Being More Than Hype

Will Smith called it an ‘evolutionary flashpoint’. People from Lupe Fiasco to the guy cutting hair at the barber shop have said that because of this, ‘there are no more excuses’. Black people in churches all across America spent Sunday shouting and praising, some even saying that we have now reached the ‘promised land’ that Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the night before his assassination. Of course, the event I am speaking of is the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

Barack Obama is quite possibly the most inspirational political figure in the world since Nelson Mandela. The support he received throughout his campaign based on change reached people from every walk of life, every ethnicity, and every generation to the tune of roughly 64 million votes and international applause as he became the first African American ever elected the U.S. presidency. Immediately after his victory was announced, people took to the streets in celebration, and the party has been playing out on the air for the last six days. Crying superstars, jubilant preachers, and millions of people inspired by the change that has come to America. His victory has created hope in places and in people where there never has been. It is a new day in the new world

Make no mistake, though, the change that we truly seek is not one that can be brought about through the election of a black man as President. The change that we truly need is not one that can be brought about through the presidency of this black man. The change that we truly seek is one that must begin in us. For many, the election was the spark that ignited the flames that will move us to action. For the rest of us waiting on a messiah to save us, I’ll paraphrase the man himself as he said that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”.

As we celebrate the change that’s been made evident in America, and as we realize that we truly can make our dreams into our realities, we need to do more than be excited. It’s going to take more than our excitement to improve our children’s education, to clean up our neighborhoods, and to get out of debt. It’s going to take more than our excitement to keep kids from dropping out of school, to heal our broken families, and to take control of our own destinies.

Barack Obama’s election is a glorious occasion, and we’ll all remember where we were when we found out that he won. Now that we have seen the impossible become the truth that is our reality, let’s plan to do the same thing in our own lives, in our own families, and in our own cities. Be the miracle. Be more than hype.

Spit Life,

Ernest L. Almond

2 Weeks of 29...

So my birthday was August 31, and how did I celebrate? I TOOK A NAP!!! LOL, I was exhausted because the day before we had my wife's baby shower and it was insanity. Wonderful, but pure insanity. I was the only grown man in a house with like 30 women and children. Nuff said! But that's not the subject of this blog. What I really wanted to talk about was what it feels like to be un ano short of the big 3-0. So in the words of the Joker, "Here....we....go!"

I feel exactly the same. Well, not exactly the same, but I don't really know what it means to feel 'my age'. Of course, I have grown man responsibilities, with my wife, my child soon to come, bills, and all the other positions I've been placed in, but I still have dreams like a little kid, and I still feel like a kid sometimes. Shoot, I spend most of my day 10 months of the year with teenagers, so I guess it's only natural that I still keep some of that youthful hope and energy that some of them exhibit.

To be honest, I actually feel better now than I have in a while. I've managed to avoid the early mid-life crisis by focusing on all the blessings that are staring me in the face each day: life, my wife, my daughter (even though she's not here yet), my job (even though it drives me crazy), and most importantly, my God. People face the whole 'crisis' thing because they lose sight of their identity. We lose sight of our identity because we lose sight of our purpose. And if nothing else, I do know I have a purpose, and I don't know the final destination, but I'm sure trying to walk the correct path there.

So, where's my correct path gonna take me. Not sure, but I'm confident my faith will guide me, and y'all will see where the journey takes me through my music, my poetry, and of course, my blogs. We'll see how it goes grinding at 29.

Spit Life,

E. Minor

Coming Up for Air!!!

This last couple weeks has been a MONSTER! I feel like I've been running almost purely on adrenaline, like being chased in a horror movie or something, with everything that's been going on. Last week was the first week of school, which is a beast all by itself, and in the last 8-9 days there's also been my wife's baby shower, my birthday, my church's back to school program, a church conference, and let's not forget that I started a new workout routine that requires that I'm up no later than 5:00 a.m. 4 of 5 mornings during the week. Needless to say, I have a lot of messages that I haven't returned, and I haven't made much forward progress on the completion of this collab album since I went back to work.

Hopefully, this 3-day weekend has been enough to get me rested so I can return to making music and get my mind right. There's always something that seems to come up to throw my schedule into overdrive, but I'm praying for balance each day now so I don't allow myself to become overwhelmed by the things I need to and want to do.

On a side note, I've been reading up on the DNC last week, and it will be very interesting to see how the RNC unfolds this week in Minneapolis. If I see or hear anything 'special' enough, I might just be back up here before the end of the week. Until then, I've got a new song up on my Myspace page called 'Binoculars'. Check it out and let me know what you think.

www.myspace.com/estmusic

The Rush

It happens every year, and yet it rarely changes. The week before school starts is always chaos. Way too much to do, not even close to enough time, people are pulling there hair out, and going insane...and the kids haven't even shown up yet, lol. This is beautiful, and I love this time of the year, even though it's ridiculously busy. Got a couple of performances lined up, got a workshop I'm leading this weekend, and I've got to start planning for classes next week, so the rush has begun. I'll get back to you with something more in depth after this weekend. Until then, I've got a new song posted on my myspace page called "Binoculars." Check it out @ www.myspace.com/estmusic.
As for me, I'm about to go meet with a personal trainer (sigh). My knees are bothering me again, and I'm trying to reclaim my 6-pack from the clutches of McDonald's.

