Naledge checks back in with us en route to the Windy City.  He writes about taking meetings, national ad campaigns, and a crazy night out at Le Passage with the RH Crew...check it out below

I’m in New York, La Guardia airport heading back to Chicago actually.  I had some interesting business to do in New York.  The last time I blogged I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but we recently just did a deal with a shoe company and they want us to do an ad campaign.  I can’t really talk about the campaign cause that would be letting the cat out of the bag.  They want to hold onto things information wise.  It’s a big look for us.  It’s going to be a nationwide ad campaign.  It’s gonna be cool, and we’re starting to work on a new record that we’re going to be doing a video for.  We’re going to revamp the album, we’re already revamping the album.  In the last blog I mentioned that we had a record with Jay Electronica, and there’s a couple other songs that didn’t make the final version of this album that we’re going to revamp.  We’re probably going to shoot the third video in February, and on top of that we have the video, “Love Hangover” that’s out right now and doing really well.  Our segment on BET’s new show The Deal actually airs today.  If you saw it, I hope you felt proud to be from Chicago, or proud to be a Kidz In The Hall fan.  It’s a big look for us.  I’m actually not going to be able to see it, I’m going to be in the air.  I got like a million people recording it, so I can’t wait to see how it actually turns out.  Aside from the business that we had to take care of for this ad campaign, we also were taking some interesting meetings.  It’s funny cause a lot of these labels or whatever, I feel like at first they doubted what I was able to do so we went the indie route.  We just forgot about what it felt like for people to even want to take meetings with us.  We’ve (Kidz In The Hall and Major League) gotten in the mode where we just do everything ourselves.  It’s like, I think we kind of have had tunnel vision just trying to promote ourselves and this project to make sure everything is right and we’ve been continuously working to where if people want to take meetings with us we almost don’t even know how to do it unless they’re talking certain terms.  And even if they are talking the right terms, we still want to be very hands on cause we’ve gotten used to that.  We took some meetings with a couple people that I can’t really say if they were fully positive or fully negative, I just take it for what it’s worth.  There’s definitely people watching what we’re doing and seeing there’s progressive.  They’re definitely digging the music and the movement that we have going on.  

Other than that, I’m just happy that everything is starting to wind down for this year.  There’s so much traveling.  It feels good to be able to do all this business, and do all these shows, and take all these meetings, and try to figure out everything financially that goes with this career, but sometimes you just want to sit and chill.  The time I did actually get to spend at home last week just reminded me how much I missed the crib.  I went to Angels & Kings for the first time.  A whole bunch of people had been telling me about it.  I’m actually good friends with Trav of Gym Class Heroes, and he’s part owner of it.  I’ve been to the one in New York, I’ve never been to the one in Chicago.  I went to their little Thursday party that Skyler promotes and DJs.  I saw Timbuck2 there, I saw Mano, and a few other people.  Most people know that we have the Brainiac Society thing cracking pretty tough right now.  We just finished Vol. 2 of Welcome To Brainiac Society mixed by Trackstar the DJ and hosted by Fooch.  It’s up already.  Hopefully you guys are enjoying that.  We’re already working on Vol. 3.  That’s going to be the prelude to the Chicago Picasso.  That’s the iTunes project that’s being done with RTC, Timbuck2, and Mick Boogie.  I’m just really, really looking forward to giving everybody music.

