Album #: 2	Artist: proGrammar	Title: I.P.O.P.I.F. (Initial Public Offering, Post Ipso Facto)
Genre: Synthesized beats, rapping
Brief Description: My unofficial first album. A bleak existential statement over quirky beats by a hyperliterate young misanthropist.

Tracks:

Full Description:

My first unofficial album (hence the title) meaning I made the beats and wrote the raps for this album before those I made and wrote for "fresh blood", but by the time I had bought Digital Performer and figured out how to use it, "fresh blood" was ready to go and greatly preferred by me as an opening artistic statement. Nevertheless, I was into this work enough to put it to tape immediately after finishing "fresh blood".

I had purchased my Korg X3 sequencing keyboard (with which I made my first beats, all of these -- save the REMIXES -- among them) sometime around '96, near the halfway point of my ITP (Interpreter Training Program) at Seattle Central Community College. Finally having a means of making beats (however cornily synthesizer sounding) I started writing with more of a focus. It was around the same time I started to lose interest in Crowd Control (a rock-hop group I had started) and hanging around with local members of the Seattle hip-hop scene who would become my friends. With this shift in influence, I felt more confident in finding my voice in hip-hop. These lyrics reflect that confidence; the first I felt truly proud of as a mature statement (there were some in Crowd Control, but mostly not.) It's not at all hard, reading these lyrics, to tell what was on my mind at the time. I was the classic angry young man, railing against domesticity, marriage, religion, faith, God, humanity, society, etc etc. Kinda makes me sad, looking back on it, except for how starkly it illustrates my growth as a person since then. Have to marvel at what a hard and long road it's been...

As far as the beats, I feel like the best that can be said is: Pretty dope, for no samples. Some others said the same at the time, and that was about the highest praise I felt I could expect. Check out the rest of my beats from this period to get a sense of their larger context. Some of them I really like. I must say, I feel like I compensated pretty well for the lack of sonic desirability with innovation, ambition and sheer desire.

All beats made by me on my Korg X3 sequencing synthesizer around 1996 - 1997 (except for the REMIXES which included samples on my E-Mu ESI-32 produced around 1998 - 1999.) All lyrics written by me. All skratches by me. All lyrics recorded by me in Digital Performer at my rental apartment in Ravenna, Seattle, WA around 2000 - 2001. Album mixed and mastered by me. Cover art by me.

Meesh featured on "The Ego of a Punk Emcee".