UFC 223 Khabib vs Holloway

UFC 223 can be called the Cursed Remix.

Don’t trip chocolate chip, the card actually got Better! Here’s why

1. Tony Ferguson vs Khabib has been the most anticipated fight of the year thus far. Not to mention the Co-Main event being the most anticipated women’s rematch in a LONG time. (since Rousey vs Tate).
   1. Khabib and Tony are 2 of the top 3 fighters at 155lbs, and they have been scheduled to fight on 3 other occasions, none of which came to fruition.
   2. Statistically it was damn near impossible for this fight not to happen, lo and behold, while Tony was on set of FOX, he tripped over a cable and blew out his LCL.
2. In steps Max “Gangsta” Holloway, who when asked why are you taking this fight on 6 days noticed stated “This is what legends are made of”. In the Era of Conor being king and young fighters looking to his path as a easier way to gain notoriety its dope to have Max Blessed Holloway, someone who just wants to scrap and prove he is the absolute best unarmed man to man combatant in the world! Im sure the UFC took care of him but most people in the 155lbs division are trying to avoid having to fight Khabib. Even the 170lbs champ Tyron Woodley admitted the last guy he wants to fight on the UFC roster is Khabib. He said that LIVE on TMZ tv show.  And Max is gonna come in off the beach a la Nate Diaz Style, and take on the mauler, Khabib?! IF Max can pull off the win he will automatically join the air of Silva, St. Pierre, Penn, McGregor. However beyond that in just one fight he could leap frog everyone as the GOAT, how you ask?
   1. If Holloway wins he will be the 145lbs and the 155lbs champ, which was Conor Mcgregor’s status almost 2 years ago when he had his last MMA fight vs Alvarez in NY. You know for a FACT that is the greatest Title match up UFC could have ever asked for. Beyond the names of the fighters, this fight would unanimously determine the p4p greatest fighter now.
   2. My top 5 fighters right now list go like this
      1. Daniel Cormier
      2. Demetrius Johnson
      3. Conor McGregor
      4. Stiepe Miocic
      5. Max Holloway
   3. Can you imagine having 2 of the top 5 p4p fighters actually fighting it out, oh wait Cormier and Miocic about to do it too. This is why I can appreciate real warriors who want to know who is the Greatest Alpha alive today.
3. BREAKING NEWS! Update: (4/5/18 7:15pm)
   1. Conor McGregor goes Irish Gangster on the Fighter’s bus. I hate to say it but this one incident make’s me want to see Khabib win so he get’s the guarantee fight with McGregor. Look at what “Bad press” can do for you if sort of “done right” Just a few lines ago I was making the argument for Holloway McGregor fight to find out the true #1 Fighter in the world, but the intrigue of the real life beef b/t Conor and Khabib make’s me want to watch that fight even more so.
      1. It’s interesting how our natural emotions push certain event’s to greater magnitudes. I think it’s bc those moments speak to our natural instincts. Man vs Man, audiences are big, but Tribe vs Tribe is Huge.
4. Fight Predictions
   1. Khabib beats Max b/c on paper he is suppose to.
   2. Rose defeats Joanna by submission 3rd round.

48 laws of Power – Robert Greene

 

This book has been recommended to me by many different peers and friends. At first the title interested, but then I thought to myself what could this book really tell me? Was there something I had not picked up at school, from my parents, or in the business world? What were these 48 laws of power and how do I know I can’t find the same suggestions in a men’s magazine somewhere at Barnes and Nobles (which is where I am writing this blog post).

Its very interesting to read the points and the authors historical backing for all propositions. He is constantly citing, Barnum Bailey, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Eddison, so on and so forth. But the points he brings up are very powerful, yet very scary at the same time. One of the chapters he declares not to voluntarily give up more information than you need to, common business practice. But then in another chapter he tells you to get everyone to do the work while you take the credit for it. Yes I would agree with him if you are talking about it from a purely capitalistic standpoint. However if you have any moral fiber you can easily see the dilemma here.  Here are my conclusions after getting through 1/4 of the book thus far. I will continue to blog about it in quarters as I read on.

Conclusion 1: Humans are susceptible to being influenced. It’s in our nature to take information, contemplate it, and then allow it to form into an idea so that we may live/react to that knowledge in our day to day lives. If we were left to our own devices, it would truly become like Lord of the Flies. One easy reference (even tho the movie was AIGHT) is the movie NOAH. This movie did the best TRUE depiction of what life must have been like before, Police, schools, Green Cards, Borders, the Senate etc etc…. 

Conclusion 2: The same power that makes a great leader can also make a great destroyer. There is a very common thread in life and that is with great power comes great responsibility. And NO its not b/c Spider man said it. It’s b/c MLK and Hitler had the same Social and Oral (SPEECH!) skill sets. I know it irks people to hear me compare MLK and Hitler but their ability to influence, project an idea, and move crowds to physically do something is the same exact skill set learned by both. The only difference is MLK used it for Good while Hitler chose to lean into the dark side. It’s nothing new, Star Wars BEEN trying to tell us this. With the power and skills you learn you can either become a Jedi or a Syth….

