Sunday, 25 August 2013

Macaroni

       A descriptive look at Unsigned Chicago rapper Dante A martin AKA Macaroni and his music.
                             
I’d like to introduce you to one of my new favorite unsigned rappers from the Chi-Town Mr. Dante A. Martin! AKA “Macaroni”, Dante is a 34 year old father of two from Chicago Illinois or as he and many others call it Drillinois. (as to mention the type of music)  He was born and raised in the Cabrini Green row housing projects. His favorite rapper is Tupac Shakur and he has been free styling since he was 9 years old.  Growing up in the projects helped motivate him and has made his music what it is today; “to come from nothing and become something motivates me to keep grinding and climbing until I reach the top.” A lot of his inspiration comes from people in the music industry like Kanye West because Kanye is also from Chicago and rose up to accomplish great success. One of my favorite questions to ask the artists is how they got their stage name/ nick name and Donte’s story is one of my favorites! Dante’s uncle gave him the nick name “Macaroni”. “My middle name is Alchino, when I was young my uncle told me every time he took me out woman gave him attention because of me, so he started calling me Alscony macaroni.”
So far Dante has worked with some big names such as Pokie who is a cameraman for “Blind Folks Vision” (For more about Blind folks vision check out blindfolksvision.com) and when asked who he would like to work with he said “would love to work with T.I. because I feel my hustle has always been grand” and Dante’s goals for the future of his family and music are; “To go platinum and put my team and family in a different situation regarding success.”  Not only does Dante rap, but he also produces, ghost writes and is a very active father in his children’s life. He is dedicated to what he believes in and a big team player always focused and loves to help others reach their dreams and goals. When asked what his advice he’d like to give up and coming rappers he said: “Be yourself, don't hold back, being unique is classic, never try to fit in when you're born to stand out and read allot, upgrading your vocabulary can set trends and make serious statements.”
Dante is a smart, positive person that has risen from a negative situation, which makes for great flow and emotion in his lyrics. Please check his music out and show some love and support!
Follow him on twitter: @chino_colione
Follow him on Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/showtime2402
Listen on YouTube: (Type in moneybag swag for videos.) 
Thanks for reading!

~~RabBit

Sunday, 18 August 2013

My bestfriend

Dedication: Most of you who follow my writing know that I normally write about rap and hip hop, but today I am writing for my best friend Kayla for her 25th birthday.  This is the story about what she’s done for me and why she is such an amazing person.


Have you ever felt hopeless, lost, trapped in a relationship? I Did. I was in a toxic relationship for four years with a crack addicted. We met when I was 16 and he was 25. I spent my teenage years up to that point drinking, partying, doing and selling drugs. I left home at 16 to be in this life. When I fell for him we moved to a city about 45 minutes away from my home town. I knew no one except his family. I took this move as a fresh start to grow up and become an adult in a positive way and we agreed no more drugs. Shortly after this I realised he was an addict. He continued to do drugs behind my back and spend our money. I’m embarrassed to say this but I think it helps explain my story a bit more. I was jealous of him when he came home high. He got to be care free and oblivious to life like a teenager normal is and me (the teenager) was at home being an adult dealing with real life, working, cooking cleaning and paying bills. I did grow up because of this but in a negative way not in a positive way. Too quickly, the rest of my childhood was taken from me. The drugs turned him in to a horrible person. He was a very suspicious and paranoid of everything I did and said. My whole life revolved around him weather I wanted it to or not. I couldn’t have certain people on my facebook. If I got a message from an old high school male friend and I had never even written back I was in trouble. If I didn’t answer text messages or phone calls right away I was called a cheater and nasty names. I couldn’t say what I wanted to, I couldn’t dress how I wanted to. If I tried to become friends with someone he would use his drug problem to guilt me in to not spending time with them. If a man looked at me while we were in the mall he would squeeze my hand as hard as he could. Any time man or woman physically touched me in any way (hug hand on shoulder anything) I was in trouble, even if it was his own family members. Now don’t get me wrong, I never once sat down and took it. If he got mad at me for having a man look at me or something ridiculous I would freak! And we would end up in a fist fight. He is the only person I have ever lifted my hands to ever in my life. I never won of course but I always went down swinging! It’s hard to determine when someone is “Ride or Die worthy” I felt like it was my job to fix him. It was my job to be there and put him first. I felt like “ok this is my life. I just have to deal with it.” But it wasn’t my job. In your relationship it is worth fighting for if you give as much as you get. I tried to leave a few times. He had me so cut off from the outside world I felt trapped. I had nowhere to go, no one to help me. Not even one person I felt comfortable asking for help or felt like they would help me as much as I needed 100%. He would also threaten suicide if I left. Eventually when I was 20 we moved back to my home town. I got a job and one day they were looking for a new employee and I had seen a girl I went to school with (Kayla) on facebook was looking for a job. She got the job and we began to spent time together. I don’t know why but she was the only friend I had ever fought to have when it came to him not approving. Didn’t matter what he said or did about her, in my mind she was not going nowhere! One time she was over after work and he was coming home from work. He was texting me telling me he wanted her gone by the time he got home. I argued with him because I wasn’t going to ask her to leave and not explain why. Inside I had so much anxiety and I was scared what would happen when she left. He came home and hung out in the bedroom. I can’t even really remember what happened to set me off but he said something while she was still there and I flipped. We screamed at each other , she eventually left  when she felt comfortable enough to leave( that she felt like I wasn’t going to be hurt) and later told me she could hear us screaming when she went to her car. We were on the 4th floor of an apartment building in the back and she had parked way up the street. That was one of the worst fights we ever had. He hit me so bad I ended up having to drop to the ground and just kick and kick until he stopped. Of course we ended up having to move as fights like that in an apartment are pretty well herd.
We ended up moving around the exact same time Kayla was moving back in to her parents to help save money to go back to school. TWO WEEKS LATER after we had all moved, me and him had our last fight. My work schedule was very weird because we had a start time but we ended when the work was done never at the same time every day. We got in a fight because he did not believe one day I was actually at work. It finally hit me it wasn’t “ride or die” it was “if you keep riding you’re going to die.” He ended up choking me and pulling my hair so hard I had a lump on the top of my head for two weeks. I called Kayla, packed my stuff and left. For some reason she was the only person in the whole world that I 100% trusted that she would do everything I needed her to do to take care of me. It wasn’t her job I knew that. But she treated it like it was her job. Her and her parents took me in. She didn’t just share her home with me, she shared her room, her bed and all her free time with me. She rarely left me alone. I thank god every day she didn’t because she never gave me a free second to even think about going back to him.  A month after I moved in to her parents’ home, we moved out together into our own place. She sacrificed what she wanted in the future and the whole purpose of moving back in with her parents for me because she knew I needed her and I couldn’t do it without her. That’s not just friendship that is love. I have never felt this loved by anyone in my entire life.  I have never felt like someone would do anything for me until I met her. I have never trusted anyone but her 100%. I have had a lot of people in my life come and go and the “going” has usually ended badly so I do not let people in easily. Her and her daughter are the only two people I trust will be in my life until the day that I die.  I still to this day even though I live so far from her feel like it is me, her and her daughter against the world! We are a team and we always will be and I hope one day we can add to the team and we can both find men that love us as much as we love each other! I love you LA! You are not just my best friend you are my sister. I feel like what we have is how family is supposed to feel so you are my family, My OTF (she knows what it means ;P) I am always here for you!  happy 25th birthday to my La!! Thanks to everyone who reads this, it is a very personal story and I appreciate the support.  She is an amazing person and I wanted everyone to know how lucky I am!
Thanks for reading!
~RabBit


