The Motives of a Movement

Artist Bios are overrated. Describing what the artists want you to know, a bio generally serves as a glorified self-serving synopsis of a much larger, more intricate story. We do, however, understand that a little background info is always a good thing so here goes. As the name suggests, There are four emcees in the squadron. We all met, vibed, and began our musical endeavor during our freshman year at Hofstra University. We've only grown from there, releasing 3 cds, putting together our own benefit concerts, and performing countless times all over NY, even opening shows for Lupe Fiasco and Estelle. We live together, eat together drink together, break bread together, laugh, cry, ride and roll together, and though we don't always see eye to eye, we're always there for each other, together. C-write Crills hails from Brooklyn NY, Alpha from White Plains NY, Googie from West New York, NJ and A-Web from Block Island, RI and Vermont. Though one might say that each individual 'represents' his respective hometown, don't get too caught up in man-made spacial barriers; we all come from the Earth, so we prefer to represent the whole World rather than one small plot of land. The members of the group host ties to myriad cultures Including Jamaican, African, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Irish, Danish and Native American, but again, don't get hung up on illusory and divisive racial barriers, we represent the human race, plain, simple and beautiful.

That seems sufficient background, anything else you can find out if you truly desire but let us spare you the rest of the usual biographic ego-trip.
Here's what you really need to know... C-4 is a movement, but we can only fulfill that title and truly make the movement move with your allegiance and support. We represent 4 dimensions and you are the missing piece: help us reach the 5th dimension as one. Here's what you can do to be involved.

1. Listen to our music. We are passionate about what we do; we pour incredible amounts of effort (heart soul and time) into making it and we have fun doing it. If you like how it sounds, turn the volume up a little bit louder and roll your windows down as you cruise. Spread the music to your friends and family and tell them to do the same. Come see us play live, and bring some friends. Our energy is always over the top and we guarantee you'll have fun with us.

2. Listen to our Message. We don't care how many times you have to rewind a song or a verse to understand the lyrics, as long as you make an attempt. We don't do this to say nothing at all. We are opinionated, impassioned by the issues of OUR people living on OUR planet, and we put deep, immense thought into scribing our own individual ideas into our lyrics. We feel that we have something to say, and whether you agree or disagree with what is said, let our words help to expand your basis of thought and opinion to unseen depths while we all grow together as human beings.

3. Keep listening. Our lyrics have many layers to their meanings: double, triple, quadruple, infinite meanings, however you wish to perceive them! We use metaphors, we tell stories and use intricate rhyme patterns along with lots of vocabulary (get a dictionary). We know that the words we use and the things we say are not always easy to comprehend, but the more you listen, the more you'll catch the hidden gems, woven throughout our wordly webs. We like to say that most commercial music, which gains instant popularity and is overplayed before quickly burning out; those fartists are like a one night stand: brief, carnal, often ugly and never truly fulfilling. Our music is the type that you take home to meet the family, introduce to your closest friends, fall In love with and eventually marry: alluring but hard to get, and once 'understood', always surprising you, enticing, exciting and pushing you in your own life. Please keep listening. We are always growing, so the more material that comes, the deeper you can travel with us.

4. Don't be a follower. Although we know that it is often difficult, in this fast paced world, to sit down and really search your soul for your own thoughts and opinions, NEVER adopt someone else's belief without thorough self examination. We believe strongly in what we say but we don't want our fans to complacently agree. We want you to hear what we say and then think about it for YOURSELF and nobody else. Besides, time changes everything, even opinions, so while we hold strongly to our beliefs now, we must be willing to let go and change to enable the advancement of mankind along with the world as it advances forward at every passing moment.

5. Evolve. While darwin's evolutionary model may be stalled on our human forms, it is our minds that must continue to evolve. Learn about the ego and how it effects others, but most importantly yourself. Learn to accept yourself, love yourself and be open and willing to change. Learn to accept others, learn compassion, learn to love them and help them to change. Let us evolve together. War is a never-ending cycle, peace is permanent, eternal.

Peace and Love
C-4

Some words of inspiration

Here is a poem I heard read earlier today by the poet Staceyann Chin.  The poem is entitled, "The Low Road" and was written by Marge Piercy.  I couldn't find a video of the powerful rendition of the poem so I decided I would post the verse and let you take a shot at reciting it.

The Low Road 

What can they do to you?
Whatever they want..

They can set you up, bust you,
they can break your fingers,
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember.
they can take away your children,
wall up your lover;
they can do anything you can’t stop them doing.