Conclusion 3: Life is all about Politics and Marketing. Whether your in the business world and politics or NOT, it doesn’t matter. The most useful skill set you will never learn in school is how to sell yourself or at least your ideas. Everyone dresses up for some type of attention. Every time you talk you formulate words that will be the most attractive to the listener. We buy cars, write blogs, and post moods on social media, in order to constantly remind people that we are alive and worth listening too (marketing). And as far as politics, well we all engage in that too. Think about your group of friends, work place, or even your church. If there is a power structure there, someone who is the most liked or the most popular, or there is a girl in the group you find attractive, you will find your self politicking your way to the top of that group or into that girls bedroom. All marketing and politics are, is the advanced forms of those actions we all engage in day to day. Learn it, use it, grow from it.

I think this is a really good book for those who don’t really take time to people watch or look for patterns in humanity. Greene does an amazing job using laymen terms to express all the little tricks and influences we engage in every day in order for us to get what we want when we want it. However without heavy discipline you could end up becoming George W. Bush/Obama….. Or any of those BS, fronting presidential candidates, who know they don’t control shit, and all they are doing is presenting an image and idea to us, in order to strengthen their “team” and fatten their pockets.

 

Teknikahn

 

Cambodia Part 2

Day 2, started off the same way Day 1 ended, Full of amazing experiences all crammed into a small 24 hour window.

We got to sleep in a little bit and get our bodies rejuvenated and adjusted to the new time zone, extreme heat and humidity. Now to truly understand the current situation in Cambodia and not jump to judgmental conclusions you really have to know where the Cambodian people have come from just in the past generation. Therefore Ken, Philip, and  I decided to go visit the Tuol Sleng prison camp, which was originally a Highschool but later was converted into a prison in 1962 by the Khmer Rouge after they had taken control of Cambodia. It’s crazy b/c there are a lot of reports that indicate most civilians welcomed the new regime and wanted a change. So in the beginning many cheered for the Communist Khmer Rouge to come in bring change to their country. Slowly but surely the leaders of the Khmer Rouge could not handle the power and responsibility of controlling an entire nation, so instead of being in power for the people the decided to slowly control the people in order to stay in power.

At first they wanted everyone to give up their weapons, and most volunteered b/c they believed they would no longer need them. So they started by stripping away their physical power. Then they decided that schooling was causing people to have too much free thought and learn critical thinking which caused trouble in their plans to rule over the country so they closed down all schools and even turned some of them into prisons just like Tuol Sleng. Now they have stripped them of their mental power.

When that didn’t seem to create the affect they desired, they decided it was religion that was creating a problem so they banned all religious activity and proceeded to kill all the buddhist monks and all other religious figures. The people have lost their spiritual power. When that didn’t seem to work they finally decided it was the family structure that caused “their” people to be more loyal to the family versus the country so they began to separate families and used prisons to literally pull them apart.

Finally they began to arrest and execute anyone who gave even an inch of suspicion to the rise of rebellion or any act of defiance. The forced 1000’s of people into making false confessions by torturing them until they “confessed” to their rebellion. They would keep prisoners locked up in tiny tiny cells and when the time came they would torture them until they got the written confession they wanted. Then of course they would be immediately executed for conspiracy against the Khmer Rouge.

   

Here is a contraption they would use to hang victims upside down and torture them. After they would pass out from exhaustion they would lower the rope and dunk them in water just to wake them up so they could continue to torture them.

One example of a classroom that was converted into a torture room.

It’s estimated that some 14,000 to 17,000 prisoners were arrested and sent to Tuol Sleng.

 

Out of the 14,000 – 17,000 prisoners only 7 remained when the Khmer Rouge was finally defeated. This gentlemen who saw his wife get killed before his own eyes is 1 of the 7 survivors of the Tuol Sleng Concentration camp… The black and white picture at the bottom is a photo that was taken immediately after they were freed.

After our insane history lesson we decided we needed time to decompress and get focused on the task at hand so we stopped by to grab lunch and headed back to the hotel.

 

We washed up and got ready to go meet one of Cambodia’s residing 3 star generals. The General just so happened to be the land lord of AIM’s building and so over the years Don has developed a relationship with this gentlemen. We took a 1 hour ride from our hotel to the Generals Summer Villa which a HORRENDOUS car ride. At one point we were no longer on a paved road, it was just dirt, dust, rocks and oncoming traffic. I felt like a bobble head just bouncing around non-stop for 45 minutes.

We pull up to a huge iron gate and we circle around his roundabout drive way and this is what I see.

 

This huge river is his backyard

Don Brewster with the General

After he showed up his COMPOUND, which was ridiculously big we finally decided to take a dip in the pool which was welcomed by me b/c it was so HOT and HUMID I cannonballed my way into the pool only to find out that its SO hot in Cambodia that the pool temperature had to have been like 80 degrees no exaggeration. I felt like I was in the hot tub!!!! NoOOoOOoOo….