Spit Life,

E. Minor

R.I.P. Bernie Mac

Everybody knows by now that Bernie Mac passed away yesterday after fighting complications from pneumonia, and of course, following the shock of it all have been many condolences sent the family's way. What comes to mind for me though, in this situation, is that his death just serves as a reminder for the rest of us that we really have no idea what life has in store for us or when our time is going to be up. I know that can be depressing if you let it be, but I don't see it that way. I see this knowledge as liberating. Sometimes we get tricked into believing the lie that we don't have a beginning and ending here, so we squander a lot of time away dealing with frivolous or meaningless pursuits. We try to prolong our adolescence more and more (30 the new 20, lol) and we forget that each one of us was put here for a purpose. So, without knowledge of our purpose and understanding of our finiteness, our lives turn into a string of unconnected episodes, kinda like Seinfeld.

So each time death shakes us out of our comfort zone by taking someone unexpected, I mourn for the person and their family and pray for their comfort, but I also make a new resolution to make the most out of each day of my life. That doesn't mean I live every day like it's my last, because if you really think about it, that's crazy! If I was to take on that mentality, each day would be like Last Holiday, that Queen Latifah movie from a couple years back. What I'm going to do is live each day of this life working to fulfill my purpose. We've each got a purpose here and it won't wait on us...if we don't accept it, we won't receive it, and people we could/would have touched with our gifts won't be blessed by them. Bernie Mac dedicated his life to making people laugh. I've dedicated mine to living out the love that God has shown me. So, I know each day what my goal is for my beautiful struggle. What's yours?

I'm In! (the Track Starz Program)

Okay, so I got this email after submitting my Myspace page to the Beat Squad:

Congratulations! After final review of your application by our head production team, you have been accepted into the Trak Starz Program. The Beat Squad is dedicated to cultivating new artists and introducing fresh talent into the entertainment industry. Track Starz is a program sponsored by Makin’ It Magazine allowing us to reach out to those talented independent artists that may lack the financial resources to afford quality production services.

As a Trak Starz member, you are a part of an exclusive group of artists that we will be working with to help secure recording contracts. As a member, you are also eligible to lease any beat in our production catalog for $50 and receive free beats courtesy of Makin’ It Magazine.

With only a select few being accepted into the program at a time, we take the Trak Starz Program very seriously. We plan on giving you our undivided attention, so we hope that you don’t take this position for granted.

Congratulations!

Makin’ It Magazine & The Beat Squad

www.thebeatsquad.com

www.makinitmag.com

So, do me a favor, and check out the website, listen to their beats and let me know if there's anything up there you think I should work with. Peace and blessings...

Why the Change?

I knew it would be asked eventually, but only minutes after I sent out the message declaring the "E.S.T." moniker dead, my boy Dominque emailed with the question that I knew was coming from somewhere, and that question is "Why the change?" Oddly enough, this name change has been a long process; I've been debating my "identity" since the end of last year. My struggle was this: I've been known as E.S.T. for over 10 years, but I was feeling that I'd outgrown that name.

As an emcee, I've been E.S.T. since 1997 (long time, right), and in that time, I've had a lot of great experiences, even though I wasn't consistingly rapping and performing the entire decade. I had my beginnings with UNC-Chapel Hill's Hip Hop Nation, which at the time was run by Kevin Thomas (Kaze of the Rawkus 50) and had a blast. I needed a stage name, and I couldn't think of anything else at the time, so I just took the last three letters of my name EST and went with that, and it stuck.

By 2004, after about a four year break from public appearances as an emcee, and after a lot of life changes, I came back with REBUILT: Da EP under the same name E.S.T., except I used it as an acronym for "Evangelize Streets Teaching". I was a gospel rapper now, trying to save the lost, preaching a sermon or giving a testimony in every song! I pushed that hard for 2-3 years performing all over the state and even in ATL at the HHH Award in 2005, but I started to get a bit down on the whole 'holy hip hop' scene. Two things that really turn me off from anything I'm involved in are greed and extreme self-interest; and I started to see those two things manifesting in the HHH scene, and it made me question how much I wanted to be a part of the associations I had made. In addition to that, I started realizing that in my 2-3 years on the HHH train, I was creating fans of my music (anyone remember "I'm Thirsty" or "That's What's Up"), but my heart was yearning to do more than become popular with a narrowly defined audience, and also yearning to do more artistically. I came to a point where I felt that I was carrying baggage that I wanted to let go of, and start fresh.

Still in 2007, I dropped WHAT'S REALLY GOOD: A Mixtape Experience under the E.S.T. name, and it was then that I started to really begin to debate whether I wanted to be that same artist, that had those same expectations from that same audience. When I first started, I was just an emcee, having fun, and doing my thing, and then I was a gospel rapper, expected to preach sermons in every song. Then, with WRG, I finally let it all go. All the expectations people had, I forgot them. All the rules about what "gospel rap" should be like, I ignored them. I was finally free as an artist to be a man, and that probably brought about the end of E.S.T.

See, I love hip-hop, but I'm more than an emcee. E.S.T. is an emcee name, plain and simple. But, in the realm of hip-hop, I'm a lecturer, a cultural critic, a teacher, a poet, an aspiring author, and an emcee. Adding to that, I'm a minister, a high school teacher, a husband, a father-to-be, a son and brother...I'm more than an emcee. So, to reflect who I am, I finally decided to just use my name...at least my first name, Ernest, so no matter where I am, I can answer to the same name. As for Minor, that's my mother's maiden name, and my grandfather had no sons. So, although I carry my last name (Almond) with pride, this is an opportunity for me to honor my grandfather also.

So, here I am, introducing you to Ernest Minor, E. Minor for short. Under this name, I'll release music that encompasses the totality of my experiences and understanding of this world and the next one. E.S.T. still has some unfinished business in the form of a collaborative album with DJ Kipe, but other than that, everything you see from me from now on will be from Ernest Minor.

Nice meeting you...