When did Cautionary Tale start? It started a long time ago and I have been wrestling with insecurities and issues since February of 2018 when I let Ramone submit NATIVES to the Peter Stark Producing program. As soon as I nodded my head I knew it would get the grant. As Eduardo says, “It has the strange attractor.” For a couple weeks I was devastated here was this project that I sweat and cried over. I sat there writing the songs (which were never used) and giving my world away to this story. It was tough at first, but the current experience/iteration of NATIVES has given me a great trial run at the film industry and also alleviated me of all ego…I think.
Cautionary Tale, well if my raps were not going to be heard I still had all these beats Joe had given me to use for NATIVES. Fuck it I’ll do it myself! That is not the best attitude to have so that is where this project came from. It’s anthesis came from a dark place and I just started throwing down rhymes on all these beats. I don’t quite know which track came first. I went through a whole notebook to write this ep/album. I was like oh shit! This is it. When I freestyle Brownface is when I was like oh, okay. I had big plans for this project ridiculous plans for it. Big production! Showtime!
I wrote a whole script for this on three separate occasions! This is the only iteration put to script format : CAUTIONARY TALE
I had to do this! I would get it done. I finished the songs around July 4th of 2018. I kept playing them over and I showed them to Joe. He was fucking with some I feel that at least the friends I showed this project to finally admitted to me I could rap. It was a small victory, but it felt great to get some acknowledgment. Rap is what I have always dreamed of.
Except for a dream, and a fuckin' rap magazine
Who post pin-up pictures on their walls all day longIdolize they favorite rappers and know all they songs
- Eminem
I was excited to push this project forward and I was looking at open mics, small venues, the whole thang. I was finally going to do this. My plan was to release it in November. There was another song on the project, but it is still incomplete REAL MONSTERS! that Eduardo was giddy about doing a music video about. He bought a rig for it and we were coming up with ideas. He was like I will fund that one. That was around last year in August possibly I can’t remember when now. That never fell through, but I could not write a second verse to REAL MONSTERS! I kind of just let that video die.
Real Monsters music video idea: They Live route. I thought it was a cool idea, but I never completely committed. With aliens and government officials it was going to carry an aura of mystery.
November came around I was anxious leading up to it. I had plans of making shirts, playing a small show and having a gallery for Cautionary Tale. At the same exact time as I am doing this. I have a full time job, I am writing I don’t know how many screenplays, I am also trying to shoot a short film and help Ramone however I can with NATIVES. None of my plans for November and this project came to fruition. When I get back from Spain!
I got back from Spain and nope the project is shelved through the new year. I was developing new ideas and just decided to leave the whole fucking thing behind. The new year comes around and so do new years resolutions I will give Cautionary Tale another try. I met this woman named Lisa at a laundromat. I sent her some of my songs and she loved some of them. She liked RITUAL so much she wanted to put together a music video for it.
Ritual idea: She wanted me kneeling in front of a car with homies in the back. She said King Kunta style. agh…
I had an idea for Ritual myself I still do. It is an apocalyptic oner starting from the top floor of an apartment building. Main char. walks out in front of every apartment unit is a pre-teen having their head shaved. They all run down the stairs in unison. Main char. walks outside. The kids are lining up at an ice cream truck for guns, cortezs. The same kids are being curb stomped in the next scene and it gets worse worse. I don’t have the budget for that.
Lisa and I we stopped talking.
At the same time I got a rag tag group of friends and we actually did a test shoot. We were going to do a music video to CONFIRMATION.
Confirmation music video idea:
CONFIRMATION BEAT SHEET
open on ME sitting in the passenger seat with the overhead light on, the passenger side door is a bit open at the moment.
The camera moves to the driver seat with a dude who walks in and tosses a blunt wrap onto the backseat. The driver wears a cap and is nervous.
The camera continues to rotate around to the backseat where we find a MAN with his hair slicked back, he wipes the coke from his nose. He sets a handgun on the floor.
The camera continues to rotate and lands on the last char. being introduced he is in a blue plaid shirt and has a gun on his lap, he is the most nonchalant, he wipes the residue from the blunt off his shirt.
The car is turned on and we are back on me as I rap to homeboy in the driver seat.
He pulls up nervous as hell it keeps rotating the dude in the back stays inside while the dude next to him gets out of the car. They are walking up on someone, shots RING out.
I get back into the passenger seat and the adrenaline is running I am not happy. The car takes off down the street, the camera comes back around one last time to end on dude drinking.
It is day now and the camera once again starts off on me as it makes it’s cycle all the way around. I am rapping, but in a more chill manner.
As the front door opens up homeboy hops in he passes the dudes in back some 40ozs, he tosses a bag of hot cheetos to me.
The camera comes around and homeboy opens the 40z - He keeps the gun under the driver seat, but he is smiling unlike last time.
It comes back to the dude in the back right he preps a blunt also smiles as the other dude shoves him jokingly.
The camera comes off him as we see a car pull up the doors fly open. We keep rotating and the gunshots ring off.
Some more shots ring off. I open the door and fall over dead as the camera comes around…
(Probably open the windows so it looks like they broke with the gunshots, have the dude behind the driver slumped forward in his white tee.
Have the dude next to him attempting to lift his gun, but he falls over. He would be in a blue plaid shirt.
The cops pull us out of the car, all of us get pulled out. The camera keeps rotating.
The car is hooked up to a tow truck and there is nothing, but blood and broken glass leftover.
We were going to shoot a whole 360 video/VR possibly. We changed the idea to pan and scan. I changed the idea to nah. Eduardo also mentioned to me that he didn’t think this music was me. I agree CAUTIONARY TALE is not about me. It is about my surroundings. It is about the people that I live around. At the end of the day I feel like I let this project down. I did not give it the proper celebration. I was/am scared of it. I am also ready to move on from this project. I released it on Father’s Day, because well that is a tough time for me now. I am ready to do something new. I figure I love rap/music and I plan on working on a project that is about me. I feel that it is finally time to come clean.
I will start writing a new music project effective now. One that I can feel good about. There is songs on this like CHILD, RITUAL and UTOPIA that I love.
I AM ALWAYS OPEN TO FUNDS TO DO THIS WHOLE THANG!