"Better Man" Year created: 2005 Written & Performed by: Dutchmassive, Median, Von Pea (of Tanya Morgan) Produced by: Illmind Cuts / Scratches: DJ Ragz (of Jazz Addixx) Recorded by: Dutchmassive @ The Bed Room (Tampa, FL) Mixed & Mastered by: Dutchyyy @ The Bed Room (Tampa, FL) Album: "Crush Your System" Track: 8 Released: Nov 28, 2007 Label:  Rawkus Records Original Dutchmassive Logo By: Open Mic Re-Designed Logo by: Barry & Dutch "Crush Your System" was created 2001-2007 & has had songs added to the bandcamp version 2008-Present. https://dutchmassive.bandcamp.com/album/crush-your-system-rawkus-version-bonus-tracks ----------------------------- Lyrics: [Verse 1 – Dutchmassive] "I sway once in and out the track / Run a second Lap with my headphones attached / Pshhh… Really not concerned about stats / The Point is to reach you, not for feedback / Numbers ain’t important, we don’t need these plaques / And that hotness you yell about is straight disease rap / If you hear between the lines, you can tell the freeze (Free Is)  back / I'm Cool like that… I’m cool like that… / Cooler than a polar bear's.... No, Not that / I don't Play, I stick on my grind all day / And lay a foundation for our kids these days / Many stray away from the truth, They say, “May our words be forgotten.” And that’s not okay / Let’s redirect, focus, and reform our aim / When we know they hang on every word we say I’m making music for a brighter day" [Chorus] I fell asleep with this beat on repeat Repetitive Loop, Life seems to greet me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me [Verse 2 – Median] "An Illmind had to provide this here / Had to be the rhythm that’s inside the spit / Median’s the Balance that’s prescribed by the kid / Plus, the Dutch in the rhythm when it guided him here / I’m obliged by the rhyme that I build / Net surf the network and it’s time to build / Known for the prose, so the job then appears / And I do what I like. Yo, I do what I feel / The truly cool presumed a movement was in here / They can feel the music, move the ruler of the hips / The jeweler of the newness, influenced by the iddish / Congruent to the you and I, the brewer of the fix / (mouth scratching noises) Yo, yo, gotta bring it back in this here / The jeweler of the newness who’s influenced by the iddish / Walking over this here is kind of like a bridge / (Mouth Scratch Noise) is magnificent. Kind of like a biz’ [Chorus] I fell asleep with this beat on repeat Repetitive Loop, Life seems to greet me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me [Verse 3 – Von Pea] "You want it? I got it. Floating like water / Rhymes I pen swim and cut past borders /  Some are down the drain, no matter the build up / I don’t let it clog my path. Peep, I’m still up / Cold solid, I’m Cube in his heyday / Friday’s all week, so we avoid melee / Rappers hate, they get gassed, and evaporate / Claiming original, they ain’t even a candidate / Seventy percent of you is me / I do believe, you pay less the shoes of Pea / My reign S-O-N, ease / And I don’t mean Illmind's homie, I mean it’s so lonely / Sittin’ in a cloud, all wrapped in humidity / So for fun, I come down on stupidity / Causing a menace, ‘til the so-called streets start looking like Venice, Yo, Dutch, I’m finished" [Chorus] I fell asleep with this beat on repeat Repetitive Loop, Life seems to greet me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man, please believe me Trying to be a better man… Trying to be a better man… Please… Please… Trying… Got me battling my own mind state At a divine rate. I ain’t in it just to rhyme [weight?] See, the truth has got me battling my own mind state At a divine rate. I ain’t in it just to rhyme [weight?] See, the truth has got me battling my own mind state At a divine rate. I ain’t in it just to rhyme [weight?] See, the truth… Please believe me… ----------------------------- Backstory: "Better Man" was the Lead Single for "Crush Your System" and was featured in multiple magazines, nearly all relevant hip hop blogs at the time and saw continuous air-time on college & public radio before, during and long after the album was released. It's crazy listening to this song in modern times, when nearly every platform outside of the one you are reading this on, are nearly all designed, focused on highlighting and celebrating the most distracting, least important and predatory part of "The Music"... Stat's, Metrics, Charts, and all the shiny objects that lend zero authenticity to that sacred, immeasurable impact the right music can have when it connects with the right person at the right time in their life. Maybe my consistent vocal objection publicly around this subject will make more sense knowing how strongly I felt on the topic, long before the introduction of social media, likes, retweets, views, algorithms etc =) I began working on my sophomore solo album "Crush Your System" before my Debut solo album "Junk Planet" was released.  Where Junk Planet was very much Golden Era Hip-Hop, especially when it came to Production.  My taste, soul, and spirit were far removed from that album long before it dropped.     The Early to mid 2000's became a Super Producer Golden Era, after everyone Leveled up after hearing JayDee's (J Dilla) production on Slum Village's "Fantastic Vol.2 '' album.   I was thankfully at the right place, right time, around the right people to have full access to this new Era that was unfolding.   