The Daily Triton

My first ever rap recording

2009-03-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

/* EDITTED!! 3/11/09*/

My rap of Dream Big is now available for download here: http://www.reverbnation.com/idonthaveastagenameyet

I really hope you guys enjoy the song!!

-Neil

Hey guys,

I recently went to my friend Kevin's house to try and record a rap song and so after many days of deliberation I decided I would post this original cut of it. this is the first time i have ever been recorded (if you know me you know how badly i've wanted to spit over a track) and so it's pretty amateur sry :). If you have any feedback or suggestions please don't hesitate to let mek now, i'm totally open to both positive and negative feedback!!

This song is called Dream Big and it's by Crooked I feat. Akon. I am doing Crooked I's part.

I haven't picked a stagename yet, just FYI. Enjoy everyone!!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=930213

^^link

if only i could

2009-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

There's a time when everyone feels like they would do anything to have the power to turn back time. im sure anyone reading this has had to experience something they wish they hadn't, so here's my lyric this time:

when the wind hits you, you want it to go back
you're veering off-course and now you're fallin off-track
nah man,
f*** the track, make a new path and never look back
do the best you can and ignore what you lack,
soon you'll discover what you want is still intact.
trust me ive seen too many minds crack
because they sat around in misery and forgot to act
don't stack your cash or empty the rack
don't pop your collar and forget the 'lac
all you need is you, sharp as a tack
pick yourself up and put down your mack.

Hip Hop Problems

2008-12-08T22:01:00.001-08:00

Alright guys, it's about time I wrote a post about where the Hip hop industry is going and what needs to be done to fix it. The following video is a youtube clip of Hip Hop vs. America, a television show aired on blacktree.tv. I highly recommend that you all watch it. I know there will be people who will look at this post and roll their eyes or whatever, but please, the solution to Hip hop's problems can take us a long way to solving our general societal issues in the US today. Here's the video: Please watch this and then read my commentary below.

Hip Hop Vs. America

Nelly did a music video called Tip Drill with the rest of his "crew" (derrty Ent and st. lunatics or wahtever their name is) and it was an adult video with a mansion full of women who were either completely naked, or very close to and the entire song revolves around sex. The allegations put forth are that Nelly is a mysogynist and womanizer who has fueled the image of not just the woman, but the black woman, as being an object of sex and naught else.

Now as for his response to the allegations, I see EXACTLY what he is talking about, as nobody is kicking ass and taking the names of the untold number of men who attend strip clubs on a daily basis, or even the people in our HIGHEST UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OFFICE participating in the prostitution industry! It is ridiculous that President Bush's right-hand man can hire "hos" and get away with it by having it called a "private dating service" and get an evening news' worth of media coverage but have the whole world ragging on all of hip hop constantly for being "lewd".

On the other hand, I do want to also express that I think all artists have a responsibility to not FUEL THE MENTALITY that is the driving force behind conservative anti-Hip hop backlash. The country is messed up, but rappers need to stop doing songs like soulja boy, jim jones, juelz, 50's recent stuff, etc., and need to get back in touch with the public. Maybe the problem has perpetuated throughout all american society as the government seems disconnected from public desires, commercialism runs rampant, and clearly Hip hop has fallen out of touch with its roots.

The issue at hand is not an issue of Hip hop, it's an issue of American culture. In the video executives of record companies are mentioned, and I want to bring up a very important point: Some of the most successful rappers today who have maintained very high-level political, socioeconomic, and emotional content in their lyrics have been the chief executives of their own record companies. They have all started small, and have put their life savings into their own record labels, which has in turn inspired all those who listen to their records. I would like to mention rappers like Jay-Z (Roc-A-Fella), Ludacris (DTP), T.I. (Atlantic AND Grand Hustle Records <-- 2 companies!) They all started as tiny, insignificant artists, and used their passion and drive, and the desire to educate the world of the problems that impoverished urban areas suffer from to change Hip hop for the better.

Another topic that often comes up is the use of the "n word" in rap lyrics, and often times upper-middle class, suburban-raised (liberal or conservative) people cannot understand the hypocrisy that surrounds that word. My take on the subject is that it makes no sense to harp over the word itself, but to see the underlying meaning behind who is speaking. Clearly if you call someone a dog with malicious intent, that person will take offense. If you are talking to a friend and say "what up dog" or whatever the saying is, they will not take offense, even though it is the EXACT SAME WORD! The point i'm trying to make here is that I don't think we should provide so much opposition to the usage of the word, but instead should focus our energies on dispelling the misconceptions and stereotypes that surround the word.

The history of American view towards the underprivileged African American is that they are promiscuous, rude, materialistic folks with no class. This is not my opinion at all, and my statement here is valid because there is a TON OF AMERICAN LITERATURE THAT SUPPORTS THIS FACT. TAKE A HIGH SCHOOL LIT CLASS IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME OR YOU DISAGREE WITH ME. Ever since the end of slavery in the U.S., African Americans have been unable to assimilate effectively into society because of these inaccurate, discriminatory stereotypes. I hope that there is some sort of revolution in Hip Hop soon where somebody points out everything I've said in this essay on a hit single or something because I really think that hip hop is hugely misunderstood and is blamed for the problems of the whole country. It is only human nature to shirk responsibility of error to others, and Hip hop has been America's scapegoat for too long.

There are clearly many nuances to this debate that I haven't addressed, so if you read all of this and think I'm close-minded because I haven't responded to a specific argument, please just know that my fingers get tired after writing long blog posts :).

