Saturday 20 December 2008

MY THOUGHTS: IF YOUR BABY IS A COINCIDENCE

(if you feel like trying to reach out makes you loose your dignity - leave it until better times at least)

DISCLAIMER: I am not talking about all men or all women in general, this only touches particular situations and of course there are real men, great fathers, loving husbands and caring boyfriends out there.

I wanted to share some thoughts about situations, which happen quite often, when women get pregnant and it's just an unplanned coincidence. First of all, my advice is: never go for an abortion, you'll find out that every life to be born is a miracle, and you'll be happy that you haven't made a mistake that could never be changed afterwards - never ever.

So, in situations when you have a baby from a man, with whom you have no particular relationship and the only way to get him is to go through lawyers and courts, if there is no opportunity to have a direct, honest conversation with a person looking into each other's eyes - I think it's better to leave it. In times when so many children are getting adopted and find home in families they have no blood connection with and in many cases - happily, it doesn't matter who the biological father is if he is unwilling to take part in his child's life or the only way to get him is through such pain as courts. It's not worth it. There will be a chance to find a real soul mate, and there are many examples when men adopted kids of the woman from previous relationships.

When I was born, my Dad was far away, he only appeared and saw me for the first time when I was over 2 years old, but he wasn't there when my my was pregnant and after she gave birth at all. A few guys were in love with my Mum and proposed to her while my Dad wasn't there and they all were saying to her: "Nina, your baby needs a father, so I can be the one!" Then my Mum married one guy and he was so much in love with my her, he really wanted to adopt me apart from hoping to have his own children of course. And those guys were not some miserable ones or golddiggers, they were descent ambitious and successful.

So we need to live for the beautiful moments of life, rather than dragging into some pointless drama, like going to family courts and begging for financial support. I know, you might think I sound crazy, but listen, I come from the country where majority of women are independent and hard-working, and even when they divorce they manage to bring up the children on their own without taking anything from a man while making their career, it's hard but at least you don't loose self-esteem. There is nothing more important than your dignity, and there is nothing that can stop you from possibly making the same or more money than any man, if you educate yourself and concentrate on achieving your goals. However, it depends what you like more: dedicating your time to having a beautiful date, great sex and being with a person who respects and appreciates you - and if he does, believe me he will feel the same way about your child - or fussing an fighting for some dollars or pounds with a man who don't even care how you feel, wasting your time on somebody who don't deserve it at all.

And if the man who made you pregnant, you have known only briefly, hasn't been there for you at any time, he practically has as much reference to your child as the anonymous man who's sperm you could buy at a sperm bank. Some men (I don't say ALL men) manage to live good life while having unprotected sex without even thinking about further responsibilities. If that ends up in making a baby, it doesn't make them fathers automatically just because they are spreading their seed around the world, it only makes them sperm donors. A child doesn't need a father who doesn't respect his/her mother. As one of my friends in Russia said: "That's not gangsta". Meaning, even real gangstas there don't abandon their kids, don't have to love the woman but take care of the child for sure.

Gone are the times when men and women came together mainly for economical reasons. We need soulmates, with whom we can go a long way with, have times of positive understanding and primarily moral support and respect for each other. Women can be confident, we can make it with or without men, and children are not a burden, they are inspiration.

I know, I am a mother.

JAHNA SEBASTIAN

MY THOUGHTS: THE TRUTH ABOUT HISTORY MAKING

How genius makes it or from nothing to something

Now I wanna talk about understanding of achievements in the light of circumstances given.

"I come from a place where kids are addicted to glue" - that's one of the lines from K'Naan's song "What's hardcore?". That is relevant to Russia too.
When I was locked up I've seen people who have come through some serious offences in this life: I've seen those who were raped, betrayed, lost all their possessing because of war, have been persecuted or unlawfully prosecuted etc. and still they would be looking into the future with their eyes wide open and not losing a positive view. In some countries the most common word you hear is "death" and it's like cleaning your teeth everyday, like watching football.

