The Fam Moves...

Ahhh Blogger. Can we talk? Yeah, it won't take long. You've been real good to us. But it's time to move on.

Hey Wordpress. What up? You lookin' fine, yo. Can I holla?

Take a look at the all new TheMovementFam.com...and it's a wrap for this site, there won't be any more posts so please roll to the all new Wordpress site for all the TMF goodness.



The Fam Moves - an original online reality series featuring The Movement Fam and friends, coming very soon...

Fading Hour featuring The Movement Fam - Celestine (Remix) LIVE @ The Evelyn Hotel

Fading Hour are a prog rock band out of Melbourne, and their drummer, Chris Ferre, often rocks with us when we play live.

One of their tracks, 'Celestine', from their debut EP 'Beyond The Void', was so dope that myself, Notion and Bekah just had to jump on it. We recorded it at Wiseguy Studios, and this video was the first time we all performed it live. This was at the Evelyn Hotel on Saturday May 8th 2010.

Peep game...

The Movement Fam LIVE @ The Evelyn Hotel free mixtape

For those of y'all who have signed up to The Movement Fam eNewsletter (take a look to your right to get on that), y'all should already have downloaded the exclusive pre-release for our live mixtape, which we recorded at The Evelyn Hotel back in March. And now we're finally droppin' this thang.

This gig was our first live set in over a year, so it was a solid return to the stage for the whole Fam, and we decided to record it; and I'm really glad we did. We're truly happy with this project, expertly EQ'd by Notion, as it's a great reflection of where we're at musically right now, plus it's extra poignant as myself, Bekah and Notion are about to shoot off to Canada so this line up may not happen for a while after our goodbye gig.

So head on over to the new The Movement Fam Bandcamp page (shouts to Iyae for the dope header image) and cop the tape, as well as our older crew mixtapes such as The Valentine's Day series, our Kevin Nottingham Remix album and more.


Download The Movement Fam LIVE @ The Evelyn Hotel

Model Feature - Shushila Takao

Oh we back! Our model grind has been a bit more vicious of late, as we gear up for the re-launch of TheMovementFam.com with a brand new layout, artist pages, and all that good stuff.

So as per how most of my model discoveries happen, I was trawling Facebook at work (it's kinda part of my job lol) and I stumbled upon one of the loveliest young ladies I've seen in a while, Miss Shushila Takao. I was pretty much immediately struck by her natural beauty, and the more photos I saw of her, the more this was confirmed. I think I developed a bit of a crush lol.

So, loyal TheMovementFam.com readers, it's my pleasure to present this young lady, who is well spoken, driven and extraordinarily smokin' (check her background). Y'all definitely gonna need to check out her websites...



Cee: Whatʼs your name?
Shushila: Shushila Takao aka Shii.

Cee: Where are you from?
Shushila: New Zealand, Christchurch & Nelson, but I'm French, Maori (Native New Zealand), and Indian.

Cee: How many years have you been modeling?
Shushila: I've been modeling/performing about 9 years, I was the youngest model/performer in the Adults section for an internationally known event called the World of Wearable arts (WOW), and just picked up from there.



Cee: What are the misconceptions people commonly have about models that are untrue?
Shushila: We don't eat? untrue, I love food!! I'm not fussy and I'm not high maintenance. I'm very down to earth.

Cee: What shows, videos, magazines, etc. have you been featured in?
Shushila: Remix magazine, Images Mag, Wild Tomato various issues, World of Wearable arts shows, NZ stamps & magazines. NZ Nature catalogue, Germany Vox TV.



Cee: What photographers have you worked with?
Shushila: Bob Reid of California, Daniel Allen of the UK, Glenn Bisdee, Sterling images, Angela Henderson of Auckland NZ and other NZ Photographers.

Cee: What photographers would you like to work with?
Shushila:Maya Guez WWW.MAYAGUEZPHOTO.COM.



Cee: Can you describe the grind of a model trying to break into the industry?
Shushila: Persistence, resilience, perseverance, determination, focus and humility.

