MeFi-related phrases for Jean Grae project?

September 20, 2008 10:55 PM

There have been some comments in this MeTa thread suggesting that we offer some MeFi-related phrases and such to lyricist Jean Grae, for possible inclusion in the MeFiMu/Jean Grae project. I'm personally on the fence about whether we should do that at all, but there seems to be some amount of urgency in getting this whole thing together in a speedy fashion, so I thought it might be useful to make a "sub-thread" here at Music Talk to collect likely MeFi-phraseology candidates. Whether they're ultimately sent to her as something suggested for use is another matter. I can see pro and con on that, but, anyway... for reference, here's the MeFi wiki page on in jokes. I also thought that, aside from collecting candidates for submission, this thread might serve as a point of discussion among us MeFi musicians concerning whether we should go with this MeFicentric thing at all. I thought that might be useful to do here, rather than the MeTa thread, since it's a more specific discussion and also since MeTa threads are usually off the front page after a day or two. Thoughts? Suggestions?
posted by flapjax at midnite (28 comments total)

Whoa.. I don't think.. nor approve of.. telling Jean Grae what to say.. maybe give her a theme, or kindly ask if she can fit a phrase in somewhere..

I thought the MeFi references would be from US..
posted by mediocre at 11:26 PM on September 20, 2008


And.. well.. I want them to be tasteful and not TOO inside.. Like I'm writing a whole verse that centers around the plate of beans metaphor, but it does not require any foreknowledge of the plate of beans meme at MetaFilter to enjoy.
posted by mediocre at 11:37 PM on September 20, 2008


Thoughts?

This whole thing is as lame as a seagull landing on one leg.

She needs money? Pay her (she's amazing and in this spot she's in because of refusal to pay for music) directly or shut the fuck up.

Why is this here? Why was this on metatalk except to point out how sad this place has become?

Those are my thoughts.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:48 PM on September 20, 2008


Yes! The first hater!
posted by mediocre at 11:50 PM on September 20, 2008


This whole thing is as lame as a seagull landing on one leg

Thanks for being so unequivocal, sleepypete! That's quite refreshing here at MeFiMu. But, "this whole thing" is something that a number of people seem to be interested in doing.

Pay her (she's amazing and in this spot she's in because of refusal to pay for music) directly or shut the fuck up.

Unless I missed something, the proposal IS to pay her. Eight hundred bucks. Then we work with her track. Sounds kinda interesting to me, but, well, if you don't think so, there's no need to participate, right?

Why is this here?

I thought I was quite clear above as to the objectives of this particular post.

Why was this on metatalk except to point out how sad this place has become?

It was on MetaTalk because someone (jouke) thought it was a potentially interesting thing to do, here at MeFi Music. I don't think it was jouke's intention to "point out how sad this place has become". I also personally don't think that this indicates that MeFi Music has become a sad place, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:13 AM on September 21, 2008


mediocre writes: Whoa.. I don't think.. nor approve of.. telling Jean Grae what to say..

Whoa. Neither do I. Neither did I indicate that you, mediocre, personally do. Did you read what I wrote above?

maybe give her a theme, or kindly ask if she can fit a phrase in somewhere..

Right. That might be the way to go. Or it might already be too much. The purpose of this post was to sound people out on the matter.

And while you would appear to be planning on alternating your own verses, or whatever, with what JG submits (you wrote: "I thought the MeFi references would be from US" ... "I'm writing a whole verse that centers around the plate of beans metaphor"), I wasn't aware that that it was some sort of foregone conclusion that lyrics on this collaboration would be from anyone other than JG. Now, perhaps it is a foregone conclusion for you, and that'd be fine, I guess, since this is supposed to be a MeFiMu thing and you're a member of the MeFiMu community. Have at it! But you're only welcome to seize your own reins, mediocre, not everyone else's. Forgive me if I'm misreading you, but from where I sit it seems that you are somehow deciding and directing what shape this will take before it's even anywhere near off the ground.

I also have to say I didn't particularly appreciate your chiding folks for not moving fast enough (in the MeTa thread: "People aren't very on the ball tonight as far as utter speed..."). You also seem to have elected yourself to do the beat, since, you know, you can (obviously) do it. But, wasn't it someone else that did the beat for "Punch 'Em"? My point isn't that you're unqualified, as I really wouldn't know, but, um, there's a number of folks here who could *obviously* do the beat. And the fact that they haven't chimed in to say so in a timely enough fashion for you might simply indicate that they are somewhere other than their computer at the red hot moment.