After about 5 minutes of that non-sense it was time for dinner, and damn can I say let the feast begin!

His wife and what I thought was his children made a freaking BBQ feast, our selection comprised of Steak, Chicken, Lamb, 4 different types of sausage, Crab, Prawns, Seafood stew, Bread, Rice, some weird fruit that tasted like potatoes, lychees, mangostien, rice pudding, and of course Johnny Walker.

Funny side story, On our way to the Generals house I noticed that our party had several boxes shaped in the form of what I familiarize my self with as liquor bottles. And I asked what we were doing with that so Don Tells me the General loves his whiskey’s so they bought him 2 Bottles of Johnny walker Gold. We get to his crib and hand him the gifts and he doesn’t speak English, so he puts the boxes of Gold down and motions to one of the kids there and 2 minutes later he comes back with a bottle of Johnny Walker…. BLUE.. LOL I guess he thought the Gold wasn’t good enough? True story he ends up letting us keep the bottles so when we left we took HIS gift back home with us hahahaha. Big Pimping!

Only my 2nd time drinking Johnny Walker Blue in my life… LOL. Oh this guy drank like a champ too, if you want to get a  party crunk invite this guy he was NON stop pouring us drinks like it was Johnny Walker Red label…

You see how its night time right and we are still slamming back Johnny Blue’s

 

 

My new favorite fruit Mangostien

 

Ken and I must have eaten at least a dozen Mangostiens ourselves. They are a tough smooth purple shell but once you crack open the soft shell they look like Garlic Cloves, But they taste SO sweet and delicious. If you haven’t had one please try it. Its magical      

Oh yeah remember when I said I thought his kids were cooking for us. Well I told our translator to tell the General how much I appreciated his kids being so giving and serving us so politely, with food, drinks, ice, desserts, etc… and the translator doesn’t even say anything to the general and he goes Danny, those are his servants…. I Said OH DAMN! 

So all in all day 2 was much more relaxed and a far cry from Day 1. I felt like I got to see Cambodia’s most extreme ends. Day 1 we were in the ghettos of the ghettos and Day 2 Im smashing Johnny walker blue with Cambodia’s 3 star General. Day 1 I was eating a humble yet delicious bowl of rice with green beans and sparse pieces of pork for lunch at the ATC Center and Day 2 I had basically every piece of meat grilled over an open fire BBQ at a summer villa. What a crazy dichotomy it was to experience in a 48 hour window. My eyes were slowly being opened to the reality of this world and not to pity them but have genuine care and concern for the people, especially the young girls who have no say so in much of this.

Day 3 will be up shortly, thank you for taking the time to share in my amazing experience.

For more information please visit.

www.3StrandsGlobal.com

www.agapewebsite.org

The New Khmer Rouge

Start Date: May 30th
End DateJune 4th

Please Watch before reading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XYRlIeNmXs

May 31st

My crazy journey began on Wednesday at 1:30pm. I took a 22 hour flight from ATL to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. If you know me, I cannot sleep on planes at all. I was able to squeeze in about 2 hours of sleep on my 22 hour flight. It was all good tho b/c I took Korean Air (best air line in the world) and on my TV set they had a ton of movies and all these documentaries. So I literally watched almost every documentary they had on the plane.

I finally get to Phnom Penh at about 10pm and Ken Petersen, owner of Apricot Lane Boutiques and 3 strands organization against sex trafficking picks me up and we get to our hotel at around 11pm. Now remember I only managed to get 2 hours of sleep in a 24 hour window, so im thinking I am going to pass out immediately as soon as I hit my bed.

BUT for some reason I could NOT fall asleep. I rolled around in bed for about 2 hours, then turned on the TV only to find out that the 60 channels the hotel was showing was half on half fuzz/snow. Part of it might have been because the assortment of Mosquitos, Ants, and geckos that were lounging in my room may have put me in some sort of un ease. But I quickly got use to them being my roomates. I decided to hop on my Ipad and listened to podcasts till 8am.

This is how I had to sleep every night so that I would not get eaten alive.

I wash up and head to breakfast where I get to meet Phillip Larue and his wife Lea. Phillip has been a Signed CCM recording artist since he was 15 and is based out of Nashville Tennessee. He has written tons of artists and bands such as Jars of Clay. We get to know each other over breakfast and I pretty much ordered this simple but delicious fried rice dish every morning, obviously it was mad good, but DO NOT eat those lil peppers….

So this was our squad Me, Ken, Phillip, and Lea.

DAMN was I not ready for half of the things I was about to see. The four days I am about to describe to you has been the most eye opening, shocking, and unimaginable experience of my life. Hands down the most emotional and mentally taxing 4 days I have ever been through.

My Homie Sumall picks us up in his pimp ass Land Cruiser and right off the bat I know I am in a different world bc of the extreme heat, humidity, smell, and sound of city life. As soon as I step out of my hotel, I need to cross the street it was like playing Real Life Frogger, it was an endless barrage of motos (Mopeds) taxi Motos, cars and bicycles going back and forth and I barely made it alive crossing the street to get to Sumalls car. These people were not gonna stop for me or anyone!