Cee: Any words for the ladies out there that have aspirations of entering the modeling industry?
Shushila: If it's what you want then go for it, but place nice too, it can be very competitive, there's no need to step on others to get where you wanna be. stay true to yourself, and be careful.



Cee: What's your plans from here?
Shushila: I get asked that a lot, people wanna see me grow and I love that support, at the moment I'm doing make-up for photoshoots and video clips as well as modelling. I would love to be the fresh face of the entertainment industry. The leading lady in Will Smith's next film, and feature in some of the hottest R&B music video clips...

Cee: Hit us with your contact details for folks who want to see more!
Shushila: http://www.modelmayhem.com/1034750, www.new-shiiland.weebly.com <--- this is more helpful.

Model Feature - Jenafer Lynn Williams

It's been a minute since our last model feature. My apologies, we been slackin'.

This is the first time we've ever invited a model back for a second chat and a fresh bunch of pics; so Miss Jena is a special one. Our favourite American residing Down Under stopped by for another chat, and delivered a brand new smokin' set of flicks exclusively for the readers of TheMovementFam.com...

Cee: Hey Jena, it's been over a year since we saw you last. What's been happening?
Jena: Still in Australia..(sigh)!

Cee: What sort of shoots have you been doing recently?
Jena: Alot of lingerie work...soon to be moving into swimwear, I hope, if I can stay in shape.



Cee: Have you managed to work with any of the photographers you mentioned last time?
Jena: I doubt that would ever happen, this is just a paycheck for me, nothing more.

Cee: You were doing yoga and lingerie modelling, have you been doing much of that? Are you still enjoying that line of work?
Jena: Still doing all of that, that's the only thing I do enjoy doing. Lingerie is fun! And I keep all of it, for all you single men...



Cee: Tell us about the new photos we have here.
Jena: It's just a mix of my favorites. All genres. But I will let you in on a secret that I will be doing a very well known American Mag that most of you wouldn't think I would do...an AUS version..but still the same mag. You are in for a bare all treat :D

Cee: Have you had any memorable experiences with your modelling in the past year?
Jena: Recently doing my 2nd shoot with Zoo...always a blast with their crew. Memorable almost baring all in front of everyone!



Cee: I heard word that you might be trying out for the Dallas Desire in the Lingerie Football League...
Jena: ha ha ha..did you? Well, I do plan on trying out and that's all I can do. Would you come watch me? I would surely NOT play nice!

Cee: So you're an American model living in Australia. Has the experience out here been different from your experiences at home?
Jena: Besides everyone hating me, and the slang...not really. I love Australia but I am ready to be home. I miss the gentlemen.



Cee: You're heading back to the US later this year; do you plan to continue the modelling?
Jena: I don't think so. Unless I need money. I want to focus on my charity work.

Cee: What's next for you?
Jena: A year volunteering in Tanzania..I hope!



Cee: You're the first model we've had back for a second time around, so thank you! :)
Jena: WOW..I don't know who to thank..LOL. Anything for the Movement Fam. I love you guys. xx

Interview with Cee on MissCoca.com

Social media enthusiasts may well be familiar with www.MissCoca.com, a relatively new marketing, fashion, pop culture, lifestyle, beauty and social media blog that is really making some waves on the interwebs.

So Lauren Ridgway, the founder of www.MissCoca.com, kindly contacted me to make me the May interviewee for 'Stars in the Blogosphere', which was the first interview I'd ever done that wasn't exclusively about music; it was more Craig than Cee. And it was really refreshing, and fun, to put more of me out there than my music persona.

So check out the interview, and while you're there, take a squizz around the blog. Folks in Melbourne and Sydney will love the weekly JobOps post, which is getting crazy hits.

On behalf of TheMovementFam.com, and of course myself, I'd like to warmly thank Lauren for the great interview and kind words. Check it out, folks!

D2S - All Day (video throwback)

HUGE shouts to the big homie Kebrasca (the dude with the vest and the hair in the above video) for hitting me with this one.

My dude was in a group called D2S back in New Zealand, and this joint, 'All Day', was released in 2002. These cats were pretty big over there - mad gigs, support slots, radio/TV appearances, video rotations, the works. Brasca hit me with this today, so I thought I'd share it with y'all.

