EPISODE · Mar 18, 2022 · 2 MIN

8- Creativity + Love = X

from #StoriesAboutSongs · host RedefineHipHop

This is the competitor for the most jarring transition, but fitting. I’m at my “Private Eden”, and it feels great to have arrived. I think most of us know, or at least have an idea, what happiness means to us, but there’s often something that just keeps us from reaching out to grab it. It can be scary to trust in things, or people, or to believe in ourselves, along with a host of other challenges that just exist naturally in the world. For me, two of the things that have brought me the most joy in life are, unsurprisingly, creativity and love, including the love for creativity. That also works the other way, because when it comes to love, and how I like to express that to people, I like to be creative, and in a multitude of ways. For one, I don’t like to just follow the traditions and do what’s obvious, and have my relationships (whether friendships or dating) be cookie cutter. I try to make a point to be intentional with each of the closest people in my life. That has had tremendously lopsided results, especially in dating. On one hand, people I have dated, generally seem to really appreciate that, but on the other, at some point, in many, if not most long term relationships I’ve had, they’ve also taken issue with the lack of some the more “traditional” things, which I’m not necessarily against, I have just noticed that so many times people use the “standards” as a way to coast through relationships without being fully intentional, openly communicative, or to actually deal with any issues or problems, and instead think saying “I love you” and giving flowers fixes things. The song I sample here, “Play With Fire”, is from Barbara and Ernie, and it’s a powerful song and sounds both beautiful and haunting, especially once I slowed it down so much. I had to use the vocal part as well. Barbara Massey has an amazing voice. This song is from the album, “Prelude To…”. I had this song for a while, but revisiting it last year led me to finally get the album, and it’s great. I’d suggest giving it a listen if you enjoy great early 70s Soul albums. Listening to the album I learned (via Discogs) that even though Barbara didn’t release a wealth of solo material, she recorded with some legendary artists; Quincy Jones, Esther Phillips, Melvin Van Peebles, Grover Washington Jr., Cat Stevens, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kendricks, etc… And, this song was co-produced by Warren “Evy Itta” Curry, who I was in a rap group called 3rd Dimension a.k.a 3D Crew in ‘’84/’85! I provided him with the “Play With Fire” sample, looped in my rough demo format, and he built everything else from there. Means a lot to me to have him on the project, for several reasons, and one is because of the importance of that time in my life. Lastly, “Creativity + Love = X” is me standing on the shore of my Private Eden, enchanted by my surroundings and expressing how that feels. This song is really powerful for me personally. And, if not obvious by now, the X = happiness. How do you know when the healing’s done? Or if it will even come? Is it based on how deep that the feeling’s from? Choose to believe some is better none Find the right one, lift a few pounds from the ton Like...sometimes when walking out in the sun And I can feel my wings growing, can’t wait till their done Cause then I’m gonna run, jump off the edge of my woes Spread my arms, close my eyes, and just see how it goes You see, I’m opposed to censoring what I compose With what I disclose, it’s my soul I expose And nobody knows, how much more there is to be told Not Even me, cause I suppressed some memories from so long ago I could dig em up, I suppose But I ain’t into opening the doors I would rather close To letting the pain take over, I came rather close But had love in my life when it mattered most And add a dose, of creative catacombs for the mind to roam That’s two of the greatest feeling’s I’ve ever known