Author: DJ GodsOwn

So my birthday is in a few days, and I’ll be 44 years old. I don’t feel much different than I did when I was 21. I’m wiser and have a lot more responsibility, but I’m still myself. I’ve learned a lot of things about life, how to deal with certain things, how to treat women, etc. Things I wasn’t necessarily taught when I was growing up for the most part. I feel like I have a decent grasp on how to behave when moving through the world.

There’s a programming that takes place for young men as they are growing up. From the music they listen to, the movies they watch. Your parents are forced to go to work because they are wage slaves and the TV and media program the children, and mostly for the worse. From viewing women as bitches and hoes, to having a me first mentality, the programming from mass media is all wrong. For most parents, especially single ones, it can be hard to teach your child wisdom when you’re working 40+ hours a week and tired all the time. You don’t have the energy to really go hard in the paint when it comes to training the child.

That’s why I feel like we need to go back to the way it was in the 50s, 60s and some of the 70s, where we understood it takes a village to raise a child. We have to get a reign on the kids where an adult can tell them what’s right and what’s wrong. Back in the day, if you were caught messing up as a young person, a neighborhood person could reprimand you. You’d get in trouble with that person, then they would tell your mom or dad and you’d be in trouble with them!

To be honest though, the things we see going on with the kids today is Biblical. The Bible talks about child turning against parent and parent turning against child in the “last days”. I definitely feel like we are approaching Revelations, and that a lot of things are coming to pass. Time will tell how it all unfolds, but I’m interested to see the part everyone plays in it. Hopefully one day, we can have a time of enlightenment, and go back to an age where we raised children properly. We all want peace and some good company, and hopefully one day, everyone will be able to achieve that in their own way. L8r!

So my stance has taken a complete 180 on marijuana. I’ve been vaping it lately out of my Firefly 2+ dry herb vaporizer, and it’s really helping me be at peace, even with all the stressors and dramas of life. My favorite strain as of late is Grandaddy Purple, as it’s a great Indica type strain that mellows me out and helps with aches and pains and a general sense of Zen. I know the ancient people of Kemet (Egypt) used to use it during full moons and as a sacred medicinal herb. They used it to enlighten themselves and open their chakras further.

People in our day kind of mis-use marijuana. It’s not meant to smoke and have raunchy sex or smoke and do a drive-by shooting on your “opps”. It’s meant to help you achieve homeostasis within your body, mind, and spirit. The people who tell me they have anxiety when they smoke, I’d be willing to bet money they’ve done negative things while under it’s influence and when they smoke it triggers that guilt and/or anxiety. They need to do some heavy meditation to break that connection to the bad feelings and only move forward with positivity and reverence for the plant’s medicinal properties.

I’m glad I gave the flower another chance and that it has worked out this well. I’ve been smoking again for about 4 months now and I feel good with the plant’s effects on me. I wish I could partake of it more often, but I normally vape before work to prepare my mind for a stressful day, and then after work to unwind from that same stress. It’s simply my coping mechanism with being a wage slave and working most of my waking hours. It helps me to be creative with my music and helps me focus on the music more-so than if I didn’t vape it.

My creativity has definitely increased since I started smoking again. It helps me to not rush the process of making a song/beat, and just enjoy the journey. I can be a very “rushy” type person, so herb just helps me chill out a bit and mellow out. I probably have some form of ADD as well, and the Indica variety of Grandaddy Purple slows my thinking down and helps me focus on a long-winded tasks like writing, making music, or Djing. I love to toke and write in my journal. Just about my thoughts on what’s going on in the world and different things like that. I need to start writing rhymes, because from what I’ve tried it seemed pretty decent, especially when compared with the mumble-mess the young generation is being pushed to put out to the masses.

Overall, I would suggest giving “Mary Jane” a shot. Since it’s legal in most states now, there’s no reason to not give it a try and see if it will help you deal with stress and take some of the weight off your shoulders. There’s a lot of strains to try, so find yours and don’t give up until you do. It’s out there, you just need to find it. Once you do, make sure you always respect the plant and keep the thinking at a high level and in a positive space. L8r!

So a nice lady at my job got canned yesterday. It was really a sad situation and I feel sorry for her. She was very nice and to me, she was doing a very good job. She was agreeable and helpful in so many ways that I’m not sure management was aware of. I’m not sure why she was fired, but I wish her the best and hope that she lands on her feet.

