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My new EP almost didn't happen..

Updated: Mar 11, 2023

So.




A few months prior to the 1 year anniversary of my debut album, "Note to Self", I started to plan how I wanted to celebrate and possibly re-release the album. I felt as though I did an amazing job promoting it and applauded myself for continuously releasing content for almost a year straight. I released nearly fifteen remix visuals along with over fifty plus song covers and honestly thought someone in the music industry would recognize my talent and "discover" me. Tuh.



So instead of harping on about how unnoticed I was or how I didn't receive millions of streams like I wanted..


I know, how unrealistic and insane of my overly confident ass right?


I decided to plan how I would follow up from my initial release by dropping a deluxe edition with a few new songs, remixes and a bunch of other shit. After I gathered my thoughts, the re-release idea seemed a little too far fetched considering I was moving from Charlotte, NC back to Maryland during a fucking snow storm with all of my studio equipment packed in a 20' Penske truck!


Well.


I decided "nigga just pick your favorite fucking song and make an EP out of it.." Sounds easy enough right? Yeah, I know..



Well, that shit almost didn't happened. Keep reading.



So after relocating back to my hometown of Maryland, I moved into my new apartment (that I didn't do a walk-thru on) because one, I was 3 states away and two (just like everything else online) the damn photos deceived me into thinking it was far greater than it actually was. I packed everything into the apartment, climbing treacherously up to the third floor covered in ice and snow.


Did I mention that I moved in the middle of a fucking snow storm?




Well on top of that bullshit, amongst other things, I found out a hour later that the entire apartment was infested with roaches! I know, nasty as fuck right? The next morning after spending the night fighting roaches, I immediately packed my shit, called the leasing office and relocated to another apartment which also had roaches, but mice too!



My anger triggered me to turn the fuck back around and go to Charlotte, North Carolina but not only was it too damn far to turn around, it was also out of my budget after spending money on another moving truck to relocate around the neighborhood the next morning. After receiving bullshit "help" from the leasing office and maintenance men who mentioned it was not uncommon for these apartments to be infested due to nasty neighbors and the history of the property. Being old I guess.





I ended up getting a fucking cat to help rid the apartment of these disgusting ass mice. Along with the traps for them, I also had to put sticky traps down for the roaches too. I was so digested by this place, even after unboxing my recording equipment and setting up my studio in the spare room, I couldn't even get comfortable enough to get creative. Between living with a cat (not a fucking fan of em) and even worse, roaches and mice, all I could do was..



A few months later in the Summer, I moved into a house free of lions, tigers, bears, weird neighbors stalking my every move (yeah, a whole other story), mice, roaches and the rest of the fucking ghetto zoo animals that weren't mentioned on my lease. Whew! Ya'll don't even understand.


So after all of that, I decided to sit down one day and figure out what I was going to do. I finally came up with an idea to create a 6 track EP of "On God" which was my favorite song from "Note to Self."



Von Tae Note to Self
Note to Self

Initially I wanted to create a reggae version, a club dance mix and some other shit but after realizing that I would have to create these mixes between working 12-14 hours on my new job (while being on-call), I knew there was no way in hell I could pull this off alone. I reached out to producers who never returned my emails and DMs on Instagram. This went on for a few weeks.


I was feeling hopeless and eventually thought to completely give up.


I later scrapped the idea of doing a reggae mix and club dance mix, started looking for other rappers and felt more confident that my EP would actually happen after I received the first verse submission from a new rapper from Instagram.


Unfortunately, the verse was trash.



I appreciated his swiftness and commitment to actually being apart of the remix but, yeah..


So after a few more weeks went by I was still waiting for producers to respond, even though I had already given up on the idea. Shortly after inboxing another artist, I was told that he would be heading into the studio to record his verse for the record. After a day went by, another failed attempt to satisfy my desire of creating an official On God Remix.


Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.



Another few weeks went by and there I was, still unsatisfied and feeling like the idea of creating a Single & Remixes for "On God" would never happened on the anniversary of "Note to Self", June 25th.


I decided to reach out to a friend for suggestions on rappers who I could potentially work with and his suggestion became a top contender once I received his verse back. Lyrically and tone wise, very good but quality wise it didn't match with what I had originally recorded. It was a bit "muddy" so I reached out to him and suggested that we meet up to record his verse on my mic. During this time, I also inquired about filming a live performance before the EP released.


Guess what, no fucking response for days.



Oh well. Another one bites the dust.


At this point, anyone who did want to be apart of this project would have to really fucking impress me because I wasn't looking any more. Disappointment after disappointment.


So, I'm scrolling on Instagram and I come across someone who I completely forgot about.


A FUCKING RAPPER WITH EVERYTHING A RAPPER NEEDS.



My boy raps like the rent is due. Unfortunately there was an issue with him too.



At that moment I received his verse on June 23rd (2 days before my deadline) and I eventually gave up on the idea of releasing it on the anniversary date. I reached out via text to come up with ideas for visuals, I went on a trip to his hometown and asked if we could link and make content but everything just seemed too much. FOR HIM.


He had a "busy schedule" according to the last text message he sent before I blocked him.


Moral of the story: don't waste my fucking time



After this text message, I completely rearranged the remix, erased his verse, added new ad libs, switched up the production and released two of my best verses that I've ever written and recorded.



I say all of this to say this:


The damn EP almost didn't get released ya'll. Thankfully, I found a guitarist who barely spoke English well enough to assist me with the acoustic version, but we made it happen. He's from Paris France and I found him in a Facebook group for musicians.


Overall, I'm so glad that I stuck to my plan and pushed through all of my creative blocks, bad networking, rappers who can't rap, poor timing, relocating from another state and everything else that could've prevented this from being released. I overcame it all and released it September 16th, 2022.


Available now on all streaming platforms, click here.


Also, watch this visual of me discussing more about the lyrics and more:


Oh and Genius has all of the lyrics if you'd like to go deeper into "On God."


I look forward to sharing more. Until then..


Take care of yourself,

Von Tae




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