QUARTER LIFE CRISIS: PROLOGUE

Quarter Life Crisis is an introspective album about my trials in that period of life. This album deals with everything from the highs of finding love, through the lows of losing love, to being able to look back at that lost love without resent and with appreciation from what I learned from it all. I delve into personal issues like family. I get into my frustrations with the current climate of hip hop and all the stereotypes that come attached to that. There is so much good hip hop with substance (ya boy, for example) if you dig past the surface. I talk about our dependence to social media and devices in general. I'm a millennial, but I'm an in-betweener in the sense that I can remember a time before the Internet. A time before it became our lives.

The most prevalent theme throughout the album, however, is DOUBT. My own self doubt and having the courage to overcome that. I'm a creative. I love music. I love writing. I love film. These are all things I'm passionate about. I'm very aware about how competitive and ambitious these things are. Most people settle, it seems. When you're surrounded by that, it's easy to look at that societal construct as a yardstick for everyone. I have people that support me heavy, and I appreciate you so much. But there's also people, who I hold in high regard, who think I have my head in the clouds and am pursuing pipe dreams. It's taxing to be told my goals aren't realistic, and I do get doubtful. Maybe it stems from resentment that they didn't pursue their own dream, idk. One of the most important things I learned was that it's ok to separate the ideas from the person. Another person's ideals might not correlate with my own, but that doesn't mean that they're not still good people. They probably have your best interests in mind, but it's important to consider that YOU probably have your OWN best interests in mind as well. When you're a creative, you're looking through a completely different set of lenses. You literally don't see the world in the same way. I can't really hold it against someone to not get my prerogative, when we're not seeing the same picture, ya dig?

It took a lot for me to not feel oppressed and more importantly, to not oppress myself. This album is an ANTHEM for anyone who experiences self doubt and others doubting them. This is me telling you to go for it. I'm on your side. This is cliche AF, but we have one life, man. Do something that fulfills you. Don't allow someone else to speculate your capabilities. And don't speculate your own and be the person who wonders, "What if?" DO your thang! I love seeing passionate people doing the things they're passionate about!

When I was younger, I wanted to create music, but I knew studio time would add up. I grew up in a small town, so it's not like there was a recording studio readily available anyway. So I built my own home studio, buying and upgrading equipment when I could. I taught myself how to engineer and mix (still have lots to learn) out of necessity. I never had a desire to be an audio engineer, but I wanted to make music, I wanted it to be heard, and I was dedicated.

With this album, I took it back to my roots. I got out of the noise and distraction that is Vegas, and hunkered down in that very studio to create. Recluse Mode. I engineered, recorded, mixed, and had a hand in the mastering of this album. The illest thing about doing it myself was that I knew no one else was going to care about this project as much as I did. I was able to take my time and bang out all the little details I had in my head. I could execute my vision to it's fullest extent. Mixing it was just an extension to the canvas of the art I'm trying to convey.

I invested a lot of money into this project, so if you're able to support it in anyway, I appreciate you! Help ya boy accumulate back some of these funds. But if you can't afford to, it's all good, even spreading the word helps a ton!

This album is a quality product. It has a lot of substance to it; I will never give you microwave music. I would never just rush something out and give you trash. Every song has a purpose. Every thing I do is very calculated. This album is versatile. I don't aim to be a one-dimensional artist.

Ideally, I would have liked to put out my debut album years ago, but I'm not mad at the time it took. The experiences I went through over these last years really wrote this album. It couldn't have been any other way. Thank you for taking the time to read this all. Be safe and be happy!

Cover Photo by Jessica McCracken

Graphic Design by Josh Hardy