Conference...Finally

I know it's been a minute, but I'm here! I GOT YOU! Let me get right to the point. The conference took place in New Brunswick, NJ and was called the East Coast Music Conference. At first I was skeptical about it, cause I been to a conference similar to this one about 6 years ago and nothing came of it. There were 700 people there and they chose 70, out of those 70 I was chosen. Amaru Records (which is Tupac's Mother's Label) liked my music and wanted to work with me...Long Story short, Nothing popped off the way I wanted it to and I moved on. A lot of people don't know that about me. I had 2 opportunites in my 8.5 years in this game. One with Amaru and one with DTA Entertainment where I was a staff songwriter...Long story short, Nothing popped off like that. The business is filled with snakes and that's my word. So anyways out of 700 we all payed like 1000 bucks...Damn they caked.

So back to the East Coast Conference...This one was similar but different. At least we got real one on one interviews with A&Rs and Executives, and if they didn't want to sign us than at least they gave us direction in where we should be headed and that's about the only thing I liked about the conference. A lot of broken dreams occured in the course of 4 days. I was blessed enough to catch the attention of super producer "Focus" and his brother. "Focus" is a signed producer on AfterMath since 1998 and works directly with Dr.Dre. These guys were the only guys to give me somewhat of a chance. Basically they liked my style but thought that I needed some more Neo-Soul/J-Dilla Tracks to bring out what I was trying to accomplish. So what happened? They sent me 3 tracks all fire that has that J-Dilla, D'angelo, Donell Jones type of flow...exactly what I needed. They told me to write to the tracks, sing over them and send them back...so basically, that's what I'm doing now and let me tell you these are going to be the greatest songs in the world! Although I make my own beats, sometimes you need an extra push from someone else. And with Focus and his brother helping, I believe I'm going to get there... Here's the comments:

Comments from Record Executives about J-RE music:
1. Gordon Chambers – N/A
2. Donovan Knowles – N/A
3. Dana Dane – N/A

4. Focus… (Staff Producer at Aftermath Entertainment)- Stated that he really liked the music. They thought that my style was more geared toward Neo-Soul and the “J-Dilla” sound. They wanted to hear more of that in my tracks, so they said that they were going to send me some J-Dilla type beats via email to sing over and then they wanted me to send it back to them.

5. Angie Kamel – (Freelance A&R- currently with Nokio of Dru Hill) stated that I should work on the arrangements of how I have my lyrics and my tracks. She said to try and use different beats with the lyrics that I create and see which beat fits better with the lyrics. She liked my overall sound and my appearance, and thought that my sound was similar to Bobby Valentino. She stated that I had the “look” however she said she wasn’t able to get into my music 100 percent because of the arrangements

6. Glen Marchese – (Sony Engineer) Glen really loved the music. He stated that He loves my style and sound. He said that it was very uniqe. He liked the tracks and the lyrics, and stated that he really didn’t have constructive criticism. He just like the music. He did mention on the engineering to be careful not to pan the chorus but to keep it centered…

7. Gary “Lord Hafis” George – (CEO of Blazin Multimedia) Stated that he likes the music a lot and my songwriting abilities. He stated that he thinks it’s really smooth and that he will take a listen to the CD. He also stated that he had a lot of contacts in the songwriting department and thinks I would be a good fit there. He was feeling “So Smoove So Cool”

8. Lawrence ‘LT’ Thomas – (VP of Full Surface Records) – stated that my cd was amongst the best that he had heard at the conference so far. He stated that he really liked the music and the lyrics. He stated that I sounded like “Bobby Valentino” He also said that he would listen to the CD more in depth.

9. Nigil Mack (A&R Universal/Motown) – Nigil stated that he really enjoyed the music. He commented on track 3 “Candy” and stated that it was an instant hit and ready for radio. He stated that I should really try to push that single. He also stated to try to get exposure overseas in countries like Japan and try to blow up over there as well. He too, said that he would listen to the tracks more.

10. Warren “Really Doe” Trotter – (From Kanye West’s Good Music Label) – Really Doe was really feeling the music. He said that I have a nice sound and good lyrics. He also commented on track 3, “Candy” and stated that it was radio ready and that I should push that track and get it out there. He also like “So Smoove So cool”


BUT OUT OF ALL THE EXECUTIVES...FOCUS and HIS TEAM GAVE ME A CHANCE and FOR THAT I AM GRATEFUL