Vs 1
Today looks like a good day to die/
Turn my back on the world, its time to say goodbye, alright/
So next time you see your boy on the corner/
Please understand the man you’re use to seein’ a gonner/
& He ain’t comin’ back so let him rest in his peace please/
& quit tryna resurrect the dead with all these things/
Look-I don’t smoke, man don’t ask me for no lighter/
You really wanna, we could have discussions bout some fire/
Naw, I don’t drink, & I don’t hit the club/
So next time you’re going out, please don’t ask me to come/
Look here, I aint goin’, but I’ll be at the crib man/
So get back with me if you wanna come kick back/
& we could talk, discuss some thangs like/
The game I see you playing, boy you’re walkin’ a thin line/
Man, I’m just sayin’, you know what it is/
You been up in a church, man you know how to live/
Yeah you know that I was worse, ay, I got to admit/
But why you bringin’ up the old stuff that I done did?/
See me? I’m brand new, he died awhile back/
Man I thought you knew/
Yeah man, me & God, we done got back cool/
& all them bad habits-I done dropped that too/
See its strange, I never lived until I actually died/
But I never in my life felt more alive.

Hook:
To get that life you want-ya gotta die/
Put Christ at the throne-u gotta die/
Ya wanna live forever? Well-ya gotta die/
Ya gotta die, lay down your life.
-Repeat-

Vs 2
Man, folks trip, keep an eye out/
Cuz as soon as you move up, they wanna bring ya back down, huh/
That’s why ya gotta keep the right folks around ya/
So they could have your back if them demons come surround ya/
Know what I’m sayin’? I’m built to fight/
& I die every day, but I’m killed to life/
& I got a lil somethin’ that’ll get ya right/
If you’re missin’ it then listen, get crucified/
Ya gotta die, it ain’t no other way/
If yeain’t got it now, ain’t nothin else for me to say/
Told ya once, told ya twice, ya gotta let it go/
Ya gonna talk it, better walk it, or you’re never gonna grow/
You give up the old life & then you’re wantin’ it back/
& then you wonder why you be under attack/
Aw boy, you slow. Open them eyes up/
The truth’s right in front of you. Man when you gon’ wise up?

Bridge:
Hey, you sleepin’ round?-Die to that.
You drinkin’ & goin’ out?-Die to that.
You still been smokin’ out?-Die to that.
You gotta die to that, you gotta die to all that.

Hook

Vs3
See half these rappers got a cross hangin’ of they neck/
With no regard to the God who done took that death/
But see a man like myself, I gotta show some respect/
& the life that I lead-you know it reflects/
Ya gotta kill the flesh, & get up on that cross/
If you wanna be blessed then you know what it costs/
You gotta die daily, see we all got flaws/
But don’t forget that every day, you’re being watched by the lost/
Ay..ay-C’mon dawg, get it together/
Ya gotta die now if you wanna live forever/
& if it ain’t Holy, better cut it on out/
What you waitin’ on homie? Look, time runnin’ out/
You put it off-& you become a slave to that/
& satan tryna make it all fade to black/
& even if you’re saved, sin could lay you on your back/
So don’t let it kill ya,..gon & die to all that.

Hook

Welcome to the Blaze Ministries Blog! We will discuss different things going on within the Body of Christ, particularly pertaining to the Urban culture. This is designed to be an open discussion board, so please feel free to comment with your feelings, ideas, & where you stand on the certain topics we discuss. Be Blessed!!

With the digital production game blowin’ up so big, everybody & anybody has the ability to record their own songs. This creates two things: more good music & more bad music.

Since anybody can start making music now, a lot of people are jumping into the rap & R&P game without having a general knowledge of how audio works, or what they’re doing. Now, I respect the efforts & the art…BUT, when it comes to representing the Body of Christ, & God Himself in your music, you better come correct!

I got my college degree in Audio Production Technology, & while I’m by no means claiming to be an expert, I do have a wealth of knowledge in the field. So I feel it is my duty to equip Christian Artists with some of the basic techniques used in professional production arenas. This will be an on-going article that I’ll continue to add to over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
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I’m going to assume that their may be aspiring artists or producers out there who are just getting their feet wet, & haven’t got a clue about some of the foundational issues of sound, so we’ll start there. Feel free to skip ahead, but remember that a lot of this info is valuable to even established producers, who may or may not have been exposed to it.

What is sound exactly? Sound is nothing more than air pressure waves (wavelengths); particles of air moving through the atmosphere at certain speeds (frequency). A waveform is made up of cycles; one cyle of compression & one cycle of rarefaction complete a waveform.

When these waves hit our ears, membrane in our ear drum vibrates, & our brains immediately recognize it & compute it, translating them as words, dogs barking, car horns, music, etc.

The amount of time it takes for one cycle of compression, & one cycle of rarefaction to be completed is called the frequency. This is measured in hertz (Hz) & kilohertz (kHz). The human ear has a hearing range of 20Hz-20kHz.

The big bass sounds you hear in hip hop like kick drums & 808’s, are called low-frequency waveforms. These are usually between 20hz & 80hz. They are “omni-directional”, meaning they travel in all directions; that’s why you can hear the bass in someone’s car when they pass you, but not much else…because…The higher sounds like guitars, horns, piano upper registers, hi hats & cymbals are high-frequency. A hi hat may be anywhere from 12hHz to 16kHz. And these are “uni-directional”, meaning they travel in one direction like a missle, while the lower ones are more like an explosion blasting in all directions.

I know all of this may seem foreign & unneccesary, that’s exactly what I thought when I was introduced to it, but when we get to the mixing part, you’ll value all this. Whenever you start using EQ to manipulate a vocal or instrument, what you are essentially doing is simple increasing or decreasing certain frequencies, so it helps to know the properties of these frequencies.

When thinking about all this, it makes you stop & think a little deeper about Ephesians 2:2 doesn’t it? The prince of the powers of the air? All forms of the poisonous, secular music & media that we hear & watch, travels through the air as waveforms…But enough about how sound works, let’s get on to producing!

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There are 3 steps to any recording session: Basic Tracking, Overdubs, & Mixing.
How’s it work? Let’s assume our beat is done, & we’re working on vocals. Basic tracking would be your lead vocals, whether a verse or hook, its your lead. This is the “foundation of the song, the meat of what is being said.

Overdubs then, would be when you come back to emphasize certain words, shout in the back ground, etc. It’s all that extra stuff that happens behind the actual lead vocals. We’ll go over this more in the Mixing article.

When you think you’ve captured all the best takes on each individual verse, hook, intro, or whatever…you’re ready to begin mixing. This is what separates a quality production from the stuff that sounds like you rapped into the computer mic. (please don’t do that!)

We’ll be touching on all of these issues in greater detail later. But at least now you can sound a little more professional when you get to talking about!

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