2015. Without a doubt, this year will forever hold special significance to me. Apart from my personal life activities, we saw a lot. We saw water on mars being discovered, Adele returning to the spotlight, and Star Wars mania return. While there were many positive topics, this year seemed to be weighed down with many sad topics too. From the tragic shootings in Paris to the Syrian refugee crisis to all the gun violence in America, there was a lot. It’s been quite the eventful year for real.
I know I’m writing my 2015 Year in Review, but it still hasn’t hit me that the year is almost over and we’re almost in 2016. Well, in the following column, I’ll revisit my own personal 2015 and touch on all the highlights. As I mentioned above, this year holds special significance and I’ll get into that. 2015 has been a year of years. So here it goes…my 2015 Year in Review.
Highlights
“Broken Dreams” released – From a music perspective, the biggest thing that happened this year was when I released the single for “Broken Dreams.” This song was a longgggg time coming. After getting it mixed several times, I got it mastered a bunch too before I was finally happy with it. While all the work did make it worthwhile, the subject matter truly made the song for me. “Broken Dreams” touched on a variety of topics including my career, love, and family. I really opened up on this one. And with an Anais H. collabo and literary contributions from Oddeo, I had a great time with this one. The video should be coming in 2016 but for now, take a listen (or re-listen) to the song below.
Visited Istanbul – While 2014 saw me traveling allllll throughout Europe, 2015 saw me return to visit Istanbul, Turkey. I spent a few days there where I checked out the local tourist spots and embraced the culture there. It was quite krazy honestly because it reminded me a lot of India. How? Well, I had people tryna sell me stolen books and a taxi driver tryna hustle me out of like $60. Lol stuff like that. While I did experience some of that, I also had the opp to visit some of the most amazing mosques ever while I was there. From the Blue Mosque to the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul had some gorgeous sights. Not sure if I’d go again though, especially with all that’s going on there right now, but who knows what the future has in store.
Drawlloween 2015 – Ah yes, Drawlloween. So for anyone that knows me…like REALLY knows me…they’ll know my first passion is drawing (yes, even before music). Ever since I’ve been a kid, I’ve always loved drawing. However, somewhere along the way I stopped drawing. Maybe it was music. Maybe it was the busyness of life. Maybe it was both? All I know is, it sucks that I stopped drawing and I always used to tell myself that I wanna get back into it. Well this past September, I came across “Drawlloween 2015”, which is basically a drawing thing on social media where artists draw 31 things (all Halloween-related) for the month of October. I thought that would be the perfect opp to get back into drawing. Well, it took me two months to complete what should’ve been done in one but I made it. And, I felt SUPER accomplished that I was able to get back into drawing this year. If you’d like to check out my drawings, head on over to my Instagram page.
Got Engaged – If there was ONE significant event in 2015 for me though, this was it. I got engaged. I mean bro…I got engaged lol. This needs no explanation because anyone can tell you know how monumental an event like this is…but I want to elaborate just a bit. I did also talk about this in the July 2015 Opinions Column and if you’ve kept up with these year in reviews, I’ve talked MANY times about how the marriage question kept coming up (as any Indian person can relate to lol). For me though, getting engaged was more than the moment itself…it was about the journey I took to get here too. The journey has been very long and very tiresome and far from pretty. There’s been heartbreaks, arguments, and drama throughout my love life. There were many tumultuous times. However, I overcame all that and here I am, standing. And not JUST standing, but standing strong. It’s true, sometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven. And I’m really happy that I’m here.
Favorite Music
I had to talk about this. While I felt that 2014 was just oooook with music, 2015 had some fantastic releases. I mean, this was such a strong year for hip hop.
So what were some of my favorite releases, you ask? Well, one of my favs was Logic’s “The Incredible True Story.” Man, this album was just so good. From the beats to the lyrics to the freshness of it, it just felt right. My only criticism is that he may have borrowed his style a bit from other popular artists, but it’s a small criticism. Overall, it’s a great release. I also really enjoyed Kendrick’s “To Pimp a Butterfly“, the highly anticipated follow-up album from GKMD. While I heard a lot of criticism about this, I always felt the album sounds best when you listen to it as a collective whole instead of just the singles. Dre’s “Compton” was also a very strong release that had me back on my west coast shit haha. I did hear the Kendrick “influence” on this album, but if you can get past that it’s a dope CD. And one more of my favs from 2015 was Ludacris’s “Ludaversal.” I’ve never really loved a Luda CD but man this one was so good. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.
I’ve got a lot more albums I jammed to this year, but those are some of my favorites. Anything I missed that I should’ve mentioned? Hit me in the comment section below and let me know!
