Off-Brand Loyalty

Back at it with that music dawgs. I somehow got the phrase Off-Brand Loyalty in my head while getting off the F train at the Delancey Street station. From that point on I knew it was a song I had to create. So that’s just what I did.

 

When All The Clothes You Purchase You Get Selected Imperfect
Stretch Dollars to Their Furthest but You Still Know How to Work It
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
When all the clothes you wear go a hole or a tear
And you Rock it like, “Yeah, that’s supposed to be there!”
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty

Verse 1
Yeah I rock Polo but it got an Extra L in
Not an Extra Large, they jus didn’t check the spelling
Got a Bathing Ape that’s afraid to use soap
But nobody gotta know, I can’t afford to look broke
Gotta stay fly, in any given situation
Rock the knock-offs, you know the cheap imitations
But, I don’t usually share this information
A little loose, what I’m wearing isn’t custom
The pants I bought, always gotta readjust ’em
‘Cause it’s missing a zipper and a button
I hit the thrift shop, don’t got diamonds in my wrist watch
Fake it ’til you make it because you gotta floss in hip-hop
I’m doin’ it like this I hit Canal Street
To get them four striped sneakers for my brown feet
The bottom of my foot looks like ground beef
I walk a lot a yo I really get around chief

When All The Clothes You Purchase You Get Selected Imperfect
Stretch Dollars to Their Furthest but You Still Know How to Work It
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
When all the clothes you wear go a hole or a tear
And you Rock it like, “Yeah, that’s supposed to be there!”
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty

Verse 2
(Excuse me is that Coogi?) It is if that’s what you see
In the Eye of the beholder like beauty
Well then sure absolutely, by the way you a cutie
Are you a model, because your Couture Juicy
At least that’s what it says on your jogging pants booty
Beg Pardon, Are those rubies in you jewelry
Struck by all that gleams, but nothing’s what it seems
Like the city never sleeps, but still the city of dreams
For every pot there’s a lid, every plot has a scheme
So you and me baby we a perfect team (You Sure?)
At least the way that I see it (is that right)
Babygirl I guarantee i (believe it)
Tell Me what you want girl I got it
Anything you need girl I promise
Shopping sprees at Neman Marcus
Girl I got these jeans at Target

When All The Clothes You Purchase You Get Selected Imperfect
Stretch Dollars to Their Furthest but You Still Know How to Work It
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
When all the clothes you wear go a hole or a tear
And you Rock it like, “Yeah, that’s supposed to be there!”
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty
You got that Off-Brand Loyalty

Soundtrack of a Conspiracy (Theorist)

A while back rapper B.O.B. was in a war of words with acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson over  the matter of  whether or not the Earth was flat. The rapper put out a single called “Flatline” as a dis-track because Dr. Tyson stated that B.O.B. could hold to a refuted, near ancient scientific belief if he chose to. B.O.B. claims there is a vast conspiracy to fool the world into believing it is round to reinforce a heliocentric understanding of the universe. Somehow he believes that it’s beneficial that a mysterious organization of pagans(?), sun worshippers(?) fool us into thinking the Sun is the center of the universe, invoking Helios or Apollo the Greek/Roman  god of the sun, as opposed to an Earth-centric or geo-centric view that was upheld until it was disputed and disproven in the middle ages.

In that spirit, I came up with songs that cast doubt on ideas and ideologies that society holds fast to for fear that someone in the shadows wants us to believe these things only to do us harm in some  way. For some reason.

The first song I made was about the Anti-Vaccine movement. It Features Sesame Street’s Elmo and the former US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy.

 

The second  track was about Aluminum Foil hats and how they protect us from the government plans to control our brains or whatever.

 

I had fun with these and hope you do too.

Meh the Vote – Campaign Music

You may remember the logo I did a few weeks back for the Meh The Vote 2016 campaign started by the Black Guy Who Tips Podcast. Now there’s a song to go along with it. The feel of the song is supposed to be patriotic and evoke the fanfare of horns associated with a lot of western ceremonies with warlike drums.