Let's take two examples. The genius of Bob Marley, who was a boy from a small village in the middle of nowhere in Jamaica, who came all the way from there to become an international Icon, some consider him a prophet. He had to struggle longer than even the period of him finally becoming successful superstar before he died, but the legend will live forever. He became from nothing into one of the most influential people of the last century and even now posthumously. He came from a small poor family in a controversial and at that time very racist society and if you want to talk money - well, his albums are still selling better than some of these chart-floppers of these wannabe pop-stars, who don't even write any of their songs not being particularly talented vocally or artistically either.
Then let's take somebody (not being specific to name) who was lucky enough to have a huge family that was mostly involved in the same industry, born in UK or US, then together they build empire brick by brick, making more and more money and than becoming so money-blind that the only thing left is to boast about how much they have. Now, people born in Jamaica, Somalia or Russia have less opportunities to start with in this world than those born in US or UK, especially if you belong to ethnical minority (that's why it's called so, there's not many people like you) Then sometimes you have to go to another country to survive and get a better chance in life, but start everything from the beginning on your own, being absolutely lonely with NOONE to back you up. Now who has the LONGER WAY TO THE STARS HAS MORE REAL DIGNITY AND RESPECT. There is nothing to boast about if you have been given a relatively easier circumstances to go through than somebody else who had to struggle to get what he has. Now looking at some chain blingers in America and at kids who are war-veterans in Somalia, I can clearly see who is the NATURAL WINNER.

I felt like I'll post an incomplete list of famous refugees:

Moses - fled Egypt after killing a man [subject to belief and historical record]
Jesus - his family fled from Israel because of King Herod [subject to belief and historical record]
Muhammad (PBUH) - fled from Mecca to Medina in 577 [subject to belief and historical record]
Max Born - Nobel Prize for physics - German-Jewish refugee
Albert Einstein - one of the world's most famous scientists - German-Jewish refugee
Alexander Alekhine - chess World Champion, who moved from Communistic Russia to France.
Marlene Dietrich - actress and refugee from Nazi Germany
Peter Carl Fabergé - Russian jeweller, fled Russia via Finland, Germany to Switzerland.
Alfred Wolmark - painter, a Polish-Jewish refugee
Mika -famous singer who fled from Beirut Lebanon .
Wyclef Jean - Haitian refugee. Named group Fugees (short for refugee).
M.I.A. - English-born singer. Part of a Tamil Sri Lankan refugee family
Bob Marley - Fled Jamaica to Miami after being shot during political violence.
K'Naan - Somali "The Dusty Foot Philosopher" Hip Hop Artist now living in Toronto, Canada
Karl Marx - political theorist and German refugee
Leon Trotsky - Marxist theorist, and former member of the Soviet Politburo
Madeleine Albright - former U. S. Secretary of State
Sigmund Freud - Austrian Jew, founded psychoanalysis, he fled from Nazism in Austria
Claude Lévi-Strauss - French-Jewish philosopher and anthropologist. He was a French refugee
Michaëlle Jean - Haitian- The current Governor-General of Canada
Anish Kapoor - won the 1991 Turner Prize. His parents were refugees who fled Iraq.
Sir John Houblon - grandson of refugees. He was the first Governor of the Bank of England
Alek Wek - a supermodel, she fled Sudan with her family
Tanya Sarne - fashion designer and creator of the Ghost label. Her father was a Russian refugee.
Sir Alec Issigonis - designer of the Mini, he was a refugee
Anne Frank - as a child she fled from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands.
Vladimir Nabokov - Russian author and lepidopterist. Escaped to Europe from the Russian Civil War and then to the United States from the advance of Nazi Germany.

Even though some of these people might not have made as much money as 50 Cent, or some of the little kids next door would know Souljaboy better, the contribution of the first to the global history can't be valued with money or underestimated.
We need to understand that people who have really made history, I would say every real leader has been at some point very low and powerless, when those who had no moral right abused or offended them just because it seemed they had more lawful or money power. This life has ups and downs and practically the STRONGER AND MORE HISTORY USEFUL THE PERSON IS THE BIGGER THE CONTRAST IS IN DIFFERENT TIMES IN HIS/HER LIFE.

The same way this refers to those who got something too easily - don't be too overwhelmed with illusions, nothing material lasts forever, even your physical life on earth.
The history also shows, how leaders have been abandoned by the most useless hypocrites in hard times, than only to trade places of both sides so revenge was impossible to avoid, but it was too late for those hypocrites to apologize ... The History is a joker too.



