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Like most aspiring artists in Los Angeles, I had high hopes for what might happen there. A lot of times it usually ended in broken promises, and me paying dues for projects that never really came to fruition. What that means is that I wrote songs for free with no payment. Hoping that it would lead to a publishing deal, or a major artist releasing a song that I wrote. I remember trying to get money back that was owed to me, from a guy that brokered a deal for me to demo a song for a very well known artist that was starring in Austin Powers. She’s still famous today. Anyway, he took my entire check. Not a portion, but the entire check. This same guy that brokered the deal was always doing shady business. From now on I’ll just use his first initial, and call him Shady J., since his name started with a J. Before money was ever on the table, there was a friend of his that told me, “Make sure you get all your money”. He was alerting me before anything ever happened. I guess that was the warning before the storm. One of the most disappointing things was that a producer friend of mine happened to know Shady J as well, and was suing him for money he didn’t receive for work he had done. It was a whole mess. I tell more of that story on my YouTube page, “When God Closed the Door on Me”.
I had come close to so much, and was yet so far at the same time. I was in the same room as Swizz Beatz, Diane Warren, Damien Elliot, and more. At the time Shady J was helping me shop my song "Streetz" (I know I should've learned my lesson). So it put me in a lot of rooms. I just knew my big break was around the corner. The song was listened to by Snoop Dogg, in an effort to get him to record a verse for it. My now husband, who was acting as my manager then went with Shady J, to Snoop's house. Shady J, knew a lot of people. We had even driven across state lines trying to shop the song “Streetz”. It landed us in Arizona at a man’s house named Uncle Joe, a former NBA player. Then off to a studio in Arizona, with a whole rap squad, and I don’t even remember their names. Nope, nothing came of that as well. Anyway, the song had been shopped almost everywhere to a plethora of people including Dawn of Envogue. Shady J was trying to convince me that she should sing it. I wanted so badly to be good enough to the powerful A&R person, the deal maker, the producer so much so, that they’d want to sign me. Well that didn’t happen, and Dawn didn’t get the song either. Sometimes I wish I would’ve let Dawn have it, because then, maybe the world would’ve known that I wrote it, and that Dave Hummel produced it. Instead The song Streetz is a Mutha F**** ended up being recorded by Keyshia Cole. It wound up on the cutting floor, because Interscope Records was going in a different direction with her. She was only able to release it via mixtape. I still have the original recordings with my voice as the original creator. I remember her saying we should keep in touch, after she recorded the song, but I never did. I wish I had, but I really wasn’t sure if she meant it. You know it's Hollywood. True story: the night I was in the recording studio with Keyshia Cole, the singer Mya crossed our path to record in another part of the building.
Hindsight 20/20 I know God opens and closes doors. Any door that I didn’t get to walk through has kept me from things that were not good for me. Even now, with all the allegations and horror stories of artists trying to rise to the next level, or get through a particular door, many of them have gone through hell that I couldn’t imagine. I’m grateful for the closed doors now, even though I was crushed back then. At least I have my integrity, and I’m thankful for that. If I’m really transparent, thoughts of what might’ve been, if I stay too long can be harmful to my peace. So I purposely don’t stay there. I remember wishing I could’ve been on Bad Boy Records after seeing Sean Combs “Making The Band”. I even had a dream about it, thank God that it didn’t come true.
It’s so crazy how back then, especially in LA I was always hearing, “it's about who you know”. So supposedly, because of who you knew, it was easy to believe that someone could get you put on. I used to have a friend that was like a big brother to me. His name was Kowan Q. Paul, he’s no longer with us today. He passed away at the young age of 38. He worked with many artists including Red Man, Method Man, and even Neo who back then was only known as Schaffer (Yes, I was in the studio Neo with as well, while visiting Kowan). Kowan also did some writing and producing on my old album, the songs were “Can’t Let You Stay", and "Mmh Mmh". The Album was titled "A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That” which I released via CD Baby under my maiden name April Cason, you can stream it via the Amazon Music App. Yes, that is a shameless plug, Lol! There’s no money in streaming y'all, please help a sistah out! Okay, now back to my brother Kowan. He, and I once wrote a song for an artist in the Caribbean. I don’t even know what happened to her, or our song. I thought knowing Kowan was going to give me greater access, and more opportunities. I was in so many situations that I thought would yield much musical fruit. But to no avail, nothing came of it. I’ve arrived at the realization that it’s not always who you know. Just because people make it into the room with the movers and shakers, it is not always their talent that puts them there, or what keeps them there.
So much happened around my 12 years in Los Angeles, including getting married (our brother Kowan was in actually our wedding), and having my first child. I was still trying to do music while being a young mom. So, one last story before I go. While I was pregnant I worked a regular job, and yet worked on my music. There was a producer that I used to work with named Darock. He told me that he needed me to come write and sing a hook, on someone’s track. I told him that I need to get paid, I have a baby on the way. He said to me, “They don’t know you”. Basically, because I was an unknown artist, I wasn’t worth paying. It hurt.
Well, so much for Los Angeles, I moved away from Los Angeles in 2007, and I took my dreams with me. Next stop New Orleans! Thanks for reading, maybe I’ll catch you in the next edition.
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