As Part of one of the first worldwide super beat collective's birth by SlopFunkDust ``Beat Fanatic" (SlopFunkDust, Illmind, M-phazes, Dela, Rik Marvel, Matt Naso, Rek-one (R.I.P.), Mekka don, Dutchyyy aka Dutchmassive, Mo0, Jake-One, DJ Rhrettmatic, S1, DJ Roddy Rod, 9th Wonder, Spon, Dj Blenda, Kay of the Foundation, Dj Cozmos, etc)  The Level of Production I had access to was inspiring. With the Success of Little Brother's "The Listening" Album,  It was a golden era of genuine raps happening.  The world was much smaller back then, so all the dopest artist's and producers knew each other (Thank you Myspace!) With OkayPlayer, Rappers I Know, and countless other crucial blogs being tapped into the scene.  It was impossible not to be inspired surrounded by all the music dropping.     As an emcee myself with a naturally higher pitched voice,  I always gravitated towards similar voices,  i.e. Q-Tip (ATCQ) So, when I learned of Little Brother's full squad "Justus League" I naturally did a double take the first time I heard "Median" Rhyme,  Not only voice wise, but subject matter and delivery.   I had been collecting beats for the next album a few years, and I had a concept of collab song with the dopest High Pitched emcee's at the time,  So I reached out to Median and my man Von Pea (of Tanya Morgan) and began trying to find the perfect beat.   Illmind ended up sending me 4 separate batches of 60 beats each.  All which I turned down which he was not happy about at the time.   There were countless dope beats in those batches I would have used, but I was searching for something specific,  I forgot how I ended up first hearing the Illmind beat we ended up using,  but even tho I know I frustrated Illmind being super picky,  I'm very thankful it all worked out the way it did. I Remember Vividly, Driving out to "Marcelino Chelo Huerta Jr Friendship Park" in Tampa, FL and sitting at the top of Slide in the park, writing my verse for this song. Coming into Crush Your System, I made a conscious shift to really honor the fact that I had a lot of minds tuning in that were really giving power to my words. I don't mean like they thought I was dope. But rather related, or really needed to hear something from a different perspective. People would reach out and tell me my music was what saved them from giving up and committing Un-life'd...  which was crazy to me, cus I was young, surrounded by a more aggressive battle rap family and I was also creating exaggerated aggressive jawns (with my tiny a** voice haha. So while it was cool to feel like the dopest, and get props, and be clever and get to feel like a superhero through words. Just knowing that in the times I kept it genuine people were really impacted and it rippled out to help them also create positive ripples. I Decided that if I was going to take the time to write down thoughts, I was gonna be mindful of having that opportunity. not wasting it being influenced by writing flex raps or talking about stuff I don't do just to fit in with all the dope people that surrounded me. So I took a more moral compass approach moving forward.   But I'm human... and I'm Dutchmassive "bitch" haha, I grew up during the early to mid nineties deeply embedded in the hardest and most braggadocious Era of hip hop so, maaaan. sometimes I just wanna pop off. but this album was me going thru my 20's trying to inspire myself and whoever was tuned in I recorded both the Equilibrium (Celph Titled, Majik Most & Dutchmassive) album and my Debut Solo album "Junk Planet" from age 16-20 I know younger fans still to this day look at that as the dopest ish. but i can't, or don't really want to try to capture teenage angst Dutch haha. Even though, at 42 years old, I sound the same as when I recorded my first record. CYS was created from around 2001-2008 , It was an incomplete album when @Slopfunkdust blessed us all with the opportunity to release thru Rawkus Records with what would be, The first major Digital campaign in the industry. Rawkus took 50 artists and dropped 50 albums at once … Digitally.... It didn't pan out =/ There was a 3rd Dutchmassive album titled Romanticizing that I was near completing, until Xmas day Night in 2011, My computer Bluescreened and I lost everything  that I had created from 2006-2012.... The album was crazy. beats were next level and still hold up to this day.  I ended up recovering most of the files from that LAPTOP, Including all the Beats I used,  but I couldn't bring myself to re-record an album I already finished. If you will learn anything about me in the coming years it's that I really put value into 1st take energy. in an almost spiritual way, So i took it as a sign. Combined w/ the fact I ended up moving to Los Angeles a few months later,  The Rapper in me took an extended Hiatus while my production side "Dutchyyy" took the main stage for the next decade...      Or did it?.........         Stay tuned, because the thought of me just stopping expressing my emotions through words is crazy.  In 2014,  After moving to NY, I was summoned to Write and Record one last verse w/ the same fire and intensity of "Junk Planet" era Dutch to live on a legendary mixtape next to Golden Era + Early 2000's Underground Hip Hop Legends.  I took this opportunity to explain why,  the world as it existed at that time, was not deserving of my carefully planned out, written down thoughts and announced my indefinite Hiatus in the now immortalized.... "Track 37"  https://samthesleezbag.bandcamp.com/album/sleezbagmekalektape Right after recording this,  I began secretly collecting Production from my Favorite Producers with the intention of possibly writing another album...       Instead a new Era began Privately, and Continued in secret from 2015 - Present Day.          The Era of "The Reluctant Clap / DailyRambles"