Lazy Lyrics: That had nothing to do with airplanes

I listen to the radio a lot. I drive around all day fixing computers. I like to write and occasionally write raps. I really think a lot of the rappers and people who get featured in songs to throw out a few lines are getting incredibly lazy. Pitbull... I respected you right up until you rhymed Kodak with Kodak. You're right... Kodak does rhyme with Kodak... because they're the same word. Baby you're the whole package and you pay your taxes? Really? I would assume that being the whole package IMPLIES that she pays her taxes. Of all the things you could single out about how awesome a girl is... the best you could think of is that she pays her taxes?




I could go on about that for a while... but that's not my main point here. You know the song Airplanes with Haley Williams and B.O.B.? Their song came on the radio earlier today. I realized something. Most of B.O.B's rapping has nothing to do with airplanes. He mostly just rapped about how hard it was before he got his big break. I will give him some props for a few of his pairs:

And that's just how the story unfolds
You get another hand soon after you fold
And when your plans unravel in the sand
What would you wish for if you had one chance?
So airplane airplane sorry I'm late
I'm on my way so don't close that gate
If I don't make that then I'll miss my flight
But I'll be right back at it by the end of the night

I like that whole section. The rest of his rapping has to do with him being nostalgic about the days when he had a mix tape and life was hard... back before B.O.B. was an acronym and he was just plain Bob. Hopefully you get my point. There's so much you could do rapping about airplanes... or any subject really. I got bored driving around and I came up with this:

When I planned this trip it was for you and me

But you locked up your heart and I misplaced the key

I know you just want me to do what you say

But love is a ticket that goes both ways

You didn't get what I meant when I told you to pack

Metal detector went off from the knife in my back

You might still be mad and maybe its fate

So check your attitude with your bags at the gate

If you won’t give me a chance then you can kiss my ass

And I’ll upgrade my seat and sit alone in first class

There you go. There's a verse from a love song that has to do with airplanes. I actually came up with the last four lines first and I couldn't get them out of my head so I finished it up. I did this in about half an hour while driving around. I didn't talk about paying taxes. I didn't ask anyone to call me maybe. There's no mention of hot girls making me suicidal (Just messing Sean Kingston... you're alright).

I actually like Boyce Avenue and DeStorm's cover of this song a lot better. Yes, DeStorm stays true to what B.O.B. did with it and raps about growing up and how hard life was but I still think his version is a little more creative:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZSx9ZOMgV8

The only rapper that I believe consistently delivers nowadays (as far as rappers that I hear consistently on the radio) is Eminem. Yes, he swears a lot. His rhymes are just so epic though. I love those two lines from Love the Way You Lie:

Now you get to watch her leave out the window
Guess that's why they call it window pain

I love the play on words... window pane / window pain. Epic. I just wish more rappers would put effort in their lyrics or rap about something a little more real than how hot a girl is, how hard their life is, or apparently how sexy it is when a girl pays her taxes.

Evolution of the Cover: The Journals of Jacob and Hyde

Jacob and Hyde has been live for a little over a week now and I promised before its release to give some of the early cover shots. For Jacob and Hyde, I worked with Christine Ticali from http://darkroaddesigns.com/ Some of the early shots looked like this:

I didn't think the eyes looked right or that the covers looked as dark as I wanted them to. I sent Christine this picture to give her an idea of how I wanted the eyes to look:

Instead of making eyes that looked similar, she did something much cooler. She grafted my eyes from this photo on to the cover image which resulted in the following covers:

From there I had her modify the text a little bit and decided I didn't want blood splatter on the cover. The final cover ended up looking like this:

I really like this cover and I think Christine did a great job. For those of you who still haven't purchased a copy, The Journals of Jacob and Hyde can be purchased here. I also published a new history article on Caribbean pirates and privateers from my backlog of history articles. I'll probably talk a little bit more about that in another post.