I give thanks for being a producer myself so I don't have to fuck for tracks as if I was just a singer

This is the last drop, I just have to talk about it. Since I was 13 I have had to decline offers and sometimes ultimatums by men who would want me to sleep with them in turn of helping me forward my singing career. I have worked with many artists, producers, but everything I achieved is because of hard work, however I had to make decisions which closed certain opportunities in my career.

Today I was supposed to perform at Glastonbury Festival, the biggest festival in UK running for 40 years and just being a massive explosion of positive vibes. I rehearsed, mixed the instrumental specifically for this occasion, postponed a lecture at school I was supposed to give, bought special outfit and asked my mother to stay a few days more to babysit my daughter.
But the day before yesterday the male artist/producer we were going with gave me the ultimatum that I must stay with him an room at the festival, and I refused, saying that I can't stay with a man in a room like that. Of course, with such ultimatums I didn't go. I feel sorry that because of such low intentions the whole thing was completely poilt once again. Even though I have done engineering and played keybords on his tracks too for almost a year.

One thing I know that every step I made in my career has always been earned my hard work and skills and I have never sold my body to get further in the business. I didn't take on opportunities that were offered by those men who wanted me to pay with my body, I learned to produce myself and learned to be in a different position. A few years ago I realised that if only stick to singing and dancing, I would have been dependent on producers, and all of those I met were men - many of whom did want me to pay the price. So I figured if learn to complete a track by myself, it would save me time wasted on those men who give hope and then ultimatums, and money. I learned the skills of engineering and became geeky about it, but it's blessing that I have the right mindset for it and it doesn't bore me at all - in fact, the opposite reading some articles about new gear calms me down.

Hearing about some of today's successful artists, who for their career sleep with producers jumping from one to another, break up marriages even when kids are involved and take everything for themselves with no sense of morality, building their image by speculating on sacred things, then get Grammys and worldwide promotion, I think to myself that somehow they get away with it too easy, but what is happening within their soul?


UPDATE 29th July 2010

I was very surprised to find out that some folks started assuming that there were subliminal messages in this post. There are NO subliminal messages there.

The conclusion in my post was a general statement that can apply to various artists around the world from UK, US, Russia, China, Germany etc and at any point the history of music business. It was not targeted at any particular artist especially someone who writes and produces songs for themselves and other people, where is the logic in that? It was definitely not about Alicia Keys. Any Russian person who read it could have possibly linked it to a famous Russian artist in their mind who folks in the US or other parts of the world have never heard of. I guess, people see what their eyes want to see. No need to start a beef here and spread hate by taking words out of context.
If I said that I don't fuck for tracks it means I don't and have never done so. The story about Glastonbury is one of the incidents that happened in my life and was very upsetting. Also it doesn't mean that every relationship within the industry have to do with ulterior motives, people simply fall in love sometimes.

INTERVIEW I did in summer 2009 about my music and single "Emancipation"

Here is the interview I did a year ago about my music, moving to London, being a full-time working mom and my single released at that time "Emancipation". This interview was done in mid summer 2009 with Tanya T (singer, presenter for UK COMMUNITY EYE TV)

Brief story of "Emancipation EP"

I'm working on the follow-up to my album "Emancipation EP", so let me tell you the story behind the first one. Each song on the album has it's own story and started to live its own life long time ago. The concept for the album came when I was released from Yarl's Wood detention center where I was locked up for two months by mistake and then I won my case. I came out in January 2008 and I wrote a blog somewhere on Myspace, the words just came to me as a poem, I wrote about the feeling I had, I could smell freedom and it was all so unreal. My friend Nathan who knew how I was getting by used to say all the time "You should release a Yarl's Wood album, I'll be the first to buy it!". So I put those words on music and called that song "Nothing Like My Freedom". I got acquainted with Marc of the Infirmary through Myspace and he later came to record his part on the track. The other song "Emancipation" came to me first as a beat, I made it in January 2009 and put the lyrics down a couple of months later and it was my first ever song released on iTunes in July 2009. "Please Forgive Dem Lord" was originally written after my bass guitarist was beaten up by 35 neo nazis prior to our scheduled performance on Bob Marley Festival in Moscow in 2006. I changed it at least three times, made three beats and eventually it was included into this album. The video was made by Bumble Bee Productions in 2008 and it can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC0iY_v366o
(I uploaded it twice on Youtube)

The lyrics for "The Price of the Beauty" was written on a small piece of paper somewhere in Charing Cross after I found out about my unplanned pregnancy in autumn 2007, then I came home and made the beat within a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

Music and words for "Sad" came to me simultaniously in summer 2009 and it was a result of long talks with my close friend about fame and the price some people have to pay for it. I did picture some real people while writing this song.

I met Rephlex while shooting a test video for "Emancipation" with Black Jack in summer 2009, Rephlex just happened to be shooting his video at the same time somewhere near Canary Wharf. He later expressed that he liked the beat to the song when he heard it on Myspace and would like to spit on it. So I invited him to my studio and he recorded the lyrics to "Emancipation Remix".

