One of my favorite TV shows in the world is Family Guy. It's fucking brilliant. I know a lot of you probably hate it, so I'm gonna take a brief moment to analyse the show, and it's style of humor, and explain why it's so fucking good.

Family Guy blends a perfect mix of The Simpsons and South Park, adding in a sprinkle of Seth McFarlane's edginess and the result is a masterpiece of comedy. The show is obnoxious and in-your-face, yet still remains elegant and well constructed. The jokes are often deep, and the plot is filled with interesting twists and intelligent puns, and key connections of punch lines throughout each episode, and the whole show in general top it off nicely.

I was watching an interview with the creator once, and he was saying how what he tries to do in his comedy, is cast a giant mirror up infront of America (and the world, I guess) and say, "Here, this is what you're like. And it's fucking hilarious." And it really is.

Something I love most, is the perception on Family Guy as "toilet humor", and how anybody that watches it must be incredibly stupid. It's ironic because, it's actually you that's incredibly stupid, and you're infact the reason we watch the show. Because we love laughing at you.

How does it feel?

- Elusive

Hey guys, what's up?

Something that's on my mind a hell of a lot at the moment is Einstein's quote, 'Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.'

Life is fake. Interpret it as a matrix like cyberworld, a dream.. an imagination. Whichever way you choose to word it, life is the creation of an infinite consciousness, and it is to this consciousness that all other consciousness is connected.

Consider such concepts as synchronicity, The Secret, psychics, intuition and astral travel.. all of these things have a wealth of evidence that they genuinely do exist, however mainstream science disregards these things and others like it, on the basis that 'if these were true, then other things we believe about the world and life couldn't be true'. But as we know in science, what is 'true' at the time is only the most accurately fitting theory based on the evidence that is known at the time.

Science will never catch upto fact because the evidence is ever-changing, and so science's theories will forever be changing.

Taking this back to the 'dreamworld' idea, imagine for a moment that you are in the midst of a dream right now. In your dream, you are playing in a field. You jump up in the air, to hover briefly before returning back down to the ground. What is it that brought you back to the ground? Gravity? No, of course not. Nothing in your dream is really happening, so no external forces are being applied to you or anyone else in your dream. Infact, why do you not instantly begin floating off into space the moment your dream begins? It's because on top of imagining yourself and everything you see in your dream, your mind also has the ability to imagine gravity, and winds, and ocean currents and everything else that in real life requires the most complicated calculations to solve.

To put it in context, every person has the ability to make these kinds of calculations from the moment they are born, even with a completely undeveloped brain. This is the power of the human mind.. it is able to recreate entire worlds to the finest of detail. This is the same human mind we're later told we're only capable of using a small percent of it's power. Something clearly doesn't fit here.

I do plan on following this entry up with another one displaying various bits of evidence that this world we live in is infact an illusory one, and the implications of such a truth. For now though, I just want to wrap this up with a quote..

"The subconscious mind makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The sub-conscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear, just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by courage or faith." - Napoleon Hill

- Elusive

+ A Meaning / Purpose
This is an absolute must. If you want to make music of any kind, there needs to be a purpose, or a reason for people to listen.. (other than "It Sounds Good!"). This can be anything from telling a story, conveying an opinion, inspiring ideas.. hell even make diss tracks because at least they have a purpose.

+ Structure
What is structure? Well, it's the planning that goes into writing a song. The methodolgy in which you introduce key elements to your song. An example of this, is in a story track just before the choruses, lead your verses out with major plot changes. This gives the listener time to consider what they've heard while the chorus plays out (seeing as most people don't really listen to the chorus after the first hear anyway!)

+ Vocabulary / Language
Okay. Some people may disagree with this one. I feel as an entertainer of any kind, to be seen as a role model is a responsibility (whether wanted or not). Kids are impressionable. That fact is undisputed. They will mimic what they see and hear. If you're planning on making main stream rap, and children are likely to be listening to your songs, please, PLEASE use proper language. Slang is okay in some instances, but basing entire songs around catchphrases that don't even make sense is a joke. (Soulja Boy)

+ Flow
Another important one. If you're going to be a rapper, you have to learn how to flow. That means how to flow on a beat, how to sound good and in sync with the music. I've heard far too many rappers with good writing skills, and absolutely no flow whatsoever. There's just too much potential going to waste on poor flow.

+ Sound
An obvious one here, but still worth a mention. Whatever equipment you've got, whatever you're recording on, at least spend some time and effort learning how to use the equipment as best you can. Even cheap gear you can get decent sound off if you know what you're doing. There's plenty of resources on the net with countless articles and tutorials on sound recording, mixing and mastering. Don't be afraid to Google anything you're unsure of, or any areas you feel you could improve in.

Another point related to the sound is, if you're fairly new to rapping, do not under any circumstances jump straight in and start recording. If you're just testing and playing around, that's fine.. go for it, but do not hastily start recording something you're planning on showing anybody. You need to spend time working on your vocal projection. Good recordings need a good audio source, that is - your vocals. Make sure you can project your voice loudly, but without yelling. Always avoid yelling into the mic, it just creates distortion and sounds terrible.


There are numerous other issues I could touch in here, but as far as basics of making a 'Good' rap song go, if you stick to these rules you can't go too far wrong.

- Elusive