walking hand in hand with our universe.

Each week, we will be featuring a song from the Advent album on the myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/adventishere), and I B and myself will offer a commentary of the song on this blog. You are invited to listen, discuss the song, and share in the journey with us as we learn something new about our own work. Your feedback is strongly desired, and important. If you want to post a few words or write a whole scholarly article, we want to hear from you. With that being said, I'm gonna go enjoy this sun and get to working on beats for Collasoul Structure. Talk soon.

Gilead7