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🎯 Steady, aimed, and focus 🎯

Aug 20, 2020 by admin - 0 Comments

In these times of COVID-19 it’s easy to either get lost and lose focus on what your purpose is, OR, drill down even more and get hyper focused.

I know sometimes it’s easy to fall into one or several of the following ideas:

  • “The market is too saturated”
  • “Unless you KNOW someone, you haven’t a chance in the music industry”
  • “How am I supposed to compete with the already established stars…”

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. But remember that at one point no one knew who Jay-Z was. As a matter of fact in the beginning, no one would even sign him to a record deal (which is how & why Roc-A-Fella records started). Russ, J. Cole, Kanye… these are ALL artists who at one point or another no one knew or even worse, dismissed without a second thought. Now yes, these artists all worked really really REALLY hard to get to where they are, but that’s the point. Without dedicated hard work, the likelihood is that nothing will pop off for you. That’s the hard truth. And for all you know, you may put in that work, and STILL feel like nothing is really poppin off. But I know I’d rather incur the battle scars on my body because I refused to not put up a fight, instead of live my life without a scratch because I chose to be a spectator the whole time just standing by on the sidelines. Sure there have been times that I’ve wondered of anyone would vibe to my beats (like this latest one), but you know what? If I don’t push forward, how will I know?

So in these times where everything seems upside down and there’s so much uncertainty… don’t give up on yourself. Instead, why don’t you bet on yourself. Now’s the time to really push through it all. Let the world know just who the F**K you are!

Stay on your grind!!!

-Duplicuts

Creatives: The arts, creativity, and Coronavirus | Covid-19, the Next Normal

Aug 06, 2020 by admin - 0 Comments

Try to always find a way to “Turn s**t into sugar” — perspective is key

 

Unless you’re very familiar with the location of the image above, you wouldn’t know that I’m about 4 feet away from the water, by The Hudson River which lies between New Jersey & New York City. So you may ask why? Why would I have my mobile set-up out in the elements when I could easily be tucked away in my home studio… well, why not.

One of the things that has been crystallized for me even more so during this pandemic lockdown is embracing the ability to turn “shit into sugar”. As a creative, and especially as a Hip-hop beatmaker, my attention is always tuned into taking what is in front of me (a music sample for instance) and bending it to my will. As opposed to letting my surroundings fully impose its will onto me. That particular mindset has proven beneficial in these times when the world has imposed its will on ALL of us. So now, this current situation we’re all in together will either bring out the best in some of us because we’ve decided to adapt and morph into the version of ourselves that is best suited to deal with our environments. Or, this current situation will break some of us because we’re so unaccustomed to bending that when faced with challenging circumstances, we don’t bend but instead break.

So with the daily extra dose of time on my hands I’ve delved into musically exploring places I had always wanted to but argued I didn’t have the time for (as evidenced below by one of my recent instrumental songs that falls under the “Cinematic/Epic” genre), taking way more longer walks than usual, and yes, making beats by the water…

So until the day comes where we “return to normal”, I’ll be over here turning s**t into sugar.

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