#therealeternia

RealTalk.blog 

When your mentor, sister & friend Claudia Osmond asks you to write an article for her Real Talk: For Creatives, By Creatives blog, you do it!

My piece is called "Cultivating Creativity" and I would love to hear if any of the tips I shared resonate with you. I had fun thinking about what helps me switch from "regular" life into a creative zone 

“Take Time”

It’s too late to take time. The clock drowned when I jumped into your ocean, feet first, heart in my hands extended towards you. The first time our lips communicated to each other without using words I exhaled my dreams into the cavity of your diaphragm. Those tears I cried were raindrops of release a quiet storm of longing now watering a flower blooming time-lapse fast in front of your eyes: I am blossoming.

My roots take hold of your firm foundation, growing deep and wide and strong every minute of every day that passes and you. are. still. here.

Watering.

Nourished by your common sense wisdom, your inquisitive mind, your open heart. Foreign from any species this flower has seen: soft, tender, thoughtful, intentional, engaged, intrigued, You see the promise in my petals and you tend to my fallen leaves,  delicately, and so - you see - 

I’ve zoomed past take it slow. I’m way past “GO!...” The starter pistol echoes in the dust of my tracks; I race to the goal. Radiating in your glow. A reflection of all things good in you; mirror to your soul. I am willing to coax love from your fingertips, ease sweet sighs from your lips, make amends for lost yesterdays, show you that I intend to stay...

because words are overrated and we’ve said them all anyways. 17 years and not a second too late:

The Concussion Chronicles: 30 Days, 30 Slept On ET Joints

That one time I auditioned for VH1 & ego trip's “Miss Rap Supreme”...

||#7 of #30: “The Girls Look So Good (LIVE, UNRELEASED)” – Eternia & Chesney Snow ||

https://youtu.be/YJ4fyFAq84g

I auditioned for VH1’s & Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme TV show… and got accepted on the show! But I’m getting ahead of myself, rewind selektah! In 2006, shortly after I moved to NYC, my best friend Azar Shahsavarani Bogan - who also happened to have a masters in music biz from Columbia University & was at Universal Music Group at the time - started managing me. The same year I met beatboxer Chesney Snow via myspace & we started doing shows together. A lot of shows. From the beginning, Azar, Chesney and his lady were ride or die; my chosen NYC family. “The Setup” (2007) was a product of Azar believing in me & convincing other people – studio owners, producers, rappers, club managers, promoters, engineers, etc. – that they should too. Sonically “The Setup” was a smorgasbord. I didn’t know what my sound was yet, I also didn’t know who I was - or maybe I had just forgotten. I was pretty lost. NYC will do that to you: up is down, left is right, right is wrong, virtues are liabilities. In my first few years there I was swimming up stream trying to figure it all out (and partying a lot). That’s what you may hear when you listen to “The Setup”. Around the same time “The Setup” dropped, I auditioned for Miss Rap Supreme. Chesney rolled w me & we performed this track live as our audition piece. It was held in a restaurant, open concept, the auditions were behind a wall divider but you could hear everything. My manager pulled some strings & they bumped me to the top of the list; I walked into a full room, 40-50 ladies trying to get on the show, and bypassed every last one to audition immediately. We went in and MURKED IT. It was obviously strategic: they want drama on set, I’ma give it to ‘em (I told you I was still figuring myself out - lol). When I walked out of the audition room into the larger space full of folks… you could hear a pin drop. Girls waiting to audition were dappin’ me as I walked down the long aisle to the front doors to leave. It definitely felt triumphant. Shortly after, the producers contacted me, like “Congratulations! We want you on the show!” They were helping me process my paperwork, as a Canadian, but the same time the show was scheduled to be filmed in LA I was offered to go on a European tour with Pharoahe Monch, O.C. of D.I.T.C., Reef The Lost Cauze & more. It was a tough decision, but the delay with paperwork was a sign for me: I went on tour with my heroes. To be real, y’all, I usually forget I even auditioned for Miss Rap Supreme. I never regretted passing the opportunity up. This video is from “The Setup” release party at Plan B in the Lower East Side, July 26 2007. We performed the same audition piece. It was a memorable, high energy night; a lot of people came thru from different states to show their love & support! Buckwild of D.I.T.C. showing up to support was a personal highlight of my night, it was the first time I met him. It’s been an interesting path, gotta *SMH* at myself looking back, but it got me to today so I wouldn’t change a thing.

