So here we go. The first full hands on report.
This was more of a showcase/song battle-type event, I was pretty much performing amongst local rappers. I normally perform as an opener for big upcomers or at events with Juggalo-type ICP-offspring groups. Last night I went down to a show at a club in one of the roughest areas in my city (people are known to be killed here for no reason). I was dressed in a green Smokey the Bear t-shirt that revealed my stoner tendencies, a counterculture inspired peace necklace, a Heineken dog tag bottle opener, with pants that revealed my fat pockets complete with a wallet full of gift cards, iPod, iPhone, a container for my MJ pipe and another smartphone my friend had me borrow. I tried to kill sometime to avoid walking around the area for too long. Eventually I pull up to the venue (bar/lounge type place) and find a place to park at 9:30, I spray myself two sprays behind the ear and two sprays on one of my wrist. I walked into the club passing a sign at the door that said (must be 21 years old to enter with valid ID).
I got there a bit earlier before everybody else, I was the only person not searched at the door (I’m wondering if that’s because I was the only ‘white/mixed’ person there). I walked over to someone who looked like he worked there and greeted him, asked him where I sign up for the performance. He points me to a woman in the corner. I sign up and then sit down and wait as the crowd piles in. Eventually I move over to the bar where I’m immediately greeted by the female bartender and she asked me what I’d like. I’m underage but I like to drink at bars, I was just feeling the situation out and seeing if I’d be ID’d before I order. As I was sitting there I noticed the two female bartenders were conversing while staring at me as if they were talking about me, I looked over and made eye contact and she looked away. I order myself a “Hennessy and Coke, stiff and light on the mix”, then outta nowhere this dude comes up and stand to the left of my chair at the bar and makes brief eye contact with me as I stand up to hand my $6 + tip to the bartender - he walks behind me and (he seemed kinda ‘out of it’) and goes “What up bruh” and pats his hand against my chest (I have no idea what this was).
The comedic host of the event makes the announcement that things are about to get started and to gather around the stage, I take my second drink and post up at a chair that’s near the stage. The host announced who the judges were gonna be, and he said “this will be this guy’s first week of judging and he’s been here every single week, he also happens to be the only white guy here” to which another guy on a microphone says “Oh no, right over here” and points towards me..I laugh and reject the label with my hands in a way that made everybody laugh while all the eyes were on me. Then he said “I’d like everybody to give it up for newcomer [insert my name here]” and everybody gave it up which was really cool. I didn’t realize this was my call to the stage but they called me up there and I performed my song. The judges all gave me good critiques on my performance from interactions with the crowd to my style of music which he said was different from the usual performers that come through, however he felt that my style wouldn’t of matched the opportunity we were competing for which was to open for a hip-hop group that’s known for it’s promotion of the essence and fundamentals of hip-hop. I thanked the crowd and the judges and got off the stage. I ordered myself my third drink and a female rapper came up to me and said “Don’t listen to these guys, I really like your style and what your doing with it” I gave her my business card and she immediately added me on Facebook for a collaboration, I told her about the importance of networking (this was her first performance). When I go to get my fourth drink the bartenders look at each other with a bit of concern like “Damn another?” I didn’t wanna push my limits there so I let this one be my last. I walked outside to engage in some 420 recreation, I offered some to the people around me, surprisingly many of the people around me didn’t partake in herbal inhalation (which is totally out of the norm for most of the people in my area). While outside a lot of other performers and people told me they really liked my style and my performance, including an elderly Rastafarian man who came over to America in 1967 and witness Bob Marley perform in Boston in 1980 (I was honored to hear the love he gave me). I began talking to a group of female rappers as I was hitting my pipe and amongst them only one of the rappers smoked, she told me about how low of a priority public smoking is in the area. As we were smoking the event photographer came up to me started taking pictures of me and I told him how much I liked the event, but then I said “People here are complaining about the rap scene around here but you got a chance to organize and build a network, put together a compilation project and get ten people serious likeminded artist all out their promoting the same project, you in the position to do this and really build something here” and he was like…“Are you [insert my name here]” (apparently he knew me off Facebook), I felt an aura of respect coming from him and a lot of the people who I talked to.
I’ll be back at this event next week, this time with A-314