We' re half way through the year and its been great. Since the usual missed contracts payments for websites earlier this year, I' ve gotten the BSE and 21st Century Zambia websites back up and we even have distribution agents online. Thank you lulu.com. In about March 2010, I downloaded this document which contained dozens of online distributers, (highly confidential I'm sure.) some ofcourse I had tried before and a whole heap of new ones. Don' t forget there' s still a lot of unreliable; to put it nicely, companies in this field online son be careful people.

So having spent a month working through this list, I built my own list of the 13 most dependable companies I called 'The 13 Disciples" (to be published soon). Ofcourse I was wrong still, because I am currently only working with maybe 3 of them (SoundClick.com being another uploader; but still no money.) The way I figure it is if I can make money on the ground selling my studio material why wouldn' t some "DIV" on the internet buy it

While this was all going on online, I bump into Keegan, an old friend from that 2008 website directory debocle that got me going to court (Ahhh what fun, not! It's like Jerry Springer out there). He introduces me to Andrew Phiri an Architect and writer who tells me he need a couple of websites done. I sketch something up, hand in an invoice and we have these now; Afrikrafts-Zambia.com and Afrospace-Architects.com. We' re also working on getting Andrew' s books online (he' s a bit of a conspiracy theory and Black history boff) so hold up for that.

Oh yes. and lets not forget the World Cup in South Africa, I' m glad it went better than planned but I' m so glad its over. South Africans have a scary train of thought and that s*&t was crossing the border to here in Zambia in a rediculous way. Thanks to the Barclays Club and MTN (who are a terrible network to have friends on) for providing the fan zone and especially for playing my Album 'The Demo' on the loud speakers. Apparently people loved it but unfortunately (fore Mel) I wasn' t there, just a phone call to say ... what lyrics. All I did was get drunk for a month a different places handing out promo CDs. Congratulations Spain, not my best choice but David Villa was a God send and ofcourse the ever reliable 'Gustav the crocodile' Puyol. Thanks to 'whitey' and all tourists who visited Africa (You should see him get down).

Check out the Posters and the Albums (Mp3 and CD) avilable for sell.Thanks again to Lulu.com, plenty more Booty Shots, Videos and 3 Albums on the way.

Also check out 21stCenturyZambia.com to read and see more on the ground stuff from the BSE camp.

So let me just recap on the second half of 2009, ofcourse non of the many Payment Gateway companies (the guys who clear online payments Credit/ Debit cards, Paypal, etc) came through for the BSE camp and online store. Infact, some including "swreg.com" and "regnow.com" found it an amusement to allow me to purchase a store and begin configuring it (this takes weeks by the way and costs money) before they' d come out and say 'Oh sorry, we didn' t know you were in Zambia so now we have to cancel your account'; where did they think I was, in bloody Mozambique. Anyway, there constant inuendo didn' t go unanswered and my current Bank Account managers have effeiciently managed to push my account out of operation and my current Web hosters 'Iweb.com' in Canada are doing their darndest (is that how you spell that?) to close my online websites and loose the Domain Names I' ve so successfully promoted over the last 3 years.

ps. For those on FaceBook.com, HI5.com and other friend finders who used to be old friends of mine and have so persistantly supported the above causes while be sad to know my mailing and fan lists are still growing. So if you had some stupid or rediculous idea that you' d be able to swing that vote because your the first inline; ha ha ha, ho ho no. will probably loose that battle too.

Last October, I also got a chance to use my new passport, heh. Just renewed; actually for a job at Holiday Inns in Liverpool, UK, I was supposed to be heading to England but the bloody Immigration in the UK sat on my VISA papers and stamp again. God bless you Labour, Gordon Brown and all the poor ass brats your keeping alive there, they' ll be glad to know your corrupt governing ways don' tonly work on me when I' m in the UK like 5 years ago but are still alive today. You know England are the last G8 (The developed Super Powers of the world) to come out of the recession and still have the biggest borrowing debt, how proud.