The Concussion Chronicles: 30 Days, 30 Slept on ET Joints

It’s just a day in the life…

|| #10 of #30: “Day in the Life @ ManifesTO” – Eternia ft. Maestro Fresh Wes, Tona Tencreddi, DJ Sean Law & Crazy Legs (Rock Steady Crew) ||

https://youtu.be/2jbAlYF1cwk

In 2007, Manifesto invited me to rock for the 1st time with legends I grew up listening to - We Are Dream Warriors, Maestro, Michie Mee, Tara Chase, Saukrates + more - at the Live Mixtape Show in Nathan Phillips Square. ManifesTO has always shown love. The love is reciprocal, founder Che Kothari is one of the most genuine, humble, talented, focused & rock solid humans I know; when he says “come thru” I’m kickin’ down doors and coming thru! (Did y’all know he shot the cover for my first release, “The Collection” back in 2004?!) Fast forward to 2010, when ManifesTO gave me a prime performance slot before headliners Jay Electronica & Black Thought. Wow ,what an honour and privilege! I never expect such bookings, so it’s always a bonus when it happens. The stage was warmed up, the crowd was ready. “At Last” had just dropped a couple months previously. It’s important to me to give credit to those who paved the way & to fling the doors wide open for those coming up alongside me, which is why the final song of my set was “Day in the Life” which featured the legend Maestro Fresh Wes and my fam #fromtime Tona. Little did we know Crazy Legs was going to jump on stage and throw down! That was a surprise even to me! (watch Che’s face when that happens, as he’s taping on stage, lol). This was a moment I was truly grateful for, I felt so supported by my brothers in the scene. Of course, our performance was not without some shenanigans ;-) watch ‘til after the credits…. Most people prob missed this the first go 'round.

I wanna address the rumblings I hear every time Manifesto comes around. It’s easy to point fingers & criticize others’ movements. But unless we are a part of the solution, actively involved in creating what we want to see that we don’t see out there in the world, I don’t think any of us have the right to criticize. When ManifesTO first came on the scene in 2007 no organization in Toronto was doing what they were doing, on that scale. They achieved their vision & mission. If you’re not seeing what you want to see on stages, volunteer. Get mentors, set goals. Start a new organization. Source out funding. Pull together your resources. Plan an event. But don’t tear down the few visionaries in your own scene that are tryin’ a ‘ting. At least they mobilized and tried a ‘ting. There’s a lot we could learn from those whose life approach is not “What are they doing wrong?” but is simply, “what can I DO?”

The Slept On Joint of the Day is: https://eternia.bandcamp.com/track/day-in-the-life-ft-tona-maestro-fresh-wes

The Concussion Chronicles: 30 Days, 30 Slept-On ET Joints

“See! Andy knows me!” 

|| 11 of #30: “Wrestlemania in Queens” – Eternia & DJ Sav One ||

https://youtu.be/3bAbgY8lmXk

Today marks the 7th year anniversary of the release of “At Last” on Fat Beats Records worldwide. But how did we get there?

The very first Road to Release Episode dropped June 8, 2009 to little fanfare. However, it was definitely a slow burn ember that fanned into a flame. The story goes like this: Sav and I are literally just hangin’ out on a Friday night in my hood. I have on my Queens uniform: my sweats. I always said I live in sweats until I hop on the train to leave Qeens & that’s when I put on “real clothes” ha - I loved living in a neighbourhood where I didn’t have to watch what I looked like when I stepped out of my door, people just accepted me for me. So on this night we are bored, and silly, and probably just talking sh*t (the recipe for most brilliant ideas) and out of the recesses of my closet appears the famed luchadora mask. LOL! Once on, it was like it a part of me. I transformed. I didn’t really want to take it off. We walked all the way to McDonalds on Steinway Ave (a good 5 blocks) ordered fries there & all that, chillin like “huh? U lookin at me!?” *tears* This is a silly side of me that only special people know, comes out usually when I’m too exhausted to care, my best friend & business partner Sav saw it on the regular since we always worked 'til exhaustion lol. Anyways, he pulls out the flipcam & just starts taping. The rest is history. Nothing about this first episode was strategized, if it was I would have removed the laundry from on top of my bed (hahaha). But I did promote the record – as I did whenever any camera was on - spit a verse, and thus began the Road to Release journey. Sav and I had a mantra: we KNEW if heads heard “At Last”, they would be believers. We just had to figure out how to get them to listen. The Road to Release was ahead of its time at the time - no one else was doing it like that - and certainly accomplished that mission. We featured people and places viewers would want to see, if they didn’t know me. We leaked a little snippet of a song off the album at the end of each video. Consistency was KEY, we did this for a YEAR, 2x a month, and the viewers grew. It was hard work. We had no idea how the album was coming out, on what label, or when. Road to Release episodes ended up on every major Hip Hop blog you could name & ultimately caught the attention of Fat Beats. Low and behold, one year later we were releasing the album on Fat Beats Records worldwide. God is the planter of great ideas. You just gotta be still – or silly enough - to listen. 

