BLOG: Generation Walking Dead

Here's a new piece by Melina Twyman aka Bateau, the Houston based Trip-Hop/RnB/Hip-Hop singer-songwriter who always has some jewels to drop for the masses whether it be over an instrumental or on a computer screen via a blog post. This blog post in particular is entitled "Generation Walking Dead" and to an extent, the title is pretty self-explanatory, but it's deeper than that. Here, Melina examines this generation's obsession with the internet, immediate gratification, the need for social media acceptance and much more. Millennials, humble yourself and read on...

“Never before has a generation so diligently recorded themselves accomplishing so little”
-Unknown

This is 2016, the year where we sit behind a computer screen typing furiously about politics and social justice issues on Facebook and Twitter until our faces turn blue, replacing real action and progress with likes and shares. The media driven generation that refuses to fact check and do their research, spewing out nonsense and misinformation into the already growing monster that is the internet.

 The generation of Snap Chat and other social platforms that invite infidelity and secrecy.  The generation who would rather “Netflix and Chill” over getting to know someone organically and slowly. The generation that will send a flower emoji instead of showing up at a doorstep with lilies. The generation who is no longer interested in the chase, but has become desensitized with a culture of immediate gratification. We prefer to lurk Facebook or Twitter to see what our peers are up to, rather than talk over dinner.

We are a generation that no longer appreciates true art and music, expecting the artist to produce for free. We refuse to pay for anything without recognition of the hard work, time, and money that goes into the product we have incorporated into our every day lives.

This is the generation that glorifies lip injections over natural beauty. We would rather make our money selling Detox Tea on Instagram to millions of strangers instead of getting an education and making notable contributions for a more functional society. The generation that values fame and notoriety over worldly knowledge and intelligence.

We have made unhealthy living habits justifiable by shouting lifestyle acceptance, claiming to have been shamed by those who challenge us.

We live in a generation that follows tragedies blindly without recognizing the underlying seriousness and exigency of them. We see these tragedies as the popular things to care about in the moment, failing to recognize many of these things have happened in the past, are still happening, and will continue to happen. We live in a generation that would rather change our profile picture to a French flag temporarily, rather then spend our time, effort, and money helping victims.

We are the generation that refuses to look up from our phones. We crash our cars refreshing Instagram, miss important moments that only come around once, and have become so engulfed in social media we do not realize our lives are passing us by.

This is a generation that has demolished the First Amendment. We are no longer allowed to speak our minds without being called a bigot, receiving backlash, deaths threats, and being run out of our houses; Unless of course, we agree with the majority.

This is the “now” generation. The generation that wants everything, and wants it fast. The generation who lives for the moment, making choices without any consideration for their future. This is the generation who expects apathy instead of working hard with the cards they were dealt, justifying laziness with an increasing sense of entitlement. The generation that no longer celebrates hard work.

“Those are the people I like to call the Walking Dead. They’re living asleep, so they accomplish nothing. That is the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. Successful people aren’t afraid to take the risk and live the experience whether it be good or bad.”
-The Arkitect

We are too sensitive, and we expect too much. I am scared to live in a world where our potential leaders are turned off by hard work due to the fact that hard work is no longer recognized. I am scared to live in a world where our standards are lowered to coincide with a culture that believes everyone running the race deserves a trophy. If we get the prize no matter the outcome, we will have no motivation to win.

I am scared to be in this generation.

But mostly, I am scared to be in a generation that doesn’t recognize there is a problem.

- Melina

Blog: I Love You, But I Love Music More

Dating when you’re a musician is hard. Actually, dating is just hard in general. But when you’re a musician you can go ahead and add in time away for touring and practices, the opposite sex coming up to you after shows to introduce themselves or tell you how well you did (to your partner's dismay), and struggling to share your heart between your passion and another person.

As I say in all my other blogs, this is just what I have gathered from my own personal experiences. I can’t speak for everyone, these are just the struggles I have encountered.

I was in a relationship with someone for about a year. We lived together for a little while, and everything should have been great. This person was respectful, kind, caring, and really good to me. The only problem is that he did not understand why I had to collaborate with male artists. He didn’t understand why I couldn’t spend time with him because I had to go jam with a band of all males. He couldn’t understand why after I played a show I had to talk to people, some of which were men, to network and thank them for coming out. He didn’t understand why I would rather lock myself in the room for hours at a time to play guitar and write, rather than spend time with him. I could sit here and list all the things he did not understand about my relationship with music, but I won’t. The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, he just didn’t understand.