So anyway my trip was to my Traditional hometown (a border town between Zambia and backward Malawi; just jokes) in Chipata for a week on the town and my Family farm. You know my Dad' s family grew up on that farm, thats how old it is. There are some pretty hot Brown skin ladies out in the town (mind your wallet) and the family house is still in pretty good shape so I had fun. Then, we crossed over to Malawi by road (though economically stronger than Zambia, it' s still pretty under developed; this is one part of the world where the ground still steams like those old Dinasaur movies. Scary stuff.) and flew to Tanzania. Right against the Indian Ocean (which looks huge by the way) Dar Es Salaam has like 13 million people (thats more than London); you wouldn' t guess it walking around but the housing Townships and Town shopping centres are still rather congested. So anyway, saw the beach (rather boring) and spent most of the week drinking with guys from C2C Television in TZ and buying stuff. It was a lot of fun and definitely have plans to go back and finish up on some of that Film and Music stuff we began planning. Did get stopped by cops back on the Zambian side (for not getting a re-entry stamp to my own country) what will they think of next, bloody foreigners. Anyway, thanks to Jimmy Asmat Choudrey, Parents (I see Dad' s been on TV a couple of times now), Wife and family (great kids by the way, I' ll be thinking about them), My cousin Michael, Esther, family and peeps of Chipata, Freddy, Raymond and C2C TV in TZ hope to be back and Mansour, thank you for the phone. Hope to see you all again.

Hope you had a pleasant Chrismas and New year and I have recorded a new 17 track Dance album and a 20 something track Hiphop and RnB album ready for release as soon as I clear the album pictures and the distribution. Also working on another industry remixes album; Beyonce, Spice Girls, Bob Marley, Enrique 'The How Gay' Inglesias, Patra again, etc. For those missed out on the first one, you really go through some real issues blazing this album so strap up tight cause its gonna be another wild one. Damn those Spice Girls; I mean, my back!

So what a 4 months it' s been and I tell ya, it' s not getting any easier; what do these guys think going Platinum means anyway. Rewind to December and a Mr Munthali who signs an agreement to pay atleast 1 million Kwacha (200 dollars) for his outstanding arrears on DoorToZambia.com business directory; he actually owes twice that, and then he suddenly stopps answering my calls and tells me on the week to Christmas, 'I' m not paying, you can take me to court if you like.' Yes people, they spoiled Christmas again. Add to the fact Manchinchi Bay Lodge I was working for; and this is so sad because I used to go to this place for holidays on our way to our Crocodile farm with my Dad when I was young, make a promise to pay 2 million Kwacha for their new website and then turn around one day that week and say sorry we don' t have the money for it. It still hangs in the balance but hey what good family friends.

Come January, I'm taking this guy to court; You should see Zambian courts they look like a british parody of justice, mate. Did some people out there watch to much 'Fawlty Towers'. The date gets posponed 3 times and eventually the guy is like OK I'll pay in installments, he hasn't payed a penny since. The website expires and ofcourse so does mine and I'm back to running around town trying to sell websites without my own websites. In the mean time; and this is a good American joke by the way, I hope your Barrack Obama fans, My dad gets this mechanic from Zimbabwe (like 56 yrs old and as old skool as you can get) to come fix up some cars and he has to stay on our sofa. Loe and behold, my uncle then hires him to work in a Garage he' s starting (with house costs coverage) but the guy is still on our sofa after 4 months leaving grease stains all over the house and painting the roof red with a mosquito racket. What, you say? I know I thoght it was an ingenious invention myself, imagine a racket that zaps mosquitos. Then we have the usual problems start up again at home with house mates (all good family) suddenly running out of money for electricity and fights over nothing breaking out, really its like living with grown babies. And mind your girlfriend (or boyfriend) doesn' t try to lock you in the house cause that was all good just a few weeks ago too, I had to dump the bitch and then she returns my radio with a whole bunch of cockroaches in it. That shit is still airing out on my window sill, man; and shes working in the newly renovated Shoprite supermarket in the Town Centre. Can' t wait to get purchasing there, mmmmmh.

I get the BSE website and Ecommerce website back online within a month; yes, this time its a Canadian hosting company called Iweb.com and yes there are the usual problems of blocking uploads, spoiling images and audios and now they' re even fiddling the statistics, so I'm gonna have to get some independant counters for those sites. Given that I've juststarted a new poll to measure which nations represent the most on my BSE site. Now, then I start configuring the store with a Cube Cart Ecommerce software and they tell me I have to find my own 'Payment Gateway' (the guys who clear the credit and debit card payments), what do these guys do anyway, charge you for a pretty picture of a shopping cart. And you know the 'Payment Gateway' companies are, the financial organisations; hello resession America and ofcourse my favourite place for big babies the UK. I wonder why they kicked me out.

