It’s good to see MC’s get creative and expand upon their brand. Styles P is no stranger to story telling. If you follow the LOX, I’m sure you’re aware of his vivid/descriptive use of words to paint pictures in almost all of his rhymes. Styles will be releasing a fiction novel on Random House in June along with a mixtape to support it. Book summary below:

Jake Billings is usually cool under pressure, but when two stick-up kids rob his record store, Jake opens fire on them, landing him in prison. Five days in, he receives an anonymous letter telling him that his days are numbered. But before he can find out who’s behind the threats, Jake is stabbed and ends up in a coma.
When he wakes in a hospital bed two years later, things have changed: His prison sentence has been commuted, his girlfriend is fiercely independent, and his side piece has gotten out of the street life altogether. But one thing remains: Jake’s enemy still wants him dead and is powerful enough to track him down no matter where he hides.
On the run, and with rumors circulating about a powerful, phantomlike gang called the 300 Crew, Jake will need to rely on his mantra: Trust no one–not the law, not his girl, not the street cats he helped out years ago, not even his own blood.

Very dope…..gives me a few ideas actually. See below for a description of what this is actually all about:

From 1957 to 1965 photographer W. Eugene Smith made 1,740 reel-to-reel tape recordings (approx. 4000 hours) and nearly 40,000 photographs in a loft building in Manhattan’s wholesale flower district where hundreds of jazz musicians gathered after-hours and jammed. With Smith’s archival materials available for the first time, the Jazz Loft Project is dedicated to uncovering and preserving the stories behind this time and place in American cultural history.

Check out their website for more information.

• “You didn’t know your design firm was a personal public relations firm, too?“
• “It’s about being the CEO, CMO, CFO and CIO as well as the bookkeeper, accountant, tech guru, housekeeper and coffee maker. It’s imperative that you see yourself as the business and act accordingly, because you are the business.“
• “Most independent creatives chose the on-their-own route so they could perfect their craft, follow their ideals, and express their voice. Sure, ideals don’t pay the bills, but following ideals creates the high level of skill and professionalism that creates a sought-after product that, in the end, does pay bills-without selling your soul in the process.“
• “There’s no “free” in freelance.“

Even though I’m not a designer, I think most of the things in this book could apply to plan for world domination. *Muahahahahah<—that’s my evil laugh. Purchase links below:

Continue reading →