“If  I had known before that it’d be so hard to make it,
I’da done it anyway making minimal changes,
to the paths that I’ve took and the struggles we been through,
you grow to appreciate the hard times that you been through…”

~5th Letter~The Dark Ages album: “Blacksmith”

-need he say more?-

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What up fam!?  5th Letter has returned…. Things have been really busy lately between home, work , TDY’s, and whatever else I’ve had to get into…. but we are back up in it now… Get ready for new shit from me, Speak No Evil, Mista Jay, Prince Imperial, and The Empire as a whole…. we got some new collabs for y’all, including w/ some new overseas affiliates, so we are branching out even more…. New beats, new lyrics, new associates, new shit altogether… so y’all get ready for brand new day…..

Peace.

E

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Y’all come visit us at http://www.famecast.com/theempirenccrecords … I put the page up yesterday, it has some audio you can check out, and we’ll add more to the page as time goes by… Thanks for listenin y’all…

Peace.

E

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OK, first and foremost, thank you to urrbody who supported us this year and showed love to the music… we are movin forward to another year…. and w/ that progression in what we spit about…thank all of y’all who gave us feedback this year, put your peoples onto our music, or just hit our blog/guestbook up to tell us you felt what we were sayin…. 2009 is 2 hours away and we are not stoppin….. Empire… NCC Records…. REAL HIP-HOP!!!!!!!!  The Time Is Now!!!!!!  I’m sure my fam will chime in here shortly….. To the fans…. love y’all….. A Long Time Coming, The Deen’s Office, Chasing Ghosts: The Black Roses Effect, plus some super secret squirrel-type iddish….. keep your ears open….. it’s coming…… for all of YOU!!!!!!

Peace.

E

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I hope everybody is satisfied w/ the progress they made this year…. I am…. things have changed alot in the past 12 months…… mostly for the good in my neck of the woods….lol…. me & my Empire fam been workin this music out & we’re not slowin up…. 2009 is just gonna be the same w/ us to the 10th power and change…. hopefully those of y’all that are reading the blog & forum on the regular (and everybody else too) are livin life as it should be…. so from ya boy 5th….. enjoy the New Year!!! And to my Empire fam…. I’ll be taking a double shot at 12 Midnight to celebrate the coming success for NCC Records…. so…. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace.

E

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Following off of Prince Imperial’s intro post, allow me to introduce myself….. the name is 5th Letter… the reason for the name is because the 1st letter of my 1st name is E…. that’s kinda lazy I know, but I just stuck with it…. I come from Fayetteville, NC which is where I got my start in hip hop circa ‘93… but right now I’m in Eglin AFB, FL… I had dabbled in writing before that, but around then was the first time i really tried to put it to music… been hooked ever since… I’ve worked with a ton of different artists & producers… first & foremost my Empire fam (Prince Imperial, Mista Jay, & Speak No Evil), QB (CO), Mic Will (VA), Ground Zero (Shamrocc & DOS)(Fayetteville, NC), Vintage (Hampton VA), Rik Marvel (Fayetteville, NC), Lil’ D of F.It Entertainment (FL), Soulstarr (Fayetteville, NC), William Munny (Vallejo, CA), and there’s probably more… my album “A Long Time Coming” is currently in work… it was originally slated for release on December 15th, 2008, but now it’s lookin more like December 29th, 2008 or January 5th, 2009… the recording process is crazy… but it’s comin, I promise… Alright, that’s all I got… *takes off mic & walks off set*

Peace.

E

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When I observe what’s popular & what’s not in the music industry right now, I kinda wonder if the type of album I’m working on will cost me in the long run.  I mean, as far as hip-hop goes, popularity seems to rest with those either making dance songs, lovey-dovey rap tunes, singing in autotune, or just the typical “gangsta” shit. My album doesn’t fall into any of those categories.  Now, of course, there are exceptions who become known just off the strength of good music.  But there’s not alot of them.  So, I’m anxious to see if my approach to my album will hinder my ability to move units.  Time will tell, I guess.  

Peace.

E

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Sometimes I wonder about the direction of this art form we all love so much.  What happened to the music?  A lot (hell, most) of the stuff you hear on the radio nowadays is terrible.  And the good music… you have to dig thru various hip hop related websites to even hear it.  And it surely is not getting played on the radio.  I try to keep it within the bounds of my musical tastes and the tastes of the majority of my peers when making my music.  I find myself going over my music to ensure that if there is a tinge of a “commercial” sound to any of it, it stays within the limits I have set for myself as far as what I think should be representative of my work.  But, when I turn on the radio (which is a rare occasion), I don’t hear any, and I mean any, effort musically.  From repetitive beats, to far-below-average lyrics, to the fact that the muck that gets radio play is hyped so much, I can’t even stand to listen to the radio.  At what point did artists take the wrong path with this music?  Or is it the listeners that have brought us to this juncture?  Or is it myself and other listeners like me being too picky wih the music?  Should we just settle for whatever?

(To Be Continued…)

Peace.

E

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As I was sitting yesterday and thinking of ways to get The Empire more exposure so that people would check out our latest album “The Dark Ages“, I had a stream of other thoughts flood my mind.  When we made The Dark Ages, Me (SpeaK), Mista J and Prince Imperial were all together in NC and 5th Letter was stationed in Korea.  We put the album together and overcame the distance between us quite easily.  Now, 5th is stationed in Florida, Mista J and Prince Imperial are in NC and I’m in Maryland.  Now the goal has shifted towards moving units of The Dark Ages.  We are now forced to rely on the internet, instant messenger and phone to communicate and organize.  This is proving to be quite the challenge.  As the time approached for me to leave the Air Force, I thought with the internet it would be easy to stay organized and focused.  What I have learned over the past 10 months is that there is no substitute for being in the physical presence of eachother to blend all of your ideas and energies.  The point I’m driving at is: regardless of what mass communication medium comes out to overcome time and space, there is absolutely no substitute for being in the physical presence of your fellow friends, especially when it comes to creativity.  This thought now leads me to one question:  How much better would Hip Hop and music itself be today if the artists who “work together” were allotted ample time to actually BE AROUND eachother for the construction of songs?  I bet there would be a noticable difference.

Treasure your family and friends when your around them, because phone calls and internet just don’t cut it.

~SpeaK~

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OK this is more or less based on a conversation I had with Speak the other day… Ever sat there and thought “Damn this music takes so much to get it accomplished?”  I have (see The Trials & Tribulations of Making An Album).  But, I guess that’s because the music starts to seem more like a job and less like the thing you enjoyed doing so much when you started spittin’… And then the end result becomes a less listenable product because it seemed so much like flat-out work that you just wanted to get it over with.  So, in the course of the conversation I mentioned earlier, we (me & Speak) figured that the only viable option to make even better music is to just have fun with it again.  Take it back to the essence, you know.  Enjoy tellin the masses what’s on your mind, no matter how good or bad the topic is.  Because if you don’t enjoy making your album, who’s gonna enjoy listening to it?

Peace.

E

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