So we hop in the whip and we start cruising and I have to mention there are NOOOOO traffic laws in Cambodia. These people were gangster as hell with their driving. Not only do lines and stop lights not matter but there are entire families, im talkin about mom, dad, daughter and son on one of these Motos, just rolling along. As we are rolling its obvious how poverty stricken the entire nation of Cambodia is. We were in the Capital City of Cambodia and the whole time im wondering where their down town is or the nice area…. There is no “nice” area just random buildings every once in a while, the rest? Just one story shanteys that double as home and business store front. Almost 90% of the people I saw lived in this condition.

After about a 20 minute eye opening ride we finally get to Sway Pak, a small maybe 2 mile diameter city just outside Phnom Penh that was mostly a Vietnamese village, also known as the capital of child sex trafficking in all of Cambodia. And this is where Agape International Missions (AIM) has decided to plant their base… Right in the cut, I mean literally they are neighbors with the pimps and traffickers…. still blows my mind that they implanted themselves in the “Jungle” of it all, repeat after me people… STRAIGHT GANGSTER! You think you are hard? Son you dont even know what it means to Hard!

This is the street that the AIM center is on.

 

 

AIM head quarters

This is their backyard, and it seemed like every other house Don Brewster pointed was a Pimps house or a home brothel.

Down the corner from the AIM head quarter building was ATC Aim Training Center. This is where Ken Petersen and 3 Strands play a HUGE part in what AIM is doing and is able to do in this city.

IF your like me you have heard, seen, maybe even been a part of a non profit organization before, and its always a great cause their fighting but it just seems like all of them are always trying to guilt you into giving them money. AIM and this blog for that matter is NOT about that. They are very intentionally trying to create sustainable income for their organization and more importantly for the girls that they are able to rescue. So last year May/June Ken was able to make a visit to AIM and saw a need, and decided he would create jobs for these girls and just a few months later the 3 Strands Bracelet was born. I could explain to you what this is but here is a short video clip that does a much better job.

Short 4 minute clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q4YiIYVrGHI

We left the AIM Center and headed to the ATC Center where the director Isaac gave us a tour and I was able to be in same exact rooms and even got to meet some of the same girls… it is so surreal looking back at that video which seems like a commercial but I swear to GOD it is exactly like that, real life, no fabrication. Legit clean center, proper hours, triple wages, and safe working environments. Not only do they work 5 days a week 8 hours a day. They are given a full lunch and 1 hour of schooling every day. This is unheard of in Cambodia where profit is King.

ATC Employment Center that you see in the video above 

Ken Petersen being able to meet and converse with the girls that have been saved from the Sex Trafficked Brothels, and now work as full time employees creating the hand made bracelets for 3 Strands. http://www.3strandsglobal.com/

 

Time for LUNCH, and I just gotta say Cambodian food is the bomb.com I tore up every meal I had there.

  

It was crazy to see and to meet all the volunteers, staff and the girls who have been rescued, but to be honest, I looked at them and my mind could not accept the fact that these were sex trafficked girls who were forced to have sex for money against their own will. They just looked like normal locals who were working. I mean they told me the stories, and I’ve seen the documentaires like Pink Room and Nefarius (shout out to Allison Rhee for taking me) But being there I couldnt really see it, or believe it.

After visiting the ATC they showed us a new project they are doing called the “Lords Gym” I know its super cheesy but whatever it was a “Training facility for Cambodia Kick boxing” Its in quotes b/c this “gym” is about the size of my bed room minus the closet and bathroom….

 

But they use this area to try and develop relationships with the actual pimps and traffickers directly, the same people who HATE that AIM is there because its affecting the DINERO! (money). This spot immediately caught my eye, mostly b.c im into MMA, but 2ndly b/c alot of the pimps are just teenage boys barely older than the girls they are trafficking…

After the tour they let us have some free time and allowed us to interact with the students there. Phillip and Lea jumped right in with the kids, and if you know me you know I love kids and get along with them fairly easily, but this time around I couldn’t do it, Im not sure why, but my heart was leading me back to the Lord’s Gym and the guys that were there.

So I went where my heart led, back to the Lord’s Gym lol. I walk in and there are about 4 guys in there lifting weights, 3 adolescent kids just goofing around and one white guy in his mid 20’s just over seeing everything. So I started to chop it up with the white guy and just kinda lingered around. I think I was nervous bc they looked like fighters, and I knew they were the neighborhood bad guys. So after about 30 mins of doing nothing I finally built up the nerve to say hey, can I show you a proper shoulder exercise? One of the guys was doing some weird exercise but it was all kinds of wrong lol. SO with no real verbal communication I picked up some 30lbs dumbbells… wait lets say 50 lbs… haha ok fine they were 20s! Anyways, so I show him how to do butterfly’s, and he jumps right in with me. He is doing it all wrong so I slowly and cautiously grab his arms and show him how to do them. I noticed a guy in white trunks watching us but he is stoned face so I dont say nothing to him. After that I should the guy the shoulder press. and now his all like grimacing and touching his shoulders like”damn this hurts” and we both kinda laugh, At that point I was confident enough to as the guy in white shorts to jump in with us and he jumps right in. We would all laugh together when they would be in pain, and even though they were jacked, they could barely lift half of what I was lifting b/c they were so small and barely get any protein in their diet.  We just started to get into doing some bobbing and weaving boxing drills when Don came and got me b/c it was time to go. This was probably the highlight of my trip and this is just day one, When you read all the other things I experienced this moment is actually very small and insignificant but for me its stands out the most.

