i'm still on cloud nine... just three days before hari raya, diddy's album was released in the market... seronok tak terkira... when i received a called from aziana of sony bmg saying that the album is ready, i jumped up and down, literally... rushed there with shonny... dua-dua tak terkata dalam kereta... when i carried the box to my car, i cried... our hard work... blood and tears... tak dapat nak digambarkan dengan kata-kata... after that we drove to cheras to collect the postcards... lepas tuh i pergi ambil dodol dan bekas mengkuang, isikan cd di dalamnya, then terus ke balai berita... habis di berita harian, berita minggu, harian metro dan metro ahad, terus pulak ke jalan chan sow lin untuk ke utusan malaysia dan kosmo! masa tuh i was having a fever and terrible headache, tapi i tak peduli... i teruskan jugak... i've waited for this moment for almost a year... finally harinya tiba, i will not let a fever and headache merubah apa-apa...
okay, before i go on, i tak tahu panjang mana this posting will be... it could be so long winded, or it could be very short *which i doubt it*... i nak tulis apa saja yang terlintas kat kepala dan apa jua yang i pendamkan selama ini... apa yang i boleh katakan, album diddy ini dihasilkan dari hati... straight from the heart... i remember a few months ago masa tengah discussed dengan aziana, the marketing director for sony bmg... i have a specific requirement that i want for the album... she kept saying "but badrul, it's too expensive"... i told her that i want the package to be super jewel casing... and she replied "but badrul, it's too expensive".... i want it! "okay, it's your money"... and slowly i asked her, "how much is the different?"... she told me the cost and i looked at shonny... and shonny noded... i smiled... "and i want the matte paper", i told aziana... she has this disbelief look on her face... "but badrul, it's really expensive... are you sure?" i looked at shonny again... shonny is really the pillar... he understood... and again, he noded... aziana sighed, "okay... it's your cost"... i looked at her and told her in almost whispery voice, "for this time around, let it be from the heart... next time, we will decide it from the business point-of-view..."
yup, shonny is the pillar for me and for the company... no-nonsense-straight-to-the-point-shonny... shonny used to stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning to design the album cover... we argued and discussed which pictures to use, why we choose that pictures, which picture to use for which song, the arrangement and everything... on the concept, it's all shonny... and i cannot describe how proud i am with him when i look at the album... from the album cover, the poster, the bunting, the postcard, the hariraya card, semua shonny design... ada masa he missed lunch or dinner... and the pictures that he took, oh my god, all are absolutely superb! i have nothing but respect for him and i am so happy that he is my business partner...
hhmmmm... what's next... oh ya, i was quite down lepas i tinggalkan my old job... tapi takdalah lama sangat... the first two months jer... and it was not because i miss my job... not because i miss the money, not because i miss the office environment... i was down because some my friends yang rapat dengan i dah makin menjauhkan diri... maklumlah, dulu i was somebody... the publicity manager for amp radio networks, yang ada number one stations in all languages... masa tuh kira ramailah kawan-kawan yang 'superficial' kat sekeliling i... since i dah so-called no longer ada 'power', sikit-sikit kengkawan nih menjauhkan diri... ada tuh sampai dah tak call langsung dah sekarang nih... kalau dulu, i was invited to anything and everything, kadang-kadang yang takda kena mengena langsung dengan kerja i pun, but now, jangan haraplah nak dapat invitation... buat membazir bayar buka puasa or sahur jer untuk i jer... then i had a talk with some of my closest friends... dean from kosmo! told me, "sabar jer bad, aku pun rasa jugak dulu for almost two months masa in between transfer from utusan to kosmo! memang ada sesetengah tuh tak pandang aku langsung... tapi ia banyak mengajar aku siapa kawan dan siapa lawan...siapa yang ikhlas dan siapa yang berpura-pura..." then i had buka puasa/dinner with seelan and he told me almost the same thing... and the best thing that came out from his mouth was, "when everyone else burned the bridge and run away from me, you stood by my side, badrul... you are truly my friend and i will do anything for you..."
