I just had one of the shittiest evenings of all time...

Every night I'm down at my studio recording. Its normal routine, pays the bills, eventually I hope to do engineering fulltime and not just as a hobby. So I'm down there tonight recording with these artists. These guys and gals were possibly the most diverse group I've worked with. An older black lady doing spoken gospel poetry to ambient melodic beats. Two white dudes playing acoustic guitars with rap guys going ontop of it. Etc... etc... The whole session was going great until one of the artists showed up with 3 friends. They seemed chill except one dude...

So one of the guys who just arrived started having words with one of the guys who was recording. They start talking shit to each other to which I said something along the lines of "I dont want any of this shit going on here. Go outside if you're gonna have it out." They didnt say anything and I thought it was over, but still keeping my eyes open. Suddenly the guy who started it all reeled back like he was gonna punch the other dude. Instead he throws a glass bottle at the guy and they start fighting IN MY MIXING ROOM. So everyone jumps on the dude and get him away from my room. Those of you who have met me know I'm a very laid back person, chill in general. I got mad. You dont wanna get a Scotch-Irish dude mad. No one had ever seen me like that and when I told the dude to "get the @#$%& out of my studio" he was genuinely intimidated.

So the guy leaves, I lock the door and go back up to the mixing room. Everyone was appologizing left and right. These were genuinely nice people. So I'm looking around to assess the damage, or rather the point of impact of the bottle. I thought it had hit the wall so I wasnt worried. Then someone says something you never want to hear... "Oh shit man, your laptop..." Sure enough the guy who started the fight had such bad aim that he not only missed the dude, the tv behind him, and the wall, but it hit directly in the middle of my laptop. My laptop was on a table 5 feet to the right of the dude. Thats some seriously horrible aim for someone trying to start a fight. So I get everyone and we run outside as quickly as we could. The guy was gone. Completely gone...

So one of the artists has the guys phone number and calls him up. I talk to this punk on the phone and tell him something along the lines of "That bottle you threw.... Yeah it hit my laptop. My keyboard is @#$%&'d. I need $75 tonight and there wont be any trouble." I kid you not, the guy hangs up on me. So my friend calls him back up and talks to him. He refuses to come back here and give me money so 4 of the guys recording pile into a car and go find him to get money from him. Meanwhile I wait at my studio for them to come back with my cash.

Thankfully my laptop has complete dell coverage until 2008 and it will cost me nothing out of my pocket, but I dont put up with shit. I wanted something for my trouble. After waiting an hour there I am getting continually more and more pissed off. My friend calls and says he's still on his way to meet up with him. Since he knows where the dude is I send a text message to about 20 of the most badass rap/hiphop artists I've recorded over the past 3 years telling them whatsup, and that I may need their help. My worst case scenario was that I'd get all of them to meet me at the studio and we'd go find this dude and get my money back. Within minutes of sending this text message out I get calls and messages back from people. The first reply I got said it all...

"U straight? U need me 2 get rid of him?"

These rap artists love me. They were ready to rollout to the studio in droves to help me get $75 from this dude. If I had actually asked them to come down I kid you not that in mere minutes there would have been over 50 cars/suvs in my parkinglot, not to mention the ones who have gang affiliation and would bring their whole crew with them.

Shortly after receiving a ton of calls from my reinforcements I get a call from my friend saying he got the money from the dude and was on his way back. So I called off this army of rap artists, got my money, and now I'm home. My adrenaline is still flowing and I cant believe this went down.

I'm typing all this on my laptop which thankfully only has a messed up keyboard. My numbers keys (2 through 9) are gone and in order to type a number I have to hit the keys repeatedly a number of times. Atleast all the letter keys work and nothing else was damaged.

Needless to say I didnt have time to finish off my Atlanta recording. I may be able to get it done tommorow evening but if not it'll be monday. The good news is its almost done. A few more edits, a compressor and a limiter and I'll torrent it.

What a night...

Wow, the line "U straight? U need me 2 get rid of him" is really, really scary! Glad it all worked out for you Drake, we need more '@#$%& yeah's!' before Sway!

Guess you handled that correctly there drake!! Most people would have kicked his ass.

Sounds like a Tarentino movie. You got a script here.

PS : as for the keyboard, you may use an external one - just plug it in the USB

Holy shit drake, I could come up with a couple of better ways to get me through the night.

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Yeah, it was crazy. I've never had anything like that happen at the studio. I forgot to mention... tried plugging in an external keyboard last night but my external harddrives were plugged up when the bottle hit and it did a good job of knocking the laptop back about half a foot which wedged the cables between my soundboard. In short, both usb drives are screwed. Dell will replace all the parts though...

Anyways, I'll get Atlanta done soon. I might just burn the massive wav to a dvd and take it to a friend's house to do the editing.

You should ask for a new computer - then the scary night would be a good deal

...and stay away from Death Row Records

Sorry about your troubles my friend, but you've got some great story there for your own song!

good story, drake.

rap artists bring in the recording dollars, unfortunately the profit may be offset by the bulletproof vest and AK-57 you will have to buy to protect yourself. that is seriously @#$%& up dude. glad to hear it all worked out ok in the end.

That's some scary shit Drake. From now on I'm keeping on your good side.

JumpingKentFlash

What a story! Be careful with that kind of people...

Could you e-mail me, Drake - when you find the time?

DP

Man, this CD is going to be infamous before it is over, LOL!!! Looking forward to listening to it.

Yeah Drake, I think you should add some breaking glass sound effects to the Atlanta CD. Put it in randomly, sometimes dominating in the top of the mix, totally blocking out the music for a second, then at other times less noticable. It could become the trademark of your boots. In fact, future listeners of your boots will be able to recognize the creator by the trademark breaking glass. You could also challenge your listeners by hiding the sound in places, but of course always have at least one over the top, loud empty beer bottle crash as your signature.

I'd listen for it.

-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-23 01:52 by cirrhosis.

I love you guys. Maybe I'll throw some gunshots and shattered beer bottle effcts into the intro music...

I think I will include a little firsttime bonus with this. There will be a track at the very end of the 2nd disc which will let you hear the original sound of the recording vs my final mix. I may upload that in mp3 and post it here as well. Had a few requests to hear that and I believe only ohnonotyouagain and crossfire have heard the raw sound on any of my recordings. I really am sorry for the delay on this. The whole Sway, Worried About You, Rambler segment will make it worth the wait.

btw, Dandelion drop me an email: drakehatfield@gmail.com i've lost yours unfortunately.

Too bad they didn't play ADTL - bust another bottle, yeah!

Hope to hear it real soon, particularly after last night in LA which got "Atlanta'd"!

Where the boys go on Saturday night, indeed!

Those guys at Sister Morphine (or who ever did re-sell your recording seeded on dime) will have to think twice before ripping you off once again ...

C


p.s. Where do you buy a new keyboard for a dell laptop? I broke mine and I can't find a replacement on their site.