February kicked my ass financially. Pink Skies is on hold until Autumn unless I win the lottery. Sorry.

"You Are A Piece of Shit, and I Can Prove it Mathematically."

"...but you have to understand that as far as Grandpa's concerned, you're both pieces of shit! Yeah. I can prove it mathematically. Actually, l-l-let me grab my whiteboard. This has been a long time coming, anyways."

Let's do some math regarding welfare:

So...1 out of 3 people are on welfare, which pays more than $8/Hr. jobs in 39 states apparently and pays more than $12/Hr. jobs in 6 states. My work ethic logic would say that lowering welfare checks to UNDER an $8/Hr. rate, we'll see how many motherfuckers get off their asses and contribute to the economy they've leeched off of. I'm not saying that everyone abuses welfare, but we'll get to that later.

At $8/Hr. working 40-hour weeks, you'd make $16,640 before taxes. Federal taxes in that bracket would equal $2,034.75. That's $1,838,536,960,000 gross income for all current welfare recipients if they worked an entry-level position, or $1.6 Trillion net income. The federal taxes alone would total $224,817,492,750, or 1.7 times what the government spending on welfare is in the below table.

If you're fucking and having kids on McDonald's paychecks, kill your fucking self or that baby, because you're not affording it. $16K a year is what a hard-working high-schooler or lazy burnout adult makes. I've been both, I can speak on it. Rent alone is $13,056 average annually, so you're honestly not doing shit with your life aside from sheltering yourself from the elements at $8/Hr. Even at $12/Hr. you're getting only the basic essentials of food and shelter, paying $3,282.75 in taxes and netting $21,677.25.

How can I still be against welfare when the numbers are so skewed against independant success? Because with ALL of these figures, it would actually cost $21,135 per recipient, or $2,335,185,015,000 total annually to maintain an average scraping-by American lifestyle, not including water, phone, license plate renewals, gas, etc. Even IF all these recipients were working $8/Hr., 40-hour weeks and paying in taxes, there would be a $495,648,055,000 deficit that the other two-thirds of the country would have to pick up, at the detriment of infrastructure and all the other conveniences our current tax system allows. That's an extra $4,485.95 EACH RECIPIENT would need to get by annually. This of course isn't accounting for Section 8 housing, food stamps or other entitlements.

Consequently, if all of these recipients made $12/Hr., there would actually be a nearly $60 Billion surplus AFTER taxes.

The obvious solution is to raise the minimum wage to $12/Hr., right? Well all that does is cause our inflation to rise in response.

The following video is highly educational as well as entertaining; it does a much better job of explaining banking, interest and taxes than I could ever hope:

The cynical asshole in me mutters that maybe I don't think your life is of value or consequence if it costs more to keep you alive than you're worth at entry-level wages. Pardon my brainwashing, still working on the kinks.

However I sorely doubt the validity of the welfare statistics tables' figures, because with the above numbers from the table, each welfare recipient is only getting $1,193.78 annually, or $49.74 every 1st and 15th of the month.

Keep in mind that I personally despise our current tax system and want less federal government involvement in the day-to-day lives of American citizenry. Keep in mind that I believe you have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness regardless of who you are or what you do unless it infringes upon somebody else. THAT is why I have a problem with the current entitlement system. Two-thirds of the country is being forced to pick up the slack for the remaining third, that doesn't contribute to economic growth. That is a massively broken system which we need to address.

I understand that there are 322 Million Americans and only 121.41 Million of them are full-time employees. I understand that of these 322 Million Americans, 23.17% are 18 or younger. I understand out of the remaining 76.83%, there's a significant amount of seniors who may or may not be retiring. With only 121.41 Million jobs for 247,392,600 American workers, I understand why there's unemployment. I understand why 35.4% of the citizenry is on welfare.

It's not that I don't like people specifically because they're getting assistance. It's the perceived notion that someone has it easier, when I've been in the same situation. There's nothing easy about swallowing your pride for an unemployment check to pay your bills. Couple that with depression and a few drug habits bartered from the remaining balance on your card to numb the self-loathing, I'm intimately familiar with being trapped in that "pit of despair" state. There's a level of helplessness; just know that it gets better.

It took a lot of perseverance but I kicked my habits and went from unemployment to corporate manager. It was 4 years of loss, death, massive (to a 20-year-old) debt, relapses, failed relationships, strained friendships, drifting from my family and coming full-circle. We all need a swift kick in the ass sometimes.

I guess the only thing I truly understand is that we're all fucked.

One Love, One Finger

- Matt Dyer

Back To Business

Holy shit, I haven't wrote on of these since Summer 2013. Pardon the dust, it's only coke.

Kidding.

A lot's happened in my personal life since then, which I won't talk about at length here because I've spent the past year or so working on a new album!

Yeah, I'm a bit excited! I've been kicking it into high gear for an early May release date.

It's called 'Pink Skies' and is more or less a culmination of the past 5...no, 6 fucking years holy fuck I'm getting old now.

Sorry, I'm easily distractible by the fact that I'm turning 25 this August and as of yet haven't released a tangible project.

Anyways, 'Pink Skies' is a) a crude metaphor for women and/or b) the effects of narcotics; those nouns are also some of the more prevalent motifs of the album.