when i told kudsia that diddy's album is out in the market, she cried with me... she told me once that i should write a book about it... two-men-show doing the album from a to z... "you don't have to proof anything to anyone else, because you've already proved it to yourself, that's the most important thing...," she told me... oh, i will never forget the day that i took diddy's second single 'lena' to suria fm... i went to see k.c. the programme manager... played the song to him and jj, the music exec and ten minutes later, the song was on-air... i was surprised and shocked!!! and k.c. says, "if all songs in diddy's album are as good as hilang and lena, we will play it all..." and k.c., i can tell you that all songs are as good if not better!
remember the time when i put in one of the entries that we were about to have a meeting with one of the biggest telcos in malaysia? Alhamdulillah, we have signed the contract... it is fantastic!!! for diddy, for us, for the company... you will be able to see the first advertisement in the major newspapers starting next weekend... we are so excited!!! we are also in the middle of signing up another contract with another one of the biggest telcos in malaysia... insyaAllah dengan rezeki yang Tuhan kurniakan, we will be able to seal the deal as well... selain tu, banyak jugak shows yang kitaorang dapat for the month of october and november... pack jugaklah jadual diddy... Alhamdulillah, syukur ke hadrat Allah s.w.t.
looking back, i sangat-sangat berterima kasih kepada pihak media yang banyak membantu memberikan publicity dan exposure kepada diddy... to radio stations yang memainkan lagu-lagu diddy... to tv stations yang memberi diddy peluang muncul dalam rancangan hiburan dan temubual... doa i semoga sokongan ini akan berterusan... but dalam banyak-banyak nih, i tak akan melupakan yang pertama.... i don't think anybody will forget apa jua yang pertama dalam hidup diaorang... so i memang takkan melupakan jasa baik abie from metro ahad... itulah kali pertama diddy mendapat meluang menjadi 'cover' untuk mana-mana akhbar atau majalah... abie memberi ruang kepada artis baru yang bernama diddy untuk muncul sebagai cover di dalam metro ahad... Ya Allah, i takkan lupakan seumur hidup... memang bersungguh-sungguh betul i masa tuh... dengan aman from khal hair saloon buat rambut, fahmi buat makeup, wanie the designer datang siapkan baju, it was complete... and pertama kali jugak abie buat photoshoot kat office nst yang baru siap... kemudian sokongan-sokongan dari teman-teman wartawan lain terus datang tanpa henti... seingat i, dua kali diddy buat cover untuk metro ahad bersama abie, satu kali untuk harian metro bersama rudy, dua kali untuk kosmo! bersama dean dan teman-teman di kosmo! seperti elrafaei, maliah, syazwan *ex dah* tg. suzana dan lain-lain, dua kali untuk berita harian bersama kak cham dan teman-teman lain di sana, dua kali untuk media hiburan bersama aniff, kak intan, haiza, chail, yatt, diana dan teman-teman di media hiburan, keluar di majalah urtv terima kasih kepada che li, nurul, emma, kak nap dan teman-teman lainnya, majalah hai bersama huzz, shana, nazmi dan lain-lain jugak, majalah mangga bersama mama juwie, jd, mas dan teman-teman di sana , the star online bersama kak zieman, berita minggu bersama raja nurfatimah, majalah i-remaja bersama jemang dan juan, satu page penuh untuk pancaindera mingguan malaysia bersama nizam, satu page penuh di utusan malaysia bersama kak tim, shaz, kak jah dan teman-teman lain di utusan malaysia dan banyak lagi... and of course, tak boleh dilupakan teman-teman bloggers macam leen, fiebie, wenkt dan lain-lain yang kalau nak sebut satu-satu memang tak terdaya... but one in particular is sultanmuzaffar... tak tahu berapa banyak i terhutang budi pada sm... terlalu banyak terhutang budi... terima kasih tidak terhingga kepada semua untuk peluang yang diberikan kepada artis baru seperti diddy... dan doa i, semoga sokongan akan berterusan... kalau ada yang i terlepas pandang tuh dan tak sebut, harap maafkan...
