Coded Language by DJ Krust feat. Saul Williams  

Whereas break beats have been the missing link
Connecting the Diasporic community to its drum woven past
Whereas the quantized drum has allowed the whirling
Mathematicians to calculate the ever changing distance
Between rock and stardom
Whereas the velocity of the spinning vinyl
Cross faded, spun backwards and re-released
At the same given moment of recorded history
Yet at a different moment in times continuum
Has allowed history, to catch up with the present
We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing
Standards of dialog, statements such as ‘Keep it real’
Especially when punctuating or anticipating modes
Of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically or depicting
An unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as retro-active
And not representative of the individually determined is
Furthermore, as determined by the collective consciousness
Of this state of being and the lessened distance
Between thought patterns and their secular manifestations
The role of men as listening receptacles is to be increased by a number
No less than 70 percent of the current enlisted as vocal aggressors
Motherfuckers better realize now is the time to self-actualize
We have found evidence that Hip Hops standard 85 RPM
When increased by a number as least half the rate of it’s standard
Or decreased at three quarters of it’s speed
May be a determining factor in heightening consciousness
Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face
Of the unchanging the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth
Equate rhyme with reason, sun with season, our cyclical relationship
To phenomenon has encouraged scholars
To erase the centers of periods thus symbolizing the non-linear
Character of ’cause and effect
Reject mediocrity
Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that
Which as been given for you to understand
The current standard is the equivalent
Of an adolescent restricted to the diet of an infant
The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional
And deformative symptoms and could not properly mature
On a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears
Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness
The role of darkness is not to be seen as or equated with ignorance
But with the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen
Those who burnt, those still aflamed and the countless unnamed
We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun
We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us
We are determining the future at this very moment
We now know that the heart is the philosophers’ stone
Our music is our alchemy, we stand as the manifested
Equivalent of three buckets of water and a hand full of minerals
Thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down
Supply the percussion factor of forever, if you must count
To keep the beat then count
Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious
Curve you circles counterclockwise, use your cipher to decipher
Coded Language, man made laws, climb waterfalls and trees
Commune with nature, snakes and bees let your children
Name themselves and claim themselves as the new day, for today
We are determined to be the channelers of these changing
Frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama
Photography, carpentry, crafts, love and love, we enlist every instrument
Acoustic, electronic every so called race, gender and sexual preference
Every person as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility
To uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain

Lyrics by Saul Williams

Firstly, you need to decide what kind of business will motivate you enough to want to start. Do you want to work from home? Do you want to have employees? Do you want a web-based only business? Do you want to have a shop? How much investment is needed and will I be able to raise the funds? I believe it’s vitally important to establish a business model that suits your personality otherwise you will find yourself constantly having to do things that you just do not enjoy. Personally, I knew that I wanted to run a web-based business that I could run on my own from home in my spare time with an investment of £5000 (which I new I could raise relatively easily). I had a full-time job Monday to Friday and needed to find something which I could set up and run without having to leave my job. This was important for me as I did not want the added pressure of having to replace my lost salary.

Secondly, you need to find a product or service that you can supply with confidence. Think about all the experience & skills you have gained throughout your life and how you might be able to use them. I had some knowledge of Photoshop and my wife was a keen artist and so we decided to pool our skills together to create digital art. Initially we were planning on setting up a website selling art prints, however, we soon realised that the designs would look great on t-shirts, and so our business was born. Setting up an online t-shirt business fitted all the criteria for the type of business I wanted.

At this point, it’s time to write down your plan:
Create 20 pieces of digital art
Research t-shirt printing techniques and any special requirements for artwork
Find at least 5 t-shirt wholesalers
Find at least 5 t-shirt printers
Learn how to build a website
Borrow money if needed (personal loan and/or credit card)

The next 6 months was spent putting together a collection of art, researching all the points in my plan and learning how to build a website. All of this was done from the comfort of my armchair, however, do not under estimate the amount of work involved during this stage. Learning how to build the website was by far the most difficult aspect, however, not only did I save myself a few thousand pounds but I also learnt a great deal about internet marketing and how I should go about promoting my website. Many people I know spend a huge chunk of their business budget on building a website only to discover they have no visitors and no idea how to get any. For anyone planning on setting up an online shop I would definitely recommend investing your time into learning how to do it yourself. Start off by visiting the w3 schools website and reading through all the tutorials on HTML, once you have a good understanding of basic web page building and jargon I recommend spending $49 on the Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer software. This is what I did and I think you will agree that my website is pretty cool for a first effort! During this time I read and researched everything I could find online regarding building and promoting websites in order to help me develop my site correctly. I purchased my domain name from 123-reg and used Zen Internet for my hosting for £50 per year. Once the basic format of my website was built I then had to incorporate a shopping cart into it and for this I used the free version of Mals Ecommerce together with Moneybookers credit card processing facility, again free to set up. Finally, I wanted to add a blog to my site and for this I used WordPress which I installed through the admin panel (cPanel) of my hosting company Zen. Just to recap, I have built my entire site using only the services and software mentioned above, all for under £100.

During the latter stages of building my website, I began to contact t-shirt wholesalers and made appointments to visit their showrooms in order to choose the garments I would use to print my designs on. At this point we had about 40 pieces of artwork and narrowed this number down to 20 based on which ones we felt worked best as a collection. These designs were emailed to a selection of t-shirt printers to get a quote for the job based on different quantities. This stage was actually one of the hardest because of all the different variables – print size, print method, colour of print & colour of t-shirt to be printed on. Once you receive your printed t-shirts you need to photograph them all and add them to your website and you’re open for business!

Good luck.