Zed Peace

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Presidential Review

Just got this in the mail today. The Nixon pose I thought fit the theme quite nicely.

Joe Flizzow
President

One of the most talented artists coming out of the Malay world, Joe Flizzow is always one to keep an eye out for. One half of Too Phat, both Joe and partner Malique decided to venture into solo releases after having a bunch of accomplishments under their belts, including reaching platinum with Plan B, collaborating with Warren G in the 360 album and releasing the exclusive KL fitteds in Malaysia.

President certainly is no less impressive or ambitious. With top production from Malaysia's finest and exclusive international features, and of course Joe's own exceptional performance in the album, President raises the bar for Hip-Hop in South East Asia. Collaborations include Singapore's Terry Lee, Thaitanium from Thailand, and all the way from the US, Jin and KRS-ONE.

Partly the reason for Too Phat's mainstream success is their sense of appeal to a wide range of audience in their albums where there's something for every listener from the local to the international and President sticks to this winning formula. Hard work and dedication of course would be the other factor.

Notable tracks for me include Isabella, which samples Search's Isabella, where Joe captures the essence of Malay music and fashions it in Hip-Hop form. (see Malique - Mantera Beradu feat. M. Nasir). Do It Big with Thaitanium was another stand-out, and the Thailand trio were certainly on top of their game. In the track featuring Jin, Flizzow had a line that went 'I'm out of this world like Sheikh Muzzafar' but not suprisingly Jin had the crazier verses.

I have no qualms with President, except I remember Joe publicly announcing that he was hoping to work with Rihanna in the album, which would've certainly been jaw dropping. Nevertheless, on the music and production front, President is currently in a league of its own. Let's just hope there'll be more to come amongst the other artists in this region.

Joe Flizzow's President can be purchased here.

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Me

I just realised none of the Micbandits've introduced themselves properly in their blogs yet. I'll start.

Eiffel Tower, Paris.

Ahmad Zaed Hani. 20 years old. I'm currently in my final year at Loughborough University in the UK doing International Relations. The course is basically a study about the globalized world and how countries and individuals interact with one another. When I was in Primary 2 I stole one dollar from a girl so that I could buy a can of coke. I realize I wasn't good at keeping secrets so I told her that I stole her money.

Micbandits

I met Kro and Khaos when I moved to JIS. JIS is an international school founded in 1997 by the now defunct Amedeo Development Corporation. The school has excellent corriculum and teaching standards and I really enjoyed my 3 years attending it before going to university. I'm not much of an athlete but I love any aspect of the beautiful game of football and my favourite team is Bayern Munich.

Baby

I am currently in a relationship with a lovely girl named Nadia Halim. Things aren't going too great but we both still really like each other. Only a few more months till we head back to Brunei we tell ourselves. There is nothing I enjoy more than to look at what has, is or will be happening to Brunei. That said I do have my opinions and criticisms (women and power, impact of MIB, racial tensions etc.) but I do not in anyway intend to offend and create problems, instead humbly hoping to improve. In order to do so, I've always believed in the importance of education if one wanted to make an impact, which is why I aim to do my best in university.

With this, I think people talk far too much with little action, myself included, and I hope to change this mindset. Ever since I was young I wanted to create a music album where the beats and tracks are all self composed, and in 3 years me and my group have created 3 albums, hoping to inspire others. If I were asked what exactly I wish to see happen, I'll start by hoping to see a reverse in a very well known axiom so that it becomes: "it is not who you know, but what you know".

That is Zed Peace in a nutshell.

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One Big Kampong
by Zed Peace

A reality we face is that our country has a small population. According to this site, this is our expected population forecast upto the year 2050:

Hopefully I'll still be around to check and see whether it was right, that even after decades of social and economic growth we'll barely manage to pass that 1 million people mark. Not that it's a bad thing though. On the other hand, Singapore and Malaysia's population will also have doubled so that's around 10 million and 40 million respectively.

In an article published in the Brunei Times titled, 'What is ideal population for Sultanate', which upon glimpse I thought had a slight grammatical error but not really, it gave a figure of 2 million as 'ideal'. The only realistic way this can happen is if we suddenly welcome people from around the world with open arms to apply for citizenship(s). Or we impose the perennial 7 children minimum rule on families. Or cloning. Ah, the wonders of modern science.

In any case, to aim for 2 million is immigrational suicide. We'll either turn into a wonderful melting pot of language, culture and identity where social harmony is achieved through multi-ethnic diversification, or we'll turn into a violent and troubled nation divided over racial politics. But being as we don't have a violent bone in our national body, the former is perhaps not too inconcievable.