It's not my intention to attack you personally, mediocre, I have no reason for doing so, and I don't intend to set myself up as your enemy or something. But I'm saying these things because it seems to me you're being a little pushy with this thing. You might wanna keep in mind that this is supposed to be a community website.

Anyway, I'll take this opportunity to say: I put this post here to seek feedback on this particular point, that is, MeFi references, as relates to this JG collab proposal. I'm taking no personal stand either way: I'm not advocating that this be done in a any particular way. I have no agenda here. But between what sleepypete had to say and mediocre's comments, I think this whole thing could actually spin into some sort of weirdly ugly territory, so I'm gonna more or less bow out. I'd love to work with a slamming Jean Grae vocal track, and that's about where I stand, personally. Y'all have fun.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:09 AM on September 21, 2008


Sounds kinda interesting to me, but, well, if you don't think so, there's no need to participate, right?

Whether he or I participate or not we care about this place and it would be a poor reflection on it if Jean Grae were given some transient Metafilter catchphrase to work with.

Yes! The first hater!

Sleepy pete was blunt (ok, rude) but I don't think you're as far apart on this as you might suppose, and calling someone a hater when you don't even know what they hate is a bit lame. My personal feeling is that it sucks that an artist of her talent is broke after getting screwed over by the business, and I wish her fans would consider giving money to her directly (especially if they've never paid for her music before) so that she can write her own songs. But because that will probably will not happen, please: do not ask her to rap about plates of beans.
posted by melissa may at 1:10 AM on September 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


Sleepy pete was blunt (ok, rude)

Yeah, telling people to shut the fuck up is a drag. Rude as hell. I don't think I or anyone else deserved that by a long shot, with this post or the MeTa thread.

Being clear and articulate about the particular topic of a thread (and, you know, being civil while doing it) is always a lot more helpful.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:27 AM on September 21, 2008


MetaFilter is overthinking a plate of beans again. I'm just trying to cheerlead and get people excited about a killer idea, I was only even told of this like 10 hours ago.. I'm just looking for the beginnings of what people think they want musically. The "on the ball" comment was rude and I apologize. I just thought that the project could use a kick to get it onto the level where people start talking music and trading audio to find where they want to go with it.
posted by mediocre at 3:58 AM on September 21, 2008


I'm slowly coming to the realization that my at times unrelenting enthusiasm comes across as bossiness..
posted by mediocre at 4:10 AM on September 21, 2008


Well, mediocre, no hard feelings. In the relatively recent past some of my enthusiasm, manifested in zealous promotion of MeFi Music, has been interpreted by some folks here as some kind of, um, bossiness, I guess. Something like that, anyway.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:34 AM on September 21, 2008


Trying to stay out of all the beans above here's my two cents on the topic. This chick is a decent lyricist sure, I listened to some of her youtube stuff and yea it was alright but she's no tupac that's for sure. But shit, how is she any different than the thousands of other people trying to do the exact same freaking thing. I mean here on mefi mu we've got hella talented artists but their shit goes overlooked everyday, can't even imagine the people of Mefi chipping in even 50 bucks for something they won't even comment on. Than this chick comes in and posts a craigslist ad and the people of Mefi goes nuts over that shit. Why pay some chick who's probably never even heard of Metafilter (argueably probably doesn't even deserve 800$) to produce a song about metafilter when we've got plenty of capable mefites who could produce something if the rest of mefi really wanted a mefi song. UncleOzzy, Medicore, goodnewsfortheinsane, Cortex, Chococat, blah blah blah plenty of other mefites all have pretty good production skills from what I've seen, why not ask one of them to do this, shit they'd probably even do it for free. This whole shit just kinda irks me in a bad way, I feel like its the ppl of Mefi punching the ppl of MefiMu in the dick.
posted by BrnP84 at 7:50 AM on September 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


shit they'd probably even do it for free.

Ehh, rereading that I can't really say that b/c I don't speak for those guys or the rest of mefi but I'm sure if we asked nicely they wouldn't ask for 800$.
posted by BrnP84 at 8:21 AM on September 21, 2008


I mean here on mefi mu we've got hella talented artists but their shit goes overlooked everyday, can't even imagine the people of Mefi chipping in even 50 bucks for something they won't even comment on. Than this chick comes in and posts a craigslist ad and the people of Mefi goes nuts over that shit. Why pay some chick who's probably never even heard of Metafilter (argueably probably doesn't even deserve 800$) to produce a song about metafilter when we've got plenty of capable mefites who could produce something if the rest of mefi really wanted a mefi song.

