2 Busy Dreamin'

Lets get it.

Zel, thanks for the promo work. Oh, and soon they'll understand you bru...trust.

Tre...2BD, lets gooo!

-League

Regrets (Love Lost)

Search warrants fill our vacant room
Gone too soon
I yearn for proof
Evidence that you still exist in this gloom
Ill from missing you while you’re immune
Seasons pass as I can’t decipher December from June
All simultaneous in this dark with no moon
Your shine is extinct and my heart is doomed
Hell on earth couldn’t compare to my tragedy
Sacrifice my body in this war as a casualty
Suffered on the carpet as tears penetrated in the rugs that speak
To the walls that scream back at them like a banshee
Missing person’s reports couldn’t bring you back to me
And can’t you see my mouth as it pours and bleeds
The bite marks on my tongue from my delayed speech
The words that were held captive in my second guessing
Entrapped arms that longed to be free to reach
Out to intertwine with yours amongst this breach
Please
I’m exhausted with this game of hide and seek
Ignorantly lost you in my memory
Left to love you through these regrets I keep

Listen Up

Silence isn't understood until it is broken. I break silence. I rant. I riot. I beat drums so violent that you have no choice but to feel my rumble. Now watch me bubble...because when that timer sounds, my silence will never be heard again.

-League

Life Lessons 101: Ivey League Lifestyle

Before our vision was complete with the endeavours and goals we wanted to accomplish through our artistic efforts, and creative drive -- "Ivey League" was just a term used to describe our educational backgrounds. Through growth as a team, and collective unit, it has become more of a lifestyle. As youth, we spend a decent amount of time in classrooms learning things we are "supposed" to learn, for success in life. One thing I have found sitting in between those 4 walls with sounds of screeching chalk, and at times, seemingly pointless lectures is that there is much more to be explored, and educated upon in our days.

I would like to introduce J.Foss (pictured above with me @ the studio during a day of recording for 2 Busy Dreamin'), who throughout our friendship has never ceased to lend a helping hand to others, as well as share experiences and perspective on life's happenings. From how to defend yourself when attacked by a bear or mountain lion (haha actually great info Foss that could one day save my life being the adventurer I am), to lessons about having confidence in ourselves and having an open mind to learn about something we wouldn't in a classroom, amongst much more...life is more than the good grade you got in your favorite subject, and there is a lesson to be learned every single day. I encourage all you league-sters to keep your ears and eyes open to everything going on around you even when it seems there is no educational gain...Even the homeless guy on the corner has a lesson for you...How do you think he got there in the first place? -- Life's Lessons 101...who's signing up...

"The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all" -- Erykah Badu

"It was all a dream"...Until I woke up.

Dear dreamers,

A dream is nothing but a mere image of what reality could be without labor implemented...you have to work for its' attained existence. I began this summer with a list of goals to attain. I knew what I wanted out of it and ended up receiving way more than I expected. I was introduced to you as a poet. I refrained from posting anything personal onto the blog for a chance to have you read my poetry without any form of bias or relation to the person I am. Well, to be honest with you my life is somewhat chaotic. It's a compilation of four seperate lives and I'm still trying to find ways to maintain my sanity amidst this overwhelming abundance of responsibility. I'm a songwriter and singer who has just recently signed with Sesac for publishing and songwriting credits, recently hired by "Supreme Magazine" and it's sub-par "Hip Hop 365" as an interviewer/host/writer, began my last semester of nursing school for my second degree, i'm putting together my book of poetry, and just became a new member of the Ivey League in one summer. I went from listening to illmatic (my favorite hip hop album of all time) since as far back as I can remember, to having my first official interview for the magazine with Nas this past month. I am a prime example of how life gives you opportunities and struggles simultaneously. There will be days that seem unbearable and days that are pleasantly surreal. Through it all, we will prevail. God didn't make us weak, we make ourselves that way by allowing ourselves to believe in incapabilities. As long as we recognize that, we can recognize that our capabilities are limitless. The key: Dream->Work->Live without regret->Happiness. Stay true to yourself. Amongst all this chaos...I'm the happiest I have ever been in my life and I'm ecstatic about sharing the progress with you sporadically. Until then, I'll continue with the poetry.

Love always,
Sonya

Flip A Coin

How many ways can one tell a story?





How many people live here again?
(Do you! I promise you'll like it. )

DMV, Stand Up.

-League

Classic

Be You. Be Great.

-League

The 90's: The Golden Age of Black Entertainment

Last night as I re-watched Love Jones for the millionth time, I had an epiphany. The 90's was the best time to be black and be in entertainment. And at first my mind wanted to separate the decade between early 90's and late but in general the 90's were just a GREAT time to be young, black, and talented.