Here are two of my friends that I made.

 

After our tour of the AIM center and my workout with the Cambodian Kickboxers, we had the privledge to attend a wedding that Don and Bridgette had been invited too, So we are rolling down this dirt road towards brick factory row. Just a little info on the brick factories, its pretty much modern day indentured servanthood. Entire families will work, eat, and sleep at these factories or in “homes” that the factory owners provide. However the problem is they make less money than they owe so they are essentially enslaved to the factory owners for life.

We roll up and I see this tent where family and friends are gathered, and all I hear is this blazing loud music coming from the back. I walk over and I see this truck with like 10 different mis-matching speakers running off of a generator playing random EDM songs.

  

It was a very small and simple wedding, but there is very little rituals and ceremony, it was more like a nice picnic with crazy music and pretty clothing. 

This is me and Groom, he must have been 17 maybe 18 at the oldest. 

Pic of Don and Bridgette with the Bride and Groom, it was amazing to see how ecstatic the family was to see that Don and Bridgette attended their children’s wedding.

Random neighborhood kid who got his hands on one of our energy drinks….!

 

The Kitchen and Staff

 

The best part of the wedding is when we decided to just jump right in and start the dancing machine! The grandpa you see on the right was CRUNK NATIONS! He was getting down, and it was so touching to see b/c they say 50% of Cambodias people are under the age of 25. Clearly the health care system is almost non existent and it is very rare to see someone his age, so it was amazing to see this man just let loose and get his boogie on.

   

Another random neighborhood kid who heard the music, came over and started to dance battle Phillip.

   

It’s amazing, as simple and ghetto as this wedding was Don informed us that this family could not afford this wedding and that they would just add this to their debt to the factory owner and would spend the rest of their lives continuing to try and pay them back. We only stayed for about an hour but it was such a fun free and blessed time.

So we wrapped up our time at the wedding and we headed back to the hotel to wash up grab dinner and go watch one of AIMS top 2 fighters fight in a live nationally televised Kick boxing (MuayThai) Match that night. He was actually the main event fight. Now remember this guy strictly trains out of the Lords Gym…. I was SOOOo geeked to go and mind you i haven slept maybe 3 to 4 hours in a 48 hour window, So when get back to the hotel I tell the crew to go eat without me I NEED to get a nap in b/c there is no way im missing the fight. I shower and right as I lay my head down Ken knocks on my door and goes the fight is not at 9 its at 8 we gotta go! so Im like DAMN son i am soooo tired, but i was not going to miss a real life Cambodian Kickboxing pro fight.

We walk in and its EXACTLY what I hoped it would be, HUGE crowd, super loud, cigarette smoke every, 95 degree high humidity. Crazy weird flute like instrument and live drums, setting the intense tone of the night.. This card had men and women matches, Cambodian, French and Thailand fighter’s on it. IT WAS SO SICK, I was instantly awakened and Cheering my ass off.

This is a 2 maybe 3 year old girl who spent her night roaming around the arena picking up plastic water and juice bottles and putting them in here little plastic bag, im assuming in order to make just a few cents from the recycling center… There were atleast 2 dozen children doing the exact same thing…

Finally after an hour and a half our fighter walks in and its FIGHT TIME. His name is “Bun Tap” and he was super Ill.

 

He ended up fighting all 5 rounds and won by decision. We came down and I got a pic with him, then immediately after, he starts to limp and grabs a chair to sit down. After the adrenaline wore off I guess he felt pain in his foot and it was atleast swollen to double the size of his left foot. It was NASTY big…. I don’t know what round he hurt it but im guessing he threw a leg kick and the other guy checked it and hit in on the knee cap. SO he had to go back to the locker room.

This was my First day in Cambodia, and honestly it only gets crazier and more intense from here…. I honestly can say If I had to go home that same day, I wouldn’t have been mad and felt like I was able to experience an amazing part of Cambodia and Agape International, but there was more, so much more.

Day 2 will be up shortly.

In the meantime if any of this has struck a chord in your heart or you just want to get prive to the cause please visit.

www.3StrandsGlobal.com

www.AgapeWebsite.org

Here is a link to a website for the documentary that Features Don Brewster and AIM

http://thepinkroommovie.com/

Jetty Rae’s Trip to ATL

September 26th 2011, marked #TeamJetty’s first recording session with Arex Productions. Big Shout out to Sean and Shin of Arex and to JR. We linked up with Chew and Serge and went straight to their home studio for some pre production and song writing.