So I wasted a ton of money on the net being f*&ked around by Payment Gateways who say they can provide the service and then come a day later and say 'sorry, we can't.' but I' m almost there people. On the plus side I have completed the production for the next Styles MC albums Ascendance (the dance album; you' ll love it blood) and Ghost Stories Vs Radio; The Interview (the Hip Hop & RnB album which will now contain skits from Dick Johnson (my American reporter character) interviewing Styles MC. Thats great too! Also planned after the BSE commerce store are some pretty Poster pics, and yes not just of me there some hot girl friends of mine in there, some DVDs, and some live shows. Which reminds me, my old skool homey Chaila P has finally the Hip Hop Foundation to step it up and we just had a show this Sunday at the Lusaka Play House, right next door to Rhodes ParkSchool' s rendition of 'Grease' (I love that show). It was packed with a bunch of stars coming through like Cactus, Mr. Switcha, Crisis (by my personal invite, he' s a bit shy), Theodore, and many more. So keep your eyes open that may become a regular, lets hope I don' t keep missing my turn there, damn those rappers are so greedy. I' m also working with Parrot Secretarial College in Lusaka, Zambia and I may be offering lessons in Multimedia web design and business in the near future so watch out there too. Take care and speak soon

ps. I' m not so proud of being a Barrack Obama fan anymore, he' s quite black (as in racist, to other blacks that is) but it is America and trust me they have some real recession problems there so i will probably have to go back to the UK first before I go there but hey Manchester United fans aren't my biggest fans either; tryna steal our first Premiership Title, go on Liverpool!!! Also I'm working on a website for one of Zambia's leading motivational speakers, so wait for that; dude' s got money probleams but he' s not bad still and i also met Mr. Michael Sata yesterday; Zambia' s leading Presidential candidate and head of the Patriotic Front Party. He' s the guy who got robbed twice at dubious elections and I' ll probably be working with him in future to ensure it doesn' t happen again. Holla back and sign up to the mailing list for more info, things are about to hot up.

It's December, almoxt Christmas and still no Ecommerce store. What' s going here! So the guy I' m still doing the Business Directory Online (www.DoorToZambia.com) is still stuck at The Road Transport and Safety Agency waiting for his money like 2 months after he' s finished building there new offices, which obviously means that he' still hasn' t got the money he owes me to start the Ecommerce store and they in true Government fashion just keep finding good excuses to sit on his payment (like lost invoices and paper work, a leaking roof now, they even suggested I get a police call out on him and get him locked up when he didn't show up for a money meeting). Ofcourse, there. was no money! Just our new government at work.

The site is however up to 7,500 hits (thank you fans) and though it's hard to try and fill any more of the space without putting out junk reveiws for junk industry crap. I am working on a killer feature film (which will be our first here in Zambia) and ofcourse a whole bunch of music videos, articles and all that stuff. The Demo (Styles MC) is apparently getting some air play on Radio Phoenix 89.5, here in Zambia thanks to DJ Alkal but the media nad industry response is still pretty slow.

No shows for Christmas and New Year again this year, so I doubt I will be going out but with the Ecommerse store up, there should be a lot of tunes and video stuff anyway. My profile still continues to decline on other FriendFinder and Music sites but 7,500 who cares; I should start the Local Celebrity Club website soon so all my contacts caninteract more. Which reminds me, I just five tourists come round my house for drinks two days ago (Adele and Pierre from France, Michel from Switzerland, Karen from Milton keynes,UK and Cynthia from New Zealand); they jumped of there tour truck which was going through Africa starting from Kenya down to South Africa for Christamas (Umhh, that should be nice). How crazy are these people, anyway we had drinks for a night and they're of to Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia (Victoria Falls; a seventh wonder,you know.) hopefully to catch there truck. We wouldn't want them stranded around this town now would we.

They enjoy looking through my Photo albums thoguh, they certainly did spot a few of you with Movie, Television and Radio Dople- gangers (or ringers). I guess it' s not all that hard to tell. Take Care and speak soon, pray for our Mr. Munthali (my boss); this Government is really killing a brother.

It's been a helluva year peeps but let you into a brief synopsis (thats fancy english for summary) of what a year we' ve had here. So after I failed to send out the 'Styles MC- The Demo' album to several copanies; Cadiz.co.uk in England (Laurie Staff never received a thing. Bollocks), CDBaby.com in USA (who put out fake versions, who then denied any knowledge and then wrote back in 4 months later apologising and asking to redo it. Ofcourse not, worse than a bad girlfriend) and NewArtistOnline.com, MyCDParty.com and IndieRec.com in USA (the envelopes arrived back empty 3 months later). I decided to hit Lusaka Town (thats the capital of Zambia, not a bad city) with more Web designing and business deals; (so atleast some people didn't think I was just a rubbish rapper wasting my life, thanks Kam), and this is what they decided to do.