How could he, though? I was his everything, and music was mine. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him, I was just never going to love anything the way I loved music. I think musicians and artists are extremely unique people. We are different. Our craft is like air to us, and we can not live without doing it every single day.

Towards the end of our relationship, I found myself playing guitar and writing less so I could spend time with him. I started performing less in order to avoid a fight with him if a guy came up to ask for my number, simply for the purpose of playing music or collaborating. I stopped singing as much and began to feel my voice becoming weaker from lack of practice. I stopped traveling to play gigs in other cities in order to reduce the time I spent away from him to again, avoid fighting. Instead, I started spending more time watching movies with him, cooking with him, and just hanging out with him. These things were painfully unproductive to me, and I felt I was wasting time that I could be using to progress as an artist. We became one of those “boring” couples who didn’t really do much of anything. He could see I wasn’t happy and tried to convince me that he wanted me to go out and play more, but I knew he really didn’t. He didn’t because he associated music with the thing that was taking away his time with me, even if I just wanted to play for five minutes. I became so unhappy that I started to resent him from taking me away from my art. I tried to find a balance between music and my relationship, but I just could not find it. I couldn’t do what I wanted without upsetting him, and I couldn’t be the girlfriend he needed without being unhappy.

So I finally made the tough decision to end it.

Once we broke up, I found my voice again. I had so much time to write and create that I began changing my sound and developing my craft in a way I never realized I could. I got to go out and play again without feeling guilty knowing there was someone at home waiting for me. I started playing with men and women again, learning from everyone and everything. I was myself without limitation. Since then, I have released two albums and have been traveling every single week to different cities and meeting incredible people who have pushed my career to a place it has never been before. These are all things I could never have done were I still with him.

I am not saying it is impossible to split your time between music and a relationship, I am just saying it is really, really hard. Maybe he could have been more understanding, and maybe I could have tried harder to balance the two. I don’t know.

Anyway.

I have also been the victim of the “jealous” girlfriend when it came to working with other artists. I have had men decline to work with me because their girlfriends didn’t want me around them. I have seen really talented people let their significant others dictate and guide their careers out of jealousy and insecurity. I have seen artists pass up amazing opportunities in order to not piss off their girlfriend/ boyfriend. I broke up with my ex because I refuse to let someone dictate my career and personal growth. In my opinion, if you let your partner get in the way of your dreams, you don’t deserve to be pursuing them. It is an extremely delicate balance and takes massive efforts from both sides to make it work.

But aside from all the negative talk, it is not completely impossible.

All I know is in order to be with a musician, you have to be understanding. Everyone says they want an independent and strong-willed person, until they actually have one. It is tough, because it means you have to be independent and strong-willed as well. You have to give them time to do what they love, and you have to understand they can do it for hours upon hours at a time. You have to realize that when they jam or collaborate with someone of the opposite sex, it is simply about the music and nothing more. You have to trust them. It takes a strong person to be with someone who is pursuing their dreams, and you’re going to have to put up with a lot of shit. The most important thing you can do is never limit them and just be there for them, just as they should be there for you and support your dreams. Understand that you are sharing your partners heart with their passion, and don’t let it shake you. It takes a strong person to be with a strong person, and that means putting you insecurities to the side, (or completely throw them away).

While dating a musician can be tough, it is also such a beautiful thing. They love harder, cry harder, and you may even get a song written about you. Help build them to the point they want to be, and let them build you. Grow with them, silently be there for them, and let them do the same.

It will be a roller coaster filled with lots of twists and turns, but it will be the best ride of your life. - Bateau