Oxxxymiron came to my studio to record "Yeti & Deti" for Hip Hop battle in Russia, we were so happy about the work that day that he ended up recording the "Skit" to the beat I made before that. It is truely freestyled and expressed in his words on the track.

"Losinourselves" was originally written when I was in the middle of the circle of working really hard, drinking a lot, sleeping much less and partying like crazy, getting used to life in London after I moved here. It was before I had my daughter of course, since I had her I’m a good girl now :)

BUY album:

Antifascist Protest against racism and murders of innocent people in Russia (London 2009)

To all real soldiers we've lost, their family and friends, we remember your deeds, we continue the works on earth, step by step. The truth and justice will prevail.

Tajik students and many others gathered in front of Russian Embassy in London to protest against the killings of innocent people by neo-nazis in Russia.

Antifascist murdered by neo nazis in Ryazan, Russia

On 23rd of May 2010 a group of neo-nazis armed with stones attacked antifascist Konstantin Lunkin. The attack happened on his birthday near the entrance to his house. Nazi beated him up violently, fructured his skull with a stone. Girlfriend of one of the attackers couldn't stand the violance and called ambulance. On 31st May 2010 the young man died in the hospital from received injuries after being in coma.

Two graduates of local school suspected in the murder were detained on the day of the attack as the witness recognized them. However they were released soon after that. They were made free after police believed alibi of their parents that their children were at home at the time of the attack. According to antifascists from Ryazan, police have been passive in finding out the circumstances of the murder.

Konstantin Lunkin was representative of antifascist movement, sportsman and was actively resisting neo-nazis. He turned 25 years on 23rd May - the day of the attack. It is known, that boldheads have included him into their "black list" of enemies.

Friends of the antifascist said that he was a "free artist", social activist, who was into graffiti and was a very good person and friend.

SOURCE: http://www.newsru.com/crime/01jun2010/nazikillantifarjaz.html
http://xeno.sova-center.ru/45A29F2/EECB0C7

Tribe (Den Bro, Mark, Chiff) - Outro official music video

Big up my Russian crew! Tribe (Den Bro, Mark, Chiff) - Outro: first official music video! support the movement! This track is from their first mixtape "London Chronicles 2"
Directed by my man Black Jack



download the video HQ
http://www.sendspace.com/file/i0bpjv

download mixtape
http://dump.ru/file/4546814

Real rebels who strive for change in the world live and breath revolution to backup their words with actions

Real revolutionries throughout history always had to live the life of revolution, be exiled at some point from their country and locked up in some prison that would only prove their point and be granted official "rebel" status. They had to be a refugee and run away from those persecuting them for speaking and living the truth, just like prophets are not appriciated in their native land in the beginnings. Real rebels like Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey and others had to flee from their countries for bringing up issues unspoken about before and fighting for people's rights. There is a path that needs to be accomplished because truth is always being chased at first because it's a test for it, lies always find easy way to come through until revealed. There are many wearing false "rebel" masks, picking fruits of revolution done before, but how can any idea of freedom be promoted by those who are slaves to the System? History will tell who is who and the wheat from the chaff will be separated.

What It Means to Love

Sometimes it's easy to get confused in understanding of what it really means to love. TO LOVE means TO DO and that's different from just having an emotion or affection for somebody. To love your children means to take care of them, take the responsibility for making everything possible for them to live a happy and comfortable life no matter what circumstances are - we do what we can. It's unconditional love, like mother loves her child when looking after him/her and what she is supposed to do while putting the child first in planning her life, changing baby's nappies, waking up early every day to feed the baby and not sleeping through the nights when the child doesn't sleep or is sick even if in the morning she has to work really hard - she just doesn't sleep at all, doing everything possible to make a better living space and organizing school/college and many other things. There are no questions whether she wants to do it - she must do it and it's responsibility to love. It has to be the same for fathers, although some men do understand it, others just say it but in reality they don't realize that saying "love" and doing it - "loving" has a lot of work in between. The same thing applies to relationships, because after passion is gone it's about maintaing respect for each other, taking care of each other, being there for each other in sickness, weakness and any hardships, which is much more than just spending time together and having fun, like marriage differs from dating, because it goes to the next level as the years go by. However, to love our children and parents should always be number one priority to anything else because children are innocent and should not be responsible for our mistakes, and parents need our care and respect since they raised us and tried their best.

Remember Last Summer by Rascal van Russ presents Māja - Download Remember Last Summer on iTunes

Remember Last Summer by Rascal van Russ presents Māja - Download Remember Last Summer on iTunes
MULTIVIZION MUSIC

Album cover art image by Alessandro Marzio

I am pleased to share with you this new tune by talented producer/dj Rascal van Russ, it's definitely one of those great summer vibes, check it out.




