I think back to March of 2010. It was during my spring break that some things were hitting me hard. I didn’t know how to break off from the negative feelings I had going on. I guess I wasn’t talking to God enough. I decided to head out in my car. I wanted to go on a drive and get lost again. I filled up my gas tank and told myself that I was going to drive as far as I could, not thinking about where I was going.
I hit the highway and came to a junction. I was either going to circle around the city or head to a bridge that crossed over to Illinois, Alton more specifically. I took the bridge route and stopped at the McDonalds at the first exit. I wasn’t too hungry but I ate a cheeseburger to keep my stomach filled. I didn’t know how long I was going to be driving. This whole area was new to me. I never ventured to this part of the state of Illinois so I didn’t go deep into the roads. I stuck with a road that ran along with the Mississippi river and the small bluffs. I drove north for about an hour just thinking about life and watching the beautiful scenery. I was thinking about the past and when I would finally let it go. I was thinking about the present and how things around me just didn’t seem right. One of my friends kept calling the whole time. I had to have about a dozen missed calls from him. After about an hour and a half of driving, I was getting so annoyed by this dude constantly calling me. I finally picked up.
He told me he wanted to introduce me to some people and that he was sitting outside of my house waiting on me. I started to get mad just because I didn’t like when people would show up to my house uninvited. I told him I was running some errands and didn’t know when I would be back home. He started to complain and stated that the people he wanted to introduce to me were on their way to St. Louis from California. They were already within a half hour from the city and needed directions to my home. My friend gave me the visitors’ numbers to call. By this time, I was furious because I wanted to keep driving and get away from it all. But I didn’t want these peoples’ trip to St. Louis to be a waste so I called them and turned around to head back home.
I made it home to find them all waiting outside of my house. They introduced themselves outside but by the time we made it inside my house, I had already forgotten their names. They were all producers. They talked to the same talk I would hear from just about everyone in the business. Nothing they told me really stood out but they did carry themselves a little more professionally than the average. They showed me some clips of their work on the internet and I played some of my music for them. They liked what they heard and gave me their contact info. After about an hour they left.
Two months pass and I think nothing of the meeting. They were just guys similar to many I’ve met over the years. I was just used to the process of meeting people, trading contact info, and not having anything big ever happen between us. In mid May, I get this call from an area code I didn’t recognize. It happened to be one of the guys I met that day back in March. He called to tell me how he was impressed by my music and my work ethic. He gave me a proposition. He broke off the ties with his other partners and was currently on his own. One of his jobs was making music for a high school basketball website that profiled players around the country. Somehow, the NBA found out about this website and was impressed by the music they heard in the highlight vids. They decided to present him with a contract for producing music for the NBA for a period of two years. Without a doubt, he took the risk of having the contract looked over by a close friend that studied law and proceeded to sign the contract. The NBA’s response to him was provide two-thousand, three minute songs as soon as possible. Feeling that the amount was virtually impossible for one man to do in a short period of time, he called me to bring me along.
Another one of mine I found on YouTube
I had nothing going on with my music at the time. I recently broke my ties with old production team also. I lost a few of my contacts in the process. I made a personal commitment not to work with artists that would lead to the impoverishment of Blacks, degrade women, and promote deviant behavior. All of those things limited the amount of people I could work with. Uninspired by my surroundings and staying true to my morals, I didn’t make music like I used to. Maybe one song every two weeks. And by the time I’d start a new song, I’d forget about the last one. I didn’t know why I was making music anymore.
But the NBA news changed everything. I went full force with my music. Since my name wasn’t actually on the contract, I had to work under this guy‘s name. I was also taking a risk because he could’ve easily stolen my music. I couldn’t take any legal action because it was no paper signifying our work together and this guy was stationed out in Indiana. I just went with my guts and gave him some of my trust. I felt that I didn’t have much to lose and I was spending most of my days inside the house drowning myself with sorrow. I didn’t have any friends to hang with so I thought I might as well do something different with my time.
I made about ten songs a day. It was very draining. Some days I wouldn’t sleep at all. The most that would be in my stomach for twenty four hours would be just a peanut butter sandwich. I didn’t know what my reward would be at the end but I pushed on because I felt I had a new purpose. As the basketball season went into the finals, we watched TV to see if some of our work had been placed yet; nothing. The Lakers won the championship and the season came to a close. We were wondering where our music was going. It wasn’t until a month later that we got a call saying some of our music had been placed for a video featuring John Wall, the number one all-around draft pick. The funny thing is neither me or my new partner had a big interest in sports so we didn’t know who this player was. We were just glad to see how our hard work was paying off.
Around the time we placed our first vid, my partner’s computer crashed and he was unable to make any more music. Afraid that the NBA contract would be terminated because of this, I picked up his workload and worked twice as hard. I continued to supply the music for months so we could keep the ball rolling. I became the sole producer. It was hard physically and emotionally but when we finally got that first check, everything was all worth it. For the first time in both of our lives we had a consistent, lucrative job. We would get paid over a thousand dollars per video, earning enough money help ourselves as well as others close to us.
My questions are: What if I continued to run away? What if I didn’t take any risks. Everything needed to fulfill your destiny is within your reach. If you use what you have, God will multiply your talents and multiply your resources. God wont give you an oak tree, but instead an acorn. You won't realize its a blessing but eventually He will turn the small into large, the natural into the supernatural, etc. Its the people that recognize what they have that will be victorious. There are people in your life ordained to be instrumental. Be careful not to miss out on them.
