Keeping it real???

Its amusing people who think keeping it real is what THEY think is real. Who are they to determine what "real" is? I respect anybody & their views even if I don't agree or share the same. I still respect & try to understand their frame of mind & how the way they think helps them live their life. Yet time & time again I hear & read people criticize or judge others simply because they do not share their same taste, fashion or ideas,etc.

Although during my childhood I loved hiphop, heavy metal, top 40 music,etc. I ended up gravitating toward hip hop as my primary music of choice & I've watched the music I love so much evolve on so many different levels from the clothing style to lyrical content. I've seen some artist start of as underground being a staple on college radio (Common,Eminem & Black eyed peas) to others making the leap straight to mainstream (Soulja Boy &
Plies.) My first awareness of the term keeping it real obviously came from the hip hop community but what is keeping it real??

It seems some think staying broke & true to your artform or @ least what they think is true to the artform. I know so many DJs & artist that look @ mainstream success as negative or selling out & @ the same time complain about what they deem to be wack being successful. Yes, I do agree & am baffled sometimes on what actually sells & is of interest to the general public but again who am I to say what is good to them? I just know what I like & I also know what will work to the majority, even if I don't necesarily like it. I can still distinguish the difference between the two & my duty as a DJ comes two fold..I am responsible for breaking & introducing the world to new music & what I personally think is cool but also its my job to give the people what they want & entertain them. I see some DJs defy the crowd & only play what they think is cool which can work sometimes & not others. I see other DJs play it safe & only play what's been broken & is guaranteed to work. They both serve purposes. One isn't better than the other technically speaking, of course this varies on your taste of music. You can't go to a hip club in NY or LA & play ice,ice baby the same way you have a good chance of clearing the floor in say a Vegas club if you start playing to much indie rock music or if you go to a club in the hood & try to play house or electro music. Its knowing & understanding people. That's a whole other story. Anyhow, back to what is real?

I was recently in a debate over soulja boy & whether or not he's hiphop or he is real & I know some of my friends that "keep it real' or are older hip hop heads totally disagree w/ me but I stand my ground. The debate was sparked over the fact that he was unaware of who Ice-t was or some other older hip hop heads that have helped pioneer this music. They all frowned on him which incidentally doesn't matter because he's still richer & more successflu than them but regardless I entertained the debate.

Question:
If I know I love pizza & I think its cool to sell pizza & own a shop am I obligated to do my research on the inventor of pizza & who 1st introduced it to America or how many pizzas are sold a year? I just think owning a pizza shop would be a great way to earn a living & I really like to eat it so it makes sense, in my mind to open one.

This is how I feel about an artist like Soulja Boy. Why should he be condemned because he doesn't know some of hip hops history or even when Asher Roth was unfamiliar w/ some of the older pioneers or Lupe Fiasco never listening to Tribe called Quest. They stumbled upon something that was compelling to them & was interesting enough that they wanted to get involved. To me this is remarkable because it can bring change & help create a new sound that has not been birthed yet.

The cool thing about the new generation is not what they know, its what they don't know. They can't get stuck in what was or what use to work. They don't try to keep reinventing the old ideas because they don't know them. They are open minded.
They are, let's say...on to the next...

Maybe you guys should try that too.
Miles Davis did.