Peace n Harmony

One of my favorite videos of 2008 from one of my favorite albums of this year

in the times of world crisis we gonna say - sooner or later it all comes crashing down :)

N.E.R.D. - Sooner or later

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

Saturday 13 December 2008

LIVE 2005-2008

Check out some of my live performances from Moscow to London, 2005-2008:




The bands and artists I've performed with in this video:
United Vibrations
Dawn Penn
C.L.O.N.E. (Clean Tone)
Muzungu
Jah Souldierz

THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY DO ...

I just saw this on RealTalkNY:

The Baltimore Examiner obtained surveillance footage of teenagers laughing while a 46-year-old man is robbed at gunpoint and then shot in a Chinese carry out. Two teens have been charged as adults, but the rest will probably not be charged for their callous attitude. Detectives told Luke Broadwater that shopkeepers continued taking orders and serving customers while the man bled on their floor, refusing him shelter behind the counter.

FULL STORY

This is crazy, in this time and age we are supposed to be moving forwards, or it seems some people evolute back to monkey level? There are tough areas, I've seen some craziness going on. BUT. I have to say, when some people are trying to get explanations to things like that saying: "They were drug dealers, now they got now choice, too much pressure on them, so they have to rob". No matter how poor you are, there is ALWAYS an alternative. Especially in developed countries like US and UK. Education will open your eyes on better things in life. You don't have to want all the bling-bling all at once. There is a more positive way, if those guys at least went to college, they wouldn't end up selling drugs in the first place, even in these times of world crisis there is always a way to keep yourself on top of things. What a wasted life - hustling drugs, robbing, then - prison, then after serving the time, everything starts again in the same circle. Or read some books, take some course, find out what you might be good at in this life, get a job, you gotta start somewhere, nobody can be the boss straight away, then after you get some experience - start your own business. That way when you are 50 you'll probably be retiring on your villa in Spain instead of going back and forth from prison to outside world when your kids - if you ever have any - will hate you, swear at you, and probably follow your footsteps. There is no point to this. If you want to - you CAN get out. Just open your eyes. Some of my friends used to be part of Russian mafia back in the days, and that's not some local thugs, those guys were seriously controlling the whole areas in Moscow back in the 90's. They all have grown up now and found God and a goal in there life. The goal is - to master what your are good at and achieve the best results and make a positive impact into your community. Peace & Blessings

I AM BACK TO BLOGGER

I haven't been posting for a while, but now I am back to blogger with some new stuff right here.

my debut music video on my song "Tough Game":












and "Making Of "Tough Game" music video":










The video was produced by my friend Black Jack (Black Jack Productions) and features MC Den Bro, MC Ganz. We had a lot of fun, but apart from that I can say: I did it, I shoot the video for myself on my own budget. I am not gonna sit there and do nothing even considering the circumstances I am in. I have to move on no matter what. I think it's happening

Friday 16 May 2008

Jahna Sebastina EP will be released in summer 2008!!!

Yes, it's time for my EP to be released this summer, exact date hasn't been set yet, but I know I'll put five songs there and I am doing it independantly, coz I am my own boss, yes, I write, produced, record, mix my own stuff and I have been doing my thing for a minute back home in Russia, than I moved to UK for a change and hope to get this out their. The world doesn't know about Russian artists out there yet, apart from classical music, there hasn't been anybody able to make it outside Russia except T.A.T.U. I am just goin with my own flow at the moment, and I have always been independant, we've made the history on a certain scale (underground, but that's where the music develops in Russia, not on the top of the pops there, most defenitely), so now it's time for me to move on in UK and spread the postivie message worldwide. Music is my life and I have always been making it, although I am not from a musical family, it is my choice despite all the hardships and underwater stones I've came across on the road, I try to keep it positive and I will be always making my music for the love of it. I am putting out my cd myself, so, if you like what I'm doing, all sorts of support is welcomed, join my mailing list for news and updates, join my street team and spread the message, my music and videos etc.

Peace & Blessings

*****JahNa*****

Sunday 11 May 2008

Loosinourselves - NU Version!