This is DOPE 5IVE

1. Nicki and Beyonce are Feeling Themselves - Natalie P. 

The last few weeks were full of women in popular music, and Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj weren’t about to miss out on the fun. The day after Taylor Swift debuted the “Bad Blood” music video at the Billboard Music Awards, Minaj released the video for “Feeling Myself,” a collaboration with Beyoncé from her latest album, The Pinkprint, on TIDAL, a new music streaming service. Much like Swift’s “Bad Blood,” the video is very female-centered and most, if not all of the men in the video, are simply there to be in the background. This video is so unique in that it brings a new and refreshing perspective that is often lacking in the hip-hop and pop music industries alike: the perspective of two women who put each other and themselves before the men in their lives. In “Feeling Myself” Minaj creates an environment where, much like a previous hit from Beyoncé, girls run the world. There are very few men in the video, and the men who are there are pretty much just used as extras. The world that Beyoncé and Nicki have created in this video shows two women who seem to value each other and their friendship the most, (even if that fantasy just exists in this one video, as we all know Beyoncé has an entire family to tend to, and I’m sure Nicki has a ridiculous amount of things going on literally all the time). They’ve continued to work with the feminist vibe from the last Nicki and Beyoncé collaboration, the “***Flawless” remix, putting themselves at the top of their own priority lists and not apologizing for it. The video shows Beyoncé and Nicki having a blast at Coachella, doing a lot of things that any of us would do with our best girlfriends, making the two women very easy to relate to. They dance, they eat (and not in a creepy sexualized Carl’s Jr. way, but in a real human eating way), they goof off, and they paint themselves as two best friends who just happen to be mind-blowingly beautiful. They send a powerful message to the young girls who may be watching this video: it’s okay to think that you’re hot shit, it’s okay to know that you’re hot shit, and it’s okay to talk about it; a message that too many young girls grow up without hearing. Between this video and Swift’s “Bad Blood” video, I, for one, can’t wait to see more of this “girls to the front” type of attitude from today’s music. And with an overwhelmingly positive response from fans, it seems like there is only more to come – Natalie P. 

2. Tomas Furey - Beams and Shadows

Based in Montreal, Tomas Furey composes electro-pop pieces that remind us of James Blake or Moderat. His studies in electroacoustics give him a complete control over his art. Here's his new video for Beams and Shadows. 

3. Kdza - Mafia ft. Yasi (Prod. by Kdza)

Illustra Music Group is a team of creative artists from Durham, NC that currently consists of two artists (Kdza and Ya$i). They don't collaborate on every song, as both artists are working on solo projects. Kdza is working on an untitled EP that will be out this summer. Released work from the Illustra team is never a disappointment. Follow their Instagram & Twitter to keep up: @k.dza @yasi.emcee. Here is Kdza's latest track 'MAFIA' featuring Ya$i. 

4. Who is Rome Jeterr? 

Coming out of a ‘not so perfect’ area, where streets filled with negativity bars the minds of many, independent rising star Rome Jeterr uses his Southside Raleigh, N.C. upbringing as the muscle to his hustle. The young independent artist believes that the only music that should be created is the music that people can relate to and music that touches the soul. Rome Jeterr has been pursuing a music career for a few years now. His plight toward hip hop started out as just a hobby, but quickly turned into an obsession. Jeterr’s previous single ‘Wildin for Respect’ explains Jeterr’s approach to this music thing. The N.C. artist appreciates the support of those who come from areas – as those he comes from. Jeterr’s approach to music, involves his advocating for those who didn’t have much – the have-nots. Using classic sounding production, with a real authentic hip hop feel to its sound, Jeter makes sure to include ‘real hip hop’ in his style as he gracefully lays bars down on tracks. Influenced by only greats like Jay Z, Fabolous, and Lil Wayne, Jeterr also states that independent legend of N.C. Shook Da Crook taught him about staying true to where he came from and representing his hood – first and foremost. Rome Jeter’s style is one of intelligence, and you can tell by his choice of wordplay that he’s hip to a lot of ‘fake rap lives’ being lived on beats. Rome Jeterr chooses to stay authentic in his rhyming. Most recent single and video ‘Give a F*ck’, is the perfect example of a single from Jeterr that explains how dedicated an independent artist can be to his own grind. Basketball dreams would fold for the young high school star due to a physical injury, and Rome Jeterr would soon up his grind a thousand – focusing strictly on the music. Rome Jeterr looks at the music industry as a room full of followers, and he plans on brining a new style of leadership to the game. Being placed on several music sites including Karakhaotic.com, one of the biggest blogs in North Carolina, Jeterr is sure to be one artist you’ll get familiar with shortly. Follow @RomeJeterr on Twitter, Facebook, and SoundCloud to stay in tuned to what’s next. 

5. Bambino - Miss Conception

Miss Conception is the first single off of Bambino’s debut project ‘Conception’. Bambino, at 19 years old, is the youngest member of the Castello Empire collective based out of Vancouver, Canada. He aspires to reciprocate the musical energy and cadence of his creative influences, some of which being; Outkast, Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper.
Miss Conception is a refreshing blend of pop and old school R&B, with elements of Hip-Hop. Bambino, along with the Castello Empire collective, pride themselves on being original while executing abstract ideas. With more than just music in his artistic catalogue, Bambino is an aspiring filmmaker and visionary.
The Castello Empire collective is a group of four young men who came together to fulfill their vision of designing a platform to express their passions. Between the four, in-house skills vary from producing, engineering, graphic designing to filmmaking, as well as, starting a clothing line by the namesake. This is just the start for the young, passionate artist and his team, as they have many upcoming releases in the works for the near future.