How can you stop them?
Alone you can fight, you can refuse.
You can take whatever revenge you can
But they roll right over you.
But two people fighting back to back
can cut through a mob
a snake-dancing fire
can break a cordon,
termites can bring down a mansion

Two people can keep each other sane
can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation
a cell, a wedge.
With four you can play games
and start a collective.
With six you can rent a whole house
have pie for dinner with no seconds
and make your own music.

Thirteen makes a circle,
a hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity
and your own newsletter;
ten thousand community
and your own papers;
a hundred thousand,
a network of communities;
a million our own world.

It goes one at a time.
It starts when you care to act.
It starts when you do it again
after they say no.
It starts when you say we
and know who you mean;
and each day you mean
one more.

The 2010 Movement Draft!

So 2009 is coming to a screeching halt in roughly 2 weeks and we wanted to layout a platform of the takeover to come in 2010.  I will just make a list to make things easier to read.  These entries are in no particular order.

1) New C-4 Album entitled, "C-4-C:Combustible 4 Cavemen."
2) C Write Crills and Samurai Banana (1/2 of Sarcasmo reppin' Karma Kids Studio) mixtape entitled "Ninja vs. Samurai"
3) Alpha and Headtrip (the other 1/2 of Sarcasmo reppin' Karma Kids Studio) mixtape entitled "Domewrecker vs. Rahzilla"
4) Alpha presenting "Ain't Nothin' Plain About Us", an LP featuring some of the best artists conceived and coagulated in White Plains, NY.  914, Westchester Stand Up!
5) A new and improved A-Webber
6) "In The Moment" an extended EP effort from Alpha
7) "Coon 2 Some" an extended EP effort from Alpha and C Write Crills
8) We will be DJ Ducktaping wack MCs
9) The Movement to begin in-house producing
10) The webpage to end all frivolous internet usage,  WWW.4PROSE.NET.
....

Along with several other plans for world domination that can not be displayed at this moment, but everyone is invited to join when our stratagem is revealed.

2010 Beware!  Long Live The Lost!

The Anrgy Blogger on Education

Our generation has been vitiated due to the debt everyone is accruing just from going to school.  Plain and simple.  I know many individuals who have racked up over $100,000 in debt while they are still no older than 22 in most cases.  I believe it goes without dispute that educating the public is the paramount strategy to ensure a prosperous future where people are more inclined to make decisions that have the best positive outcome for society as a whole.  However, the cost and strain that education places on students makes one think twice about getting a diploma.

Let's take recent history for an allegory.  During this current recession one factor which influenced the events of the past year were the inability of individuals with mortgages for their homes to pay back these loans.  Whether they should have received mortgages is a question that I am no expert to answer and does not pertain to my overall general argument.  The inability of individuals to pay back their mortgages led to a downward spiral of financial institutions going bankrupt and people losing every asset they owned.

Now to parallel this with education.  With such a massive amount of students in their early 20's gaining such titanic amounts of debt in hopes to establish a positive and fruitful future, one must take a step back and wonder can this many college graduates really pay back this debt.  One advantage college graduates had in the past was the significantly lower number of individuals attending college and graduating.  Therefore, the ones who graduated held much more cultural capital and had a stronger hold on bargaining for employment and their income.  This falls in line with the  facets of  supply and demand.  Generally, the reduced supply of a certain commodity or good (in this case college graduates), the greater the demand will be for said good, therein making the value of said good appreciate.

Can we as a college students be confident and assured enough that the investment we are placing upon our education and future will pay off?  The banks which give out the money are fervent and unrelenting in pursuing the repayment of their loans, regardless of how successful or financial stable a student has become.

Society pressures us that going to college is the only vehicle to secure a prosperous future where you can contribute to the upbuilding of our communities.  After continually maintaining a reflection eternal upon this system I'm beginning to think twice.  It almost seems there is some clandestine plan which promotes students striving for an education and telling us education is the only way to secure a future, only to place a dollar value on our efforts to restrict individuals without the financial capital to educate themselves.  Which in turn, only perpetuates stagnation in the social hierarchy and establishes a caste system that doesn't allow every individual to increase their status and cultural worth.

The Random House Dictionary's definition of education is thus; the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

I previously stated that the larger amount of college graduates may decrease our worth and ability to procure financial stability.  However, to place a dollar value on one's growth and evolution is futile and preposterous and only pushes individuals further away from education as a whole.  Consequently, potentially ensnaring our social mobility and placing those in poor financial shape in shackles and chains.  Education, in my opinion will lead to the enlightening of our generation and generations to come, due to the ills and imbalances of society we have seen in the past and present.  We have no choice but to establish an approach that will allow us to nurture and develop new methods to allow every human to sustain their growth mentally, physically, spiritually, and economically through the rigors of socialization, regardless of one's culture, creed, or belief system.