;-)

The slept-on joint of the day is "Catch Me". MoSS's least fave song on the album. But i did really like my verses, i went in, it was so me, my personal 'round-the-way-girl' anthem: https://eternia.bandcamp.com/track/catch-me

The Concussion Chronicles: 30 Days, 30 Slept on ET Joints

"If ya gotta tell him that you're special, he missed it. He should be the one that tells you, don't ya get it?"

|| #13 of #30: "On Blast" Jessica Naomi Kaya ft. Eternia ||

https://vimeo.com/943355

This is a very proud moment in a big sisters life. My sister Jessica Kaya's official music video for her debut single "On Blast" dropped 2008, produced by our brother-from-another KrisblaiR & directed by The Sharpshooter Nadeem Soumah. The whole project is so us: all the ppls in her video are family, from time. The verse I spit is SO what I would say in that situation to my younger sis who is vying for a young mans' interest. "On Blast" was an excellent expression of sincerity & truth & an act of courage on Jessica's behalf. Man, it's scary putting your heart out there for the world. I shot my scene on a different day than my sisters', I was living in NYC in the time I remember, and we did that scene at the original The Remix Project HQ when I was back in town. I made it back for the video release party too, held at a Caribbean restaurant corner of Queen & Spadina, it was packed! It was a victorious moment for my sis & such a proud moment for me.

My sister did an interview with KevinNottingham a couple yrs after this single was released. She speaks of her relationship with music past, present & future. I want her to speak for herself so please check it out:

http://www.kevinnottingham.com/2011/01/30/artist-spotlight-jessica-kaya/

"My mom tells me I kicked in the womb while she was pregnant with me, when she played piano. As a real young child around 4 or so,I remember being just haunted, entirely moved and filled with longing, when I would hear my mom play piano and sing late at night. I can remember hearing Nina Simones “Wild is the Wind” when I was around 11, and being floored with the ache in her voice, I felt understood and confirmed and inspired – like I knew I had to ache on music like that."

The Concussion Chronicles: 30 Days, 30 Slept-On ET Joints

“I still had a mind of my own at 8-yrs-old. Wrote Uncle Luke a letter, like, “Why they gotta be hoes?!”

|| #14 of #30: “Herstory” – Eternia ft. DJ Sean Law ||

https://eternia.bandcamp.com/track/herstory-unreleased-2008

I think a lot about legacy. Specifically, what legacy do I leave behind? I’m tough on myself, sometimes I feel like I’m not living into my purpose presently, or that perhaps I’ve already accomplished my purpose so why am I still here? When I listen to this song from almost a decade ago it reminds me that I’ve been meditating on ‘legacy’ for a minute. When I wrote this I sound confident about my legacy, though.

I’ve always said I’m not really that creative. What I mean when I say that is as an ‘artist' I never made stuff up or got super imaginative, like Nas’s “I’m the gun in the bullet in the chamber” business. I was just really good at speaking my reality, exorcising my demons, processing pain by writing, exposing that pain and those experiences to the world. This verse is no different. It’s a direct answer to the question I’m often asked in interviews, “so how did you get into Hip Hop?” (Sidenote: I often wished interviewers would listen to my music so they could stop asking me such redundant questions LOL!). I recorded this in 2008 in a studio Collizhun (Tristan Tough Dumplin) had set up in Red Hook, Brooklyn in a warehouse that also happened to be the HQ for a little known start up at the time called "Etsy" The view was wow, I was staring right at the statue of liberty when I wrote & recorded this. After we tracked it, his studio got broken into sadly & all the gear was stolen including these session files. I used the mp3 reference I had on “Get Caught Up” because I loved it so much.

I’m still not sure if I’m clear on my purpose here, but I know that if I die tomorrow I feel fulfilled in what I have seen, done, been to others and what I leave behind.