Month: July 2025

So a couple of years ago, I saw a video from Dr. Amin at Amin Clinic, which is a well known psychiatry clinic. Dr. Amin is world renowned for his knowledge on the human psychiatric status and the treatment of different psychiatric issues. In the video I saw, he was talking about how he feels that Flaming Hot Cheetos can/might agitate people with the beginnings of or current psychiatric issues. He was saying how the food messes with people’s mental state and can tilt their brain’s chemistry in a way that effects it negatively. Go look up the video on YouTube to see the details.

I let that video go in one ear and out the other, but lately I’ve been eating Flaming Hots out of the vending machine at work as a last resort snack. I notice that the next day I’m a lot angrier in traffic and dealing with certain things at work. I am a firm believer now that Flaming Hots put you into a negative mind/mood space and can lead people, if consumed regularly, to do things in a moment of passion that they would normally never do.

I’m not surprised then that this is often one of the major snacks consumed in the black community. It’s sold at corner liquor stores and bodegas in many black neighborhoods, and I’d say that we are a huge consumer of that particular snack item over any other race of people. With that said, it makes me wonder if the effect they have on the mind is not intended and being purposefully put into the food. I hope it’s an unfortunate accident an something that wasn’t done deliberately to undermine an entire race of people.

If you have a child, I would suggest you don’t allow them to eat that snack on too much of a regular basis. I remember when they first came out and were sold at the corner store in my neighborhood in Chicago. I bought a bag for $.25 and I ate them on the way to school. Shortly after that, I threw the entire bag up in the principal’s office when I went in there to deliver something to the principal from the teacher. I remember the entire floor being red, me offering to clean it up, and them sending me home after that. I think I was like 7 or 8 years old at the time.

I definitely think it’s not a good food item, and even though it’s very tasty (I’m sure plenty of taste testing guaranteed that), it’s not worth the negative effect it has on your mood, mind, and body. Consider eating some strawberries, grapes, or mandarin oranges instead of something like Flaming Hots. It makes you wonder how other candy and chips effects your state of being. Anyway, til next time, take care of yourselves….. and each other. badadadaaaaaa badabap baaaaaa. (Jerry Springer theme)

What’s up party people? So todays blog post is just a PSA about the importance of mixing and mastering your music. If you’re going to make beats on a MPC or SP or whatever DAW/device you choose to use, you need to learn how to mix your music. The difference between a good beat and a great beat can be how well it’s mixed. I’ve been guilty of putting out music that sonically is very low par, but that’s because I didn’t really know what I was doing with the mixing part. How to place elements within the stereo soundstage and things of that nature.

The way I’m working on that is by doing my due diligence to read and learn how to mix/master my music. I bought a book called “The Mixing Engineer’s handbook” and it has already greatly improved my mixing and I’m only halfway through the book. I’m learning what Limiter’s and compressors do. I’m learning about the left/right stereo sound field and how you should place elements within that soundstage so they don’t “crowd” each other. It’s really fun and it’s added a whole new element to my music making. I’ve been working on the same beat for some days now, but sonically it has to be the best work I’ve ever done. I can’t wait until I’m finished with it and I can put it on my Distrokid and/or Bandcamp site.

Anything you want to learn, I think it’s good to pick up a book or two about the subject that’s highly reviewed and read to learn. You don’t have to necessarily take notes and highlight things in the book as you go, but just digesting the information, processing it, then applying it to your skill or hobby can help you make great strides in improving. If you want to jot notes and highlight, by all means, go for it, but it’s not required if you have the type of brain that is good at retaining visual information.

I’m very happy I’ve discovered the magic of mixing, because it’s given me a whole new insight into the plugins and tools on my MPC Key 61, as well as something greater to strive for with my beatmaking. I’m enjoying the journey, and once I get to a certain point, I’m going to talk about it more on my Youtube page. I want to share the knowledge with people and bring them up to speed on how to do things correctly when it comes to making good music. I’ve said this plenty of times on this blog, but music is something that keeps me going. When I’m at work having to do things I don’t necessarily want to just to earn a paycheck, it’s the thought of getting home, seeing my wife, her making me a cup of coffee, and me messing around on my MPC Key 61 or DJ setup that keeps me going. I look forward to the music experience each day, and I’m grateful to GOD that it exists.

People like to say that satan is the “father of music”, but GOD created everything including satan. Music is a gift from out father GOD to us and it’s something meant to keep us engaged, entertained, and to bring happiness to us. It’s unfortunate the dark road the music industry has gone down, but hopefully some day that will change and you won’t have to sell your soul just to share your music with a wide audience. With sites like Distrokid and social media, you really don’t have to do that now. Hopefully soon the satanic imagery, and death/murder/mayhem that is being perpetuated in the music nowadays will fall away and we’ll find our good musical talent again. Anyways, be blessed, have a good hump day tomorrow, and enjoy some tunes. L8r!