My man will be appearing on a bunch of Movement Fam projects coming up, including Notion's forthcoming mixtape 'On The Corner of Notion & 9th: A Tribute To 9th Wonder' - we're releasing the sponsors for this shortly, so stay tuned!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 7

So here's the final video from The Movement Fam's set the other weekend at Evelyn. This is the first time we'd performed 'Scream At Ya Muhhfuckin' at the end of a set, and it went down amazingly well, so I reckon we'll keep rockin' it to end on a high...

Melbourne heads, just a reminder, hit us up for tickets to our next gig on April 23rd at Espy Gershwin Room, supporting the Impregnito EP Launch! Should be HUGE!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 6

Second last video - this one is from the kid Notion, featuring the big homie Whisper on 'New Wave' (from 'World Domi-NoTiOn'). Always a high energy joint and a crowd fave.

Oh and just so y'all know, The Movement Fam has a gig coming up supporting soul/funk group Impregnito's EP launch on Friday 23rd April at the Espy Gershwin Room. Get down there!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 5

Next up...Mr. Tommy Gunnz' solo moment, crowd favourite 'Cop Yourself Some Gunnz'. This joint always goes down well live, so we're itching for dude to murk out his mixtape, 'Garden State Warrior'. Peep!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 4

I'ma keep the videos dribbling in over the long weekend to give y'all something to look forward to :)

This joint is a BANGER we recently did with the homie Theology3 (Toronto, Canada), with Hustle Beats on production. You can download 'Livin' This Life' right now FREE!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 3

So we got even more for ya. These two are some of my favourite tracks from our recent projects. First up is 'The Last Hope' off 'The Soul Movement Vol 3', and the second is 'My Crew', which originally featured on 'World Domi-NoTiOn' but the version with Tommy Gunnz will be on Tommy's 'Garden State Warrior'. Peep!

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 2

Aight, so here's the next installment of The Movement Fam show from Saturday night. This time we're rockin' out to Notion's 'Set Me Free' with Bekah from his 'World Domi-NoTiOn' mixtape, along with Cee & Bekah's single 'Ain't No Mountain' and 'See It Through', both off 'The Soul Movement Volume 3: The Final Chapter'.

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 1

So this weekend was pretty damn hectic for The Fam. We did our first show in over a year - yeah, I know. Fucked up, right? We much preferred to stay in the studio and work on the 10+ projects we have going, however we realised just how overdue we were coz damn near every other day people kept asking when they could catch us live. So the homie Adam King from You 'n UR Music hit us up to rock at their single launch and it was a wrap!

The show was incredible. I haven't seen the Evelyn that packed in ages, and I was genuinely surprised and grateful for the love we were shown. I think it showed in our performance, as we're all a lot more confident of our music, so even though we were a tad rusty with our stage game, it didn't really seem that way.

So, the homegirl Bianca videoed the gig for us fantastically, and I'ma post a couple videos each day for the rest of the week. Check out the vids below, with the intro, Notion's 'Enter My World' and Cee & Bekah's 'Save Myself' with Tommy Gunnz. Go!

The Movement Fam 'Seasons Change' Studio Session

In case y'all missed this video when we posted the HiPNOTT Records 2010 Takeover Mixtape Vol. 2, check the video of The Movement Fam (Cee & Bekah, Tommy Gunnz and Notion) recording their joint @ Wiseguy Studios for the tape, 'Seasons Change', over a soulful ass beat courtesy of the homie G.C.

Movin' Up From Down Under Loud.com Blog #8

Aaaaaand here's the final blog I wrote in the Movin' Up From Down Under series...



Week #8: The Mix

There’s nothing better than the feeling of ‘accomplishment’. Well, maybe there are ‘better’ feelings but it’s pretty damn good, you gotta admit. We were starting to feel like we’d accomplished something just by booking flights for the trip and locking in a bunch of meetings, radio spots and other various musical activities. But in reality, we’d barely started.