Thursday, 1 August 2013

"The Prequel; Stay Patient"

I review Stoley1st and THREE60's EP "The Prequel; Stay Patient"

                                              Stoley1st (left) THREE60 (right)

I am proud to introduce the EP Collaboration of “Stoley1st” and “THREE60”! “The prequel; Stay Patient” It’s made up of five songs.
1.       “Domination”
2.       “We Win”
3.       “Just Peddles”
4.       “Goin Thru it”
5.       ”Intro/Outro
Now, naturally for me that’s a bit short, when someone’s got great flow I love to listen for hours. BUT! It’s called “The prequel” for a reason! Stoely1st and THREE60 consider this the preview or “Forewarning” of what is to come from these two awesome up and coming rappers and “Stay Patient” pretty much means you’re going to love what they have to offer so your gunna have to be patient! Their time is coming.
So, here is my review on “The Prequel; Stay patient”. I want to start off by mentioning how much I love the little skits THREE60 does throughout the EP! It really brings me back to my day when almost all the rap albums coming out had skits. Like for example Eminem’s “Public Service announcement” or “Ken Kaniff”. It makes the album more fun and entertaining when there is somewhat of a theme in an album and helps tell the story the artist wants to portray. They officially brought it back so other rappers….get on it!  The skits throughout the songs to me represent the struggle of trying to become an artist while everything around you is negative and trying to bring you down. But rising up and conquering anyway! but he does it in a fun entertaining way.
The EP has amazing flow and entertaining lyrics. I love a song that has a great beat and memorable lyrics. One of my favorite lines is from “Domination” from Stoley: “I use to urkel it, now I murder it!” I love this line because it’s so universal. It can be a euphemism for being nerdy and awkward growing up then turning in to “The shit” or it can just be a funny reminder of a classic television character. Either way it makes you laugh and it’s very memorable.
A fun fact about the songs “Domination and “Going Thru it” Stoley1st’s younger sister is the female voice.  Her voice suits these two perfectly, it is soft and smooth like the flow these two put together. Apparently talent runs in the fam!  Another thing I love about these two is there unique voices and flow. They don’t remind me of any other rappers out there. There are a lot of rappers coming up and out and a lot of them have the same tones, beats, and their voices don’t mix well with the beats. These guys kill it every song. They change the tone of their voice to go with the beat which is a real new school type of rhythm but I get such an old school vibe from their songs.
In conclusion, if you are sick of hearing all the same beats, lyrics, and boring voices, check out “The Prequel; Stay Patient”  by Stoley1st and THREE60. You will not regret hearing these guys. They are already going places and have fans all around the world. If you would like to peep the EP yourself here is the link:
https://soundcloud.com/crimson-james/sets/the-prequel-stay-patient
if you like please support,  like and share! And watch for part 2! It’s coming soon!
Thanks For reading!

~RabBit