This is how it went down from my perspective: One of my favorite hip hop artists announces that she is no longer retired and will start collaborating via the Internet with anyone who pays her $800. Someone on MeFi says "Hey, we could raise that kind of money, let's get her to do something for MeFiMusic". I think "MeFiMu regulars + Jean Grae = Win" so I pledge money, even though I don't listen to much MeFiMu stuff.

I thought it was a cool idea, so I was willing to put up some money to see it happen. If that's the equivalent of punching the MeFiMu people in the dick so be it, but it wasn't meant any more of a diss to the MeFiMu folks than going to a Jean Grae show or buying one of her albums.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:00 AM on September 22, 2008


If that's the equivalent of punching the MeFiMu people in the dick so be it, but it wasn't meant any more of a diss to the MeFiMu folks than going to a Jean Grae show or buying one of her albums.

Burnmp3s: I feel you, if you're a Jean Grae fan than that's cool, you being her fan isn't punching anyone in the dick but you going to her concert is definetly not the same as throwing her 800$. My whole beef with this situation is that this is chick getting all this free promotion and advertising from Metatalk and the people of Mefi were more than willing to give her 800$ in the matter of a few hours when sometimes it takes days for some damn good songs over here to get even 1 comment. Granted a lot of the stuff over here isn't quite as polished as Jean Grae's stuff (pretty much all of my music included) but if all these users were so willing to dish out 800$ than the least they could do is come over to Mefi Mu and give us a listen once and a while. I'm trying real hard not to sound like a whiny little bitch because if someone doesn't want to listen to a song than whatever, you can't force them, sometimes my own mom won't even listen to my songs. I don't really know what my point is, I forgot that a long time ago but that original Jean Grae post sparked a lot of enthusiasm real quick, kinda was like punching us in the dick.......
posted by BrnP84 at 6:57 PM on September 22, 2008


The thing is, it's not a zero sum game. That $800 bucks isn't something that was going to magically appear as a disbursement to Music folks, and it's cool to me that (a) there's an artist trying something as a means to do what she likes to do for genuine liveable money and (b) an upswelling of enthusiasm from mefites, Matt included, to make that happen.

So while I think I get where you're coming from, I think it's a really unnecessarily negative it's-her-or-us way of looking at it. I'd like more people to check out Music, but that's not Jean's fault—and a crazy mixathon premised off folks over here working from a track commissioned from her will, if anything, probably lead to folks on the site looking over at Music. It's a win-win, not a suckerpunch.
posted by cortex at 9:43 PM on September 22, 2008 [1 favorite]


I agree with Cortex.. while Music is absolutely the most forgotten part of MeFi, I don't think anyone here really considers themselves worth paying.. we're all just hobbyists. While 800 dollars seems like a lot for a simple 16 bar verse, you're paying for the name more then anything else. And since it'll be a big collaborative remix project, I think that the 800 dollars will pay itself in spades with the flock of remixes..
posted by mediocre at 9:50 PM on September 22, 2008


Of course, I say that as a creative contributor only, I am a broke ass kid and can't afford any more then MAYBE 5 bucks..
posted by mediocre at 9:52 PM on September 22, 2008


Well yea I'm not expecting Mefite's to throw MefiMu's 800$, that's a pretty bold and completely unreasonable thing to expect. But there are some people here with song's that are worth paying for, I don't know if that's what they're trying to do, with Inoculated I get the idea that he's pretty serious about his music and he should be. Mediocre you may just be a hobbyist but from what I've heard you know what you're doing (production and song quality), have you never considered yourself as maybe being more than just a hobbyist at some point in time (punch em in the dick took off like wildfire). Again I don't really know what my point is, looking back at my comments I feel bad for sounding bitter towards Miss Grae because here's a chick who's doin the damn thang and more power to her for that. Maybe it's a good thing that MefiMu isn't more popular than it is.
posted by BrnP84 at 10:31 PM on September 22, 2008


If they are worth paying for, then support the artist and buy the track/album/t shirt/whatever.

And if they one day offer their services for sale, take them up on the offer.

As for my own work.. I consider myself a musician first and foremost in my life, have for 18 years. But I make no money off it. Never have really. Even when I tour with any of my bands, or play shows locally, money still doesn't really happen. Though someday soon Punch 'Em will be remastered for commercial release and put on iTunes (some time after we film a video), I doubt it will really make a ton of money.. Not that I don't wish it could.. I don't know.. I think that anyone here who considers themselves musicians really put money as a consideration in most matters except when thinking about gas money to the next city when on tour.