and i have to say thank you to kelly kerana memberi peluang diddy muncul di tv3... tiga kali diddy muncul untuk muzik muzik... campur dengan kid yang bawa diddy ke tv9, abie jugak membuka peluang memperkenalkan diddy untuk muncul di tv8, kak sham dan ally yang bawa diddy ke malaysia hari ini tv3, orang-orang rtm yang bawa diddy untuk konsert gegar rtm, orang-orang di dewan bahasa yang bawa diddy ke rancangan mereka yang ditayangkan di rtm, izan from rmkl, lynn from suria fm yang banyak jemput diddy untuk show, adifashla and raja farah from xfresh, people from hot fm and era, dan ramai lagilah... apatah lagi diddy jugak berpeluang untuk buat persembahan di majlis anugerah yang besar seperti anugerah planet muzik berduet bersama diva kris dayanti, terimakasih tak terhingga pada amin from beyond serta anugerah era 2007, segmen bersama dayang nurfaizah, terima kasih buat rostam dan kudsia... MasyaAllah, kalau i buat speech menang award nih mahu ambik masa dua tiga jam... muhahhaaaaa... but all in all, i want to say that i am very grateful... very, very grateful!
apa-apa pun, i amat berpuas hati dengan album pertama diddy... oh wait, i have to say this to audi... "audi, you are something else! you are genius! you are so talented!" okay, back to the story... i'm not looking for perfection... tak akan ada manusia yang perfect kat dunia nih kecuali rasullullah s.a.w. apa yang i ingin capai ialah yang terbaik dengan segala kudrat yang termampu... itu saja... dan insyaAllah dan Alhamdulillah, kami berjaya mencapainya mengikut kepuasan peribadi... dan Alhamdulillah jugak, penghasilan album diddy tidak membuat kami berhutang dengan sesiapa... segala-galanya kami bayar dengan titik peluh sendiri... tak berhutang dengan producers, musicians, printers dan sebagainya... sebenarnya itulah janji i dan shonny ketika mula-mula kita nak bukak business... we want to be a good pay master... mudah untuk bekerjasama dengan sesiapa saja... dan bila kita jadi good pay master, orang akan buatkan apa jua project kita sebagai priority... taknaklah nanti album bertahun kat pasaran tapi hutang buat lagu pun belum langsai lagi... mana nak sorok muka... industry kita pun kecik jer and orang akan bercakap-cakap mengenainya.. producers, musicians semua pun cari makan jugak... so, kalau takda duit, kita akan tangguh dulu apa jugak project until we manage to collect some money... baru project tersebut akan berjalan... insyaAllah, kita akan teruskan dengan cara nih... insyaAllah...
i mungkin tak akan update blog for the next one or two weeks... sebab tuh entry nih panjang giler nih... walaupun sebelum nih pun bukannya update hari-hari pun... muhahhaaa... tapi rasanya kali nih betul-betul nak bercuti seminggu... nak tumpukan pada beraya bersama keluarga dan sahabat handai saja... so, i nak ambik kesempatan ini untuk menyusun sepuluh jari memohon maaf dari hujung rambut ke hujung kaki jika ada yang terkasar bahasa, tersalah cakap, terlepas kata, terlebih bergurau, mahupun perbuatan yang membuatkan sesiapa saja terhiris, terluka dan terasa... saya hanyalah manusia biasa... insyaAllah panjang umur dan murah rezeki, kita akan bersua lagi...
and i'm saving the best news untuk paragraph terakhir...
best news!
selamat hari raya and maaf zahir batin... go get a copy of diddy's album, okay, and you will know that it is from the heart!