There's at least three ways this album breaks down in my head, so let's analyze:

1) 'Pink Skies' is a concept album describing the "grey area" (yes, I'm the asshole who uses an "e" in "grey", suck it, first-vowelers) between the end of a long-term relationshit and finding a true romance. The bumblings of an alcohol- and drug-fueled, socially awkward, introverted hopeless romantic. To be fair, there's not much creative license taken; its the boiled-down essence of my life from 2010 to now. A major theme of this album is finding the ability to move on and keep awkwardly stumbling through life with delusions of grandeur.

2) 'Pink Skies' is a concept album about a schizophrenic sociopath trapped in an acid-induced coma. Yeah...I abandoned that idea early on, but there's still remnants here and there.

3) 'Pink Skies' is a pile of fucking dogshit and why on earth are you actually releasing this?

To put it bluntly: because I can. I've wanted to release a proper album for a good long while now, and I feel like I have something...sorta unique here with 'Pink Skies'. Which is why I'm going through the effort and expense of pressing it up and making this release as official as I possibly can afford to.

New items in the Matt Dyer inventory:
- Instrumentals without DJ tags on them!
- Somewhat decent hooks!
- A (somewhat) hometown (home-state, more like) collaboration! (Illini Pride!)
- Professional mixing and mastering!
- Releasing a single or two!
- Promotion...possibly! Depending on my mood!
- Professional duplication!
- Distribution through various outlets!
- Label backing!

"Label backing," you ponder curiously if you've made it this far through my rambling, insipid monologue, "how do you mean? You're a no-name local rapper with no real history in the scene even though you've been here for 10+ years!"

Well...I'm starting my own label.

Welcome to Barrel Aged Records, where the albums only come out every 3 to 5 years!

Kidding.

I have plenty more going on aside from just this one album and random business venture that I'm excited to share with everyone:

Starting February (2/10/2016), I'll be releasing a monthly #WhiskeyWednesday project consisting of 2 or 3 songs to "feed the streets" as the cool kids call it. It ties in with a) Barrel Aged Records and b) my favorite weekly holiday. The only time I WON'T release a #WhiskeyWednesday is the month of a major project release.

Sidebar - I'm a white, corny muhfucker who enjoys being ironic and sarcastic. I also don't mind making fun of myself, because of my man-tits.

I'm also working on a mixtape called 'Backwoods' I'd like to release around the beginning of September.

For some of my longer-term fans, I'm pleased to announce that the once-shelved follow up to 'Empty', the 'Derelict EP', is being resuscitated sometime in the near future.

I've been reading a lot, learning a lot...About all sorts of shit. Politics, philosophy, fucking Star Wars novels that are no longer canon so why bother...Music, business, how to lockpick so I can break into everywhere and be a sneaky jewel thief some day if nothing else pans out in my life...Keeping my mind busy and my budget tight.

I have a habit of sitting and pondering, but mostly my mind wanders. On that note, I shall bid you adieu! Keep yourself occupied by going to www.barrelagedrecords.com or make portmanteus and acronyms out of every capitalized word in this post.

One Love, One Finger,
- Matt Dyer

Open Letter (Remix)

Inspiration hit today after relistening to Tical and Magna Carta Holy Grail. This is the result:

Let me know what you think!

One Love, One Finger
- Matt Dyer

A Fresh Start

I've spent the past decade locked in an isolation chamber.

Incubating in a fetal stage, concentrating on attaining full consciousness.

Then I fucked up. I lost focus. I hopped on the wagon of becoming a corporate drone when my outlook was bleak and I am filled with self-loathing for every minute I spend on the clock, every second that I spend thinking about work, worrying about something that I have an intense disinterest in. I work solely to pay off a car I don't yet own, that I took a loan out to get. So I could get to work.

That was fucking stupid.

In the past couple years, I've been on a musical hiatus. Life started happening too fast for me to analyze every moment in my preferred fashion and it's left my mind and memory windswept, to the point that even my new experiences are nostalgic. Amnesia through distance. Mind you, I've been writing. I've been studying. I've been broadening my musical horizons.

As Royce Da 5'9" would say, "I took some time to, re-define my style."

And it shows. The difference between the writing on my current projects, 'Derelict' and 'Isolation' is staggering. It has gotten noticeably tighter, I'm showing more control. If I say it's an improvement, you need to trust my words at face value, because I am the harshest critic of myself. Why do you think I've been rapping since 5th grade and only started any actual recording in high school? I had to come correct, I had to ensure I was elevated and not coming into the booth to waste time on simplistic shit. I still carry that same level of expectations to this day. I love the music too much to disrespect it with anything less than 100%.

It's been over 2 years since I released 'Empty'. 2 years for a major artist is a long time, much less a subterranean such as myself, and I left the scene when my fan base was finally burgeoning in a cul-de-sac that was not in my neighborhood.

I've missed more release dates, stalled on too many chances. I've seen a glimpse of what staying on my path leads to and I refuse to accept modern wage slavery as my fate. I'd rather die penniless on my financially emancipated terms than remain in debt that physically drowns my spirit knowing that I'm solely responsible for the payments I hate myself for having.

2013. I'm not promising any release dates this time around, when the project's done, the project's done. I have goals, but they're moreso outlines.

I've found my sound. I've found my audience. I've found my reason. For an atheist, this is as close to enlightenment as it gets.

I'll post again when 'Derelict' is wrapped up and posted on BandCamp, we'll have a track-by-track analysis. Maybe. Again, no promises.

One Love, One Finger
- Matt Dyer