What is keeping it real?
There is a certain rapper who had a bit of success when I was very young from my city (Boston) that over the course of his career has never been able to maintain or reclaim that kind of success. He's had odd jobs, part time & full time sitting @ a desk in a warehouse while still trying to flourish in the hip hop game. He got the pass of being accepted because of the success he had over 15 yrs ago & quite frankly because we hadn't had anyone else really do anything of significance or positive from our city with respects to hiphop (shout out to New Edition.) I am a fan of the work that he has done in the past & consider our relationship to be pretty friendly & cordial until one day I heard him on a record say something negative about me...hmmmmm, where did that come from I wondered? Especially when it was on a song by a DJ who I was equally as cool with & actually spoke in depth about trying to help him gain success with a project he was working on that I thought was great. The line in the song goes like this "I remember when I use to rap in the parks, now we get familiar with that bullshit from Clinton Sparks". Now being the promoting, branding ambassador that I am, my first reaction was "that's fresh" because my name was mentioned in a song. The fact it was with a negative tone didn't phase me on a business level but then the more I thouht about it, I thought it was really uncool on a personal level & as real as he thought he was by trying to convey I've become part of the system it was actually the opposite of real because it goes deeper than that. Here's what I mean. One, if you were someone who kept it real & had a problem with me then you would personally reach out to me. Two, the fact I'm from your city & have garnered success shining a positive light on our city should hold some sort of weight as to not be spoken of negatively , no? Three, you have known me for years & have been part of many local talent shows with me, seen how I lived on our local college stations, have done shows,supported local hip hop station fundraisers, lobbied & campaigned to start the only mainstream show to be ran on Bostons #1 radio station thats dedicated to playing local, unsigned artist yrs ago & it still runs to this day (shout to geespin & on & on) & for years have helped many artist from our city.
I have no choice but to assume that in his mind I'm not keeping it real which leads me to
Four,
If your actually getting familiar w/ that bullshit from Clinton Sparks that means your listening to me & hence not keeping it real to yourself.
That senseless comment really sounded like a quote from danny glovers character from lethal weapon "I'm too old for this shit." Some people need to keep it real & realize that its a wrap for themselves. Let's see, I've done major projects w/ Clipse, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Kardinal Offishall & countless other artist who I know he has respect for so now five, you dissed all these guys too. Fail!

Some people actually get so caught up in wanting to be what other people define as real that they actually are not keeping it real, to themselves. How real is that? BTW - I have a lot more "bullshit" that you will be getting familiar with.

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Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a great 2008, I know I did, and I intend on 2009 being even better! I have a lot of great stuff happening and of course a gang of projects dropping this year. A lot of people hit me inquiring about new mixtapes and when ill be dropping. Well, first off I have a new phone number for anyone to hit me up so I can personally let you know what's happening... that number is 617-671-0670, so hit me anytime.

So about the mixtapes, I have multiple mixtapes that I'm getting ready to drop in the next 2 months that I'm excited about. I am wrapping up an awesome project with my boy Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes (if your not familiar, this is an authentic MC that some may not recoginize because he's in a band, but trust me if you were unfamiliar you will definitely be familiar when we drop). Also any true hip hop head will be a fan of the concept we are running with. Shout out to the legend Jazzy Jeff (Hint). Speaking of Travis McCoy, I just finished his cousin Tygas mixtape which has exclusive features Lil' Wayne. I told him that people don't really know much about who he is so we'll be clearing that up and answer some questions on this mixtape. I also linked up with my brother Rick Ross and E-Class to put together a new Poe Boy project featuring Rick Ross, Flo-Rida, Brisco and the Poe Boy roster as well as I just finished a mixtape with Talib Kweli promoting his group Strong Arm Steady.

Anybody that's a fan of my hip pop rockstar mixtape series should be into my 3rd installment which I'm still working on and I have my boy Lil' Jon involved with this one... Last but not least, well at least for the 1st 6 weeks of 2009 the project I'm most proud of and worked the hardest on is my new yet to be titled mixtape album featuring all new production by myself featuring artists like Ludacris, Rick Ross, Jim Jones, Common, Fabolous, D-Block, Supastar L.T., Yung Joc, Lloyd, Ray-J, Sean Kingston, Cassidy, Bun B, Paul Wall, Kardinal Offishall and of course Akon which will be dropping in February. Oh and of course the Clipse will be on this project which you may have already heard the leak titled "Still Got It 4 Cheap" which is the single from this project. All of these things are just to kick off 2009 and get ya'll ready for my official album dropping later in the year. I also have a number of other mixtape projects aside from the forementioned that I'll be dropping a little later with Fabolous and Sean Kingston.

I'll also be introducing to the world my artist who goes by the name of Supastar L.T., we got HITS!!! I will be introducing him to ya'll on that mixtape album project I just mentioned as well as releasing his mixtape simultaneously. Trust me, if you know anything about me then you know I do not get involved with wackness and to be honest I've decided I was not going to work with an artist ever again about 2 or 3 years ago because I've tried many times only to deal with ungrateful, unappreciative, impatient people that don't get it, as talented as they are, they just didn't have faith and it became more of a headache so that was the point I decided to focus on ONLY me instead of trying to make others stars, I mean let's face it, there's no one better to invest in than yourself. I guess it just took me awhile to figure it out. Anyhow I met this dude and was extremely impressed. He's from Houston, lived in New Orleans amnd now resides in my hometown of Boston and incase it ran through you mind, I wouldn't take on an artist because I felt the need to, I got involved because he is that Dope!