So the flights were booked. Accommodation was in the process of being booked. We’d locked in radio spots and stuff. Sweet. This sorta thing would be easy from now on, as it’s just more of a maintenance process, constantly adding to the framework that we’d set up – more meetings, more radio, more everything. Now that we have our dates, we’re good to go.

The one thing that this trip was based on, though, was to promote our latest mixtapes – Notion’s ‘World Domi-NoTiOn’ and Cee & Bekah’s ‘The Soul Movement Volume 2’ – and the fact that The Movement Fam was officially a crew. It was like our ‘coming out’ party. Pause. So around the time we decided to do this whole trip thing, we had both mixtapes in various states of completion. None of the tracks were mixed, we had no DJ’s confirmed to blend the songs, no artwork, Notion had no logo, and we still had a bunch of songs that needed finishing. For folks that work full time, and are trying to plan a trip, that is a huge amount of work to get through in the space of a few months.

Notion is the engineer of the crew. He doesn’t even really like that term much just yet, as he’s still technically only learning. He’s killin’ it, but. At the time of arranging the trip, he was working nightshift four nights a week. This in itself was insane, as generally nightshifts are split up so as not to make you go crazy. He was originally doing five nights a week but cut back, which was a great move. So he’d work Sunday night through Wednesday night, with Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. The catch was he had to convert back to day time hours in those three days, then get back to staying up all night by Sunday. Definitely not good for the body.

So while we were all spending every spare moment writing and recording and finalising all the songs for the pool to select from, Notion had to fit in the mixing of every damn song. In total, he mixed well over fifty songs (which took on average three hours per song initially, and then the changes would average an hour or so per song) in the space of two months. I had us on a tight schedule – as I knew we had so many other things to arrange, we couldn’t afford for the music not to be ready. Dude was sitting on like four hours sleep a night for a while there. Poor bastard.

The mixtape stuff turned out great in the end, but damn it was close. Australia’s only platinum DJ, Nino Brown, kept his agreement with us from the year before to still mix our mixtape, which was a blessing as he did a great job and it was dope to attach his name to our project. The kid DJ Crusador, a DMC finalist, came through in the clutch to mix Notion’s project, and he killed it. The artwork was the problem. The homie who does our artwork is in the UK (haha we worldwide, baby!), so that was difficult to arrange. We had many a long night on MSN finalising every small detail of the cover art and logo, which got changed a gang of times.

Because we pushed it right to the last minute, we weren’t able to press up a full run of mixtapes for the trip – we ended up doing 100 of each with an ‘Exclusive International Edition’ stamp on them to make ‘em something special just for this trip. That worked out pretty dope. But the stress was constant from June until September. Something always went wrong. People always bailed on us. It was a headfuck. Sometimes we felt it would all fall apart. But I think we’re the kind of folks who push things to the last minute and end up coming through with the goods.

The whole preparation stage was an amazing learning experience. I can only imagine what it would be like arranging a huge tour. Fuck that lol. But what came out of it was I solidified my networking skills and am now confident that I know what I’m doing. I know that the Fam can work to deadlines, and that I can rely on the people in my crew to make things happen – they’re as hungry for this as I am, which is one of the most reassuring feelings you can have in this business.

Next up, the trip…

Plug of the week: Gotta shout out our blog, www.TheMovementFam.com. It only really got started in early December, and already it’s killing the Cee & Bekah blog, which we never really pushed but utilised as an information source for The Fam since 2007. It’s got a bit of everything – stuff about The Fam, music in general, comedy, videos, fashion, sport, models…whatever you want!

So until next time, listen to Jazmine Sullivan. One of my Top 10 albums of 2008 (check the ‘Best of 2008’ post on www.TheMovementFam.com blog). It’ll change your life.

Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.

Movin' Up From Down Under Loud.com Blog #7

We took a bit of a pause from the Loud blogs lately...bringing it back...second last one I wrote too...

