So during this night, unlike most nights, there were some beats. And there were meetings. And these beats and meetings have really become the lifeblood of my stay here in Cambridge, Massachussetts. The landlord (AKA descendant of Confucius) told me something recently. He said that when your life becomes busy, it is essential to select your time commitments based on what kind of return you get out of them (for both yourself and the community). He said to ask yourself if these commitments are draining your life force or supporting it? Despite the setbacks, I can honestly say that East Meets Beats really supports my life force and provides me with incommensurate returns, and I hope I can say the same for all the family who are involved in it. Not only have I met really close and supportive friends from it, but I have been able to share and listen to inspiring creative material in a supportive and intimate setting. Community. It’s all about community. I really hope to build a community of dope producers and musicians and listeners and just simply people which flourishes by bringing its members up as opposed to trying to compete with them. Straying away from the egos and the bullshit of the market based music scene, I want East Meets Beats to be a safe haven for people to grow in the most supportive way possible. In all honesty, I never expected East Meets Beats to come this far, but the most recent event in February was the 6th installment for the EMB community. Even though we reinstated the strict guest list for the event, all the fam came out to show support and love. 934 Mass ave. has been known to emanate some crazy creative energy from time to time, but this night was really something special. I spent the majority of the night walking around different ciphers and breaking circles amongst a luscious backdrop of aural rhythms. We were blessed with some EMB residents (Kaanerbay and Tide eye, also shouts to the homie Will AKA Tone Ra for killin it in general even though he didn’t play), some newcomers AKA The Canteen Killa (murked it), old homie and associate holm. (aka yung thatcher who took a bus from NY), the homie and beatboxer extraordinaire Gene Shinozaki (peep his videos if you haven’t seen them, they will blow your mind), and the big homie and mentor from back in San Diego Mike Gao on HW&W records (dude is a genius, taught me everything I know on ableton). We were even lucky enough to have youtube star Jeni Suk come through and hang with us. Vibes were real, as they will continue to be in the future if yall come and help build community with us (if you like beats and community that was a formal invitation, find me on facebook: Scooter Oyama and I will add you to the group).