We linked back up with Naledge over the weekend, who hit us with the latest installment of his ongoing blog series, now called The Key To Naledge.  In the first edition with the new name, Naledge speaks on the upcoming Murs For President Tour, issues an open invitation to the Brainiac Society, and previews solo material as well as the early stages of the next Kidz In The Hall LP.  Check it out.

We just did two shows this weekend.  I’m in NY for the time being, feeling a little homesick, but it’s whatever.  We just did a show in Newark, NJ on Friday.  And then on Saturday we did a show in Brooklyn at this spot called the Bell House.  It was actually the grandopening of this venue, it was pretty dope.  New Jersey was kind of weird.  Newark is known as a Hip Hop place, but it’s more of a grimey place.  They’re starting to redevelop the downtown area and in doing so they also started attracting more young professionals, and a more trendy crowd to their downtown area.  They’re starting to open more clubs and condominiums and the mayor, Cory Booker, has been trying to redevelop the city and bring revenue to the city.  For a longtime Newark has kind of been supremely in urban blight and all of that.  They’re starting to knock stuff down and develop….Anyway, I didn’t know if we would have the type of crowd that would be interested in our music.   I figured if somebody like Juelz Santana was there, that’s the type of crowd they’re used to.  You think Jersey, you think Redman, Naughty By Nature, groups like that that do more mainstream stuff.  But we learned they have an underground crowd that appreciates what we do and it was very cool to do the show, also at a pretty new club.  We did two pretty new venues.  The joint we did on Saturday was the grand opening, and they had an event put on by this theater company.  We performed with Blitz The Ambassador, which was dope cause Blitz actually had a full on band with a horn section and flute player.  I was thoroughly impressed by his show.  I knw he went out on the warped tour and I’m sure that helped with his show, cause it looked like it has come a long way.  I definitely had fun, it was a great show at the Bell House.  It’s in the heart of the Park Slope area, which is  kind of a trendier artsy area in Brooklyn.  It’s a great venue, and we really rocked those shows out.

We have two shows this upcoming weekend.  One in Providence, RI and another in Boston.  We’re going to rock those shows out and we’re really trying to take this time to gather our energy for this tour.  Once the tour starts it will take us well into November so I probably won’t be home until Thanksgiving.  Tours are trying between doing press, and radio, and just the grind of being in a different city everyday you got to get your R&R and really prepare yourself.  We’re just trying to get ourselves together and are doing really well.  We had a meeting with some of the Obama people as well when we were in Connecticut.  They were very big fans of the song.  These were 40 and 50 year olds that really knew the record.  I was like, ‘wow this is amazing.’  It was just amazing to see you are actually effecting change within a presidential campaign.  When we put the song out it was just something we did as a leak to give people something to think about.  The fact that it’s actually resonated with people even outside our normal demographic of listener is an awesome thing to see, an awesome thing to have happen.

We’re really excited about this tour, The Murs For President Tour that starts October 5th.  We’re extra excited.  We just posted all the dates on our Myspace page, so any and everybody who thinks they might want to check that show out, us, Murs, Big Pooh of Little Brother, it’s a 40 city tour so we’re going to be everywhere.  You name it, we’re probably in your town.  If we’re not in your town, we’re probably somewhere near you.  We’re going to some markets that we’ve never even been to.  This is also going to be our first actual tour bus experience.  We’ve made a step up from the car to the SUV to the van, to the wrapped van, and now we have a tour bus.  It cuts out a lot of stress on us.  This is the first tour we don’t have to do any of the drivin ourselves.  I feel a sense of accomplishment on that front.  We just go to the cities and perform and do our actual job.  It’s gonna be dope.  We just had a good talk with the guys from Zune.  I think they’re going to do some interesting stuff with us, possibly some behind the scenes stuff with the tour.  Just look out for that.  It’s not totally confirmed yet, but they’re interested in having us give them the behind the scenes of the tour.  We’re in a lot of college markets from Ann Arbor to Madison to Baton Rogue to Tallahasse, a lot of top college markets.  It’s going to be really dope.

Lastly, we’re going to be pitching the video to BET.  I want people to make sure they get a chance to really send emails and requests to BET to have “Love Hangover” added to rotation on Rap City.  That’s something we really want to happen.  We feel we didn’t get a look from BET last time, and we want to make sure we get a look this time