I got a few jobs to start off with (especially one from a nice arabic lady running a shop, who' s husband then threatened to have me arrested when they wouldn't pay. Thanks Dream Cosmetics) and ofcourse no one would pay with the usual bullshit excuses. I also registered for some colleges in Australia but it turned out they were just trying '2 go to Australia' hearsay (we try to accomodate everybody here in Zambia, you should visit us we'll help you 'Move- N E Way-R').

Eventually in March I had a major sit down with the Director of a Cell Phone business directory (the usual nonsense, he kept hiring new employees and blowing pay cheques and conveniently forgetting to pay me to do or start his 200 page website) and I managed to get him to sign an agreement for installment payments for his website. No problem, until people in Zambia start running around telling people not to pay or to cut the payments (can't do much with pocket money now can you). So, this goes on for four months with Mr. Munthali (now a partner and friend of mine) with him missing payments nad shortening payments until eventually he has to let go of most people he hired only 4- 6 months before (I wonder who they were supposed to be 'facing') and he finally finds the money for a money transfer for the webspaces at WalterHosting.com or GoDaddy.com (a company I heard about in the UK before I came back in 2004; God Bless the Prince' s Trust).

Meanwhile, some of the music sites out there on the web started allowing me to upload some of my music videos but I found myself to be replaced by some twat in most cases (Famecast.com, SoulLounge.com, SoulGenesis.Ning.com). Now, the principal also being attempted in Zambia. People would say '2 me', why don't you take your music or web designs or business plans to ... and then they would run around trying to find a replacement so that they could convince the world that they are really replacing Mel or Styles MC (that' s me). Now what is Hip Hop, Hollywood and Television all about these days, it's embarrasssing really.

So then I send a 100 dollar transfer to WalterHosting in USA for an online credit card of 100 dollars and they lose the money four 2 months (this is before the recession) and then when they credit the card they take out 30 dollars for charges not even stipulated in there terms. I did write to several internet and Government watch dogs (including the FBI; what a joke they are) but non have responded and ofcourse even ater I bought the spaces for the www.DoorToZambia.com site and the www.BombShelterEnt.com site they kept delaying and blocking the file uploads. Now we haven't seen that since, oh wait the last website efforts I made in 2007; I wonder what were doing here, perhaps running round in circles. The 2 months was sooo long I even had time to record another album for the Industry 'BSE- On The House Beat' (the one with Madonna, Mariah Carey, Eminem and Blah blah blah, who started this recession anyway).

So finally I get the websites up and I'm chasing Mr. Munthali again for the money he owes me (conveniently he has to close his office so he can build a police post for the Road Traffick & Safety Agency; working for the government was he.) This makes him much harder to catch and then on top of that the idiots go and throw our nations president into a coma and he has to get flown to Paris; whats the bet all business in town has to stop because ...

Anyway, The President Patrick levy Mwanawasa sadly passed away on 19th August 2008, not to the disappointment of some outthere who now what to replace him Rupiah Banda; 4 times fired from government for corruption and once resigned for his own reasons. One wonders who thought about invitinghim back to government after over 20 years in politics but I' d question there sanity. meanwhile WalterHosting have failed to offer me Ecommerce options of any effectiveness at all (these jokes wanted me to be around to physically accept every transaction from the shop and then have the customer have to come back to the site to find there downloads after they' ve paid; now what happened to my lost bank transfer).

In short, business has been a little slower here in Zambia as we prepare to go to the election polls on October 30th (people are just praying MMD' s Rupiah Banda don't win and have us queueing up for sugar again; he really did that as part of his campaigning) and yes ofcourse it is pretty close to America's presidential election, what a likely pair those two make. I' d vote for obama but look out for the Bamba clots; Bambas are what we calls underwear here in Africa, I' d suppose thats where they get it from in the West Indies. And we are about a couple of weeks and a 100 dollars short of buying the shopping carts for the site, lets hope www.HostGator.com don't let the side down. Good Luck and speak soon.

ps. would have filled the site (music and film reviews, etc) but wouldn't want people thinking it's a free site for promoting Industry junk now would I. Now, where did all my designer wear go, good think I got my own label.

pps. don't forget to look out for the stranded girls about town; apparently it's like there thing now, must be the recession or sumthin (that's sum, thin) like that. I hand to get my hands dirty about a month ago over that but luckily the young lady made back to her small town home and I didn't even get any sex for it; it's terrible, I blame Obama but which other crazy cout are you gonna vote for really. A lot of old school and college friends turning up these days, glad you can make it!