I know she was working a second job to make ends meet, and I hope she gets another assignment with her security company so she doesn’t have to worry and struggle about how she’s going to pay rent, pay bills, etc. She’d been at the company for a long time, and I guess that didn’t count for anything with the people who made the decision to fire her. She never did anything negative to my knowledge, she never stole from the company, she didn’t get into fights and arguments with people. She was always a ray of sunshine when you came in the AM every day because she worked at the front desk.

Corporate America doesn’t care about us. We are all disposable to them and they only want to use you for your skills and talents and they figure they are doing you a favor by hiring you. Things have changed so much in the work place since back in the day. Back in the day, the employer valued the employee. You would get Christmas bonuses and had a retirement pension after you aged out and left the work force. It’s not like that any more. Some places offer pensions, usually government jobs, but for the most part, these companies will offer is a 401k with some degree of them matching your contributions.

It’s really messed up that they can just fire you with no severance pay or any such thing, and you’re just out on your ass and have to scramble to put your life back together. Firing someone is a very big deal for the person it’s happening to. It should be a last resort as long as the person is doing their job to a decent degree. Short of them going into the CEOs office and taking a crap on his desk, you shouldn’t look to shake up someone’s life like that. People have no empathy and don’t give a shit because it’s not them. It’s part of the reason why I’ve grown to hate people. They are judgmental, un-empathetic, and selfish for the most part.

Nice people always get the short end of the stick in this f’d up world and I’m tired of it. What is going on? One of my co-workers told me she got canned because she was late to work a lot. Its like, we live in one of the WORST traffic environments in the world and you’re going to give someone a hard time for being late to work? That’s stupid and it’s dumb and it’s WRONG! That chick was a sweetheart and it really puts a sour taste in my mouth with the company I’m working for. End rant/

So I woke up pretty early today. Around 4am. Actually, that’s about the time I usually wake up. I like to be up before everyone else. I wish Ralph’s and Walmart were open that early so when I need to get water, cat food, or something else, I can go without dealing with a huge traffic jam of people that you normally find during the day hours.

It’s Sunday and I plan on spending the day at home. I’m going to work on music and DJ, as well as read a few books. I just finished reading “Making Beats” by Joseph G. Schloss and it was a good book. It didn’t teach you how to make beats, rather it gave you an insight to the history of beat-making and the mindset behind being a good/great beat-maker. I really enjoyed the read and it’s another book I can add to my collection as completed.

I bought an Ethiopian Bible recently, and I want to read that from cover to cover as well. A lot of people say it’s the “real” Bible, as opposed to the altered King James version. From what I’ve read so far, I can definitely see that being the case. The Ethiopian Bible has books like “The Book of Enoch” and others that were omitted from the King James version for some reason. I’m looking forward to reading it and seeing what knowledge I can glean from it. Hopefully there’s something in there that will be an “aha” moment.

I bought a notebook from Walmart that I’m going to be using as my rhyme notes. I want to write my lyrics in it that I’m going to use over my beats. I enjoy writing, but it’s definitely not easy to write a decent rhyme. It’s completely different from the journalistic type approach I typically take in writing, so it will be interesting to see if I can adapt my style and make something worth listening to. I’m trying to avoid swearing/cussing, as well as trying to avoid negative topics like killing people, degrading women, and hard drug use. I have to keep to those tenants and make good, informative, relatable music.

I also need to study to take the Security+ certification so I can hopefully land a job in Cyber Security at some point. We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see if I’m able to do what I need to do to achieve that. I pushed myself to get an A+ Cert back in the day, which is still “good for life”, so I’m sure I can buckle down and study for the Security+ cert and pass it.

That’s the end of this entry. To you reader I’d say enjoy the rest of your weekend, find something fun and creative to do, and don’t let the “Sunday blues” get you down. You’re blessed to have a job in this climate, so just keep marching forward and doing your thing. Til next time!

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!

My favorite thing is to wake up early in the AM and make some coffee with some honey in it. I work on my MPC and SP 404 mk2 and make music. It keeps me from spending extra money and I have all the equipment I could possibly need for a while I hope. There are rumors of a new MPC being on the horizon, but I’m content with my MPC Key 61 and the MPC 3 OS. It’s a lot of fun to use and you can do pretty much anything possible musically.