It's a bit of a different story in the hip hop world though. Hip Hop is a means to the end of getting paid for a lot of rappers. So an artist with clout and a recognizable name putting themselves out for the relatively meager sum of 800 dollars (that's 50 dollars a bar!) is doing so for the fun of it, and to make money. I could easily put myself out there the same.. Anyone need a banjo track to their song? I'll do a chorus for 200, intro for 125.. but I have a feeling that people would just laugh at me..
posted by mediocre at 11:20 PM on September 22, 2008


Mediocre you may just be a hobbyist but from what I've heard you know what you're doing (production and song quality), have you never considered yourself as maybe being more than just a hobbyist at some point in time (punch em in the dick took off like wildfire).

That should be rephrased "you may just call yourself a hobbyist", half compliment, half question. Yea I'm sure we'd all like to make music strictly for the sake of making music and hopefully most of the time this is true but I think anyone who has played for a certain length of time starts to toy with the idea of "hey I wouldn't mind making money off of this." It's not wrong to want and cash in a little, that's what Jean's trying to do. I'm starting to derail pretty hard off my earlier comments but the one's who make it are the Jean Grae's, I'm sure she doesn't ever call herself a musical hobbyist. I think I've come to the realization tonight that all I've been this entire time is a hobbyist, yea that's good and fine but it's just a crutch to never fail, you can't fail if it's just a hobby. I think it is good that Mefimu is going under the rader b/c if this was the stage than I would've been booed off long ago.
posted by BrnP84 at 11:30 PM on September 22, 2008


Heh.. good way to put it.. getting booed off..

I have been musician since I was 9. I have been a hobbyist in home recording since 1997 or so. I have a lot of years and experience under my belt, so I pride myself on being able to make some pretty good sounding things from very meager equipment (my whole "studio" is culled from items I pulled from garbage over the years.. not even kidding)

I suppose what we're mincing over is the definition of "professional musician". I would consider that someone who makes rent and bills primarily from being a musician, and that doesn't happen terribly often except for all-star session kings in Nashville and big name acts. Hell, most of my favorite bands have day jobs. Although I wouldn't necessarily call them "hobbyists", they just don't make ALL their money as musicians..
posted by mediocre at 11:37 PM on September 22, 2008


Although I wouldn't necessarily call them "hobbyists", they just don't make ALL their money as musicians..

Semi-professional is the word you're probably looking for.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:22 AM on September 23, 2008


Semi-Pro sounds good to me!

But back to the case at hand; what and where is the allure in paying 800 USD for including some lines in some music?

I KNOW I must be missing something here. Now if it was a MeFite, like say...myself or sleepy pete, who needed some help with studio fees (cough) mortgage, I'd kick down 20 bucks in a heart beat.
posted by snsranch at 5:54 PM on September 25, 2008


This sounds like it could conceivably be fun to participate in, but it also sounds like something that shouldn't be done on-site. So many red flags: the money, the control over content, etc. I don't oppose songwriting-by-committee amongst Mefites and their friends, but I like that it's also a free exchange. No money involved, no commercial interest.

If I were interested in getting involved or starting something like this, the first thing I would do is pick it up and place it down somewhere far from MeFiMu (maybe on the wiki? I dunno how that works), and invite my MeFiMu friends to come over, then we could discuss over there who pays what and what gets thrown into the soup. (I'd throw in the kitchen sink--I like kitchen sink soup teh best). And then I'd post the resulting track on MeFiMu.

Yes I know I'm way way late to this.
posted by not_on_display at 8:54 AM on October 1, 2008


*repost from the MeTa thread*

Eh, what the hell..

http://metafiltercollaboration2008.wikidot.com/

There's your Wiki. It's quick, dirty, and free. We'll have to use public hosting sites for files, but it's a minor inconvenience at worst. Let's see if we can't move some of the conversation there..
posted by mediocre at 3:43 AM on October 3, 2008


Bah! Nevermind.. it seems you can't use this without registration.. I doubt everyone wants to register to Wikidot..

Is anyone aware of any free Wikihosts that have turnkey template Wiki's with no-register access?
posted by mediocre at 3:51 AM on October 3, 2008


Because he didn't bring it here, I'll point everyone still interested in this to the Wiki that Pronoiac graciously set up.
posted by mediocre at 6:45 PM on October 8, 2008


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