This is Jetty playing one of her songs for Arex and just sharing her vibe. For such a small girl she has a huge voice and I quote JR “You are the reason why im in music”.

So Arex produced a couple of joints for Jetty and then paired her up with some song writers. This is Thomas, amazing dude, super cool guy to work with, he actually Gotta Jetty on the late night tip after she had already written two songs and was super cool.

Sharing some thoughts and opinions about the record he cut with thomas with Sean and Serge.

Day three we made it up to Mt. Paran and got in the BIG!! Studio. This is the actual SSL board that use to be in the HIT Factory in NY, mad producers and aritsts have made hits right infront of this station.

Look at this crazy patch bay, can anyone tell me what the heezy is going on here? looks like an old school phone operators station hahahaha,

Serge and Jetty going over a few pointers and general pre recording discussions.

Jetty Choppin it up with Thomas the writer and a guitarist they brought in to lay down some melodies for her. I think that’s Kent?

The drum room

Jetty laying down her guitar part

Finally Shin and Jetty laying down vocals for a Track that Cassius wrote for her. Song is a so fire, You may hear this one on the radio very soon

This is what Jetty’s recording sessions use to look like….

This is what they look like now…. #TeamJetty LOL

Jetty and Shin having a listening session to her recordings

Couple of extra opinions is always a good thing to have.

Cassius and Sean taking a listen to the record her wrote for Jetty

Me pretending to be hard at work.

Yeah I always stay connected!

Finally we ended that weekend with J Kim’s first “official” performance at the Nest. I put it in qutoes b/c that event was so unorganized and the system was just average. But we are working on some new material with some SICK producers, and now have KTL nightlife on board helping with promotions. Also shout out to Tony for coming in as the business manager. Official team has now been set

Cheers to chasing your dreams, when most people question your work ethic, credibility, and ability. Cheers to not letting the pressures of the world dictate how you will live out the one life/chance that God has given you on this Earth. Cheers to Chew and Serge, Sean and Shin of A-Rex, Kent, Thomas, and everyone else that was a part of her first experience in ATL. Let’s Get it!

Follow Jetty Rae on

Facebook: Jetty Rae

Twitter: @JettyRae

Instagram: JettyRae

And if you wanna follow me on twitter: @TEKx316

Instagram: TEKx316

Click on the link to get a quick sample of Shin of Arex doing some finishing touches on a Jetty Rae Track copy and paste the link into your browser

http://yfrog.com/045ssjz

POEM: What if Tomorrow Never Came?

If you knew that the clock was ticking would you have a mission?

What would you do in that position?

Would you resolve a conflict that needs fixing?

And take the time out to truly focus and listen

Would you express urgency? Or show courtesy

Problems that were minor suddenly become emergencies

Hesitations that were made become certainties

Losing all value in materials and currency

Currently the future doesn’t hold the same worth

Because right now might be the conclusion of your birth

Is it still about money power and being respected

Or going back to fix the things that you had neglected

Making sure that when your done those you love will be protected

And try your best to bring back those who were rejected

What do you put on top of your priorities?

Is the western white life still your goal, or are you ready to die a minority?

Have you thought of where you’d be in, in the life after?

All of a sudden the words of your pastor

Come inside your head you remember all the chapters

Im not talking about religious jargon like the rapture

I hope you see that hugging your grandmother today really does matter.

I hope you see that if you love a girl you need to grab her

I hope you see that your neighbor being skinny is not right while you get fatter

I hope you see that Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad, all know God and spoke about love and that’s what really matters.

Anniversarie’s Birthday’s and BBQ’s

First and foremost congrats to my folks for their 30th anniversary! Man 30 years of dedication and love for another is something rare and definetly worth celebrating in this day and age. My parents have been through a lot as has many other immigrant couples, with having to learn english, leaving everything behind, being foreigners, to working 14 hour shifts just to feed their children.
But a side not about my parents, my mom’s family actually came from Korea to Queens, New York, and my dad’s family moved to Atlanta, Ga which means, they did not come over to America married, they actually met each other while being 10 states apart, and u have to imagine this is in the early early 80’s before internet, gmail, twitter, facebook, or even cell phones. A pastor told my dad about a pretty girl that lived in NY and they did…… Hand written letters! Sent pics of themselves and went on like 5 dates, and a few months later decided to get married. ABC’s = American Bred Couple! Congrats mom and dad.

Of course I always gotta give a shout out to the OG’s of the Eun Clan.

Yes we celebrated over steaks and wine at Ruth’s Chris

Always Robert Mondavi with the Eun’s

Cheers to 30 years of love and dedication.

Transition from 30 years to 5 years, Happy birthday to my God Daughter London Aliyah Kim. Turned 5

CUTEST thing I have ever received in the mail, A thank you card from London for her bicycle that I got for her for her birthday.