2008-11-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

they say you go too fast, slow down or life will take its toll.
too bad they dont know the struggle pulls me back, that is how i roll.

too lazy to explain
physics metaphor. look for it.

life's limits

2008-11-17T20:46:00.000-08:00

16 of the day:
"Spittin these american rhymes, slang all over the microphone. I have no end, tambien puedo hacer el reggaeton." - daily freestyles.

This rhyme was inspired by the recent revival of my lifelong belief that anything is possible. The only thing that can define impossible for you are mental blocks that you put on yourself. I dont think my 16 quite expresses this well enough, but I wanted it to be kind of implicit to see if you guys could see the meaning behind it. Anyway, something to leave you with to ponder over:

"Reach your hand up in the air and you can play with the stars. It's not the hand that you're dealt, but how you're playing your cards, boy." - not my quote.

Daily posts/freestyles

2008-11-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

If you have me on your gchat/talk/videochat list, you'll be able to see that I write a 16 everyday as a daily freestyle. I will have one post everyday from now on, even if the only thing in the post is my daily 16. I hope I have more to say than that, but at the very least I guarantee you that you'll have a rap lyric to ponder. I start with today's verse:

"Cheney built a system that crushes the lower-middle class,
a rich white man will break the back of any who try to pass.
Now they're all in trouble, here's your absolute last chance;
change the system by working hard, you'll be the one to laugh last."

This 16 was inspired by a discussion I had today with Vivek Uncle at the Sunnyvale temple. We had finished eating and were discussing the political climate, and came upon how the voice of the inner city has changed in the past few months. I mean absolutely no offense, and do not wish to generalize, but I honestly think that the minority population (especially African American) has always been short-changed by the U.S. government. We have never treated everyone in this country equally, and I don't know the solution to that problem, but I do know that the mindset of that population is changing big time. The issue is no longer that there is an oppressive elite class that is destroying the poor, it is more that the upper class has now destroyed itself, and power is up for grabs.

Along with president-elect Barack Obama's victory over John McCain, I think the average individual living in the inner city (Afr-Amer, minority, or not) now sees that success can only be found through hard work, and there's no such thing as fast cash. The political tides of America are turning, and if the rich upper class does not realize that working the stock market and heading companies that give loans with no backing is destroying them, they will see a sorry fate. It looks like the hard workers will finally get their due. Saving money in a bank while working hard might not make your money grow as fast as investment in something else, but it will never be as volatile as stocks are today. The hard working individual who has no knowledge of the stock market or "smart investing" will be much better off than the average stock trader.

Pokemon

2008-07-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I'm on my lunch break at work and I thought I might update my blog. It's been a really long time since I last wrote in this thing, so I'm sorry for all the people out there, yes, all three of you, who've been wanting to read my amazing blog.

So a friend of mine sent me a link to a site (Destructoid.com) where a young british bloke wrote a little something about how STUPID the designs of some pokemon are. Haha enjoy people, I sure as hell did.

http://www.destructoid.com/thirty-rubbish-pokemon-red-blue-edition-92171.phtml

I love that guy.

A True Politician

2008-07-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

Many of us have taken APUSH, or RUSH, and have vague understandings of the background and scandals of the infamous Watergate ordeal. Most of us know former President Richard Nixon as a crook, someone who exemplifies the worst aspects of the American political machine. In class he was often painted as a ruthless critic of the unsuspecting "reds" (many times they weren't actually communists) and he is seen as a paranoid man thirsty for power.

A person as malicious as this is usually not looked up to, a person like this is usually not seen as one of the country's greats; often times we wish to try to blot out our memories of political figures like him, in an attempt to erase him from our past. Despite all of his shortcomings as an honest government leader, Richard Nixon may have been the best politician that America, or the world, has ever seen.

Because Gov AP is coming up, I decided it was time to jump back on my schedule of political following and I started turning the tv back on on Sunday mornings for This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and I caught up with some of my favorite political shows (like the O'Reilly factor...even though Bill O'Reilly is totally off his rocker, Meet the Press, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and as I said before, This Week). Before I stopped watching these shows (at the beginning of Junior Year), I followed US History closely, especially the politics of our federal government. This is a famous speech that most people never hear about nowadays, because Nixon's success in Vietnam, and the darkness of the Watergate scandal often overshadow his earlier political days and his rise to power.

This speech took place after the McCarthy red-baiting era, and as Nixon was rising to national power as the presumptive Vice Presidential runner on the 1952 Republican ticket. Nixon found himself being bashed right and left for questionable sources and uses of campaign funds. Republican hot shots were pressuring him to resign from his position, and his Presidential running mate, Dwight D. Eisenhower even let him know that Nixon had reached the end of the road and should submit his resignation. Here's how Nixon took care of the situation:

Pure Brilliance.

2008-07-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

whatup whatup people

I'm watching an episode of the office, and i think there should be a movie after the show finishes and it'll be about Jam's marriage.

Today i'm wearing my lower rack retainer and it hurts like hell. damn.

lol and Dwight just killed Angela's cat.

...lol.

end of post ladies and gentlemen.

Amazing links

2008-07-01T16:27:00.001-07:00

Today was fairly uneventful, so i thought i might just share some awesome links with you...

videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Remix
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lCuhTppsCXM&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a_zK2apRHI4&feature=related

madTV
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m75g_A731q0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M

amazing..

kbye. ill talkk to you all later

Understanding Computers..

2008-06-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have run into problems where you're talking to somebody about some bogus software, and the person you're talking to goes off on a tangent about the features of some database management system and you're like ...WHAT THE HECK?? It's a good thing Google Search and Wikipedia exist...

...so today I learned exactly how a network of a large business works in terms of data transfer and servers.

Anyway, I'm glad I started a blog, now I can share my feelings about the technical world with you all. Hooray :)