Fools that said you wouldn't make it
day
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Does it drive you or defeat you?
Back when I first starting DJing I went to this house party where all the "top dudes" where playing and asked if I could get on. I had never DJed on an actual set up before or used a mixer (only tape/phono buttons on my home stereo) and made a fool of myself so bad someone came up and told me to get off the tables. Dude said I was wack but I knew what I could do at home and from that day on I vowed to serve every motherfucker in my city.
And I did.
So what motivates you? Encouragement or discouragement? I get hype when people tell me I can't do something.
Back when I first starting DJing I went to this house party where all the "top dudes" where playing and asked if I could get on. I had never DJed on an actual set up before or used a mixer (only tape/phono buttons on my home stereo) and made a fool of myself so bad someone came up and told me to get off the tables. Dude said I was wack but I knew what I could do at home and from that day on I vowed to serve every motherfucker in my city.
And I did.
So what motivates you? Encouragement or discouragement? I get hype when people tell me I can't do something.
Comments
That being said, people are fucking retarded. You fuck up once and people talk shit. As if there is a way to be the best WITHOUT fucking up. Come the fuck on.
And that's my driver. Knowing people are fucking retarded. Either way, what they say doesn't mean shit. So, if you wanna do it, press on. You'll get it down with practice. Or me. Or whoever.
People acting like that makes no sense anyway... as if puttin people down is helping themselves somehow.
Charlie Parker had something almost identical to him happen. He had been practicing at home and thought he was the shiz, so he took his busted up sax to jam with Lester Young and crew. They let him get on, he tried to pull off this double time thing and screwed so badly that they stopped the music and just
It can fuck with your head if you've had a string of failures, but having somebody imaginary or otherwise as a target to take down I think is only good.
On some levels its more encouraging than someone telling me I can do something.
word, I thrive on underdog status.
I'd have dropped out of college long time ago if my parents weren't so against it
I'd be little pissed to know that buying dubs of yer records over the years hasn't helped you buy a house yet...
i'm a little pissed as well. i dont make enough money to buy a house yet. housing cost in cali is through the roof. i only make around 30k a year and my rent is 1000 a month and i need 100k for a down payment. i dont think i'll ever own a house out here. peace, stein. . .
much love for picking up the records!
that definitely kept it going for me. once all that drive was gone, i fell off. now i'm a hasbeen.
hardly, I just picked up a double of your "limitations" ep last week. Still
1. Want to develope vinylcrates.com and djarcadian.com
2. Need to finish a mix I've been working on for days. I have probably 600 to 800 records and not a single mix to show for it.
3. Gotta excercise. Get my muscle on but damn if lifting weights doesn't take a lot of time out of my day.
I used to have a million ideas a day but over the last year work has just killed my spirt. Fuck it, focus, focus, focus.
that was on some
but making mistakes is the only way to get better, and some of the coolest shit has come out of little fuckups.
Yeah me too... you should be getting yours.
So I have a problem with the lack of support from my group of friends. I'm always bitching about this cuz it's not getting any better. Basically, I'm a yuppy and all my friends are yuppies. I just also happen to be into DJing pretty seriously. Very uncharacteristic.
So my DJing has always been a bit of a joke to my friends because it's way beyond their comfort zone. It's really tough for me to stay motivated when none of my friends are into what I do because I can't talk about it with anyone, I can't get them to come to my shows and I have to put up with endless jokes about being a DJ. It's just a hobby right now because I'm still quite the amateur, but it's something I'd love to take further. The problem is that I don't know how I can juggle my already demanding career with DJing without a solid support system from my friends.
In the grand scheme of things, I could have worse issues no doubt so I try not to stress about it too much, but it is the one thing really holding me back here and I wonder if others have had similar situations. Most people tell me to stay motivated and that I'll show them someday, but that's too idealistic.
DJ Ferrari
whew, that's rough. Most of my really close friends are not djs and are not hip hop heads either, but they love to come out and party when I'm playing. Maybe make some new friends that are more DJ friendly for when you're doing gigs? Not sayin' to drop your friends, but sometimes you got different peoples for different activities.
Find new friends. If they dont support what you like doing and in fact crack on you for doing it, crack them upside the head with an empty flight case and leave them in the dust. There are better friends to be found.
No way... we have waaay too much fun
Man, I've had detractors all my life. They just piss me off and make me work harder. I'll run down the list (not braggin', I just a humble dude laying out the facts):
1. Sophomore-year, high-school Geometry teacher:
-I failed her class, four 9-weeks straight (major esteem blow; was an 'A' student all my life). She said I'd fail summer school, but I sailed through it with a 'B' (and a better and caring instructor, I might add).
2. Senior-year, high-school English teacher:
-She thought I was a knucklehead that would fail in life. Ha!!!!! After that, I went on to win 6 Chancellor's list (4.0 semester GPA) awards and was named to the National Dean's list for 3 years straight as an undergraduate (graduated Magna Cum Laude, just short of Summa; first year and-a-half fuckin' up!!!). Now, I'm better educated than her (Ph.D.), well-published in my field of study, a teaching award-winning professor, and probably triple her annual income.
3. UPS supervisors/management (job I had as an undergraduate):
-They thought I'd become a package car driver and stay there. They didn't believe I was leaving to pursue my Ph.D. when I handed in my two-weeks notice. I actually had to show them my acceptance letter to graduate school to convince them. Now, my former preload supervisor delivers to my parent's neighborhood and he now laments on how I did the right thing pursuing higher education. Who says a Black man can't have aspirations? Huh?