It's available on iTunes

also on

MySpace Music
Napster
eMusic
IMVU
Amazon MP3
Shockhound
Nokia
Zune


Rascal van Russ OFFICIAL WEB-SITE:



TRANCE BEATS RADIO SHOW:
presented by Rascal van Russ

Tune In every MONDAY
from 00.00 to 01:00 GMT
Streamline:
www.trance.fm
exclusive mix of fresh tunes every week!

See the full tracklist on this page and don't forget that you can download the full episode on www.soundcloud.com/trancebeats

9th of May - the Day of Victory of USSR over Nazis in World War II

9th May - the Victory of USSR over Hilter and Nazi Germany in 1945, millions of Russians killed, both of my great grandparents fought in the war and died - one driving a tank and another one was the captain of the ship. Many history books have been rewriten in the West in favour of US and UK reducing the impact of Sovi...et people, but I and other Russians know facts from our grandparents apart from history lessons - truth being told through generations. Hitler repeated Napoleon's mistake but trying to invade Russia is like blowing at the candle light when the wind blows against you. Whoever will try again will fail, Russia has got sacred places and people at monasteries praying. In one of the last interviews Hitler said that fascism will return and rise up later in Russia, unfortunately, it became reality. But we celebrate the Vicotry over Nazis in 1945 because our great grandparents honorably fought for the next generations to be free from it. The modern neo-nazism in Russia is yet to be conquered - that's the paradox in the history, but it was brought from the outside through brainwashing of young people. 65 years ago Soviet people of all nations in USSR fought against the enemy without a question about skin color. We are confident in the Victory of Good over Evil.

Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
We say war


Victory Parade, Moscow 2010

The reality of being self-funded independent artist

The reality of being a self-funded artist is lack of finances (unless your dad is Roman Abramovich), organizing everything yourself and making things happening for yourself. But the Upside is that you are so FREE that nothing stops you from being really creative, and this is what true art is about. I don't have no freaking A&Rs, contracts to loose, top bureaucracy preventing me from doing what I like, searching for a new sound. That's why I can be so FREE that after recording a song, I'm going like - did I really come up with that? I don't have to sell my soul because I get divine inspiration and my music belongs to God, I let it flow and open my mind. If didn't have this freedom, I wouldn't know all these great things about music I've learned apart from being a singer - producing, arranging, mixing and it all helps me to grow. I met a lot of executives in Russia who tried to put me in the box and stop me from being anything but the singer representing some fake image that I am not. I rebuked that. I value my independence, no matter how hard it is to stay underground, for art's sake. I've come a long way, one day I will tell everything, I can tell you about being mixed race in Russia, being a single mother, packing bags and leaving to another country all alone and making a way there, fighting for survival, fighting for your rights, being an immgrant and a political refugee, being locked up while being innocent and pregnant, being self-assisted artist/producer/songwriter/arranger/musician, finding faith in God, finding A LOT of cash money in McDonald's, losing friends (I've lost a lot of people), how close family live with cancer, being in debts, being packed with money. I can tell you about it because I LIVE THE LIFE, I represent what I am and what I am growing to be. I don't have to follow a squeaky clean image, because I am just a normal human being, I made mistakes and I paid the price for them. I am an artist, releasing music, performing live and stuff, but I don't ride fancy cars, wear custom made blings, can't brag about a collection of LV bags - I don't care, it's not real anyway. I've been in my life at stages of being poor and wealthy, having a lot of money in my bank account and counting every penny in my pocket. But I never stopped making music. I can see myself making music at 80 on he next level. This is the truth - going back to developing the SOUND.

Jahna Sebastian recording-sessions/workshop with young MCs on location

Recording on location with portable studio setup, young MCs learning skills.

Alexander Solovyov - very talented filmmaker

Check out his works, very talented, support and spread the word, his web-site:
Great ideas are always coming from the underground scene before they get picked up by corporate world, but remember the source is always the young, hungry and very blessed brain of independent filmmakers, artists, producers. Believe and support the scene, this is our generation speaking.

Subscriber:

Абонент (Subscriber) from Alexander Soloviev "dvizhenie" on Vimeo.

Beethoven

Beethoven from Alexander Soloviev "dvizhenie" on Vimeo.

Tribe - mixtape "London Chronicles" - download FREE

NEW MIXTAPE by Russian hip-hop group Tribe (Den Bro, Mark, Chiff) "London Chronicles", all vocals recorded and mixed at my studio "Multivizion Music".



Track list:

1. Intro
2. Эти новости (feat. Дамани)
3. Между нами
4. Skit
5. Хроники Лондона 1
6. Хроники Лондона 2
7. Skit
8. Каждый день (Mark соло)
9. East London (feat. Oxxxymiron & Ganz)
10. Промо (Chiff соло)
11. Меня не изменить
12. Мой стиль (Den Bro соло)
13. Надежда
14. Свое кино
15. Outro

Vocals recorded and mixed by Jahna Sebastian
Dj MOFIYA

Скачать\Download

Download from Sendspace
Download from Dump.ru

organizing the garden today

organizing the garden today, assembling a table, the weather was great though.