I Take My Time, Because I Believe in What I Do

With the exception of when I was a “burger-flipper” at Roy Rogers/Hardee’s and frying chicken at Popeye’s, many (many, many… many) moons ago, I’ve always worked to avoid the label of “fast.”

I’ve never believed that being “fast” is good, outside of very specific areas of expertise — like things that include some type of race. I used to get frustrated when co-workers would label me as “fast,” when I was a designer/developer in the web and application world, because once it caught on, everyone would expect that everything I did would be done in record time. I’d made a name for myself by creating clean code. Solving the “unsolvable.” Heavily optimized code. But “fast” was never a goal. I was practiced. But not fast. Solving new problems took time, but once you were labelled as fast, the minute you couldn’t solve a new problem in record time, your reputation was tarnished in that company, even if you (solo) took a month to solve a problem that others (teams) failed to solve in two years — yes, this was a real experience of mine.

Anywho… I don’t like being associated with being fast. Can I do things that I’m well practiced at quickly? Sure. Does that mean that I always do? Absolutely not. Sometimes, I like to step away for a day or two (or more), before coming back to see/hear what details I may have missed that might make the end-product better. Whether I’m mixing/mastering, working on a beat, writing a verse/verses, I prefer to take my time. That could be a day or two… or a whole year (for my own music, of course), when it comes to writing, at least. Sure, I could give you a verse the same day you give me the beat… but unless I’m already in a “mode,” and the beat is incredible (to me), subject matter resonates, my voice is unaffected by allergies, planets are all properly and perfectly aligned and life isn’t getting in the way of living, the chances are hella slim. I don’t aim for speed. Ever. I have always been a quality over quantity type — even as a listener, so I take the time that I need to meet my own standards of what that means.

The day that I start participating in activities such as releasing a song a day/week, is the day that you’ll know that I no longer care about my art. I’m not saying that it’s bad for others to work this way, I’m simply saying that it’s not how I work. I take my time, because I believe in what I do and how I do it. That doesn’t mean that you’ll like or appreciate it, but I’m ok with that. Someone surely will. Even if that someone is only me.