Modern Day Prince by Ameer

Not only did each family member dance as individuals but they would also come up with routine's and compete against one-another. Amongst people outside of his family, Ameer was one of the best dancers but in his highly competitive family the title of best dancer just depended on who was the best that night. In these competitions as well as the songs that his mother would sing around the house, Ameer got his ear for sound.

As an infant child, Ameer could always be heard making noise. Whether it was banging on walls, tapping objects together to hear what sound they would make, or manipulating his voice to imitate the sounds he heard in his environment, he was always making noise. His mother gave him the name "The Noise Maker". The noise irritated his siblings to the point where he would have to leave the room or take physical punishment, but during these times Ameer was busy perfecting his craft.

His mother found a way to direct his love for noise by teaching he and his siblings songs and having them perform them in front crowds. They performed in talent shows, family reunions, people on the street, you name it, and they did it. All these things played a key role in Ameer's love for music.

Though Ameer had a great love for music he had an even greater love for spirituality. Born a Muslim into an Islamic household, he was always taught to bring Peace to wherever he went. The meaning of his name Ameer, meaning Prince and/or Leader, had a profound effect on his life. "I would always watch movies and cartoons that had Prince's in it and would try to imitate the good that they would do wherever I could. The cartoon I felt most connected with was Aladdin. I liked the stories of someone poor changing their status in life and still looking out for the best interest of the common people. I felt that he always treated people fair, and that was really the type of person I was. I always have had a drive to do whatever it takes to make things fair for mankind and nature. I had a reputation that I wanted to maintain to, when I graduated high school my senior class nominated me "Most Dependable" and that was something I was proud of and wanted to keep about myself". Though the greater world tries to separate spirituality from popular music, in Ameer's mind, music was a reflection of the spirituality in the artist who wrote the words. Keeping that in mind, he always knew what type of music he wanted to present to the world and never judged other artist for what they presented.

At age 16 Ameer was sure he wanted to be a music producer. It was around this age where all the noises he had been making as a child began to come together. He had no equipment to save the sounds that he had been thinking of. Frustrated for years, by age 18 he had let as many people as he could know what his dream was. One of his first cousins (Danielle) believed in him and she introduced him to K Fam, a producer for LaFaces publishing company HitCo. K Fam let Ameer come to his home and introduced him to all of the up to date producing equipment. He hooked Ameer up with a friend at a music store and Ameer bought his first synthesizer keyboard for a very reasonable price. By this time Ameer had passed courses to become a certified Computer IT. That knowledge was key to him getting the equipment he needed to make his beats.

Once Ameer was able to start producing, he spent most of his free time trying to perfect the craft. But by this time he was 20 years old and much of his life had changed. He had recently married his wife Khadijah and soon after had his first child, Hasna on the way. He was also working two full time jobs as a Teacher's assistant during the day and a Pizza delivery man at night. In addition to that he fixed computers as his side gig. But even with all this, he still pursued his musical dreams. He just never went to sleep. He stayed up till 2 to 3 o'clock in the morning on most nights. He had a plan. He would work on his music throughout the year, but really make strides during the summer. Working in the school had its perks because he got off the summer. So for 3 years he followed that plan.

After the first year of making beats, he let a few rap artists hear his music and they liked what they heard. But when they began rapping over the music, the words they used and the subjects they chose to speak about were so different from what Ameer had intended on doing with music, he never allowed the music to leave his studio. "I never wanted to do music just do it; I always wanted to uplift people. Do something positive with it. I learned early that you have to be very careful when doing music if you are a spiritual person, because you can ruin your chances of going to Heaven if you believe in it. See, I look at music as a powerful force that if you use wrong can give you a million sins in one day and if done right can give you 10 million good deeds in one day. How? Easy. If you were to do a song and it becomes a hit and is played across the country, and let’s say it reaches a million people. If the song is negative and affects those million people in a negative way, that is 1 million sins written down for you in just that one day. If you were to do the same thing and the song was positive and affected those million people in a positive way, you get 10 million good deeds in just that one day because good deeds are 10 times more powerful that 1 sin, at least in my belief. So I never would have my name apart of something so powerful and it be negative. It's just something to think about if you never thought of it that way".

After being frustrated with other artist, Ameer decided to write an album himself so that people could understand what he really intended on doing with music. His 2nd child was born during that time, a son that was named Faheem. With everything going on in his life, it was a challenge to say the least, but after 3 1/2 years he finally finished. He titled the album after the very first song that he had written, "Modern Day Prince". With the exception of one song which he co-produced with his brother-in-law, Ameer wrote and produced all 17 songs on the album. Proud of his work, now he just wants to see if the world can enjoy listening to it as much as he loved writing it.

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