Although we've had several requests over the years to do an episode about mental health topics, we've always been hesitant to cover it since it's such an expansive topic. That changes this week as we invite Dr Alex MacNeil onto the show. Aside from being a hip-hop head and a fan of the podcast, Alex is a practicing clinical psychologist from Boston, MA. In this episode, Alex and Blueprint break down several topics related to mental health and creativity. From performance anxiety, to success anxiety, and everything in between, this is not the episode to miss as the doctor gives out specific steps for addressing the pains that artists and creatives find themselves in. Let's go!

249: Mental Health and Creativity with Dr Alex MacNeil

Having a special talent can be a great blessing, but it can also cause stress if a person doesn't have any outlet for their talents.  This often results in them thinking they need to blend into society.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down what many artists have in common with the new Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series and how they can turn things around.

285: The Force is With You

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Kraftwerk drummer surprised many stating that the same technology that made the group so popular ruined their creativity.  With technology playing a larger role in music than ever, we decided to break down what artists can do to stop computers from ruining the beauty of music.

290: The Problem with Computers And Music

After Twitter laid off thousands of employees this week, rumors started to circulate about whether the website would survive or go out of business.  As a result, many artists, who spent years creating content and cultivating their followings on the platform started to panic, wondering what to do if twitter was no more.  In this episode, we speak about the chaos at twitter and why having your own website is more important than ever.

297: Why You Need a Website

An article recently surfaced that spoke about the impact that the emerging Artificial Intelligence tools are having on sampling, revealing how Google's AI engine has been used to correctly identify sample sources.  And while this may not have an immediate impact on sampling producers, there may be a time when getting away with uncleared sampling becomes much more difficult.  In this episode, we break down the article and give suggestions on how to approach sampling moving forward.

307: The End of Sampling

A recently published study has determined that it's incredibly difficult for people to learn about new music as they get older, a grim diagnosis for music lovers.  In this episode, we break down the results of the study and what you can do to ensure you remain as passionate about music in your later years as you were when you were younger.

308: Remaining A Fan As You Get Older

As artists who have been releasing music for over 20 years, Blueprint and Illogic are used to going against the grain.  In this episode, they take going against the grain further than ever by listing their most unpopular opinions about production.   If you've ever made beats, there is a lot to laugh at and get pissed off about in this episode.

309: Unpopular Producer Opinions

On your journey to be the best version of yourself, there comes a time when it seems like the more money you make, the less healthy you are.  This is what we like to call The Money Health Paradox.  In this week's episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down the four different levels of the Money Health Paradox and give advice on how to avoid it.

310: The Money Health Paradox

For the last six months we've been bombarded with stories about the positive impact AI can have on our lives, with very little conversations about the downsides of it.  Things have changed a bit over the last few weeks as stories started to surface about the music and film industry's fight against the rapid adoption of AI.  This week, Blueprint and Illogic break down three stories about different segments of the entertainment industry whose fight against AI appears to be a clear sign of trouble ahead.

311: The Industry Strikes Back Against AI

The long-awaited results show for Blueprint and Illogic's latest fitness challenge.  Did they reach their goals? Tune in and find out.

312: Fitness Challenge Results Show

With this season's NBA playoffs being more wild and unpredictable than ever, there has been a lot of action but more importantly, a lot of lessons.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic, break down five big lessons that artists could learn from the NBA playoffs.

313: What Artists Can Learn From the NBA Playoffs

A few weeks ago, the internet was buzzing about two new challengers to twitter,  Threads and Spill.  And while there were millions of people who signed up for the new apps, there were others who stayed where they were at because it just felt like too much.  It begs the question: are there too many social media platforms for artists to maintain nowadays?  We dive deep into that exact question in this week's episode.

317: Too Much Social Media

As lifetime artists, we know that there are a lot of unfair and unrealistic expectations that unnecessarily add pressure to the creative process. In this week's episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down what these unrealistic expectations are and why it's ok if you don't participate in them.

319: A Message to Artists

If there is one factor that influences every facet of American life, it's inflation.  Things that were once cheap become expensive and things that were already expensive become even more expensive.  These increasing costs impact artists and force them to evaluate what they're charging for their art.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic dive deep into why so many artists struggle with raising their prices.

322: Why Artists Struggle to Increase Their Prices

Although many people were happy to see the Grammys pay tribute to hip-hop turn 50 years old, not all artists were on the same page.  Most notably, hip-hop pioneer and icon KRS-ONE was very public about why I turned down his invitation to participate in the tribute, sparking debates in hip-hop circles worldwide.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic debate whether or not KRS-ONE made the right decision to boycott the event.

323: Was KRS-One Right to Boycott the Grammys?

With the new year comes time to reflect on the previous year and make plans for the next.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down what they did wrong in 2023 and how they plan on fixing it in 2024.

324: New Year New Beginnings

A recent story surfaced about a Japanese ambient musician who spent two years creating and uploading one album a day for two years straight. In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic dive into why his approach worked and break down four lessons that any artist can apply.

325: Are You Creating Enough?

Over the last couple of months, Hip-hop fans have been talking about how the brand new documentary about hip-hop group Little Brother, "May the Lord Watch."  The documentary tells the story of Little Brother and goes deep into what broke the group up and what brought them back together.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic review the film and break down six big lessons that every artist should take away from it.

326: Little Brother Documentary Review

The long-awaited return of album reviews by the Super Duty Tough Work crew.  In this episode, they review recent albums from Dibiase & Raz Fresco, Planet Asia & Midaz the Beast, Blockhead, and Larry June & The Alchemist.