And you know there is always good food on Tek Blog

Using our brand new smoker/grill

Steaks on the Grill

Salty Seaweeds infamous Ribs, In they go

And out they come

A lil Ethiopian Joint that my friend took me too, Super authentic and it was pretty good. It reminded me of Indian style type dining, the flavors were different, but the style was very similar.

Random pic but there is Donut Joint new GT and it has the craziest Donuts ever.

So i finally decided to paint my room and this is the chaos that is my room as I started to paint

I know my blog is starting to go into this randomness as it usually does, but this is the line outside of best buy in Kennesaw at 8:00am for the crazy sale on the HP tablets.

I was number 76 out of 200 (inventory of tablets) but the line by 10:00am when the door actually opened up had to have been around 400 – 500 people.

Last bit of randomness, We saw these porch chairs on sale at Target and decided to buy 2 of them assuming they were gonna fit in my trunk…… well

They didn’t hahaha. I went home going like 10 mph down Abernathy.

CHEERS and Again big ups to my parents for really being the foundation of our family and such a strong example of what a loving and dedicated couple can accomplish together not only for their family but the whole city of ATL. Sure they had their ups and downs but one thing I can honestly admit to you is their character and strong value, I HAVE NEVER not once ever seen them fight infront of me in my entire life. Sure I have seem them angry, sad, and upset, but never have I ever seen the fight with one another. AMAZING.

Love You Guys,

AP’s going away dinner and Cali part 546463!

This post is dedicated to my homie AP who has been gone for about a month now, but again I have been way backed up on my blog so half this blog is dedicated to him and the other half to my 2000th visit to California.

AP has been in the ATL for 3 years and lil bit and he came in as a young teenager who was about to enroll into his freshmen year of college. Came to ATL straight from Hawaii and he did his thing he graduated and is now entering into grad school. I remember when he first came I had to teach him how to use a credit card, how to do things at the post office and just lil things like that, but when he left he left as a man, Good times brother. Good times! Learned alot from him especially when we got into our 5 hour theological debates and didnt end until 3am when we both had class or work the next day…. really helped shape my foundation.

Our server was like our biggest fan, he kept bringing out bottle after bottle, I think like 8 total throughout the night. Mad love.

This girl is so weird…. I dont understand her… LOL

My favorite lil sister pairing.

Group Pic

The next day my family decided  to take AP out for dinner, and my lil Bro David just got back from 16 days in mexico, look at this tan comparision.

My lil brother, and my other lil brother from another mother.

haha pic with the Rents.

Omg I hope my boiz don’t kill me… You see the girls? And how there hiding there faces, its b/c they said they had no make up on, but really I think they didnt want to be seen giving these guys face massageeeeee HAHAHAA

After saying good bye to AP I headed to LA for like the 4th time this year!

My first Meal right off the Plane in LA

Next day we headed out to the golf course but we picked up some kim bahp and massubis’ on the way.

Funny pic on the way to the course, Tow truck towing a Tow Truck.

hahaha Since i wasn’t golfing and just being a driver I decided to tag everyone while they were giving mother nature a present.

#2

#3

Room 316!

Part of the reason why I flew out to LA was to attend Joon Hyung’s wedding, Congrats!You already know, I got that VIP seating son…

A lil sunny so we had our asian umbrella’s up haha.

First out door wedding, kinda hot but was mad nice.

I just thought this picture was funny… lol

I never eat carrots but this junk was so good I tore it up.

Look at my plate vs David Na’s plate LOL fool was hungry.

Best breakfast sandwhich of my life, forgot what the spot was called but it was mad good.

This is Franchise trying to break into David’s apartment complexes AC unit in their digital Golf room haha.

David asked for a cup of ice and they gave it to him a Tinkerbell kids cup LOL!!

So instagram pics.

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I know this blog was kinda random and all over the place, but Im sifting through crazy amount of pictures from like the past month. But good news is I should be busting out the blogs on a more consistent basis.

TEK-316-RuR

Rize Up Band Summer Tour Conclusion

I honestly have NO idea how long its been since I have updated my Blog. Yes mostly it’s been out of laziness but also, my whole life seems like it has changed. All my old roomates have moved out and back to their perspective homes (miss those guys) Rabbit is still chillin and Sam has moved in. Summer is finally over and my last semester at Columbia Theological Seminary is under way. Rize UP Studios is up and running, and Jetty Rae will be coming to ATL September 26th to begin recording her new material (super Geeked about this). J Burna is about to shoot his first music video, so with all this going on the Blog ha taken a back seat, but now that im situated and back on a schedule I will be back on my WordPress.

First let me go back almost over a month with the back end of the Rize UP Tour ending.

So towards the end of our summer tour we finally had our first Sick victims, Abe and DJ caught some funky stomach virus and was puking and sweating and just dying on us so we did what any loving crew would do…. We quarantined them! Straight up locked abe up in a room upstairs and outcasted DJ to the couch… Nah but we did go out and get the medicine gatorade and some Jook bahp! This is what they had to eat for 2 days.

