New Release: Sinsere Amir "Are You Influenced?"

On March 10, 2015 I had a short chat with Memphis rapper Sinsere Amir about his upcoming release. 

Memphis Famous: "How are you doing?"

Sincere Amir on February 12, 2015 in the recording 

booth at Studio 224 Memphis Recording Studio 

& Printing Co. while  recording "Are You Influenced?"

Sinsere Amir: "I'm awesome I just quit my job today and it's all up hill from here."

MF: Damn!! Quit your job and uphill, can I quote you on that? Are you going full-time in the music industry?

Sinsere Amir: "Yes, If you wanna be a boss, you have to be a boss,"

MF: When I came up to 224 Studio on February 12 to see you record, you were on top of it - in and out of the booth with a great determination. Within ten minutes you had recorded an entire track. What is your writing process?

Sinsere Amir: My recording process is simple. I just like to go in and smoke a lot of pot and drop dope music. It is real simple. Hahaha.

MF: How do you prepare to go into the studio? 

Sinsere Amir: I write all my material before I go into the studio. But the way I record and finish, it depends if the chemistry between me and the engineer is good.

Sinsere Amir live in the booth as all-around hustler and engineer 
Sky Beats sits and the controls and INFAMOUS45 chills out. 

MF: You have an impressive way of communication with your recording engineer, Sky Beats. You two shared very few words and immediately you two would understand each other. That type of team work is usually seen in people that often work together, have you recorded with Sky Beats before?

Sinsere Amir: I never worked with Sky before. That day was the very first time we met. And what can I say? We hit it off great. She's great to work with!

MF: What is the title of this new album you recorded?

Sinsere Amir: The album is called "Are You Influenced?"

MF: Is this album going to be an LP OR EP?

Sinsere Amir in the recording booth at Studio 224 with Sky Beats.

Sinsere Amir: It is an EP.

MF: When do you expect to release this EP?

Sinsere Amir: The release will be in August.

MF: What are your goals for this album?

Sinsere Amir: I want to influence people to truly be themselves, and nobody else. Like, my artist mind state when I write records is cinematic to me, it's like seeing sounds. Ya feel me?

MF: Yes, absolutely. Those are lofty aspirations, to see sounds. How exactly do you get a listener to see sounds?

Sinsere Amir: Getting people to see sounds is just another way of being creative without pictures. It's like reading a booking with pictures, but you can imagine what's going in the story I'm telling

MF: How did you react when you found out you are listed twice as "#Coast2Coast's hottest artist in the state" during the month of February?

Sinsere Amir: Being on the hottest in the state mix-tape was awesome! I'm very excited about it. Now we're going to keep moving forward. It will help with my single I'm releasing next month and my tour "Members Only Tour" starts March 8th.

Sky Beats, INFAMOUS45, and Sinsere Amir all listening to the newly recorded track
for "Are You Influenced?"

 MF: Do you submit your work to Coast 2 Coast as an indie artist? How does this work?

Sinsere Amir: With Coast 2 Coast I pay a fee monthly and I get shows in whatever city I want & it comes with other things like promotion & radio spins on the radio station.

MF: What does this EP say about who you are as an artist?

Sinsere Amir: I'm a really big Jimi Hendrix fan and the title came from that. I'm an artist so I'm Influenced and sensitive to everything around me, So, the things that influence me are like different styles of music, weed, gin, friends, family, life, being a father, and I lost my mother 3 months ago. Everything!

MF: What do you want your fans to get from listening to "The Green Light District"?

Sinsere Amir in the recording booth.

Sinsere Amir: To smoke as much weed as possible. LOL. I just want them to have a good time and have fun and party with good music with great substance & don't be afraid to have a good time, being you at all times and being comfortable around other individuals like you too that want and do he same.

MF: Where will you be touring to promote this EP?

Sinsere Amir: I will be touring in New Orleans, Nashville, Atlanta, L.A , DMV, & LITTLE ROCK AR & DON'T FORGET AROUND THE CITY OF MEMPHIS

MF: After the release of "Are You Influenced?" what is your next project?

INFAMOUS45 watching Sinsere Amir
record.

Sinsere Amir: After the tours and album release me & my homie, INFAMOUS45, will be doing an EP together called "Hustlemania15" for a fall release.

Thank you for chatting with me. 
You can catch Sinsere Amir currently on his Green Light District Tour, or you can find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Soundcloud. 

Sinsere Amir laughing while recording "Are You Influenced?" 

Going Viral

I do not think of myself as cool. I am outspoken. I am obnoxious. I am inappropriate and have been a cussed of being vivacious. And I am proud that I am a weirdo. I am not the trendsetter I wish I could be and I am completely comfortable in myself with all of this. For some reason that confidence does wonders. This comes sometime after you turn 30 and of course by accepting yourself for who you are. 

So last week, when given the challenge to try to make something go viral I begrudgingly accepted. I am not a media darling. There is no way in hell I can making something go viral. 

With that attitude I sure am not going to make it. But I tried. 

After the staff meeting at Radio Memphis I walked into a little mischief. 

Obviously, I went for sensationalism. What the hell is he even doing?! 

I posted it to Twitter, 

to no favorites or retweets, Facebook on my personal page

 

to only one like from my coworker at Radio-Memphis and two shares, and my personal Instagram to not even find

crickets. 

The Radio-Memphis Instagram faired only slightly better with a handful of hearts and a comment: 

And the Radio-Memphis Facebook page reached 153 people for a whopping 2 likes. 

All of this began on the Memphis Famous blog post. I logged in to find 

only 68 people clocked the link to see the original post with teaser. 

Just because I sometimes post the links to "You won't believe what happens when" does not mean my readers and Radio-Memphis' listeners will click on something similar. They have higher standards than simple sensationalism. I do not have any tricks up my sleeves as to making a post go viral or anything I could have tried differently, I believe I will stick to music reviews, man on the street questions, and album releases. This "going viral" stuff is for the cool kids. I am content sitting back, having a drink, and listening to some damn fine music. 

Until the next time, y'all take another look at this little work of art that took the world by video storm this spring, recorded in Memphis at Royal Studios with Boo Mitchell 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0

Shenanigans at Radio-Memphis

What the hell goes on after a Radio-Memphis staff meeting? 

Brother Doug thought he was alo and boy was I surprised!! 

Brother Doug was caught in the act of these wild shenanigans with Rosie Palms!!! 

Let's bow our heads and #prayforDoug! 

#communityservice #thisiswhywecanthavenicethings 

#thenighttimegroove

#radiomemphis

Play for Exposure

I logged on to Instagram this afternoon to find a long comment left on one of my #onmycommute photos. 

Naturally when I read it I was flattered. But the more I think about it the more perturbed I become. This is the equivalent of asking a musician to "play for exposure" or a photographer to produce work in exchange for "telling all of my friends about you." It is total crap! 

As we all know, exposure does not pay the bills. Last year a bookstore on the University of Memphis campus, a national chain store, was asking Memphis Musicians to provide entertainment for their store for exposure! Exposure is blatantly asking an artist to work for free. That is telling them that their experience, musical education, years of practice, the process it takes to write and compose a song, perfect it, load in, perform, and load out is not worth squat. 

You would not ask a lawyer to go to court on your behalf, a stylist to coif up your do, or a chef to feed you only for their education and hard work to be rewarded by praising word of mouth. I certainly hope not. 

Stop asking creative people to work for free! Just stop it.