I’d like to see them improve the Stems functionality of the standalone MPC, as well as knock out some of the annoying little bugs that crop up when using the device. If they could improve the stems algorithm, there would be absolutely no reason to ever use the MPC 3 desktop software, which they just recently released. The standalone stems is still a bit iffy, and all they need to do is improve the algorithm for it. Even if it took longer to process, I’m sure MPC heads would be happier if it did a better job separating the different elements on the music you feed into it.

If there is a new MPC coming out, it would have to really be amazing to pique my interest at all. If it doesn’t have a keyboard attached to it, I probably wouldn’t want to partake. The MPC Key 61, to me, is the best modern MPC ever made. I’m behind on my payments for it, but I’ll catch up soon enough. I always do. It’s funny how expensive it’s gotten to live these days. Wages are not going up, but the cost of rent, food, gas, water, etc is steadily creeping higher and higher. I spent $30 today on some hot links, eggs, butter, and bread.

It’s absurd how much it costs to go grocery shopping these days. I don’t know what the powers that be are doing, but they are making a huge mistake in terms of the happiness level of the people. We’ve all tried to cope with this for a long while now, and it continues to get worse and worse. People aren’t being paid enough and things are too expensive. It’s not right and its not fair. A nation is only as good as its lowest people and if you look at Skid Row in Los Angeles, or Kensington, PA, you’ll see that this nation is pretty low as it stands.

I’ll keep on making my music and scraping by though. When the people are ready to revolt, I’ll be right there with them to protest and fight back. Even if I do find a job making more money, I know that there are those out there that are not as skilled job wise, and they deserve to live a decent life as well. People are content with their 6 figure incomes and don’t think about the people who serve them in the grocery stores, the restaurants, and other services they receive benefit from. What good is this society if those people can’t keep a roof over there heads and feel content about what they get up to go do every day? Anyways, til next time…

So I’m kind of in a confused place as to whether or not I should sell my Roland GAIA 1. Since I got my MPC Key 61, it really doesn’t get much use. The Key 61 has so many synthesizer plugins for it that sound absolutely amazing, including ones from Native Instruments with NI’s latest collab with Akai Professional. I love my Key 61 and it’s the best MPC ever made in my humble opinion. I’ve had the MPC One vanilla, the Live 2, and the Key 61 blows them both out of the water. You get 4GB of RAM for plugin loads just like the MPC X SE but for much less than the X.

The synthesizer and keys plugins for the Key 61 sound amazing and have a lot of tweaking that you can do to the sound to make it uniquely your own. They each include a ton of “patches” that sound great but serve as a great starting point to start crafting your own sound from them. With that said, that’s the issue. What’s the point of me keeping the Roland GAIA, when the Key 61 can do pretty much everything it can and then some. The GAIA is amazing. I love the keybed on it and it sounds great.

When I bought my GAIA 1, it came with a USB with some extra patches that were crafted by Sweetwater.com’s staff. Those patches are great as well and really opened my eyes to what was capable with the GAIA. It’s a legend of a synthesizer and was my first synth. The only other one I have is the miniature Roland S-1 Tweak Synthesizer which is also cool, but nowhere near as powerful as the Roland GAIA.

I could use the cash right now too, but I would hate to look back and regret letting go of the Roland GAIA especially since it’s been replaced by the GAIA 2 and is getting harder to find. As I write this, I think I’ve made the decision to go ahead and keep it. It’s an amazing first synthesizer and sounds incredible. There’s so many features including FX, Arpeggiator, and a great I/O set. The GAIA may not get used much lately due to the Key 61 being the center of my studio right now, but maybe I should change that. I need to start making beats where I can incorporate the GAIA more like House or EDM.

I like making House music the few attempts I’ve made at it, and I think I could find a way to utilize the GAIA when making that type of genre. The GAIA 1 wasn’t cheap, and with what Guitar Center would probably be willing to give me for it, it would be a rip-off. I don’t like selling on Ebay because they rip you off with their fees and nonsense just to sell on their site. I’ll keep the GAIA, and as long as it stays functioning I’ll have it in my studio.

It’s a highly sought after synthesizer and I’m very lucky to be an owner of one. I still have the manual for it which is pretty substantial. They don’t really make manuals like that for equipment anymore, like with my MPC Key 61. I have to defer to the MPC Bible to really get into the nitty gritty of the device and the MPC OS. The GAIA manual is thick and shows you the ins and outs of the device all without having to pay extra to get the info you need to really get down with the unit.