327: Album Reviews

Everybody can talk about success, but not many can talk about dealing with failure.  This week Blueprint discusses the events that led him to shut down his trucking company to focus on music again and how he's been dealing with the feeling of failure associated with not achieving his end goal.

328: Knowing When to Call it Quits

Once upon a time, you couldn't go to any live event without seeing flyers all over the place.  But nowadays the majority of people rely exclusively on online promotion like facebook events.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down how this change has created a huge opportunity for artists who want to employ this strategy.

329: The Return Of Flyers

Since we speak about the pros and cons of making sample-based music on this show quite often, it's only right that we invite a producer on the show who has been on both sides.  Aside for producing tracks for Conway, Murs, Ras Kass, and Brother Ali, Texas producer Rob Viktum is a composer and sound designer who makes samples that are used by other producers.  In this episode, we speak to him about his start in music and his journey into being sampled by other artists.

330: Making Your Own Samples with Rob Viktum

Once you reach a certain number of releases in your catalog, people tend to judge you by those projects and how successful they were.  But most artists know that they had several projects that they never released because they were too scared to share them.  In this episode, Blueprint and Illogic break down three projects that they never released due to fear but wish they would have.

331: Projects We Were Too Scared to Release

In this episode, we discuss the latest epidemic in hip-hop--rappers going broke! From lawsuits, to spending a million dollars on Uber, to selling wack products to the hip-hop fanbase, we go deep into the behavior that led them there. The result is an in-depth (but funny) conversation that nobody in hip-hop is having right now.  As usual, no punches are pulled and nobody is safe! 

13: Five Examples That Rappers Don't Understand Money

As artists who release great music at a high pace, one of the most common questions we receive is, "How do you get so much done?"  Well, in this episode of the most infamous (and informative) hip-hop podcast on planet earth we take some time out to explain our philosophies and specific techniques for getting things done.  Whether you're artist or not, there will be some great information for you in this episode.  Let's go!

27: The Grown Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done

It goes without saying that we love hip-hop music from the bottom of our hearts.  We grew up on it and watched it grow from an underground culture to worldwide phenomenon that can be heard on any radio or television station at any time.  But every now and then, an event happens that shows you what hip-hop looks like to people outside the culture; and it's not very pleasant.  Put on your scuba gear because we're about to dive deep.

39: What the Average American Thinks about Hip-Hop

It almost goes without saying that the internet has created an environment where artists are blowing up faster than ever. This is seen as a positive thing, but the downside is that we now have more frustrated artists publicly retiring than ever before.  And while they may use the word retire to describe their departure from the game, we wonder if many of them are actually quitting.  In this episode, the most infamous podcast on planet earth discusses the difference between retiring and quitting, and tries to put an end to all the confusion.

46: The Difference Between Retiring and Quitting

Whether it's family, friendships, or romantic partners--relationships can be difficult. One of the main reasons for that difficulty is the balancing act of investing in others while trying to protect ourselves from decisions they make that we might not agree with.  How do we know when to let go?  When is the right time to back off and let people make their own decisions, even if we may not agree with those those decisions?  We dive deep into that topic on this very personal episode of the most infamous podcast on planet earth.  We name five behaviors that prevent us from letting go and letting people live their own lives.  It gets real in this one.

47: Knowing When To Let Go

Even though recording an hour-long podcast every week for a year takes a lot of discipline, the classic moments its created has made it all worth it.  This week, the most infamous podcast, goes back through the vaults of the last year and pulls out our favorite moments of the past year.  If this episode doesn't bring a smile to your face, we don't know what will.  Let's go!

49: The Best of 2016

One of the worst feelings any artist can experience is losing their entire creative catalog due to circumstances beyond their control.  Whether it's a hard-drive crash, a fire or flood, or burglary--losing what we've created is heart-breaking.  But after the smoke clears and we accept that we will never see our creations again, how do we bounce back? That's what this episode is about.

64: Life After Losing Your Creative Catalog

As artists who have played more shows then we can remember, it's safe to say we've seen a lot of performance trends come and go.  Some of these trends stick around in high esteem, while others get used so much that they eventually become cliches.  In this episode of the most infamous podcast on planet earth, we point out five performance trends that started out good but quickly got played out by rappers at their shows.

80: The Worst Rap Performance Cliches

Every couple of months, the hip-hop press writes another story about a conflict between a veteran rapper and a new rapper, furthering their narrative that there is some sort of generational war going on inside hip-hop.  Truth, however, is much different. There isn't generational war going on in hip-hop--there's a war going between dope artists and wack artists, which has been around since the beginning of hip-hop.  In this episode, we dive into this and explain the real reasons why people really hate on these new rappers.  Lets go!

91: Why We Hate New Rappers

While we may speak often on this show about achieving goals and pushing forward, we rarely speak about what happens after you achieve those goals.  Most people relax and get comfortable.  In fact, the more success you have, the more opportunities you will have to get comfortable, which works against your future success.  In this episode, we break down the unspoken downside of success and how you can make sure you don't get too comfortable after you've reached your goals.

236: Never Get Too Comfortable

Created by underground hip-hop artist Blueprint, Super Duty Tough Work is the most infamous podcast on planet earth, focusing on hip-hop culture, personal-development, and humor.  The results are comical, educational, and inspiring. No shuckin', no jivin', and no bulls#@t.

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