4. Former department head in graduate school:
-Dude said I would fail my comprehensive exams due to my less-than-stellar performance in his class (my first of two with him). At that time, I had (1) lost my fiance, and (2) major work to do in completing my master's thesis. Needless to say, I aced his second course and my doctoral comprehensives. Dude had to gobble up that crow by saying, and I quote, "P*****k, you had some of the best comprehensive exam answers in years". On top of that, my oral examination lasted all of five minutes, half of which were spent with the profs talking among themselves while I stood there. That was because my written answers were so ON-POINT, they didn't have anything to quiz me about. Also, two of this department head's "pets" failed their comprehensives and took them their 2nd time while I took them my first (and ONLY) time. The department head also had to later big-up me on my doctoral disseration, out of which, I published two heavily-cited research articles. Ha!!!!!
5. Former graduate student who made "affirmative action" baby reference to me:
-This White dude, who by the way, was a year AHEAD of me when I arrived at grad school, made some affirmative action crack to me. Anyway, the best revenge is to live well. So, not only did I pass this same dude's in finishing the doctoral program, but this dude has still NOT FINISHED (he is on all-but-dissertation status at the school as we speak). This is one of the dude who's nose was up the department heads ass!!! Me, on the other hand, was the second in my doctoral cohort to earn his degree and we all started a year after cat. Funny thing is, I was fucking, gettin' blunted, drinking, travelin', and working throughout my graduate studies (I don't advise this, but it was what it was, ya know?). I should add that I finished with a 3.9 GPA from a top-10 rated program in my field. Also, I've gotten data for research purposes from two of this dude's colleagues at the consulting firm where he works.
6. Current Assistant Dean of my department:
-Ole' girl was bugging me about teaching ratings. She was suggesting all these bullshit teaching workshops which would take time away from my research (the major consideration in professor's tenure decisions, mind you). Anyway, I had just starting teaching there and have never taught in such a department, so it took a minute to hit my stride. Just from responding to students' suggestions written in my teaching ratings, I've become a top-rated (and award-winning) teacher (beyond my already noted research accomplishments). I did all this while my grade distributions DID NOT CHANGE (i.e., I didn't "give away" grades to pad my ratings like some fools do, with which I STRONGLY DISAGREE). Now, she doesn't say shit, but dick rides!!!
This is just a small sampling of detractors I've mushed in my life. I could go on, but I think you get the point. The best way to motivate me is to say I can't do it. I'll die proving you wrong. Big up to dad for instilling me with this insatiable drive.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Now that's what I'm talking about!
Stacks, you get the utmost respect from me.
Unfortunately, like many other types of work: You're only as good as your last fuck-up. It's sucks but that's what's people remember most.
Yeah, ditto.
But.
Maybe the key to your succes is a sort of bitterness that I don't want in my life. I leave the haters behind and don't think about them too much, let alone steer my life by proving them wrong. Statements like 'I make triple her annual income' make me sick, although I believe you're far from a mean dude and just wanted to make a point and the thread is about haters. In hindsight it's a nice extra, right now, to show those people what you're really made of ? BS to my ears, why would you even think about that when you're living your life (which you did).
Maybe I should have kept the hatred fueling the fire to achieve my goals ?
Maybe it's a form of slacking ?
More power to you.
Hey Lamont,
I'm not a materialistic, or bitter dude, actually. Most people that see me daily (away from work) couldn't even imagine what I do for a living. I threw a lil' clowning in there to emphasize the irony of the situations. That teacher said I'd be a bum, so it's ironic that I make a better living than she does, not that it matters for esteem. Esteem comes from within, not from bashing others, or material things. Quite honestly, I wish the best for everyone because the world is big enough for all of us to prosper. With that said, what gave those folks the right to try to shit on my dreams and discourage me? All blessings come from above, it was not solely my doing.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
a wise man once said to me, "if people are talking about you, good or bad, it's all good, it's when they're not talking about you it's when u should be worried...."
peace.
That's a great story. People need to stop judging folks and encouraging them. What constructive purpose does demeaning people serve, especially at impressionable ages? I'm amazed at how many teachers are psychological destructive, particularly to Black kids (from what I'm told and what I read) for whom there are prevalent negative stereotypes. These negative teacher statements can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies for those that are easily influenced. I'm glad I had strong parents to counteract the negative messages I received from nay-sayers.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Glad that situation worked out for you. Hey, what does it say on his lil'hommie's life jacket?
Ferrari man.
See the end result.
One day, they are going to stop laughing and suddenly realise that ohhhhhhh shit, they got it wrong.... and realise what they had been missing out on.. and what they didn't understand... and they are going to realise that on their own when they see what you're doing and the crowd in front of you. You wont rub it in their faces, but you'll be laughing inside.
This isn't idealistic. Its self fulfilling prophecy dude... if you can convince yourself to accept the end result as whats going to happen, you're going to eventually end up making moves towards it whether you know it or not, even if you have forgotten about it.
Go for it man.
Yeah I hear ya, the hard part has been getting over the hump of getting gigs when I have little to no support. I don't have any DJ friends to talk me up or help me out and I have no friends that will come to my gigs so selling myself to a bar or a club has proven to be rather difficult. For the last show I had, the only people that showed up for me were my roommates because I threatened to murder them if they didn't come. The promoter looked at me like 'that's it?'. I haven't heard from him since. I just need to get to a point where the music sells itself and all will be good.
DJ Ferrari