Check out the new version of "Loosinourselves", I have just remixed it, this song was originally recorded for "Jah Souldierz" album "Multivision Time" (2007), now I got some new vibes there. It will be released on my EP this summer, watch out for the updates.



yeah, from Russia with loooooooooove !!! :)

Thursday 8 May 2008

LADYS! IF YOU HAD ENOUGH OF THEM CHEAP LINES, ALL THOSE GUYS SHOUTING OUT WHEN YOU WALK BY

LADYS! IF YOU HAD ENOUGH OF THEM CHEAP LINES, ALL THOSE GUYS SHOUTING OUT WHEN YOU WALK BY
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Music

Ok, so I thought I'd post this to spread the word, coz it's important to hear A MAN'S POINT OF VIEW! this is from MC Sparda: http://www.myspace.com/itssparda

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Sparda mc NW TAKINGS BOOKINGS - DWNLOAD NO NOOKIE
Date: 30 Apr 2008, 09:02


Ladys YOU HAD ENOUGH OF THEM CHEAP LINES, ALL THOSE GUYS SHOUTING OUT WHEN YOU WALK BY. TALKING TO U BCOZ THEY THINK DAT UR EASY, TELL THEM GO TALK TO THE NEXT FLUZI.

Hey How you doing im sparda mc i have just released my ladies anthem called No Nookie On ITUNES. BASICALLY its about them guys who talk to you with the maximum disrespect and only want you for one thing. and what im basically saying is dont have a single bit of their crap. if your a queen u deserve to be treated with one. so now that its out buy the single its on my page to listen to it and put it on ur ipod. thank you sparda mc

HELP ME MAKE IT INTO THE NATIONAL CHART BUY BUYING NO NOOKIE PLEASEEEEE

YES THE NO NOOKIE SINGLE IS NOW OUT AVAILBLE ON ITUNES BUY IT, ITS ONLY 79P IN THE US 99C-

Support the movement join the street team

hey im also lookin back up singer for my band


P.S. from Jahna: yeah, I totally agree with the above and the lyrics in the song, so guys, go and check this out too, ladys getting too much bad attitude these days, we want R.E.S.P.E.C.T.!!!

Friday 2 May 2008

NEW VIDEO BY DUB AKA (BUMBLE BEE STUDIOS) ON MY SONG "PLEASE FORGIVE DEM LORD"

Multivision Music Studio presents: "Please Forgive Dem Lord", written, recorded and produced by Jahna Sebastian aka Missie J ("Jah Souldierz"). The film by Bumble Bee Studios, produced by Dub AKA (Derek Wright) 2008




I wrote "Please Forgive Dem Lord" after my bass-guitarist of my band "Jah Souldierz" (which I formed in Russia in 2005) was beaten up by fascist skinheads on his way to Bob Marley Festival in Moscow, where we were scheduled to perform. He was injured badly and was taken straight to the hospital, but we still performed without him with our guitarist taking the bass. All of those criminals were set free, most of them never found. It happened to him because the skinheads in Russia think that playing reggae, hiphop, soul, jazz or any kind of "black music" is wrong and they particularly attack not only people of different race and skin colour in Russia, but also musicians who play "foreign" music. There is a street war going in Russia at the moment with fascist and antifascist movement fighting against each other. But there are deeper roots hidden behind the real situation and why fascism raised it's head in Russia, the country which defeated Hitler in 1945, and I believe that when there will be no more prejudice in the world, there'll be no more wars, but also we need to find peace in our own hearts.

http://www.myspace.com/jahnaanduskurah
http://www.myspace.com/djdubaka
http://www.jahsoldiers.ru

Monday 7 April 2008

girls strippin down promotion - where is R.E.S.P.E.C.T.?

While I am watching most of the music videos created these days, I think to myself: "why and who needs this promotion of women as strippers and prostitutes and why do girls don’t respect themselves enought to get involved in that?" Sometimes, you look at a picture and see a girl in bikini or almost nude and your might think that she’s a model or something and than you find out that she is an "upcoming singer". Then you happen to meet these type of dudes who are telling you: "all that sells in the music business now is sex, that’s the way to success, doesn’t matter if you can actually sing!" Then I remember the words of one guy who’s married to a very beautiful model-like lady with very very long and perfect shape legs (all men just get crazy looking at her) when he said that when you see all that every day showing off, at first you get used to it, than you stop noticing and even get tired and then it’s not that attractive to you anymore, if there’s nothing behind it, i e soul beauty.

