I decided I should start using this site for what I intended it to be, a blog about my life as an artist and my journey to success.  What is success though?  It is different for everyone, if I were to say what my goal for success in life, it would be to own a nice house, have a beautiful wife, and live the American dream comfortably.  Judging from that, I have already achieved most of those goals, even though I am only 25 years old.  I own a beautiful house, have a girlfriend that I have been with for over 6 years and will soon marry, have a little dog I have trained from the ground up as a rescue dog, and live very comfortably while being self employed and working for myself.

When it comes to measuring my success as an artist is where things have always been hazy.  Up until recently I have gone back and forth on whether success to me is a Major label deal, performing in global tours, and being on the mainstream radio, to being independent, booking my own shows, selling my own merchandise, and reaping the rewards as a DIY-er.  There are plenty of artists that have gone indie and have made a great living off of it, Tech N9ne, and Master P especially come to mind.  This is a battle that is always going on inside, and makes it hard to focus on what I should be, music. I feel like I’m at a point where I am past that and will be prepared either way

Music to me is life, especially Hip Hop.  I feel like as an artist I want to connect to the listener through stories and commentary that people can actually relate to.  You won’t find a lot of that these days unless you really dig for it.  What you find on radio and TV is what they want you to be and relate to.  How many of us can really say that we are dope slingers, pimps, woman users, etc. As what is portrayed as cool in Rap today?

Most of us just want to live our lives and do the best we can, and that is what I want my music to be about.  Yeah I rap about typical rap concepts sometimes because I have been there and done that, everything I rap about is real to me and what I’m about.  But I also have to realize that it is not all about me, it’s about the listener and connecting with them as well.  My album is going to be made with that in mind.  If you have a story you would like me to write about, feel free to email me or drop a comment.  This will be one of many blog entries as I share my thoughts and life with you.  Thanks for reading this, Jaime “J-Xile” Landers.