Morning all!
I meant to put this out a few hours after the first one but I'm not gonna lie..... I forgot. The life of being an independent music artist means I'm not only the writer and performer of my music, I'm also the accountant, graphic designer, marketing director, social media manager, agent, PR guy, distribution dude and everything else that comes with putting music out.... It's hard work!
Anyway.... The last post ended with Low Notes... Hopefully you guys checked out Ultra Eko.
Continuing on.... in at number 6, we have Rising Above. This song has been out since December last year and was one of the first songs I wrote for this album. It started with real life as most of my songs do, I got some heart wrenching news and I think I posted a Facebook post saying something like... "the saga continues, I deserve a medal for rising above drama" and this just kinda morphed into a song. The opening line is literally just that..... "It's the story of my life and the saga continues, I deserve a medal for the things that I've been through" The song is about not getting bogged down in life. Rise Above the drama, let things go, don't let those who hurt you win essentially. I really enjoy this song to be fair. It's a little bit vanilla.... But I like it.
7. Council House Strange.... This one might divide opinion but let me assure you, this song is purely based on the story of someone else. A friend on mine was seeing a lady and would describe her as "Council House Strange" which some may deem an insult... I grew up in the same situation so I ain't here judging but I'll happily rap about it if it makes good content for songs! Paul went nuts on making the beat and its heavily influenced by Jazz like a lot of my songs are. There's some killer lines in there too "When she's playing with my balls, I give her tips, She calls me coach" is probably my favourite.
Track number 8 - Hook Beat Money. This song has been a problem for me.... We all know my music is firmly in the "Boom Bap" section of HipHop but one night a few months ago i was having a drink with some of my friends (Jonny, Pauly T and Jack) and we got talking about music, Paul being the Trap Muzik king of Saddleworth (LOL) said to me.... "We all know you can write clever lyrics, But your music isn't very current..... Music in the charts these days is all about the Hook, the beat and then you get the money" obviously I wanted to punch him in the face but he did make sense.
I told him I would write a song with exactly that.... So I did..... It's a trap song. It was hard to write as that style of rap, it's so alien to me but I think I made it work. Time will tell! But shoutout to Pauly T for inspiring me to move out of my comfort zone, and also to Paul my producer for making the beat again!
9 - Power featuring AEC. My song "Fire" from the first album was a real fan favourite and a lot of this I think was down to the fact that it was a hybrid HipHop/Rock song and AEC really complimented the track with his Classic Rock style vocals. I wanted to get AEC back on this album so I wrote the song Power.
This might be favourite song on the album when you think about the lyrical content. although the song sounds quite dark, its actually a really inspiring track when you drill down. The song is about finding your inner strength, about realising that the power is always within you to overcome anything that life throws at you. I explain how it took me almost a year to find mine, to be able to look in the mirror and not see a shadow of my former self. To be happy again. If I can do it, you can do it! Mental health is an issue for a lot of people and you really can get out of any slump you put your mind to. My "Power" comes from writing songs, It's a release for me, it helps me say things that I can't say out loud. In fact, I say just that in the song "Find my strength in writing lyrics just like Popeye does in Spinach"
You just need to find yours!
AEC really compliments the song and I'm massively proud of this one so we are making a music video too!
10 - Thinking... This song changed so many times! It started out as a completely different concept, all about life in general, are we alone? what's the point in life? that kinda vibe and I must have had an emotional episode when I carried on writing it because it morphed and ran away with me in a completely different direction. Sometimes this happens, I'll start off writing about something and then the pen takes hold and I just start flowing onto the page but with nothing to do with what I initially started writing about.
So Thinking turned into a song that explains how I think about things, for every positive thought I have, I instinctively go back to negative " I think about sunshine, I think about rain, I think about love but then I think about pain" I think this is something that a lot of people do but I really love this track. It's already out as a single so you can find it today! You can also support me by buying it directly from this site which is always appreciated.... shoutout to the people who already did this! This song was my first Spotify editorial playlist placement too so I'm super proud of that!
Feeling Good is track 11. Happy songs are the bane of my life. Ask me to write a deep, emotional track and I reckon I can bang one out in about 7 and a half minutes, ask me to write a happy song... Jeez!!
Paul sent me the beat for this one over a year ago and I planned to make a happy, bouncy, summer vibes, play-it-at -your-BBQ track...
I was really struggling until last week when it happened. There must have been something in the air (Probably pollen by the way my bastard hey fever has been ruining my life) but the sun was shining, England just beat Croatia and I was feeling good!! This song just sounds like the way a cold pint on a hot summers day tastes in my opinion. They go hand in hand!
Lyrics about Call of Duty (let's not pretend we haven't all been living in Verdansk for the past year during lockdown ) Drinking Pimms and factor 50! What's not to like!
I posted a preview of this on my Instagram (@Mrjonesraps BTW) and a radio station editor in Sweden asked if they could play it, so despite it not actually being available to buy, stream or download yet, it's in rotation around Sweden. So I'm basically as big as ABBA now. (Fake it til you make it people lol)
Last but by no means least.... Track number 12.... Dead To Me!
I'm not quite sure what this track is about, someone else? The old me? I can't really explain it. But it goes through how I'm essentially a better person than I used to be. I used the trials and tribulations of my life to ignite the fire in my belly to force me to chase my dreams....It worked.
So there you have it. My second album "No Time To Waste" is available on July 17th for purchase, download, whatever. I will have 50 physical copies in the shape of CD's for those people fortunate to own a car that still possesses this primitive technology or those of you not in the 21st century who don't have Spotify! So let me know. All the songs will be available to purchase on this website, you buying it directly from me on here is so much better for me as an artist. I put a lot of money into making music, promoting it and publishing it and get very little back from streaming sites so if you have the opportunity to buy it direct, please do! It would go along way to helping me make a third and final album which is already in production by the way.
So yeah, if you like it, please share it with your friends and let me know.
If you don't, forever hold your god damn peace cos I don't take criticism well hahahaha. I'm kidding. Thick skin is the first thing you need when putting music out for the world to hear.
I absolutely love getting constructive criticism, for instance, my friend Gavner P (Host of the short talk podcast btw, look it up) gave me some for my first album, he told me that I swore too much and also said "Mr Jones" at every given opportunity, my initial response was "I'm Mr Fucking Jones now piss off"
No, I took it onboard and have tried to keep the bad language to a minimum on this album. I also made a big effort to not shout "Mr Jones" every other line which was a lot harder but I think it did OK with that one.
What isn't nice but part of the job are certain comments from people who don't really listen but might hear a clip and instantly comment "This is fucking shit" or whatever, this is always gonna happen. Music is all about taste and people aren't always gonna like it, I get that. But in the words of my idol, Mr Marshall Bruce Mathers III.
"If you're gonna critique me you better at least be as good or better"
Anyway... Thanks for putting the time into reading this. I know it was a long one. But it took you a fraction of the time it took for me to type this out twice (I accidentally deleted it yesterday and I'm raging that I had to start from scratch)
Thank you as always for your continued support!
Until next time....
Mr Jones