It's All About The Art

People make mistakes.  People aren't perfect. People will let you down.  I mean these are things we all should know by now coming to the end of 2011.

What people may not realize is at times when we do fall, the human spirit resides in such a resilient place that as long as you have the will and desire to succeed, you will.

The truth is, when you make mistake, the best thing to do is to forget all other distractions and get back to the grind that got you to the top in the first place.

For T.I., redemption island lies within his determination to continue making great music.

TIP is already to a great start aligning himself with the likes of Dr. Dre for his new mixtape dropping New Years Day.

Can't Wait.

AJ Smith... -____-

As a San Diego Charger fan, I am happy for any former Charger players that find success with other teams.

With that said, I have to send a special congrats to Drew Brees passing Dan Marino's 1984 NFL single season passing record with a touchdown pass to Darren Sproles.

The irony of this is, most Charger fans can never understand why the upper management makes the decisions they do. i.e. trading off key players including 3 time pro-bowlers and firing successful coaches.

Truthfully, its a tough job and I wouldn't want to do it.

Furthermore, Charger Management should take notes from the New Orleans Saints.  And every other team should take notes from Charger Management for what NOT to do. 

I'm Just Saying.

Lloyd - Be The One ft. Trey Songz & Young Jeezy (Official Video)

I think you can always tell the time of year and season it is with the music that drops, and by the way it seems the music is trending right now it must be the winter, freezing cold, stay inside with a snuggle buddy season.

First, Rihanna drops her You Da One video and now we have Lloyd's new visuals for his latest single Be The One featuring Trey Songz and Young Jeezy hitting the scene. 

Seriously, I have been feeling this song since Lloyd's album King Of Hearts dropped back in the summer, and for the longest time,  I was wondering if he was going to release this track as a single/video.

Voila.

Lloyd singing the hook "Girl I wanna be the one to kiss you goodnight" most definitely solidifies this as a hot song to go right along with a cold night.

If you haven't done so yet, grab a winter snuggle buddy and cop that King Of Hearts while you both decide if the album is definitely something to _______ over.

I'm sure you and your snuggle partner can find something to fill in the blank with.  

Rihanna - You Da One (Official Video)

In the spirit of  "keeping it moving", and reveling in the essence of grinding, Rihanna might be the modern day Bad Girl taking notes from Diddy.  Rihanna can't stop and won't stop making hits for the people. 

Fresh off a successful album, Rihanna is not stopping the momentum.  Talk That Talk, Rihanna's 6th studio album, continues on right where Loud left off.

To be honest, I am wondering if she can stop.  A lot of times when an artist takes a trip on the success train, the ride becomes addictive.  

For the fans, I'm hoping that she continues on with her addiction to reigning on top, and seeing as I'm sure all of Rihanna's navy would love to be sprinkled with a little RiRi dust, it seems that would be a good thing for everyone.

The visuals that recently dropped for her latest video You Da One sets RiRi in black and white with blonde hair, a top hat and cane similar to that of a Charlie Chaplin, Vaudeville silent film. Seems like it would be fun on that set.

Anyway, as always enjoy and leave your thoughts.

Food For Thought: Are You Really "Grinding"?

Earlier today as I was editing photos for a client, I came across two interesting facts.  Fact number One, Cinemax and its parent company HBO show the same rotation of movies over and over almost worse than FM radio's hot clock.

Seriously, I think is is so frustrating to leave, go to work, come home, eat a sandwich, find business elsewhere and live life outside of your couch only to eventually come back to find that the same set of movies are showing just like when you left as if you pushed pause or something.

I figure after the free trial expires why would anyone continue to pay to see the same 8 movies?  Without going off tangent, seeing or hearing the same rotation all day and night sounds like listening to radio.

Fact two, after my Cinemax revelation from watching Eddie Murphy's 1987 film Coming To America for the third time in 2 weeks, I comprehended more so than just understood that Samuel L. Jackson has been working professionally at his craft for a long time.  Jackson played a small role in Coming To America as a restaurant stick up man who was apprehended.  

To go in depth of this understanding, one of the reasons I love watching older movies i.e. Coming To America multiple times is because I always like to catch something I missed from before.  I also like watching older movies so I can recognize an actor that is huge now that was an extra in the background back then i.e. Cuba Gooding Jr. getting his hair cut in the barbershop.

This time around, all I noticed was that Samuel L. Jackson is the epitome of grinding meaning working hard.  

It seems everyone always talks about how they are "grinding" and use the term profusely but its interesting to hear those same people say "I won't do this work or that job is beneath me" including myself.

If you take a look at Mr. Jackson's career, he has been professionally acting since at least 1972 but his break out role didn't come until 1991 almost 19 years later.

The irony of his 1991 break out role was that he played Gator the crackhead brother of Wesley Snipes character Flipper in Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever.   