Week #7: Locking It In

Things were looking pretty good. We’d heard back from most folks that our contacts put us in touch with by mid to late June, and already we’d locked in a mainstream radio spot in Seattle; College radio, hair braiding session and a photo shoot in Toronto; a podcast and recording session in Oakland; a session with a bass player and an MC (Jermiside from the Lessondary Crew) in Atlanta; possible radio and shows in Denver; possible shows and studio sessions in Minneapolis; possible shows in Jacksonville; and a meeting with Eternia and an influential gentleman in New York (who happened to get us this very blog). We were vibed.

Now that we had enough information to start booking the trip, we skedaddled off to the travel agent to lock this bitch down. We knew that the earlier we booked our flights, the cheaper it would be, but it was hard because we didn’t know where we were going until we had confirmation from enough folks – and even then, some of the confirmations were sketchy at best.

So we rocked up to the travel agent all excited. Here’s how it went down (dramatic license, of course, has been taken):

Travel Agent: So, where do you guys wanna go?
Cee: Um, pretty much San Francisco, LA, Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, maybe Denver, maybe Jacksonville, maybe Miami. I think.
Travel Agent: Ooookay. Do you know how long you need to be in each city and the dates you want to go there?
Cee: Not really.
Travel Agent: Riiiight.

I think she wasn’t too pleased to have our custom that day. But I gotta shout her out, she was great. It came down to this: in order to get cheaper flights, we had to lock something in soon. And if we went to too many cities, the trip would be stupid rushed and the internal flights would cost a fortune. Plus, we only had five weeks in total, instead of the original six, as Bekah’s work were being assholes and refused to give her the extra time off. So we had to make a call. We ended up cutting Denver as it would have taken a lot more work to arrange shows; we cut Jacksonville as the city is so small, we’d be smarter to concentrate our energy elsewhere; same deal with Minneapolis; and we hadn’t hooked anything up in Miami as yet so that one was reluctantly let go.

Even though it was tough, we now had a basic itinerary. Boom. As long as we had tentative dates locked in, we were good. So long story short, after a bit of shuffling around and triple and quadruple confirmations, we managed to book all the flights. The only thing was if we were going to change a single flight, it would cost us hundreds of dollars. So if shit fell through, we were going anyway. Such is the wonderful ways of the international – and US domestic - airline restrictions. And I realised after that the flight from ATL to NY was on a small ass plane – I don’t fucks with small planes. We wanted to change it; we couldn’t without paying. I said we’d get a Delta flight instead and just miss the original flight, but if we did that, the rest of the onward flights would be cancelled as it was part of the package. Goddamnit.

But once we had the tickets in our hands, we were truly excited. This was real; it was actually happening. It felt like a dream, as I had literally had dreams of being in Canada quite often since being back in Melbourne, and going back overseas – this time, strictly for music – was a sign that we’d been working hard enough to get to this level. And not only were we doing this, we were doing it all off our own back. One hundred percent independent. Man, we were proud as hell.

Bekah and I spent the next couple months slowly booking accommodation whenever we were bored at work and wanted to handle biz (I don’t work where I did at the time of planning the trip so I can say it lol), with the assistance of DJ Grain in the ATL sector. So things were looking good…

Plug of the week: The kid Steve Duck at GroundUpHipHop.com has supported The Fam since the jump, lacing the artwork for ‘The Soul Movement Volume 1’ and even doing the Cee & Bekah logo. He hooked us up with a lil download section on GroundUp for our latest projects:

Notion – World Domi-NoTiOn (http://www.grounduphiphop.com/2008/09/14/notion-world-domi-notion-mixtape/)
Cee & Bekah – The Soul Movement Volume 2 (http://www.planeturban.com.au/download_mixtapes/cee_and_bekah_soul_movement_vol_2)

So until next time, listen to Esthero. She’s a trip. It’s like Portishead, Stephanie McKay and Jill Scott had a lovechild that was reared on Nine Inch Nails and copious amounts of marijuana. It’s good.

Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.

The Movement Fam on Twitter!

That's right, folks, The Movement Fam has it's own Twitter page. Finally. The rest of the crew done been had one, so the overall crew might as well too.

Follow The Movement Fam on Twitter!

We'll keep you updated on new blog posts, movements within the crew, projects, releases, news...everything!