Some artists strip down when they don’t need to, because they are blessed with some talent and people will still go and buy their cd’s or concert tickets if they don’t do that. Come on, guys, it should be all about music? then in many commercial hiphop videos (I’m talking about MTV, but that’s what the kids are gettin their hands on) you see naked or almost naked girls surrounding one not always cute dude, shakin their naked booties into the cameras and doin whateva ... I mean, it’s great if you can shake your booty and it’s beautiful if you are actually dancing and doing it well especially to certain types of music, and I do shake my booty in the clubs (dancing!), but there is a difference between a dance and a strip tease or porno. A whole bunch of artists singin and rappin about girls who are strippers and prostitutes as if it’s a normal job for a woman after hundred years of women’s struggle to be accepted equal to men in their rights such as getting education, persue a career in anything just like any man would, voting etc. Why? then when I saw Kanye West video for "Flashin Lights", I was shocked by this strange conception of this weird girl taking her clothes of and then murdering a guy in the car, this is not healthy, I mean we have that in life, just watch any Russian TV channel news programe (if you speak Russian) and you will see this violance as an everyday life. Lack of love, violance and then somebody’s still asking why there are guns and knives in the hands of kids in the streets these days? If the kids see all these strippers and most successful artists rappin about women as "b$tches and hoes" and relationships built on money, HOW KIDS ARE GOING TO FIND OUT ABOUT LOVE? And if you are actually singin about love, you don’t need to do it while undressing yourself, there other creative ways of expressing an idea of L.O.V.E. whatever it is, strippin down or prostitution, it’s just about business based on men’s weekness when lookin at a naked girl. And at the same time these type of men (not all men) who are actually talking about cash-relationships are the greediest ones. I have been told so many times "you should go and do what everybody does now, sex sells!" Well, I think, sex sells for a short period of time and LOVE sells FOREVER. I have never seen Lauryn Hill do dirty things, but her album "Miseducation ..." is a classic and I have never seen it on the shelves in charity shops for 50p like some other "successful at a time" artists’ cd’s, because most people would keep it in their collection. Real music stays forever. Bob Marley’s music is known at least a little bit to almost everyone in the world, unless you have lived in a fishtank for your whole life.

Sex is good and important, but not when it sells. Sex is a form of showing love to somebody, getting to know that person you like. Even if you have sex on a first date (don’t get me wrong, but anything can happen), if a girl agreed to it becuase she liked the guy that much, she’s not a prostitute or a whore. When you actually do it because of your feelings, that’s natural and we’re all human. But if you do it with intention to squeeze a bit of cash out of it, that’s a different story. Ok, there have always been people doing this and prostitution is one of the most ancient proffessions, but it should not be raised to a normal way of life. It should stay where it is in it’s own place not promoted by "every day new pop idols" to the new generation.
But after all, today, when women are absolutely equal to men in most parts of the world by law, girls forget about it and misuse their beauty for temporary satisfaction of men’s ego. When you can go, get a Degree, choose any proffession and persue a career, and yes, make your own money by working hard and achieving your dreams. And when you get older you would not be ashamed to look into your kids’ eyes and tell them what you’ve been doing. But who needs this promotion of women acting like stupid sex machines designed to work until you’re broke? All I’m asking is for a little R.E.S.P.E.C.T.!

Sunday 6 April 2008

The weather's gone crazy in London

I woke up today, looked outside my bedroom window and couldn't believe my eyes: SNOW everywhere! In April! In England! and yesterday it was like +16 C! I have never seen such a huge temprature shift in my life! I am from Moscow where we have four seasons with -25 C in winter and + 30 in summer, but when the weather changes within two days, it can't be explained, especially in the country of a mild climate. By evening it melted away though. This is scary... Winter in Moscow in 2005/2006 was the coldest in the past 30 years with -40 C throughout all February, it was like walking on Mars, seriously, once you come out on the street in one minute your hair got covered with ice. Winter 2006/2007 was the warmest ever in Moscow when there was only one month of winter and through all other time it was above 0 C and polluted air gets stuck in your lungs toxicating your body even more severely ... After that you start believing a bit in various theories like "the end of the world in 2012" and stuff like that. I wrote a song recently called "So here comes the light now", so watch out, it has links with what I'm walking about here.

Thursday 27 March 2008

RUSSIAN CONNECT PARTY AT LOOM BAR VIDEO

JAHNA SEBASTIAN AT THE FIRST RUSSIN HIPHOP PARTY IN UK on 25th March 2007, THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN HIPHOP IN UK HAS BEGUN!