I also plan on dragging some more of these rock bands into the mixtape world like the Fall Out Noy project I did. BTW, all of these mixtapes are available for free download on this website (www.clintonsparks.com). Anyhow, I have so much more to share with you all but I'll just leave it at the mixtape update for now. I am in the airport on my way to Shanghai to smash it down for New Years Eve with my boy Ben Lyons and CIROC Ultra Premium Vodka at M1NT, so you know its going to be smash-time in Shanghai. BTW, on New Years day I'm on a tv show with Paula Abdul on MTV titled Paula Abdul's RAH Cheerleading competition, of course, I'm the DJ on the show. Don't forget every week in Las Vegas I do a huge party called SmashTime Saturday's in Body English the nightclub inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino along with my partners from the The Daily 10 on E!, Sal, Ben & Catt, come Party with us!! Get Familiar, Sparks, out!

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How to be a Superstar

Every day I wake up and think to myself, what am I doing that matters to anyone? What do I do that REALLY matters?? Does anybody care?? I often find myself not having a solid answer, by my standards at least. Sure I may make some people laugh or I may make some people dance and forget their problems in the club and hopefully I inspire some people along the way but I never feel like I'm doing enough. In my mind I have this thought that the more I work, the more adequate I am, the more I matter... But am I missing life which essentially is the bigger picture. Am I missing time with my son, my wife, my family or is it my work that allows me to spend time with them because I can afford to take a trip or a day off while others have to work??
If I don't work my self to death I feel I'm doing a diservice to my family which I created and I'm leaving them with an unstable financial future.

Someone called me a superstar the other night & it got me to thinking. On one hand I could have taken that as a compliment that they considered my being recognized for the work that I do to be at a level of a superstar or because I'm on tv or on the radio, online, etc. What it did was get me to thinking "What is a superstar actually?" Is it infact someone that achieves great popularity and respect for their body of work??

Is that the only way someone can be considered a superstar??

I spend a great deal of my time working or thinking of work to the point I almost disconnect from what's around me which sometimes are the most important things, my family. To understand me now is to understand where I came from. I fortunately am part of the small group that came from absolutely nothing and made something out of my life and I think my worry of going back to food stamps and welfare gives me an insatiable appetite for success because I never I want my son to ever be apart of that world. You know I hear a lot of people say all they want for their children is to be happy but can happiness pay the bills or help you if you're hospitalized and quite frankly I never heard anyone tell me I can go on a trip for 4 to Disney for the price of happiness. Have goals for them. Have them set goals. When you achieve a goal it creates happiness. Knowing that you accomplished something you set out to do feels awesome!

In a quest to achieve success, those that truly understand what that means it can be easy to lose yourself and your purpose. You can get so caught up in making sure that the people you care about will be okay that you forget about yourself being okay or that they actually are not okay because your not there with them which is, to them, what really matters. Trust me, if anyone understands what it means to juggle the reality of paying the bills, spending time with your family and chasing your dream, I'm in the front of that line. Incidentally, I think I've gone so hard at chasing my dream that I passed it and its now chasing me...

Anyhow, what I'm trying to get at is discover the meaning in your life. Discover your meaning. Maybe what your doing isn't what you were meant to do and your forcing a circle into a square sort of speak. Everyone wants to be a superstar but tends to forget that Superstars are not just people that are on tv or on the radio, in magazines being hounded by the paparazzi, etc. A Superstar is a teacher that really cares about the student (I love teachers btw and think they are totally underpaid), a mother or father that spends quality time with their children. A student that studies to better themself. Someone that plants a tree, helps an elderly person across the road. I think you get my point. In a fast moving, technology driven "I want to be famous" world sometimes you need to just slow down and enjoy your life and enjoy the lives of others.

Read your kid a story tonight, call your relative that you haven't spoke to in awhile, take that risk and follow your dream, donate your time, help a neighbor.

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't get involved you might miss it...

Be involved with YOUR LIFE...