HiPNOTT RECORDS 2010 TAKEOVER VOLUME 2 MIXTAPE‏

Oh yes!! We made it! Check Volume 2 of the highly acclaimed HiPNOTT Records Takeover 2010 mixtape series, featuring The Movement Fam's G.C. produced banger 'Seasons Change'. Download it FREE below!


HiPNOTT Records delivers Vol. 2 of their two-part 2010 Takeover free download mixtape series. Presented by HIPHOPDX.com and KevinNottingam.com, this 22-track lyrically driven hip-hop montage is skillfully mixed by DJ Mark-1, who also created the intro, and displays a combination of emerging label signees alongside several hip-hop heavyweights. While Vol. 1 hit listeners with an aggressive trunk worthy hip-hop energy, Vol. 2 provides its antithesis with a more laid back, thought provoking, headphone hip-hop sound.

HiPNOTT Records 2010 Takeover Vol. 2 talent includes ArtOfficial, Amor Jones, DXA, Emilio Rojas, Epsilon Project, Hawdwerk & Jansport J, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Mach Five, MaG, Stevie Crooks, and Tunji of the group Inverse, as well as HiPNOTT artists Cymarshall Law, Has-Lo, E Reece, Spectec & Amiri, Jermiside & Danny Diggs, WEB and The Movement Fam (Cee & Bekah, Notion, Tommy Gunnz).

“The artists that we work with and those signed to HiPNOTT have the same things in common -- they want to be put on, they want the masses to hear their voice, they want to share their story,” HiPNOTT Records COO, Kareem Fort said. “We created the 2010 Takeover mixtapes to showcase a variety of artists who each have their own unique interpretation of what hip hop is to them, and we stand behind their perspective 100%.”

DOWNLOAD 2010 Takeover Vol. 2




Tracklist:

1. Intro [produced by DJ Mark 1]
2. MaG - Turn My Music High [produced by DL]
3. Tunji - Goodbye Never (featuring Convinced)
4. The Movement Fam - Seasons Change [produced by G.C.]
5. Amor Jones - Dyin [produced by Know:Juander]
6. Mach Five - Stop That
7. Stevie Crooks - Brass Knuckles
8. L.E.G.A.C.Y. - You Might See Me
9. Cymarshall Law - Harder Than Thou Remix (featuring DJ JS-1) [produced by Cenzo Beatz]
10. E Reece - Hold Up, Wait [produced by Soups]
11. Jermiside & Danny Diggs - Rockin Ya World (cuts by DJ Mayhem)
12. Has-Lo - Exhale (Custamato's Revenge) [produced by Culture I.S.T.M.]
13. Hawdwerk & Jansport J - Rancid
14. Epsilon Project - Mics On
15. Prefyx - All Star Fresh (We Got) [produced by Dibiase]
16. Plex Long & Face The Truth - Direction
17. WEB - Waiting To Exhale [produced by Rodney 'Syrenn' Hazard]
18. Self-One - All We Got To Do [produced by Reasonable]
19. ArtOfficial - Doing Things Wrong
20. Emilio Rojas – Get Through
21. DXA – Night Drive [produced by DFACE DXA]
22. Spectac & Amiri - Gone in Sixty Seconds

The Movement Fam Presents The Valentine's Day Mixtape Vol 2: Second Time Sweeter‏

It's here!

Friday February 12th, sees the FREE release of the latest instalment of The Movement Fam's Valentine's Day Mixtape, entitled Second Time Sweeter.

This year, we've hit y'all with the same smooth blend of tunes to soundtrack your day, ranging from neo-soul, to reggae, soulful Hip Hop, acoustic rock and everything in between. Y'all also get TWO exclusive songs this year; one from The Movement Fam's own Cee & Bekah ('Something You Forgot'), and another from The Lessondary Crew's Jermiside ('Time Flies').

We really think y'all feel this one. It's just a whole bunch of damn good music. Hit us with any feedback and enjoy!

Download The Movement Fam Presents The Valentine's Day Mixtape Volume 2: Second Time Sweeter mixed by DJ Grain