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While the rest of the band and I get on our iron chef tip and cooked us up a nice home meal while on the road.

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HAHA look at abe he is so miserable, this one family hooked us up with mad donuts and pigs in a blanket and Abe couldn’t eat any of it…

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While the sick kids stayed home me JR, Edmond (die hard Dallas fan) and Eun Soo decided that we were going to utilize our day off and go visit JERRY WORLD!! The new Dallas Cowboys stadium is INSANE!

its like pajamas on him.

Seriously theses two guys are the most comfortable heterosexual males I have ever met….

The jumbotron is seriously NO JOKE, I mean its to the point where you wouldnt even watch the game that going on down on the field…. i dont get it

160ft x 72x, 100 million LED’s

Stadium is 661,000 sq ft, 100,000 seating and has 3200 sony flat screens and 1600 toilets…. WTHEEZY!!!!

Ok so maybe umm… hmm…..

Got to hit up the Cowboys locker room and saw my boi Miles austins locker

Had to show some ATL love to our old Def player Keith Brooking

Yeah ummm… hmmm….

Yeah so wut we’re bench warmers atleast we on the team!

Gettin the play call form upstairs, we were technically not allowed to touch the equipment but oh well.

We even had time for a post game conference.

So you know that rumor that everything is bigger in Texas… well its true, even the portions of food you get is ridiculous.

Ok this shhh right here… this right here, is the biggest dam biscuit i have ever seen in my life. I mean its to the point where you shouldn’t even call it a biscuit its a LOAF of BREAD!

I know you can’t tell how big it is so here it is next to a syrup dispenser.

Or better yet Eun Soo’s new pillow

And we all know how big JR’s face is…. look at that thing!

Random pic of the jankiest vending machine ever….-_-

Oh yeah they gave us hotel room 316!

Last stop on tour, Houston.

We got to work with this Korean/Latino church which was crazy to see first off but even more than that it was amazing to be with the young people and hear there stories and help lead workshops for their praise team. One night we had Latinos, whites, black, vietnamese, Korean, and Phillipino youth groups come out and packed the house. It was a great way to end our tour.

Im back on my blog tip so keep checking back in weekly.

Cheers to the scorching summer and music being the waves to life, that sways us back and forth from every emotion, to every motivation. Deuces

Rize Up Band Summer Tour

So the first leg of the Rize Up Tour I got to join in on was in NC. The band had been doing a couple of joints while i was out of the town but finally I got to hop on the tour with the of a Retreat in NC.

Time to pack it up

 

This is me running the sound board.

Check out the Sketchy hallway to my hotel room….

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The best fast food NC has to offer. The only spot where you can get a Entree (burger or chicken sandwhich, two sides (fries, onion rings, hush puppies, chicken nuggets, CORN DOG, or quesadilla, and a drink for 3.99…. WOW

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After a quick stint in NC we headed to NOVA DC.

Of course we had to do the tourist thing and hit up the monuments.

Here is Edmond planking a Chain haha. So sexy.

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And Edmond planking the cross walk…-_-

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JR trying to plank some weird sign pole thing…

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Rize Up Band performing live for DC… or just Edmund the groupie. D.J. looks pretty sexy too.

 

 

He is a lil too excited to be taken this pic

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The original picture

 

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My incredible instagram skills (follow me at TEKx316)

 

So after we did our thing in DC it was time to head back to ATL. 14 hours and 665.6 miles later we got into ATL at about 3am. Hustle hustle hard

 

After a short 3 day break it was time to hit the road again, but this time I came prepared to keep myself awake on the road.

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Eunsoo sprawled out in the back of JR’s Honda Hybrid, even though he didn’t drive not ONE HOUR!

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When we got to Texas this is how it welcomed us… SMH

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The first official joint our Dallas homies took us to was a place called Rudy’s.

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Their beef brisket was ALL THE WAY OFFICIAL. creamed corn sausage links, pickled peppers, everything was fire, except their “sweet tea” it was weak sauce.

The Band doing their sound check

 

 

The second official TX spot we went to was a joint called Babe’s Chicken house… oh my soul this joint was way too delicious. U see that mound of fried chicken? oh yeah the sides are unlimited… creamed corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits and gravy….

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This time i had the right mind to keep it somewhat healthy and i ordered the grilled chicken. I just couldn’t do it anymore… but i was super jealous,

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So after eating like this for a month I have had to find creative ways to keep my diet and fitness intact… somewhat, so me and sam, the only other member who cares about his LIFE, we have been running and wherever we stay at we go look for playgrounds so we can get our ghetto work outs in, mostly pull ups, chin ups, dips, push ups etc….

Someone help me with my LEGS…. -_-

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Thats a good looking band right there

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What does Rize UP Band do on their down time… same thing all other Azn’s do  FACEBOOK. So become a fan of Rize Up Band on FB. Find us like us and follow us!

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Big Big shout outs to the Greensboro, Raleigh, NC crews. NOVA, DC, Centerville family, Especially to Jason Chung we appreciate all the love and hospitality.

TEK-316-RuR