I feel that my generation (20ish - 29ish give or take), us 80's babies, grew up in a time where entertainment was awesome for us ppl of color. I remember New Jack Swing, listening to my aunt's tapes of Guy and Mary J., having my mother show me the movie New Jack City, and tell me it's real out here (true story lol). I remember Gerald Levert's (RIP) song Cassanova. I remember Thursday night on fox when it went Martin, Living Single, and New York Undercover. And I had to sneak and finish NY undercover because bed time was at 9. I remember NEVER missing A Different World and if I did my Grammy taped them. I remember some of the older kids at my church with their walkmans playing Aaliyah Back and Forth. I remember wanting to go to a Teen Summit show. Rap City. Planet Groove with Rachel's fine ass. I remember the show Thea and a young ass Brandy. Speaking of... Moesha, Q, and Hakim. I used to not be able to listen to Red Light Special, R. Kelly's 12 Play, and Jodeci's Diary of a Mad Band. Dre. Snoop. Biggie. Pac. Cube. Nas. Jay. Movie wise there's Boyz in the Hood, Juice, House Party(s), Boomerang, Harlem Nights, Strictly Bizness, Livin Large, Class Act, Waiting to Exhale, Poetic Justice, Mo Betta Blues, He Got Game, Trespass, Sixth Sense...

I mean I could really go on forever. But I won't. The point is this is a time where black entertainment and black art were both budding. Creatively there was more control and the content in general was awesome. The 90's is also the time where Black entertainment's rise to financial power came to be. Pre-downloading and free mixtapes, everyone was really making money and I think that is where it got lost. The commodity that is now "Urban Music" is spoon fed to the masses. And Northerners wanted to blame the South for it. Don't do it. Because when NY cats like Nas (not singling him out but...) really got that money and made those poppy tunes, cats like 8ball and MJG, UGK, Outkast, Scarface, Goodie Mob were making quality music. Rap-A-Lot Records was on some classic hip-hop shit.

R&B as a genre, presently, has even faded. The 90's is R&B. The genre evolved creating sub-genre's like Neo-Soul, like a Prince-esque Funk that people like Lucy Pearl and Meshell Ndegeocello embodied, like a crossover R&B that was distinctly R&B which post Tommy Matolla (sp?) Mariah Carey embodied.

Now this bama Neyo and this bama Usher put out pop singles and "urban" singles. Some say the game has evolved, but I say these bamas coppin out. Usher came up in the 90's. Go listen to his 1st and 2nd CD and then listen to that shit of an album Raymond v. Raymond and tell me where is the focus musically? Think about Confessions and you tell me the popish single on that album. There ain't one. Same with Neyo pop single and "urban" single. I will give it to Trey. He gets a pass for consistently trying to make "good" R&B music. And the ladies singing that same tired ass relationship ass shit. I need a little more tact from my ladies. It's like once Keyshia Cole blew up everyone wanted to run with the hood-esque look and feel. But the thing is, as we saw on the now terrible BET, that's how Keyshia is. All these new female singers are fitting a mold. The hood/Nikki Minaj mold. Colorful and glittery hair, super long and super bad tracks. It's sad it's being recycled. I even blame Beyonce a tad, just for the tracks lls, but she stayed R&B. To be honest other than Mariah's Emancipation of MiMi, which is a modern day classic, I think Teedra Moses' Complex Simplicity is right behind Mariah as modern day classic R&B.

And movies... Soul fucking Plane. Just the fact that it got made is a problem. Like someone read the script and said "Yes. Let's do this." That's rough. I aint gonna lie I laughed when I first saw it, which was for free. But it is inexcusable. A movie like that can never be made again. I could go on to the lack of good content on television and the big screen and the stage provided to us by Tyler Perry studios but that's old news. I think that's a readily accepted fact.

I'm calling on my generation to be the creators. As you can see in music, there is a slow resurgence of that grassroots movement in hip-hop. You can see it starting to build and take form. You can also see it starting to be compromised by the powers that be (ex. Wiz's Black and Yellow sub-par). But it needs to happen not only in music, but in film (which I promise to do my part), all aspects of art, photography, writing, etc. etc. The biggest lie is that we are in a post racial society. By now we know that that is not true (Qu'ran Burnings, Oscar Grant, SB 1070). We need to be the designers and the re-designers. We now have the power and the potential to change the way art is viewed for generations to come. By 2110, if ppl ever make it to that, who's gonna give a flying fuck about the Mona Lisa? Technology will have us so far removed from things of that "classical" nature that it will almost be pointless. It will be like learning Latin (which I did NLE cum laude award fool) good to know but fuckin pointless in the bigger picture. Be the creators. Be the chance takers and create from an authentic place. Because it is authenticity, which was ever so prevalent in 90's, not as much now, that will last.

An you can IVL that...

"Time Now"

When I first left home, in an attempt to show and prove the world the man I'd eventually become...personal cares, issues, and worries were the only thing that drove my everyday thoughts...

After a long talk with my older brother, then my nephew immediately after...one thought stood out amongst the others...

It's MY TIME, to take care of MY FAMILY...and with my back against the wall a decision was made...Big S/O to the homie Zel for the production on this one...Waddup to the League...hit the download link below for "Time Now

~~http://soundcloud.com/tredejean/time-now

And It Begins...