After acting for 20 years how many people would say, "I'm not playing a crackhead. I'm only doing this particular prestigious type of role."

Without preaching or pointing fingers at anyone specifically myself, I am simply saying most people would not make it half way to Samuel L. Jackson's success level.  To those that did reach some success would probably bow out once they got to Jackson's mid-range success point stating they have done it all.

To be completely honest, I think if someone ever needs a motivational tool they should look at Samuel L. Jackson for inspiration.

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the most famous, successful and revered actors of our time.  Jackson is also by Guinness Book Of World Records stats the highest grossing actor of all time, which without question is an awesome feat by any standard.  Still Mr. Jackson continues to work hard and deliver quality projects.

I bet if we were to ask Mr. Jackson, who has been working hard (grinding) since 1972, I'm sure he would tell us his motivation after already accumulating all the money and accolades would be his constant search for his friend Oscar.

I have stated time and time again, finding great motivation can be the single difference between success and failure and of course we should all know there is always something else you can do and do better. 

Samuel L. Jackson is and has been grinding, so the real question is what is "y/our" hold up?

Drake - The Motto ft. Lil Wayne & Tyga (Official Video)

Drake ~ The Motto Featuring Lil Wayne & Tyga (Official Video) from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

Yesterday with much delight, the visuals for Drake's hit song The Motto dropped to the masses.

Drake, Lil Wayne And Tyga flew to the YAY Areaaaa to film Drake's latest single from his platinum selling sophomore album Take Care in ode to Mac Dre and The Bay Area Sound.

This heavily influenced NorCal beat produced by T-Minus instantly makes you move your feet into the hyphy movement while doing the thizz face along with all things Bay Area.

Speaking of Bay Area influence, if you look closely, you can see Lil Wayne ghost riding his whip.

Truthfully, I am big on credibility so of course I love the fact that Drake actually went to film in San Francisco.  I also respect that he has Mac Dre's Mom and Bay Area legendary rapper E-40 signing off on their stamp of approval of the video/track via cameo.

Anyway, check out the video and leave your thoughts.  I'm gonna watch the video again just to feel the energy and start jerkin' like I still have dreads. I know...

Big Sean Afterparty in San Diego

Big Sean of GOOD Music stopped through Belo San Diego nightclub recently after his Jingle Jam 2011 concert and what an after-party it was.

Chris Jones Presents, Calderon Productions and Z90.3 FM put on the official Jingle Jam After-party with Big Sean hosting and performing along with a special guest performance from new coming sensation T. Mills.

New Boyz and Flo Rida, who also performed at Jingle Jam 2011, came through the after-party to show love.

Ivan S. Harris Photography had all access to the after-party capturing T. Mills's opening act.  T. Mills who is also gaining notoriety didn't disappoint showing he can rock a crowd like the big boys.

Later on the headliner, Big Sean who was feeling the audiences energy performed 3 songs including his hit singles I Do It and  Dance: A$$, to a sold out crowd most definitely rocking the show.

Make sure you check out the  entire photo set HERE.

50 Cent - Wait Until Tonight (Official Video)

For a long time I felt that "blogging", like everything else, had become a commercialized mainstream entity of people trying to write to make a quick buck.

When I think of blogging in today's world, I think of an entity commoditizing on the next big thing instead of the simplicity of a writer writing about an appreciation for something that he/she finds value in, no matter what the value is.

The truth is, I stopped updating Stopsellingdreams.com because I didn't and still don't want to compete with other sites for the same 8 fluff stories in order to make a dollar.

I definitely don't want to base my website traffic and revenue off of Kim Kardashian's life which is what most blogs seem to do.

So now, what I'm gonna do is Blog what The HELL I want to no matter what the popular masses ask for.

I feel like this is a perfect time to revive www.StopSellingDreams.com.

And speaking of come backs, it seems 50 Cent has come back with a new banger, so the correlation has made me think StopSellingDreams.com can also bounce back.

With that said, 50 Cent has not been relevant for some time, but he is still a force and is still Ferrari Filthy Rich 50!  Of course when one builds a successful brand, one can always come back as long as that person has the passion, perseverance and desire as well as the courage to stick to what made that person become successful.

Although this new cut is nothing new seeing as everyone including K-Ci from Jodeci and even Ja Rule have previously sampled Bobby Womack's If You Think Youre Lonely Now, "Ferrari's" new twist (Nothing is new under the sun) on this old jam is just that 2012 flavor that 50 needs.

I'm digging this song, and apparently the masses do too which has lead Fif to create visuals for his track "Wait Until Tonight" from his latest "the Big 10" Mixtape.

Check it out, leave your thoughts! Oh and yes...just like 50, Stopsellingdreams.com is BACK!