Alas, we are already absorbed within the game that has subdued many of my colleagues and classmates, and there is not much we can do to change the past.  However, with the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years of our schooling, and the growing ambiguity and unascertainable nature of the future, one thing for sure is certain.  We stand in the 21st century with the cultural capital we have purchased, clutched by the throat and wallet, only to be manumit by the idiosyncrasies and double standards of universities,employers, and financial institutions.

As always, the one who attempts to align all ways as always.

-Alpha-

Peace to all the Nihilistic cavemen

Shout out to Lt. Headtrip for coining the above phrase.  What makes your head trip?  There's too much nowadays to try to solve everything or fathom everything at once.  Step by step, piece by piece I suppose.  If everyone does their part can things be better?  But then we have to figure out what everyone's part is.  We have to agree on what is "right".  Signing out before I fall too deep into my own rabbit hole.  It will occur soon enough and I will keep all of you posted out there in TV land.  Maybe the revolution will be televised, or better yet Youtubed.

-As always it is the Altruistic ANIMALLLL, Alpha-

I bid you adieu.

Woke Up Early On My Born Day

Thank you, thank you, thank you to whatever force was behind me turning 22 this past weekend and having a great time celebrating it with those in my circle. Another wild weekend at Walton where pong balls we're being pursued in tenacity by our mangy mutt Lola Monsta Movement! She has become a force to be reckoned with if you miss your pong shots for she will catch any ball in midair that does sink a cup. That's right, move on over Air Bud! We have a pong playing dog in the making. You don't realize how many people you are friends with until they all come together at once and then you realize that you are probably loved. All in all it was a fun weekend, plus I finally have jumped back on the mic after a slight hiatus of recording. Don't know if the lack of recording was caused by a lack of Motiv8-ion, being lazy, not having all the Quarter-Martyrs of the Squadron in each others presence at one time in one location, or a mixture of all these variables and more. I recorded 2 free-form songs this weekend.

DISCLAIMER: these are not what some artists like to deem as a "freestyle". A freestyle is the process of creating a song and/or rhyme scheme at that very moment from the thoughts that fire into your mind through the synapses with occur at minutest unit of minute measurement.

What I recorded was just some cohesive thoughts about the current state of the world we live in today and the ability or perceived inability we have to make a difference. All in all we must learn to Puff, Puff, Pass, Struggle Struggle STRIVE!

Here is a link to the song. It is named "Mighty Healthy" performed by yours truly, Alpha, the Avatar of the Anonymous, the Anti-Acquiesce, the Always Asking, the Allusive to All Allegory.

http://www.mediafire.com/?wy1zjoynnqc

And I decided to be nice and type of the lyrics for ya, so you can better understand my perspective. As long as we can agree to disagree that's all I'm asking for.

They say that I'm photogenic
The mode of menace
That I'm trying to attain is like a vampire no image
No mirror fear no norms revoke terror
As the smoke clears up, I like to view the vultures cheer us
While very few of the youths culture hears them
No joke, we choke on purpose to draw you near us
::Gag, gag:: I don't wanna be a-
Nother trapped onomatopoeia
Trying to find his freedom
Away from the associations they lead us
A fetus at default? Nah!
I'd rather be fecal matter with the shit stains of revolt
Why we living passive in this day and null?
We gotta find a way to PULL
And not get PUSHed back cause some get discouraged from the fall
SURVIVAL of the fittest than I guess
...
I should bust my nut over your mic make you rest.
You ain't giving shit to the world but-fucking stress
By leading the illusion that is ludicrous at best
And,
As you jest I transcend from the crest just to walk on air and crush the barometric press!
If done I'd accomplish much less!
As we spirit bomb the game to tear away the flesh!
And put back the SOUL,
Believe you me, there is much to it than just cooked crack and gold....
Then I hesitate,
And let that resonate, etanoser, resonate.

I set the pace for us facing reality,
Puff, Puff, Pass, Struggle Struggle STRIVE!
Puff, Puff, Pass, Struggle Struggle STRIVE!
I set the pace for us facing reality,
I set the pace for us facing reality,
Puff, Puff, Pass, Struggle Struggle STRIVE!
PUFF PUFF PASS STRUGGLE STRUGGLE, strive.