Also this week we dropped the Brainiac Mixtape.  I’m real excited about that. Welcome To Brainiac Society is a compilation or collection of music that I like, and that I might have made or contributed to.  There's no real rhyme or reason to it.  I think a lot of people got confused when I started repping Brainiac Society as my crew or my label cause I think a lot of people took it as a separation from Kidz In The Hall, which is not what it is.  It's just me giving a platform to people that I like, and I want it to be looked at moreso as a Native Tongues type of thing than as a Bad Boy type of thing.  It's just a group of people that make dope music and appreciate the artistry of Hip Hop and doesn't have to necessarily mean they are rappers.  They can sing, they can make beats, DJ, whatever.  It's about the creative renaissance that's going on within Hip Hop all over the nation.  These are people that I met in my travels who I feel are dope and they inspire me.  We just get together and we collectively make art...It's also a platform for me to put out Fooch who is my artist.  It's no departure from Kidz In The Hall.  Me and Double O are such creative beings in general, that we don't know how to operate without 30 things going on at once.  We're very much multi-taskers and we've always been that way.  We try to have our hands in everything.   RTC mixed it, it's got new freestyles, some exclusive stuff, some stuff that's been leaked on the internet, stuff that you might have forgot existed or never had or never downloaded on a a CD.  My hope with this is that people will download it, burn it to a CD, and just play it, or add it as a playlist to their ipod.  That's really what it is, just a dope mix, a dope collection of music.  Talented individuals on all fronts, and I'm really excited about it.

I’m accepting submissions for Brainiac Society Vol. 2.  I’m accepting submissions from new artists.  Anybody that wants to be down and thinks they have the right records, beats, what have you, I’m accepting submissions.  I ask that people hit me directly on Myspace if you’re interested in submitting something for Brainiac Society Vol. II.  It’s going to be much bigger depending on how this one is received.  I’m trying to make this a series that we keep doing.  I’m just trying to expand, and have some fun.

I don’t know if ever spoke upon this in the blog, but all the charges, every last one from the Arizona incident, have been dropped.  I was very happy about that.  Now we can get to the civil case and make sure justice is served correctly.  It’s unfortunate cause I was really excited about doing the show in Tempe because Phoenix was one of our biggest BDS markets, and still is.  Anybody that wants us to do a show in Arizona can hit us up.  We’re not against Arizona, we’re just going to be in and out.  We’re not dealing with anymore clubs in Arizona.  I’m happy that all the charges, not just mine, but also Double O’s and my manager’s, have been dropped.  That’s a good thing.  A very, very good thing.  

And I’ve been back in the studio doing the creative thing.  In the last blog I spoke about doing this Mick Boogie mixtape.  I also talked to TImbuck2 about doing a mixtape, and I’ve just been building with people.  I just did a record with Donnis.  I just did a record with Wale and Brother Ali.  I just did a record with my man A. Pinks.  I’ve just been building.  I did a song with Mick Luter who is another dope emcee from the crib that I’ve always respected and I feel like hasn’t gotten his just due.  I’ve just been trying to reach out to people and really connect with them.  I just got GLC on a track. I just talked to Kid Cudi about doing a record, I’m hoping we can get that done this week.   It’s going to be a real fun one-two when this mixtape comes.  It’s going to be called The Chicago Picasso hosted by Mick Boogie as well as Timbuck2.  It’s going to be really dope.  Expect to see it around December.  It’s going to be exclusively on itunes.  

It’s crazy.  They say you’re nobody until you get sued.  I got sued by this artist John Klimer for the song “Ho’s, Clothes, and Liquor”, which is ironic cause it never got released.  But, I supposed they’re suing me for revenue that never was made.  But you know, hopefully we can settle that.  I’ve never been sued before so that’s a new thing.  I also just finalized this thing with K-Swiss to design a sneaker.  It’s going to be advertised through Harris Publications, which is XXL’s publisher.  They’re doing this thing with four different artists from four different regions and they all design a sneaker.  It’s going to be sold on XXL’s website and exclusively in that person’s city. 

I’m really trying to get the solo project prepared and right.  We’re also working on some new Kidz In The Hall stuff, we’re really doing some cool stuff.  It’s almost like a gift and a curse when you have so many records and you have an album that’s out.  You see everybody putting out new stuff and you want to put out your new stuff.  But we’re still pushing this record, The In Crowd, cause it hasn’t gotten out there how we want it to get out there…For the new record we’re taking it back to basics.  We’re really getting within ourselves and creating a new sound again.  I’m excited about that.  It’s tentatively titled The Winner’s Circle, it could be coming in winter of next year.  It’s going to be really dope.  Obviously, Duckdown is going to pick up the option for that album.  We’re not sure if it’s going to be distributed to through Koch, but it’s going to be a DuckDown release.

On a lighter not, I’m very mad that the Bears lost. But, you win some you lose some.  I’m just trying to chill and get my New York shop on.  We’ve been on the road so long we don’t get to indulge in the fruits of our labor too much.  We’re probably going to go up to 10. Deep tomorrow and pick up some gear from the new line.  I haven’t been sneaker shopping in a while.  I also want to give a big shoutout to Autumn at Solemates for giving me the Brooklyn Circus t-shirt.  I like it!  It’s fresh.