Just wanted to rerelease this old project, which is the first in my ThisIsRealLife series (Outlanders is the follow up), for those who have not heard of it yet. As I've said, this is sorta old so the quality somewhat sucks but I still think it's enjoyable. I want to also apologize for the tags that say GOODGuardian on there. That was the alias I was going by at the time I released the album but I am still JTBS!

Concept Behind The Album
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Honestly, I was not planning to put the album out this year. I had just finished co-releasing Journey with fellow producer, BlackTri4orce and I was planning on working on more collaborative projects with other producers while simultaneously working on the album. At first, working on multiple projects was easy, I found myself putting more time into the album. I contacted the other producers and asked them if I could push the projects back so I could work on the album and fortunately, they agreed. Creating the concept for the album was very difficult. I knew that I could have done anything I wanted with this album and I knew deep in my heart after hearing projects like good kid, m.A.A.d city and The Good Fight, I knew that I wanted to do a reflection album. The plan for the album was to do it around samples that could convey the emotions I was going for. One day however, I received a phone call from a close friend, Elijah Lopez, also known as Loungecat from Coffee House Music. I will never forget that call. We conversed about a ton of life things including schools, women (not in that kind of way just….in general) and finally we talked about my album. I told him of my plans and he told me immediately after that instead of releasing it in 2014, I should release it this year and I should make the whole album original. My first instinctive reaction was WHAT?!?!? And I thought to myself, could I really do something like that because while I do original beats all the time, I have never done a project with all original beats before (all my projects are half sampled beats and half original beats). I honestly almost gave up because the tracks weren't living up to my expectations. But after a while and with some inspiration, dedication, and a whole lot of patience, I was able to finish the album using all ORIGINAL beats. In short, I am really proud of the final product.

Album Meaning
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EarthlyTemptations? The story behind the album is me dealing with my struggles with being a Christian, and dealing with self-pleasure. This issue has been following me since June of 2012 and I am ashamed to say that I still indulge in self-pleasure. I am not blaming self-pleasure on all my issues but I began to create stressful situations for myself and slowly I attempted to destroy good relationships I had with family, friends, and most importantly, god. As a Christian, even though the bible explains nothing about it, it still feels very wrong to me and my will power is seriously low in that area. It also stings that even though I have a bible, I do more other things besides reading it and that just sucks to me. Feeling miserable, I decided to turn to music to release my feelings and so this second album was created. I can say that all of the tracks are reflective tracks based on how I felt during the production of that track. After the production for the album was completed, I felt a lot better but I can't say that all my problems are gone so I hope that you pray for me in the future guys!

Tracks Meaning
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All of these tracks tie in together and I will try to explain in depth what they mean.

1. Feeling Far From God (Intro) – The intro track and probably one of the saddest to me. It’s very…..atmospheric but when creating this track, I really felt lost that day and in turn, it created negative emotions and negative attitudes. At the end of the day, I felt closure after creating this track and I ended up happy because it conveyed the feelings I was going for.

2. All Cause Of This (Sexual Feelings) – Like I said before, I am not blaming self-pleasure for the result of my actions. It’s just whenever I do it, I do feel disconnected from all of things and tend to feel guilty that, as a Christian, I am doing these sort of things so I tend to blame it on those sexual feelings.

3. Separation (From Everything Good) feat. SCT – Track is self-explanatory.

4. I Begin To Ponder – This track is one of the more positive tracks on the album and the percussions are taken from the song Hollywood Divorce (credit to Outkast) and it’s one of my favorites despite its simplicity. It made me think of all the time I spent doing worthless things instead of doing what is best for me, you know?

5. I Need Some Prayer - Track is self-explanatory. After thinking for a while, I came to the conclusion that I really needed some prayer. For some reason, I stopped doing it and it is something that I have lived to regret, believe me.

6. Still Feelin' Lost (Haven't Opened My Bible In A While) – This track goes along with track one. At the end of each day after making this, I keep regretting wrong decisions I have made in the past and still up unto this day. It’s just….hard calling myself a Christian when I sure don’t act like it.

7. Feeling Weak in My Soul (Lord Please Help Me) feat. Grizzly F.O.G. – Created a track when I took my self-pleasure too far and began to break down mentally. At that point, It became a lot harder for me to function normally. When I say break down mentally, I was mean I was becoming more aggressive and filled with regret with each passing day. My head would be filled with all sorts of negativity. Nothing that had to do with suicide but at that point, people had started calling me a monster.

8. Still Feelin' Lost Pt.2 (Regrets) – Haha, you might say I went for a Nujabes vibe with this track but it pretty much goes along with tracks six and one.

9. Counting The Blessings - Another one of my favorites because at times, you really just have to look at what you have as opposed to what you don’t have. It might be little but it is a lot better of nothing. Trust me.

10. Hope in A Dark Place – Similar to track one but this is more positive. Why? I once heard Kendrick Lamar say that he kept a positive attitude in a negative environment and that is something that has stuck with me ever since. I believe that being positive inspires others to be positive like you, you know?

11. No Place For Being Negative – Look at track ten. The title is self-explanatory.

12. The Experience (Outro) feat. @ThatGuyBT4 – My FAVORITE TRACK on the album. Why? Because it is the one that sums up my life the best. This whole growing up and dealing with issues was an experience. It was not fun at all mind you, but I am grateful to have pretty much put my past behind me and look towards the future and get this album finished.