Be a Superstar!!!!!

Your friend,
Clinton

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You Never Know Who's Listening

You never know who's listening....

I say this because time & time again I meet "celebrities" who tell me upon meeting them "I love your mixtapes" or " I listen to your radio show all the time" & I'm like "Wooord, Samuel L. Jackson is Familiar?" In the words of the late great B.I.G. "Whoever thought that hip hop would take us this far?" I never would have thought that being someone who went in & smashed down hood parties & made mixtapes for the streets would be on the E! Network interviewing Jessica Simpson but you never know who's listening. I guess all my constant self promotion & continuously yelling Get Familiar everywhere worked. (Side note, MANY people use to tell me to stop saying get familiar so much or yo you need to switch that get familiar shit up - funny thing is, I don't know where any of those dudes are anymore or what they are doing w/ their life) anyhow, back to my point.

I never stop promoting & I never assume someone knows who I am or what I've accomplished. As a matter of fact, although some people consider me a popular DJ that has achieved considerable success, I still feel like & still work everyday as if I'm still trying to get on. Maybe I'm extremely afraid of failure or I'm to naïve to see I've actually made it. Whatever the case I always work as if I'm trying to prove myself & convince you on why you should be a fan of my work. I never take a supporter, listener, fan for granted. I continually feel like I must work harder to keep u listening....ah, there's that word "listening" again. You never know who's "listening".

Well, it seems as if a lot of people are listening to what I have been doing. Case & point. A kid by the name of Ben Lyons from NY who was working for a music trade magazine was a fan of my mixtapes & was heading up a DJ panel for his mags conference, so he reached out to me along w/ kid capri, jus ske & some other DJs to participate. Now I didn't know this kid but because of his enthusiasm about my mixtapes & his girl @ the time being a friend of mine I agreed to travel to NY on my own dime to be apart of this panel. (Okay, another side note. A week before this panel Eminem was going to be doing a show in Boston, my hometown & was going to bring me on stage in front of my city & big me up....trust me, I wanted to cancel this mystery panel that some kid I don't even know asked me to do but I am a person of my word & wasn't going to leave him hanging so I painfully had to tell Shady I will not be in Boston that day then coincidentally there was a snowstorm that day driving to NY but I still went) Anyhow, the panel was decent & Ben was extremely excited to have me apart of it & quite frankly I was happy to be there & kick it w/ capri & jus ske. Now, Fast Forward yrs later the kid Ben Lyons turns out to be the son of the popular movie critic Jeffrey Lyons unbenounced to me & he gets a job as movie critic for the E! Channel. They eventually have a mtg & the executive producer of The Daily Ten says to Ben " I need someone like you that can do for us what u do for movies but for music" Bens immediate response is "We have to get Clinton Sparks" the rest is history. You never know who's listening.

A couple of yrs back I did a pretty big mixtape w/ Kanye West titled "touch the sky". I was on MTV as a guest for it. It was featured on every website, mags,etc. Now when I make these CDs I'm for the most part making them for 2 reasons. 1 is because I'm just a creative person that always wants to be working & create cool new music if for nothing else my own listening pleasure & 2. To feed the streets w/ hot new shit. We all know or @ least assumed mixtapes were this underground, street thing we were doing but you never know who's listening & recently a band that wasn't as big then when I dropped the CD just so happened to be listening & now have become one of the most popular bands on the world & called me 3 weeks ago to do a mixtape w/ them. That band.......... Falloutboy.

I do a huge party in Las Vegas every Saturday in Body English @ the Hard Rock hotel & casino & there are constantly major celebrities in my party but there are also big corporate execs, Promoters for other clubs & even TV execs. A few weeks back a host comes to me while I'm spinning & says "Can u autograph one of your mixtapes for this guy, he's a huge fan of yours" naturally I agree to sign it. 10 minutes later the guy I signed a CD for comes over to show his gratitude & gives me his business card. He happened to be the head purchaser for Target ( you know the main person that it would be great to be cool with if say you wanted to launch a clothing line or any kind of product for that matter.)

I get a call from Telepictures, the production company that produces the Ellen show, Tyra,etc. Why would they call you ask??? Well, seems they are listening too. Based off my interviews on my radio show they wanted to meet me to discuss doing a talk show w/ me as the host. Now whether this happens or not isn't the point, its merely to show you the windows of oppurtunity.