Friday 21 March 2008

Russian Connect : Jahna Sebastian live on first Russian hiphop party in UK

RUSSIAN CONNECT : FIRST RUSSIAN HIPHOP PARTY IN UK !!!
I’M GONNA BE THERE AND HOPE TO SEE YA ALL AT CLUB LOOM IN LONDON ON 25TH MARCH :

Russian Connect

ADDRESS: CLUB LOOM, 5 CLIPSTON STREET,
FITZROVIA,
LONDON,
W1W 6BB
TUBE: GREAT PORTLAND STREET

FROM 8PM TILL 2AM
ADMISSION: GIRLS FREE B4 11PM
GUYS £3 ALL NIGHT

Thursday 21 February 2008

OFFICIAL BRIT AWARDS AFTER PARTY AT CHINWHITE

OFFICIAL BRIT AWARDS AFTER PARTY AT CHINWHITE, 20.02.2008

SOME PICS

Jahna Sebastian
Jahna Sebastian

Jahna Sebastian and Lili
Jahna Sebastian _ Official Brit Awards After Party

Jahna Sebastian
Jahna Sebastian _ Official Brit Awards After Party

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Ok, so after a long time I got my hands back on working on Den Bro's tracks, as he finally hit my studio in North London. Den Bro is a rapper from Estonia and he is currently recording his mixtape. I just was happy to be able to sit there and record, mix and do my sound engineering magic again after the more than two months break, working on another artist's track is looking at music from a different prospective. Yeah, the track is with conscious lyrics and I might do a couple of lines there too, so new collab is coming up

anyway, I was running around all day like crazy and it was good to kind of relax in the studio and I feel like I'm born again ...

Wednesday 6 February 2008

BOB MARLEY'S EARTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST ARTIST (IN MY PERSONAL OPINION) OF ALL TIMES - BOB MARLEY. HIS SONGS HAVE MADE ME LOOK ON VARIOUS THING IN MY LIFE DIFFERENTLY AND HIS MUSIC IS TIMELESS AND PRICELESS! BOB MARLEY WOULD HAVE BEEN 63 TODAY, HE WILL ALWAYS STAY WITH US!

ONE LOVE

Tuesday 5 February 2008

MusicTank conference : Deal or no Deal?

On 5thFebruary2008 I have attended one of the Music Tank conferences in MCPS-PRS Alliance with panel comprises: Mike Smith (MD, Columbia Records), Antony Bebawi (Director, Legal&Business Affairs, EMI Publishing UK), Adrian Bullock (Independant Royalty Consultant, Bullocks Limited), Chris Morrison (MD, CMO Management Ltd), David Stopps (Artist Manager, FML Music) and Keith Harris (Chairman MusicTank)

This day proved to be one of those days, which I call "free stuff days", I got discounts all the way through since the morning and that was pretty inspiring ;-) So the same thing happened when I came to MCPS-PRS Alliance and I was running late and I managed to get in for free, I guess mostly because it was a lucky day.
Everybofy knows that the music business is changing rapidly, unless you have been living in a tank since 2000 ;), mainly because of digital downloads that have made music almost free and therefore, some people are talking about the upcoming "death of the record industry". So I think that in many ways an opposite to this thing has been proven this night: it's not dying, It's just trying to find new ways of existance and furthermore - even more through digital formats, just like in that song last year: "hip-hop is not dead, it just immigrated"... On the other hand some of the most important things have been noted: music industry is going to function more because of live performances and merchandise + other sides of business where an artist could be involved, especially throgh signing a 360 degree deal with a record-company. Before you used to release a record and go on tour to support the sales, now - you would release a single and album to promote your future tour and through performing live you will actually earn a living. At this point, I realised two things: 1) I have been writing about it in my Master's Degree written work almost two years ago at Russian Academy of Music 2) this business model sounds really familiar - oh, yes of course, this looks just like music business in Russia! What was the main difference between the music industry worldwide, in US and UK, has faded away because of technology and the same thing as in Russia - bootlegers. OK, let's hope than that the way that worldwide music business will not take the worst example of Russian business in a similar situation, what I had run away from and escaped to UK hoping for the best and that is:
1) because people don't buy records, and you have to rely on live performances, it actually doesn' improve the quality, but worsens it, because the managers striving for getting as many gigs as possible for there artists in order to make more money go for pre-recorded playback instead of actually singing live. In Russia some of the artists do 60 gigs a month and in reality it is almost impossible to do even for the best singer in the world. So they just don't bother, they just put on a CD with playback - less work for the sound engineer too ... That also led to actually disappearance of real artists from the major scene and instead more of those people being brought into business just "to pose" who don't have anything to do with music at all, because lack of talent makes them easier to be controlled. A real singer wouldn't agree to everything and what's more wouldn't want to perform miming! And that's what they do on "Star Factory" - Russian equivalent of XFactor or American Idol - they just mime instead of singing!
2) The artists in Russia don't have any power. They don't even make money that much and people think that they are rich, but it's not true. Some of the most popular "artists" there get paid something like $100 - $200 and the rest goes to their executive producer, that's like the same money you can make performing in a general night club venue without depending on any body and doing your thing really live! But because there is no talent in those people, they put up with it because they know - they can easily be replaced if they complain and nobody would notice. They are not allowed in most cases even to write there own songs. They have no choice. They are nobody.
3) The venture capital that is represented by the money of oligarhs and those rich people in Russia. That actually led to this progression: big money -----> pay for the music -----> monopoly on the market, influence on the media like radio, TV etc. -----> if you can get one of the big guys to invest in you a certain fee you are half way through. On the other hand it just left everybody outside the boat, it mean independant artists have no way, just "NO WAY" of getting through to the major audience. Because the TV and radio belongs to certain people there. But not Internet ;-)

