"Soul Searchin" Year created: 2001 Written & Performed by: Dutchmassive & Pack Fm Produced by: J. Rawls (Lone Catalysts) Recorded by: Celph Titled @ The Chrome Depot (NYC) Mixed & Mastered by: Celph Titled @ The Chrome Depot (NYC) Album: "Junk Planet" (Released July 13, 2004) CD & 2xLP (double vinyl) Label:  Atomik / Freshchest Records / Caroline Distribution   Original Concept Drawing by FILTER - Recreated by Skawty Shaw and SlopFunkDust Graphic design and layout by Open Mic "Junk Planet" was created 1997-2002, Released world wide 2004. https://dutchmassive.bandcamp.com/album/junk-planet-1997-2002 ------------------------ Lyrics: [Verse 1 - Dutchmassive] "I'm not an emcee, I'm just a fan who likes to interact / great emcees are just a thing of the past / cats is either too simple or too abstract / not enough emotion / too many battle raps / besides when we do compete heads get waxed / laughed at, i'm glad ya'll didn't release that / don't be mad at me, i'm just trying to maintain / too critical? i've got a right to complain / cus nowadays hip-hop is no longer a movement / it's popular trend, and everybody's doing it / but nobody cares about music / cats is type stupid / they always got excuses / I'm short fused and my last nerve has been gone / i've been bitter and shows it my songs / most labels they just wanna sell records / most distributors have the wackest selling methods / if you make music from heart it gets rejected / but if you fit the industry standards you make a hit / this topics overdone but I ain't done complaining yet / I hope to reach somebodies mind before my verse ends / probably not / i'll probably end up fading away, unremembered like the rest of hip-hop" (Chorus / Scratches) {"Keep your eyes focused, you can't touch this or poke this"} {"About a million brothers trying to be MC's in this world"} {"Sell out's got no worth, I think they better go soul search"} [Verse 2 - PackFM] "My first memories of hip hop was pure and I felt it / Now those glory days are long gone like the Celtics / Wax coming out should be collected and melted / It's like a porno flick cause everybody's got a 12" / It's impossible to sell shit, The game is saturated / with cats who made it / And had their reputations fabricated / The school of hard knocks, here's my diploma: graduated / Paid my dues, here's my receipt, peep where the funds were allocated / Too many times it's been stated that to make it you gotta sell out / The window of opportunity opened, most ni**a's fell out / And landed in a pile of hypocrites / that swore that once they got put on that they would start kickin' some different shit / but what they never realized, Is once they sign the contract in triplicates / the carbon copy was a creative death certificate / The point you're missing is / the roll you playing is significant / A label can't put bullshit out if you refuse to give it in / Complain about the music / but never really do shit / You're part of the problem if you have no solution / Cats ain't foolin no one with their weak contribution / You can only blame yourself, we don't need no excuses" ------------------------ Backstory: I don't know what to say haha.  I listen back to this song created when I was barely 20 years old and I was already so jaded and fed up with the drastic shift in the music industry and if I could time travel back and explain to young Dutch, be grateful for the state of music right now,  cus it's only down hill from here....   I don't think it would have made a difference honestly.  I was always super passionate about what I love, and I always felt it was important to balance being responsible with your platform,  inspire, motivate but also call out the B.S. and help keep the checks and balances.  I don't think my personality has changed that much from 2 decades ago,  which is why it's hard for me to try and make time to sit and write and record a new Dutchmassive album.  There's so much crazy ish happening in the world right now,  but I would end up writing a double disk album all about the algorithms and how they fundamentally altered how humans interact and engage with one another and I don't think anyone cares to hear all that, so for now, I'll just stick to making instrumental music and freestyling introspective gibberish for fun into my tascam  haha. Honestly,  I can't recall a huge backstory for this track.  shout to my man PackFM for honoring the album with one of my favorite verses and shout to J. Rawls for letting me pick this beat to rock on.  I do remember asking for something that sounded similar to the track he did for Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) "Brown Skin Lady" or The Lone Catalysts self titled song "Lone Catalysts" but I ended up choosing this beat cus it made me think of listening to Jazz at the Pyramids of Giza, and I was really in my Egyptian bag in my late teens and early 20's so much so that I had a Stone Replica King Tut Tomb coffee table haha.     I'm always hesitant to upload these back catalog songs that were created 2 to 3 decades ago,  because I know hardly anyone probably reads the back stories, and most just press play and assume it's new music but I'm a sucker for documenting history and leaving legacy on the digital library so I'll curb my pride and just keep em coming, new or old. =) Thank you for taking time to read the backstory and for listening. - Dutch