The moral of this blog is take pride in your work & treat everything you do like its your only shot to proove your worthy to be listened to or be a fan of. There are a lot of people out there doing the same thing your doing & people can be their fan just as much as they can be yours. Stand out. Make yourself the obvious choice & respect & value them. Its hard enough to convince someone to rock with you but its a job to keep them rocking!!!! No days off for you because your job is to help them enjoy their days off...... Get Familiar!

.......Now get to work because you never know who's listening!

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Video: Gym Class Heroes "Cookie Jar"

I told u guys about this video when I went to hang on the set. The song is called "Cookie Jar" featuring The-Dream and they gave me a cool cameo so check it and me out and Get Familiar! See you in Vegas... Its SMASHTIME! BTW, working on a major Show/Party for our 1 year anniversary at Body English in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino very soon. Stay tuned.

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Advice to artists on how to Get Familiar with a DJ

I was asked to give some advice to up and coming artists on how to approach a popular DJ to get him to get involved with your mixtape project. First let me start by saying that you are not the only person who thinks they have the Hot Shit, next level shit, new shit, your shit is better than anything else, etc. Its understandable that you invest a lot of your time, energy & perhaps even money into what you feel could be your career but before you even go that far remember that just because you love basketball doesn't mean you can buy a jersey and a ball and say your a professional basketball player. That being said, A successful DJ gets approached constantly to get involved with aspiring artist projects and why wouldn't they? They are for the most part the gatekeeper to showcasing what you made in your studio to the world and of course you want the world to hear your hard work.

There are different ways of approaching a DJ. One of the methods that I live by and have had success with is that whenever I feel I need something from someone to help my cause I figure out what their cause is and how I can help theirs simultaneously so its a win/win situation. Also remember to start any business you need money and essentially you are a business so when planning on putting a project together take into consideration the cost of marketing and promotions. Now, what is it that the popular DJ who worked hard to get to where he is doing for you by getting involved with your project and exposing you to his fanbase that he built already??? Let's say it together... Marketing & Promotions! Exactly! So think about that when approaching a DJ who you do not have a personal relationship with and you have nothing else to offer him and be realistic. Okay, let's say you just think your Nice and don't really have the money to pay a DJ but your saying to yourself "Man, if this dude just cosigned me I would definitely get to where I need to be". There is possibly a way to get that done and that's all on your approach. Personally I get tons of messages on myspace which basically all say the same thing and as respectful as the messages are the DJ only has so much time to listen to you and after being fooled a million times from clever messages only to hear the worst music the DJ has ever heard Time & time again, it gets restless.

I myself have been swayed many times into going to peoples pages and listening only to once again be disappointed by the hype. My point is create a unique approach to selling yourself. Remember your a business trying to sell the product, You! Why should I listen to you, what is special about you, what can you offer that no one else is Seriously when putting your project together ask yourself these questions and when you have an original answer then you might be onto something....I personally wish I could listen to everyone and help out as much as I can but unfortunately I'm just like you...trying to get it crackin! Hopefully this helps some of you in your quest of building your brand and relationships with not just popular DJs but anybody for that matter. Good luck and may you continue to Get People Familiar!

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KLTV: In the studio and in the club

KarmaloopTV spent an evening with me in my studio previewing my upcoming mixtape and then followed me to a club appearance later that night.

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• Listen to SmashTime Radio each and every week, online, through my podcast or on the radio wherever you can tune in (list available at www.smashtimeradio.com)
• Watch me on The Daily 10 on E! Entertainment TV, every Tuesday 7:30PM & Midnite. Don't miss my Get Familiar Segment or Now Hear This.

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In the studio with Akon and Colby O

After performing with Akon at Rehab at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, we went to the studio to work on mixing and sequencing records for Colby O'Donis' album with my good buddy Exit, who's an amazing engineer. As it stands now I produced 4 records for Colby's album and I have the 2nd single called "Don't Turn Back," which I'll be world premiering on SmashTime Radio this weekend. Kon also played me his album which is gonna be craaaaazy, his first single is gonna be featuring an icon is pop history so stay tuned for that. I may even have a joint on his album too.

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