well, let's hope that this decadance will never happen in US, UK and in other countries, my hopes could be based on the following: 1) people here are much more musically educated than in Russia, I am talking about general public
2) as has been said tonight that "Music is more popular these days than ever. You see people walking down the street with iPods, listening to it all the time." "You can also see, that general audience is looking broader, not concentrating only on the major acts, but on smaller artists and that shows that people have broader tastes." It is good that people from record-companies actually see that and talk and care about the "consumer" so much. That means they respect people's freedom of choice and probably, this would be an example of better development into something positive of the same business model.

Peace

Monday 4 February 2008

Jahna Sebastian live on London Peace Concert, Trafalgar Square

Jahna Sebastian live on London Peace Concert, Trafalgar Square, September 2007
"Please Forgive Dem Lord" by Jahna Sebastian (Jah Souldierz album)

Sunday 3 February 2008

"The Price of the Beauty"

For all the ladies who respect themselves and the beauty, that God gave them and guys to understand that women need more respect! ;-)

"The Price of the Beauty" :

Jahna Sebastian single - The Price of the Beauty



Multivision Music Studio. All rights reserved. (c) 2007

?!MONEY IN THE BANK?! C.R.E.A.M. OR NOT?

People get obsessed too much by money. Some of them set their life goals around getting money, no matter wich way. They would steal or kill for money, they think money will give them more freedom, but they don't realize - they become the slaves for money. But when you die, you wouldn't even take your body away from earth. Money was created by human and can be both evil and good, in general - it's in the middle. Money can give security in a way, can pay for expensive operation or medical treatment required to save someone' life, for food for those who are hungry, for a place to live in not to stay in the street or in the jungle. Money can also make people go crazy about them and do stupid things. Money can bring security to some, but the others would become even more volnurable - mentally - being scared to loose this money one day. But if you loose it, what would you do? You'll start again and just know, there is always a way, as long as you are alive. Money can do a lot. But can't do one thing - it can't control you if you don't let it conquere you and make you sell your soul for it.

It is good to earn good money for the work you do. To be successful in what you do - is great. It is good to be appriciated and be able to support yourself and your family. But it's got another side of the medal.

Some people think: "cash rules everything around me". Not everything. Cash can't rule the circumstances and what is meant to be will be. If somebody is supposed to live or die, it will happen either way no matter what money involved. Cash can't rule God's plan. And there is always a human factor. It is more important to be true to yourself and to the others; to respect and keep real friendship; to keep promises you make or not make any pomises if you can't keep them; not to betray the ones you say you love; to take responsibility. Cash can't buy or fix mistakes in that. If you sell your soul once, no cash will buy it back. No matter, how much money you have - it is nothing to compare to eternity.

to be continued ...

MY STUPID SWEET SIXTEEN

I just found these pix of my "sweet sixteenth" birthday party back in 2002 in Moscow, and that's like just a small and the most innocent part ...

http://tynoe-ha3bahue.narod.ru/photopage2/pages/HyMepo_15_jpg.htm

.....blah .....

(Jahna and classmates: 2002)