Imagine the kampongs being filled with not only the brotherly three (Malays, Chinese and Indian ethnicities), but a sudden influx of Europeans, Argentinians and the occasional Rastafarian. You might find yourself eating Nasi Katok with people from Ex-Yugoslavia. Or stirring up a conversation with a chap from Johannesburg during a wedding.

Multiculturalism is certainly a desirable aspect of any nation, yet it can also be very superficial. Especially within developing nations, it seems that underneath the facade of ethnic embrace there are sinister policies that are about anything but equality. However, one should not give up the strife for human liberty and respect for international law by pursuing things like democratization, human rights and all that jazz.

This post is about population and culture, which has a great impact on and has been impacted greatly by the dynamics of the international system. If you decide one day you wish to marry a foreigner and bring him or her back to Brunei to start a family, ask yourself why. Besides questionable reasons of love and commitment, another person from overseas is one more grain of sand towards that multi-national sea shore countries either dream or dread about.

Allah knows best.

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Among one of the most politcally-ridden conflicts of the 21st century, the situation in Gaza seems to be worsening despite efforts from the UN, the US, EU and the middle east to confront it. At the heart of the problem, innocent Palestinians and Israelites suffer under the atrocities of both military and terrorist action. I try my best to understand the on going stale mate that has occured between Israel and Palestine by reading newspapers, articles and opinions, but alas there is not much we can physically do to change things. We do have the power to help. We can give.

http://justgiving.com/peopleofgaza

I'd like to give thanks to my sister eza and her friends for setting up the charity. It seems to be going well. Even though they did initially plan to support the endangered orangutans of borneo which i still believe is important, the donations they raised to give to the Islamic relief in Gaza I sincerely believe can go a long way. So please give what you can. Salams.

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Mackie MR5 Reference Monitor
Oleh Zed Peace
5/1/2009

Salah satu sebab mengapa aku sangat berminat dengan produksi muzik dan penciptaan lagu ialah kerana aku melihat ia seperti kreatif outputku. Sebagai seorang artis akan mengguna segala warna-warni dan alat lukisan kearah sekeping kertas untuk menyampaikan imej yang ada di mindanya, aku semacam itu memakai pelbagai bunyi-bunyian dan lyrik untuk menerbitkan lagu dengan tujuan untuk menghibur pendengar.

Aku baru sahaja membeli sebuah speaker untuk studioku, iaitu Mackie MR5 Reference Monitor. Ia sebuah speaker yang sangat jelas apabila mendengar segala lagu-lagu yang sedang dalam proses mixingnya. Ini sebuah proses yang penting kerana aku harus pastikan segala rakaman dalam sebuah lagu dari vokalnya ke bunyi drumnya berbunyi sebaik mungkin. Tetapi aku bukan seorang beat-maker, itu kerja sahabat ku yang bernama Khaos. Apa ada nawi? Haha.

Balik semula kepada speaker ini, ia dicipta oleh syarikat Mackie yang salah satu nama terkenal di dalam industri muzik produksi. Tetapi faktor yang paling menarikku untuk membelinya adalah harganya. Satu speaker Mackie MR5 berharga 135 Pound Sterling. Aku hanya membeli satu pasang sahaja speaker untuk masa ini, dan tentu akan membeli sebuahnya lagi di masa hadapan. Walaubagaimanpun, kerana reputasinya Mackie sebagai salah satu syarikat terbesar dari USA aku pasti ia investment yang bagus.

Sedangku menggunakan speaker Mackie MR5 ini, aku sangat gembira dengan qualitynya. Ia seperti ku dapat dengar segala yang ada dalam sebuah lagu itu, dan inilah tanda sebuah speaker yang baik. Dan ini baru sahaja dengan sebuah speakernya, apa lagi kalau ada kedua-duanya.

Selain itu, designnya pun sangat bisai dan pasti akan menarik siapa saja yang melihatnya. Tetapi yang terpenting bagiku apabila mencipta sebuah single atau album atau apa saja rakaman bukan segala equipment yang mahal atau studio mixingnya atau promosinya, yang penting adalah niat baik seorang itu dan jika ia banar berminat membuat muzik atau jika dia ada agenda yang kurang senonoh seperti kekayaan atau populariti.

Yang penting adalah inspirasi yang akan disampaikan dari sebuah lagu itu.

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