Hopefully, in the future I’ll have the money to buy other synthesizers to add to my studio and have a bigger studio to put them in. I love collecting equipment, and the only thing keeping me from doing it more often is a lack of funds. I’m looking for a better paying job though, where I can have a higher hourly wage and earn more on each paycheck, even if I miss a day for whatever reason. I need to make at least $10 per hour more from what I’m making now to really be able to pay bills and support my wife and mines hobbies. Anyway, I’m keeping the GAIA and I definitely recommend you check one out if you get the chance to. It’s an amazing unit and well worthy of the title of legend.

So I bought the Teenage Engineering KO II when it first came out. I got lucky and I didn’t get one of the ones with a bunk fader, however, mine did conk out after about 3 weeks of use so I returned it back to Guitar Center. I did think it was a dope device, so I recently went ahead and got one from an online shop with a payment plan. I got it a couple of weeks ago and it’s definitely a tight little device. I’ve made a couple of beats on it already and it’s a lot of fun to use.

I really love the tactile feedback of the pads. They remind me of my Razer mechanical keyboard. They are click clacky and make a lot of noise, which I like. The beats I’ve made sound good and were easy to get in to play with. You can sample into it, even though it’s only a 64MB sampler. That is plenty, and a lot of the greatest hip hop of all time was made on samplers with that or even less memory. I think this one is a keeper, as I believe TE has worked out all the kinks in the quality control with this device.

As I get more proficient with using it, I’m going to post some more videos on my Youtube channel related to it. Whenever I have made a video regarding the KO II, it always gets a decent amount of views. I think a lot of people are interested and fascinated by the device. It’s definitely unique. It doesn’t look anything like a MPC or a 404. It’s slim-line and fluff free. There’s a lot of bells and whistles and TE really made it so you can get a lot done on the device with different shortcut keys and some menu diving.

Would I recommend this to someone to pick up? For sure! If you like making beats and want to get something thats a ton of fun to work on and comes in at a great price, the KO II is definitely a good pickup. You can sample, chop, lay down FX, and it has all the I/O you could need to start making some dope music. You can definitely record full songs on here, although if you want to add vocals I’d suggest bouncing to a DAW or something. If you’re into making instrumentals like me though, this thing is definitely a keeper!

We are living through an unprecedented era of societal upheaval, where the very foundations of a dignified life are eroding beneath our feet. The cost of living has not merely risen; it has skyrocketed, transforming vibrant cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles into exclusive enclaves. Renting a basic apartment or owning a home has become an impossible dream for the majority, a cruel joke played on those striving for stability. Even the most fundamental necessity, food, now carries a prohibitive price tag. A single trip to the grocery store can drain $80-$100 from your wallet, leaving you with barely enough to sustain daily meals and snacks. This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s an unacceptable crisis, and we must demand to know why it is being allowed to persist.

Adding insult to injury, policies like the tariffs imposed by the current administration have relentlessly driven up the cost of goods that are integral to the lives and passions of working-class people. Computer components, gaming systems, music equipment, audio gear—these aren’t luxuries; they are tools for creativity, connection, and escape. Yet, their prices have been artificially inflated, placing them further out of reach. This systematic burden on our wallets is not fair, and it is a stark reminder that the current system prioritizes profit over people. The time has come for us to rise, en masse, and revolt against these deliberate economic injustices.

Beyond the economic stranglehold, unsettling phenomena are emerging, raising profound questions about the very air we breathe and the water that sustains us. Reports of blue and purple rain falling from the skies in Texas and other regions are not mere anomalies; they are disturbing revelations. What unknown chemicals are being introduced into our atmosphere to cause such unnatural occurrences? Is this water safe for our skin, for the crops that feed us, or for those who rely on collected rainwater for their households? We cannot afford to scroll past these alarming signs. We must collectively awaken from our digital trance and demand: “What the hell is truly going on?!”

The core of this crisis lies in a system where many American companies refuse to pay a living wage, trapping countless individuals in a perpetual cycle of financial struggle. Earning $100,000 a year as an individual or even a couple is no longer a guarantee of security; it often means living paycheck to paycheck, forced into shared living arrangements just to survive. This is not right. This is not sustainable. This is a moral failing that demands immediate and radical change. While some may thrive in this distorted reality, a vast multitude suffers at the bottom of the totem pole, desperate for relief. The engine of this broken machine is fueled by the insatiable greed of the rich and powerful. WE NEED A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE, AND WE NEED IT NOW!