This post is in regards to @juliakponsford's Art Explosion Challenge! Firstly i would like to give props to the #Artexplosion competition, coming up with lovely themes to explore and in the process of doing so creating a community to support and cultivate creativity within Steemit, big ups!
With the theme vices, I would like to explore certain addictive habits I have such as smoking cigarettes. Though the term vices have many different meanings, I have chosen to explore "bad habits" relating to vices. I have been smoking quite heavily for about close to 8 years now where I have been constantly trying to kick the habit. I am not sure if I actually really enjoy smoking or have I convinced myself that I enjoy smoking, linking it to many activities in my life such as eating, drinking, listening to music or even when i am creating.
Firstly, what i found recently is that smoking provides me of an image of myself that i could identify to, where even some of my friends would identify me as a person who loves smoking. Sometimes, I am secretly happy to be identified as anything at all yet along a cigarette smoker, not because it is cool or anything but maybe just a sign of acknowledgement from people around me. As I got older and also through my travelling, I realised its all just a delusion I have built up in my head in so many years about the image of smoking. I might have done all of these sub consciously but I only started to realise and question myself when i am around non-smokers or when i am doing other activities that really don't require a cigarette.
I also find myself using cigarettes as a way of activity so that i can just have something to do while talking to people or to ease my anxieties in big groups or parties. I could chain smoke over and over when i am pairing it with other vices such as drinking or anything of that sort, the list goes on. The smoking habit is also passed down from my father where i have been exposed to smoking from a very young age tho i am not making any excuses to quit haha.
Conclusion
After all that, I am still smoking, what?? haha. But with this song here, it is an exploration about using vices for the sake of using it! Bad habits for the sake of bad habits. Questioning why you do certain things and getting to the root cause of any addiction. Sometimes the idea of a vice might appear like it is the norm or something cool just like the movies or the artists but is that all it is for you? Am I really liking it or have I created a delusional idea of why i am doing it. I am still searching for the answers but right now thats all i can come up with, tell me yours ???
This song is made with a lounge vibe to it, slowed down tempo, smoky atmosphere with very dry drum samples along with a vocal sample from Dee Barnes - Hip Hop moments 1990 saying " I like to smoke" n "Sugar" a so called vice for me too. Made on my MPC, classic rhodes melody with a funky bass-line from a bass sample to keep your head nods going.
Here is a picture of me Smoking, some say its a classic picture of me and i sure have had this vice for a long time now! Enjoy the tune :)
YS