Back to what I was saying about the crib, it’s just exciting to see what the scene has become.  Every time I leave and come back home, there’s something new about the city.  Whether that be a club has closed, a restaurant has closed or changed it’s name, a new bar has popped up, there’s always some new thing going on.  Just even seeing the people on the scene, certain people might have stopped hanging out or going out and other people have replaced those people.  I just noticed the crowd has changed at some events. Some of the younger kids are starting to come out more to the events.  Even with the concerts and the shows, I went to The Cool Kids’/Q-Tip NBA 2K tour in one of the cities that we were on tour with Murs.  I went to the after party for their show in Chicago at Le Passage.  The RubyHornet team was out, Fake Shore Drive was out, we had a good time.  We had a lot of fun.  It was just interesting to see that scene, and how it’s kind of grown.  The other day I was driving down Lake Shore Drive and I’m hearing Timbuck2 interviewing Mano on WGCI.  I just remember me and Mano sitting at John Monopoly’s crib talking about all the things we wanted to do, and everything we wanted to be.  It’s interesting to see things come to fruition and seeing some of my friends reach a certain level.  Even The Cool Kids, for them to be on tour with Q-Tip, when a year and half ago they were basically begging people to get on sets at SXSW cause they weren’t even invited.  To see them make that transition to doing CMJ and their deal with Fools’ Gold and getting where they are right now it’s phenomenal.  Even to see somebody like Mic T get his association with M.I.A., it’s just a beautiful thing for the city.  And even moreso to hang out with these people can call them my friends, and being able build with my childhood friends and get them involved with what I’m doing business wise and hang and be in my element is just great.  

December looks to be one of those months when I can chill a little bit.  We have a show coming up on the 27th.  I don’t have all the details for all that yet, but as soon as there’s a flyer and all that RubyHornet will be the first to know.  Right now we’ve only confirmed Hollywood Holt and Mic Terror for the show.  I believe we’re trying to get GLC, but we’ll see what happens.  A marketing firm that works for a non-for-profit is putting on the show, but like I said, we’ll have all the details for you guys by the end of this week probably.  Other than that, I’m really looking forward to starting to work on BrainiacSociety.com.  That’s really like my brainchild right there.  That’s something I’m really excited about and looking forward to launching.  I just want everybody to be patient cause it’s coming.  I have to give a thanks to my man Hebru.  He’s someone I actually went to high school with at De La Salle and his doing the artwork for Chicago Picasso.  It’s crazy how far he’s come in the work he’s done.  I told him he has free reign to do whatever he wanted with the artwork cause I trusted his creativity.  So, he basically came through and it’s going to be dope.  It’s going to be real dope.  I have to give him a special thanks.  

I’m excited to get on this plane and come home and get some sleep, but the work never stops.  I got meetings as soon as I got home and also got to get in the studio to do some work with Prolyfic.  Some people know him from 1st & 15th, but he’s doing his thing.  I got a little bit of other work going on, just trying to get everything right and get in as much work as I can before the new year.  I also just did a song with one of the dudes I went to college with named Rob Mareck, he’s an R&B singer, a producer, arranger, he plays the keys, he plays piano and a couple other instruments too.  He’s kind of in the vein of John Legend.  Both of them actually went to Penn.  I didn’t go to Penn with John, but I knew Rob.  He and John were kind of in the same vein, and they both kind of were competitors when they went to Penn.  He’s a real soulful dude.  We just did this record together that he’s actually shooting a video for, so I’m excited for.  Double O produced the remix, and I hopped on both records.  It’s real fresh.  As soon as I get the video for that I’m definitely going to leak that.  I was kicking it with the homie Donnis and he was telling me about the 10.Deep mixtape that’s coming out, a couple joints I did with Donnis are on there and there’s a couple records I did with Donnis that I haven’t heard yet.  One is going to be on his mixtape, and one is going to be on The Chicago Picasso.  So shout outs to the homie Donnis cause he’s doing his thing.  Other than that I’m just trying to enjoy the weather here.  Although it is raining it’s a lot warmer in New York than in Chicago.  I don’t know why cause it is winter time.  But it’s a little bit warmer here…I’m about to get on this plane in a good 20 minutes, and then I’ll be back at the crib.

...
written by Andrew Barber , December 11, 2008

Good shit!

Yup!
written by Kev - S.L.A.B. ENT. , December 11, 2008

AGREED... Good Blog Entry.

Donnis is def doing his thing!

Shout out to everybody in Chicago doin they're OWN thing rite now!