Khamali King A Conversation.
Prosperity 0:00-4:15:
There's this great motivational speech I heard from Steve Harvey about jumping and soaring instead of sitting and watching others soar by and I think that was the spark that I needed to be more active in what I'm attempting to do and not waiting for it to be done
Cause once you jump there is no safety net, there's only whats meant to be. You'll either fall or fly higher. It's scary to jump though which is why you should never look down, just focus on the goal
There's an integral component to what I'm trying to achieve which is ownership of value. The music making is like a hub for letting out these thoughts in my head, and it's almost like split personalities so I try to keep in mind what the goal is, and that's to define myself beyond a barrier or constraint of what may be placed on my name
I think it's the most important thing to define your worth, and for me personally I think that my worth is priceless. Free isn't worthless, it's priceless. Think about the things you love most and what you would pay to keep them if they were to be taken, or to buy back. The irreplaceable things
I have no clue how I'll get to where I'm trying to get to, I just know that I will get there. It's not a question of how, but when. But when I do, I'll know that I'll arrive at my destination. Until then it's just one step after the other, making sure my shoes are tied so I don't trip
Prosperity is the goal, it's the ultimate goal. To go beyond what has been done, what you thought you could, what others thought you could do. The definition of innovation. Free
See the world as we know it, drowned in the focus
The opus of the eye, the stars have aligned
The words of the creed, the land of the free
The notion of the mind, the stories of a lie
Cryptic and true, stolen by youth
Aged within time, reached the bottom line
Prosperity in color, lessons of my mother
This golden sphere of mine, son you have arrived only in design
Growth 4:15-6:30:
Fear will stunt your growth man, honestly. Sometimes you just have to walk all the way up to the line, cross it to be on the other side of your fear
It takes practice though. Each day try to get closer to the line but always look past the line and before you know it you're on the other side
I think eventually I'll cross my own personal line and find myself in a state I didn't think I'll ever make it to, making progress I never thought that I would make happen
You gotta get rid of all excuses and never second guess your gut, never make the same step twice, and keep positive outcomes in your thoughts. That's the key to growth
What a beautiful life if we're living it right
Thoughtfulness 6:30-9:31:
Start a bonfire and just take a second to breathe cause you owe it to yourself. You've been working hard. I know you hit that stride where things wasn't going in your favor, but it's just a wave and wall waves eventually have to leave the shore
You can sit at the beach and look at a beautiful view, over look your scenery from your hotel room. Me personally, I just crack my window and look outside at the water fall. Ain't rich though and I'm leaving this in a minute
Some people go for a drive, others go for a walk, some take a warm bath. Just decompress however you see fit
Welcome to the valley where the sun is here, the rain is rare, and the time stands still
Breathe
Truth Serum 9:31-14:12:
I started working on Trials Truths in January of 2016. Before that I was in college, did 3 semesters then decided to try to do something I really wanted to do, and not do something that was feeling temporary
Through that I came up with this theme for the project, duality, and I landed on the title Trials Truths pretty early on which means life tests, life results, or answers. You can think of "trial and error" like running a test, and truth being an answer on a scantron
My mother's on there and represents the life tests part, and I'm on there as the results. So when you hear "we want the truth" or "tell me something good" and any other "truths" references, I'm saying tell me the result, not tell me a lie. All of my moms audio is actually taken from a 2 hour conversation we had. I just took some parts that fit the music made them work. The link between what she's saying and what I'm saying is a little more coded than that, but I'll leave that to be figured out by the listener
The titles of the songs actually gives more meaning behind the theme running throughout. Like Think, Grow, and Prosper all represent stages. So you have Think which is like the birth of a situation, Grow is what you learned from the situation, and Prosper is moving on and out of the situation
City of Angels was a title I thought of as being no matter what the situation is, no matter what someone tells you, even with clipped wings you can find your glory and your heaven. That's a hint to my mom's skit on Think
The person on the album cover actually isn't me. My homie Acquille shot the cover and he's in Georgia now so I wasn't able to be there when he shot it, but I've known him since High School and we used a stand in model and got some great images and that one just looked like the right representation. The face is scratched out not because it's not me, but because it can be anyone. Anyone can relate to this storyline, even though I'm speaking specifically to my own situation. The blue and grey is actually supposed to mean a canvas, and I say it on the project. "Put it all on display" and "the art was critiqued" so I wanted to do a play on that
Once I completed this project I got a sense of relief and like pure joy. One, I finally completed something, and two I got these ideas off of my chest and hearing the project now it sounds more reflective than sounding in the moment like it did when I first made these songs, but it just shows that it's a life project and not just some songs put together
I've been waiting for a while to make something that I felt was worth putting out. I couldn't be more satisfied with this being the first representation of what I can do, especially since I made all the beats, wrote all my lyrics, recorded mixed and mastered myself. Now that this one is done, it's on to the next one. Next project will be called (censored) and will be out (censored)