Trackz on Demand-Trailblazin in the hip-hop nation

Every form of music has a history.  Hip-hop is no exception. People have tried to dismiss the genre as irrelevant from its beginning.  Some said it wouldn't last; well here it is 30 years later, still going hard. Sure, it may seem difficult to look past the sad state of affairs today, but if you do, the history is there.  If you are like me, you remember when the deejay, scratching records and making beats, was the heart and soul that drove everything.

If you turn off BET and tune into the underground, then you'll realize that you're not alone.  There are still producers and deejays out there turning out quality product, hustling away in the background.  That's why I write this blog, to bring them out of the background and into the forefront, to shine a light on the underground hustlers carrying hip-hop on their shoulders and trying to bring it back to its glory days.

I'm going to talk about two of those hustlers right now. Look carefully at the right-side column of this page and you will see a widget for Trackz on Demand.  If you don't know the names behind the sound, then I'm here  to educate you.  I don't make any secret of the fact that I rep hard for The Prolegend Movement, and today I'm reppin for two of the members of the group who make up Trackz on Demand, Mass Pro and Laf Legend.

Trackz on Demand showcases the beatmaking skills of this half of Prolegend.  In addition to rapping, Pro and Laf play the keyboard and bass.  Their instrumental skills are self-taught, "like the old blues cats" as Laf Legend put it, and make up a big part of their beats.  The two have worked together since high school, starting out with a Korg Trinity keyboard and a bunch of inspiration.  They formed Prolegend Productions, which went on to become The Prolegend Movement and expanded to a foursome with Laf's younger brother Lankdizzim, and Lank's friend J.Co.

The idea for Trackz on Demand came from Pro, who worked as a Comcast service technician.  Everyone in Jacksonville who has Comcast knows how iffy their service is sometimes, and Pro said that he was always getting calls for people whose OnDemand service wasn't working.  So the running joke became, " I'm gonna make a company, and my stuff is gonna work".  And Trackz on Demand was born.

Although the name may have come from a joke, the talent that these two guys have is no laughing matter.  They use software like Reason and Garage band, to produce their original sounds.  Pro said, "I like to start off with drums, put a bass to it, add some piano chords.  Build a foundation, sprinkle some other sounds in.  Once you have a sound, start arranging it into a song.  Intro, Outro, breakdown.  Make a dope beat, and all you need is some vocals."  Of course, The Prolegend Movement is definitely not lacking in the vocals department, so when you put it all together, you have the unique sound that has driven them to number 1 on the local hip-hop charts according to Reverbnation.  


I asked Pro what his favorite beat was so far, and he said that he really likes the sample that he did for Erry Time.  That song came out with a 70's funk sound that makes it one of my favorites, and the Internet audience seems to agree, because it became a favorite on underground radio shows.  But, he added, "I don’t know if I’ve made my best beat yet. It’s a continuous thing, I’m still trying to get better.  Still trying to outdo the last beat, as they say".  


That drive for excellence is what makes Trackz on Demand and The Prolegend Movement heavy hitters in my book.  They never settle for mediocre, but instead always try to give listeners their best sound.  In addition to the music on their original release, Revolution Revalationz, as well as the Black Diamonds mixtape and EP, they have a virtual library of tracks that they haven't officially released yet.  When I ask the guys why not, they all say something like, "its something missing" or  "its just not ready yet", or something along those lines.  They are their own toughest critics and it shows in the work that they put out.


So artists, if you need some fresh, original beats, then Trackz on Demand is where its at.  You can lease beats for $19.99 or buy them exclusively.  If you sign up on the website using your Facebook account, then you also get a free beat. They aren't just for hip-hop, either.  They have some great beats that would sound good with some R&B vocals, or even with some spoken word.  Independent artists, let's support each other and our community, because God knows it needs help.  I think Mass Pro summed it up perfectly when he said, "We need more beats.  We don’t need more violence, we need more beats so rappers can stop killing each other and just get on the microphone."


Enough said.

Random thoughts on hip-hop, education, and youth

Every one of the three high schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Jacksonville is failing. Less than a third of 10th graders in our community are reading on grade level. But when I look around, it seems like every other young person that I see wants to be a rapper...No wonder Soulja Boy's lyrics make no sense. These kids can't read.

When you listen to lyrics and watch videos filled with Maybachs, bling, and mansions, its easy to see the allure of the hip-hop industry. Hell, sometimes when I look at my light bill, I think about throwing a hat in the game and spittin some verses.

But is what we see real and attainable, or is it all just smoke and mirrors? Is the hip-hop industry the modern day slave trade, capturing youth with an illusion and enslaving them with draconian contracts that suck the life out of them financially and creatively?

We as consumers don't realize how much of the lyrics and content of today's songs are controlled by the record company executives and not the artists themselves. Ironic, when you think about someone in a high-rise office somewhere who has never set foot in the ghetto, pushing lyrics glorifying the hood and "keepin it real". Well, if the hood is all that great, why don't they live there? The truth is, for those of us who actually know, the ghetto isn't all its cracked up to be. That's why Jay-Z lives in TriBeCa and not Bed-Stuy. That's why you don't see any Jaguars players living in Cleveland Arms or Washington Heights. Why have mayonnaise sandwiches and Kool-Aid when you can afford filet mignon and Dom Perignon?

What's even more ironic to me, is the artists who make the money, and then still get themselves caught up in the game that they should have been able to avoid because of their finanical success. And then our young people, blindly following them and lacking positive guidance and role models in everyday life, try to imitate this negative pattern of behavior. And so we have a generation of kids who could sing all the lyrics to Kanye West's song "Through the Wire" without having any idea of who the Emmett Till was that he spoke of in the opening verses. We have a community of kids who talk about Ak-47's like they're Super Soakers, but can't spell this week's vocabulary words. That's if they even bothered to go to school in the first place.

We can't blame it all on the music, though. People say this all of the time, but it really does start at home. Parents, stop sending your kids to school in $200 Jordan's, but can't send them with paper and pencil. If your kid has brought home three report cards filled with D's and F's, don't wait until April to ask for a conference and then expect the teacher to change the grades or give extra credit. Worry about your kid's school clothes and less about your club outfits. Then maybe we'll see some changes.

But I'm not letting the record companies and artists off the hook. Record companies need to sell quality music again. Stop selling an album full of trash, and then wondering why kids would rather just download the stuff of the Internet. Artists, maybe its time to go back to being independent, if that means being able to produce better songs. While having a discussion about independent artists, Thomas "Murk" Kelsey said, "The artists need to step up on their craft and deliver regional if not local hits, besides songs they think are good in their ears, if not others." I personally think that the Internet might just be a great equalizer, allowing artists and consumers to take back some of their power from the executives.

And artists, you can try to channel Charles Barkley all day long and say that you're not a role model, but let's get real. You're putting yourself out in the spotlight-and pushing kids to beg their single parents who are already scraping to put food on the table, to buy mp3 players, cd's, and ringtones, so don't try to dodge the issue and act like these kids aren't going to look up to you.

When it comes to this issue, I feel like Brother Marley-"I got so much things to say". I have more to follow up with in a future post. But in the meantime, what do you think? Let's get this conversation going. Our community is desperate for it.