Lyrics

Verse
Who you voting for, You don’t know what the answer is
You ain’t passionate about none of these candidates
You don’t think any of these clowns are electable
But still need to take the time out your schedule
They don’t really care about the electorate
All they’re concerned about is a super delegate
And I’m getting tired of the rhetoric
There’s no need for me to try to put it delicate
I don’t fuck with none of them, like I’m celibate
Write my own name in, for the hell of it
My grandma said she got blast with fire hoses
I said thanks, that’s why I went out and voted
She likes to talk about the “Ballot or the Bullet”
I’m in the booth so I might as well pull it
Had to get batteries for the remote
Guess I’ll go MEH the vote

Chorus
All my life I hads to Fight
Gonna exercise my rights
can’t just kick it with your folks
Go out and MEH the Vote
Choose the lesser of the evils
One’s a snake and one’s a weasel
All these guys are fucking jokes
Go out and MEH the Vote
All my life I hads to Fight
Gonna exercise my rights
can’t just kick it with your folks
Go out and MEH the Vote
Choose the lesser of the evils
One’s a snake and one’s a weasel
All these guys are fucking jokes
Go out and MEH the Vote

I made this other song back in the fall for the Ben Carson campaign that’s not really meant to help, but was a parody of a few songs out there that were genuinely trying to make the good doctor  with the gifted hands be a viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

https://soundcloud.com/chuck_spears_inc/ben-can-fix-your-brain-ft-prespiring-mogul

Trap Covers

So I’m posting these way late in the game. A while ago Black Twitter was fed up with the removal of soul from our popular music by YouTube singers who do covers that slow down and snooze up songs like “Formation” by Beyonce and “Work” by Rihanna. In that spirit our equal and opposite reaction to this phenomena was to take songs sacred to mainstream pop fans and do trap covers of them.

Here are a few that I did.

We all know and love Bon Jovi‘s hit, “Living on a Prayer” but I figured why not “improve” it with Racthet Drums?

As for George Michael‘s classic song “Faith“, why not see what happens when you take the Kanye West 808s and Heartbreaks approach?

 

 

Meh the Vote!

So, The Black Guy Who Tips, among my favorite podcasts, requested a logo for this idea for a political campaign to motivate people to vote in these 2016 party  primaries. This campaign is targeted at those in the electorate who feel dispassionate about any of the candidates they have to choose. from. We know we earned the right to vote through the hard work and efforts of our ancestors in the civil rights movement. So I whipped up a design.

 

Drax the Destroyer as The Horseman Death

Here’s my drawing for the Draw Me A Marvel art jam on the Comic Book Resources Forums, where participants are tasked to reimagine Marvel characters as one of the four horsemen of the Mutant Apocalypse. I got Drax the Destroyer as cosmic character that’s people might know from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie from a few years back.

Bottled Up 88BPM

Revised edit of Bottled Up, more up tempo.

https://soundcloud.com/chuck_spears_inc/bottled-up-88bpm

Bottled Up!

The Water Crisis in Flint Michigan is a little unbelievable. I’m working on a song to vent my anger.
Been trying to figure out the whole trap sound, I’m too old school. There’s a sound effect of bubbling water and deep bow strings reminiscent of the jaws theme.

Here it goes.

https://soundcloud.com/abdowell/bottled-up-v2

(Intro)
A yo! It’s critical out here right now
America’s got a sickness
I think there’s something in the water
Oh, you want clean water?

(Verse)
It’s Bottled Up!
We talking ’bout brown water
For brown sons and brown daughters
Stagnant lake water
Where you wouldn’t even wash your face water
Have a sip, this is how racism tastes water
Make you believe the white man invented AIDS water
Evil, the way they did Tuskegee and shit
Or, maybe politicians just greedy and shit
They like, “These broke niggas don’t vote,
Lazy, threw ’em in the Flint River they wouldn’t even float.”
Big bully Business
Kick a town when they down
Industry done gone
Them jobs ain’t around
So, bail out a bank
But let the city drown?
Reduce a citizen to a budget line item
Look to you for leadership, and you sucker blind side ’em
Blood on the leaves, man there’s blood in the water
The blood’s on your hands
Lead pipes led lambs to slaughter

(Refrain) X2
Can’t keep it bottled up
Gotta Bathe in Bottled Water
Politicians Poppin Bottles
Whole System Out Of Order 

(chorus)X2
Wait, hold up
Let me get this straight
Ain’t Flint Michigan
In these United States
Turn on your faucets
All you see is toxic waste
Not just a tragedy
It’s a national disgrace

(Refrain) X2
Can’t keep it bottled up
Gotta Bathe in Bottled Water
Politicians Poppin Bottles
Whole System Out Of Order 

2016 Thug-O-Nomics

Getting back inn the setting of things. Here we have a nice picture of Thug-o-Nomics.

Hank Pym in the Bat Family