I really enjoyed this video from Yaves The Street Pastor and Slingshot Media Group. This video fit the vibe of the song so well. It’s not often artists in the Christian rap genre attempt videos for songs this chill, my guess is because they’re harder to make appealing. But this is daringly expressive of the mood. I wish other elements were introduced along with the glass that fit the black and white minimalist vibe, but this was an impeccable use of resources. You can really tell when a video is made a certain way because someone thought a gimmick looked good versus when the artistic direction was for the sake of the song. This was definitely the latter.

I started paying attention to The Street Pastor on the song “Go Harder”. Honestly I’m picky when it comes to the UK accents I like in songs, right down to the track. This to me was a great delivery by Yaves. Find this track and more on his latest mixtape “It’s Pronounced Yah-ves” on the Slingshot Media Group website.

There is indeed truth, beauty, and goodness outside of scripture; so is the case outside of scripture-based music. So if a client specifically requests music by a secular, not anti-Christ, but simply non-gospel genre artist, I will consider on a case-by-case, song-by-song basis. But otherwise I stick to Christian artists.

Usually it’s a situation (all the requests have been from Christians by the way) where the client will be hosting a spiritually mixed crowd, and wants to cater to everyone.

I cater to one. My priorities don’t change.

I spin what will honor God and spiritually uplift listeners. So if I’m putting on anything remotely secular, it’s going to be free of profanity, degradation of either sex, sexually suggestive themes… you get the idea. Unless it’s a married couples thing for that last one… awkward….

Of course there are those exceptions like the youth group or gospel rapper that wants me to play a clip from Jeezy or Wayne to make a point about what they say in certain songs. And they’re providing the CD. I’m not buying/supporting that trash.

I don’t play secular instrumentals for artists at Christian outreaches either. So don’t call me. I think it confuses people on the street listening from a distance and actually keeps them from realizing there’s something DIFFERENT going on. Too much good stuff out there that doesn’t already have someone else’s rep attached to it.

Some Biblical examples of using secular “tools” for God-honoring purposes:

Acts 17:22-28 – Paul referring to an idol and secular poetry to bridge his revelation to his audience

Romans 8:3, Heb 4:15, John 1:14 – Christ taking on a temporal, corruptible, “secular” presentation in order to fulfill his mission and encourage us

There’s actually some music by professing Christians that I WON’T play. It’s just not as common. But’s it’s all a personal judgement call.

In this downtime I’ve been busier than ever, but I’ve got little to show for it. A lot of dust in the air, but little built. And I’m ok with that. Learn while you’re young, right?

So I’m going to focus on what I really care about, stay in my lane, and partner with people who are gifted in the stuff that I’m just competent in. That way everybody’s happy, and if everybody’s happy, the only thing that’s missing is the music

1. Get Loose – D- M.A.U.B.
2. Hands Up High – Lecrae
3. Gimme that Funk – Group 1 Crew
4. Night Lights – G-Notes
5. Giving it Up – Rhema Soul
6. What U Lookin 4 – Frontlynaz ft Beez & J. Johnson
7. Identity (remix) – Lecrae
8. True Gangsta – Mr. Lynx
9. Lively Up Yourselves – Monty G
10. Bring the Party to Life – Group 1 Crew

Note to my fellow wannabe web designers: check your website on ALL major browsers, especially Internet Explorer!

*DJ Blaklyte

Entries coming soon:

1. We’re Not on Capitol Hill Anymore, Toto (new church adventures)

2. Adam’s Essentials: Work and a Wife

Oh and if this wasn’t enough of an entry for you, or even if it was, go check out my man Adam Taylor’s blog. He’s getting ready to move to Ethiopia indefinitely to serve the country’s street children population. Definitely a life worth telling about. Oh and this has nothing to do with my second upcoming entry. I mean, you could’ve guessed that, right?

Love is patient! (1 Cor 13:4) Live in Love yall! (1 John 4:16)

1. People disrespecting me or my property.
2. People endangering people I care about, especially when people I care about endanger themselves.
3. People taking me or my time for granted (see number 1)
4. Lying.
5. Institutionalized mediocrity.

I encountered all of these today. Act like you know.

Love is patient (1 Cor 13). Live in Love (1 John 4:16). Good night.

So I’m no longer waiting until I get my hi-tech DJ booking system designed to get back in the streets. Ambition is paralyzing progress rather than nurturing it at this point. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been grindin trying to figure out what web coding, etc to use to make this thing work. I’m pretty sure I’ve found it, it’s just that it’s going to take more time than I can stand to spend on this sabbatical to get it developed all nice and pretty. In the meantime, I’ll be using some low-tech alternatives that should do the trick for a little while.

I’m also steaming to pick up my visual media freelancing as well. I think I’m just generally restless from all this time of focused thinking, pondering, whatever. Not that it hasn’t been fruitful, but I know I can’t take it for much longer. I’m going to set up something simple for that on here as well real soon. That’ll be my #1 weekend project.

After hustling through completing two videos a local non-profit commissioned my job to produce over the past few weeks, I realized how much I really want a mac and Final Cut Studio at home. I’ve been able to do everything my imagination can throw at that thing and get results. And for me, that’s the measure of good creative software.

The videos will be shown at the non-profit’s awards program next week. I’m not the one getting an award, but seeing my work on a big screen and getting to network with people who will already know what I’m capable of is a reward in itself sometimes. I’ll post some video/pics of the occasion next week.

From a slightly wider perspective, I’ve been noticing how much I need a vacation. Lately my eyelids have started twitching. Both of them. At the same time. On and off, every day. Apparently the most common causes of my current state are stress, fatigue and caffiene. I knew I was 3 for 3 after the way I was drinking a cup of coffee almost every day at work for the last couple of  weeks to keep me going after nights of little sleep. Sleeping at work frustrates me because it means I’m not being productive. I hate being unproductive at work. Why else am I there, ya know? Once again my body is telling me to slow down.

And so are my friends. My boy Reggie told me in jest the other day “you’re a workaholic. You need to come to terms with that and start thinking about how that could affect your future.” I laughed it off and reluctantly agreed with him. A couple days later the twitching started.

Anyway, the current phase to getting my DJing business up to where I want it to be is making it as easy as possible for potential clients to communicate what they need. And for that, I’m going to expand this website. I’ll be adding a page dedicated to the DJ in me, DJ Blaklyte, and all that he does. Actually if you click the category link above that says “DJing”, it’ll show you just my blogs related to this topic. That page is where I’ll be adding extra stuff. The blog will still be at the center of it, but it will only be blogs I write related to DJing. Sort of the “news” of my DJing activities. But even more importantly, this page will feature a booking request form that will touch on every aspect of the question “how may I serve you?”. Look out for that in hopefully a few weeks.

grace and peace.