5 More Days: Box & Won Launch / JuneBuggin'

Saturday night. It's less than a week away. Just 5 days until we mobilize a hefty chunk of Richmond along with the 757 and residents of DC, Baltimore and northern VA cities and towns to join us in a venue invasion. My Box & Won collective, which was a hiphop spin-off of Allmanact, headlines the annual (sometimes twice annually) Sound Council concert party at Jammin Java in Vienna, Virginia which is named JuneBuggin' this go around. With that function comes the release of the long-awaited scud missile of a mixtape that is The Box-Out. It's been quite some time in the making and to say there were a few hurdles along the way is calling a rain storm a drizzle. Life, learning-on-the-job mistakes, holiday season, a 3-month hiatus, schedule syncing, negligence and irresponsibility, and ambition were all to blame for the time it took to get our introductory project completed. One thing that was not compromised was the quality of the material that we recorded, for we, like most artists, are our own biggest critics. So the project is in pressing for the weekend (damn, it feels good to type that) and we all await Saturday!

While folks are picking their posse, booking hotels and planning outfits, it is absolutely a hectic time for me that requires me to focus on much more stressful tedious details. Just less than two weeks ago, I pulled a string of "work until you wither" nights where I found myself waking up in chair, fully dressed in business casuals and some Kenneth Cole casual kicks, with the laptop open on the table in front of me surrounded by a spindle of CDs, a short stack of reminder sticky notes, my notebook, a pen, a chain of USB flash drives and my Blackberry. Three consecutive nights of this to be exact. Not an ideal sleeping arrangement, but I was trying to get things done and make things happen because I know no other will and unfortunately cannot choose any other way. This week has kicked off with its own issues but that is to be expected, as there are always things that go sour at the last minute when it comes to making legit music moves. I am as exhausted as one can be without being completely burned out, so I have no choice but to make light of anything that I can afford to and just "let go" of some of the burden. There are several people making contributions to this Box & Won launch and that can be a good and bad thing. More than that though, it has to be a sure thing. I'll continue to put in the work as I have and do what I must to make the launch proper all the while accepting those things that are out of my hands (even if that makes me uncomfortable knowing that it all affects my artistry, name and reputation). We've had dynamite shows and events prior (ie. the Allmanact album release party in 2009) and this JuneBuggin' ordeal on June 19th will be no exception!