Originality, that damn originality... (pseudophilosophical bs)

Aight so I'm late asf mb on that, but here's my views on it. they're kinda just some unorganized ideas I have, but they somewhat make sense.

on one hand, melodies and sounds and stuff are like words. u can use the same set of words in so many ways and for so many causes, so depending on context, there'll always be a limitless pool of potential books out there, vast majority of them never seeing the light of day. even if the sets of words get similar at times or have the same meaning in short context, they'll still be somewhat original and we'd still enjoy reading them, wouldn't we?

on another, a lot of times we limit our creativity by having the mindset of "I'm making Genre X of music today" before and during work. I say who tf needs a genre, really? my favorite stuff I ever made don't even really fit into a genre and if they do, I sure as shit didn't know what they really were until they were finished. most people don't really like them as much as I do anyway, but those songs are the essence of me and I'll enjoy making them till the day I physically can't.
Continuing on this idea, I think Greatness comes from somewhere like that. when u sacrifice a good bit of ur life on musical expertise and learning instruments and stuff (merely because it doesn't really seem like a "Sacrifice" to u, a lot of the times the hardships are more like a hobby), you will have the ability to maintain a minimum musical quality throughout legit everything. once ur there, you should just start making random shit, experimental shit. whatever u enjoy making man. in that case, since ur not a 17 yo weirdo with the lowest experience, no real expertise, no time and a shit budget, that's where greatness comes from. You'll be able to be YOU without sucking and imo, as long as you love every little itty bit of the work, alllll that greatness is wrapped up right within you.

OR u can just stop making trap.
 
Last edited:
Aight so I'm late asf mb on that, but here's my views on it. they're kinda just some unorganized ideas I have, but they somewhat make sense.

on one hand, melodies and sounds and stuff are like words. u can use the same set of words in so many ways and for so many causes, so depending on context, there'll always be a limitless pool of potential books out there, vast majority of them never seeing the light of day. even if the sets of words get similar at times or have the same meaning in short context, they'll still be somewhat original and we'd still enjoy reading them, wouldn't we?

on another, a lot of times we limit our creativity by having the mindset of "I'm making Genre X of music today" before and during work. I say who tf needs a genre, really? my favorite stuff I ever made don't even really fit into a genre and if they do, I sure as shit didn't know what they really were until they were finished. most people don't really like them as much as I do anyway, but those songs are the essence of me and I'll enjoy making them till the day I physically can't.
Continuing on this idea, I think Greatness comes from somewhere like that. when u sacrifice a good bit of ur life on musical expertise and learning instruments and stuff (merely because it doesn't really seem like a "Sacrifice" to u, a lot of the times the hardships are more like a hobby), you will have the ability to maintain a minimum musical quality throughout legit everything. once ur there, you should just start making random shit, experimental shit. whatever u enjoy making man. in that case, since ur not a 17 yo weirdo with the lowest experience, no real expertise, no time and a shit budget, that's where greatness comes from. You'll be able to be YOU without sucking and imo, as long as you love every little itty bit of the work, alllll that greatness is wrapped up right within you.

OR u can just stop making trap.
you are pretty wise for a kid, ngl
 
Aight so I'm late asf mb on that, but here's my views on it. they're kinda just some unorganized ideas I have, but they somewhat make sense.

on one hand, melodies and sounds and stuff are like words. u can use the same set of words in so many ways and for so many causes, so depending on context, there'll always be a limitless pool of potential books out there, vast majority of them never seeing the light of day. even if the sets of words get similar at times or have the same meaning in short context, they'll still be somewhat original and we'd still enjoy reading them, wouldn't we?

on another, a lot of times we limit our creativity by having the mindset of "I'm making Genre X of music today" before and during work. I say who tf needs a genre, really? my favorite stuff I ever made don't even really fit into a genre and if they do, I sure as shit didn't know what they really were until they were finished. most people don't really like them as much as I do anyway, but those songs are the essence of me and I'll enjoy making them till the day I physically can't.
Continuing on this idea, I think Greatness comes from somewhere like that. when u sacrifice a good bit of ur life on musical expertise and learning instruments and stuff (merely because it doesn't really seem like a "Sacrifice" to u, a lot of the times the hardships are more like a hobby), you will have the ability to maintain a minimum musical quality throughout legit everything. once ur there, you should just start making random shit, experimental shit. whatever u enjoy making man. in that case, since ur not a 17 yo weirdo with the lowest experience, no real expertise, no time and a shit budget, that's where greatness comes from. You'll be able to be YOU without sucking and imo, as long as you love every little itty bit of the work, alllll that greatness is wrapped up right within you.

OR u can just stop making trap.
I realized 1 more thing, that it's also about your life and the variety of music you're associated with as well.

The more... open you are to getting out of ur comfort zone with music, whether if it's listening to it or making it (altho "making it" would go to the expertise and training part). in total it's kind of too naive to expect your music to be completely original, not only that a lot of the music is already out there even if u haven't heard it, you're constantly copying sounds u've already heard to finish your songs anyway, so you can't really get off the shoulders of the giants. but the more music you listen to, the wider the pool of micro-melodies and sonic ideas that u already absorbed would be, so you'd have this sort of deep creativity pool to make your sound more unique than the average. to say it in another way, if everyone is copying some melodies that they already heard and they put them together to make unique songs, there'll be more a possibility for you to make the most unique music, since you have a wider pool of ideas to subconsciously put together in ur head.

I'm not sure about this part, but Getting out of your head while making music also seems to be key. while I'm making music I'm always learning and thinking, but there's this balance point between subconsciously doing things and doing them because they're right, and I still haven't really figured out how or when I get in it. sometimes I do, most times I don't, lot of times I even get in it but then realize I'm in that zone, get excited and overthink myself out of it, but either way it seems to be workin better when I'm in it.

and about ur life, I believe ur emotional life matters a lot, so the more open you are to newer experiences the stronger the feelings you put in your music can be. so in a way, ur first job as a musician is to really live.

(in a perfect world, you could say the system would function as an investment routine. people look within artists and find the experts they can put their hopes on, then by buying our music, they're actually paying us all that money so that we can travel and experience things and translate all of it into different forms of art. in a way they'd profit from it too since those who can't afford that kinda life can always get a taste of it through our music and...)
 

OGBama

Big Clit Energy
Yes! @Armani I feel you on getting out of a comfort zone, I'll share this: I also "sing" (minus Auto-Tune) and while I'm not formally trained, the informal student in me can easily find some shit to turn me on w/o being on some "damn, this is not what I'm accustomed to" because the joy is in the discovery process. Too bad main thing I hear in my household is "ain't no more good singers, etc." and for me I avoid the radio like the plague 'cause I know it's not a way to educate me on what I haven't already heard in my adult life.
 

OGBama

Big Clit Energy
About @Armani comfort zone many of the concerts I've attended by choice off and on since 22 y.o. have been everything except Hip Hop. Since my early 20s I've seen in my city: Ramsey Lewis and Nancy Wilson, Jason Ricci & New Blood, John Legend ("Get Lifted" Tour), Brian McKnight ("Just Me" Tour, I may have seen him prior to that but forget if/when I did), Peabo Bryson (twice), Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour (Kenny Barron Trio, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling, Russell Malone, Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Johnathan Blake), The Marcus Roberts Trio, T.S. Monk Sextet, Kirk Franklin's 20 Years In One Night Tour, Cameo & ConFunkShun (as part of long defunct "City Stages" festival), & After 7 ("Timeless" with special guest Kenny Lattimore).
 
Last edited:
Top