The Wrap Up
So looking back, 2015 was a fantastic year and I can’t help but feel blessed. I mean c’mon, I got engaged, I traveled more, and I released a new song too. Talk about living the life, right? Well…
While there were a ton of highlights for 2015, I still can’t help but feel I could’ve done more this year. In comparison to 2014, I didn’t do nearly enough musically. In fact, with the exception of “Broken Dreams” releasing, this year has been relatively quiet for Ajaxxx. I had set out a goal of doing four videos a year and I didn’t do one. How’d that happen, right? I guess life’s priorities pulled me in another direction. Additionally, I have become a bit disheartened with hiphop and how wack some of it has gotten. But when I see artists like Logic, Royce da 5’9″, and J. Cole dropping solid music throughout the year, it encourages me again.
I mentioned a lot of things in last year’s Year in Review that I didn’t get to this year. For example, I didn’t release my album this year. I know I’ve been talking about releasing “Something to Prove” for years now, and with another year passing by it kills me. The fact that I haven’t been recording is part of it. The other thing is I still haven’t figured out HOW to get my mic set up (I’ve tried a bunch of things). Regardless of all that though, the bottom line is the album still isn’t out and that’s just unacceptable. I wanna say next year it’s coming out, but I know 2016 is gonna be mad busy. However, I’m gonna push for it because I’m determined more than ever. So here we go…
On the personal life front, the engagement was by far the biggest single moment of 2015. And following the engagement, this year has been ruled by wedding planning lol. Where’s the thug in you, Jaxxx? Just where is it? Haha. I mean, it’s all good. It’s been a cool process so far and I am blessed to be doing this. It has been busy though and it has pulled me in a direction where it’s hard to do stuff (like play my fancy Nintendo system just sitting there) but like I said, it’s cool. It helps to expand my horizons and broaden my knowledge on stuff. Everything is a learning process and something to be embraced.
So yes, the year has been good but it also could’ve been better. I aim to do a lot and when I don’t check off every box it gets to me. But I’m sayin, gotta shoot for the stars, right?
What’s Next?
2016 is gonna be one of the most significant years of my life. For starters, I’m getting married. Say whaaaaaat! Lol yup, 2016 is the year I’m taking the plunge. That’s why I said earlier that next year is already shaping up to be mad busy. I’m gonna try to balance it all though. Good luck to me.
On the music front, I’m planning to get my mic back up next year so I can do at least one new rhyme every month. I was also playing around with the idea of bringing back my freestyle videos but I’m not sure yet…I need to test out my camera for that. If I did bring it back, I’d like to do something different and more interesting than the videos I did in 2014. All I know is, I wanna get more active. Music really fulfills this void inside my soul and being away from it for too long is torture. While that sounds a bit dramatic, it does hold truth. I need it. And for me, it keeps my life interesting and my mind challenged.
I’ve reached out to two directors so far about shooting new videos, which’ll probably happen in the new year. So yea, I’d also like to shoot more visuals to some of the music I have. I still have plans to shoot the video for “Broken Dreams” (which should’ve dropped in like 2014) but it’s all good. It’s back on my radar and I’ll be working on it next year.
And of course, there’s “Something to Prove.” More than ever, I really want to release the album. It’s starting to feel like Detox now and that shouldn’t be the case. I’ve already got a lot of the songs recorded and once I get the mic back up the rest of them will get knocked out. Of course I’ll revisit it to make sure it sounds current, but it needs to happen no matter what. So that’s my goal for the new year too…finish the album.
In addition to those things, I still want to tackle new things in an effort to develop my skills. I want to video edit more and I want to web design more. I’m comfortable with both but I want to get better. I believe stagnation, especially in today’s day and age, is dangerous. You gotta stay current if you wanna stay relevant. Not just that, it’s good for you. I’m also gonna get into music production and engineering too. I’ve mentioned this before, but when I’m relying on others for things, the process takes a painstakingly long time. And more often than not, the engineers I work with don’t wanna go the extra mile or put in the time that I put in. So I’m sayin, that’s also on the agenda for 2016.
Between alllll those things, I’m not sure if I’ll have time for anything else but I’ll try. I’m gonna get back into the gym, revisit my language lessons, and maybe I’ll do Drawlloween 2016 too haha. I realize that there’s a lot I just said, but in the words of the homey J. Cole: “If you ain’t aim too high, then you aim too low.” That’s real.
And that’ll do it for me, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for reading and for keeping up with Ajaxxx. Have a safe and happy holiday and a happy new year as well! See y’all in the 2016!!!
