march26 - showbox in seattle with blue scholars
march 27 - pag asa in chicago
march 28 - showbox in seattle with blue scholars
april 2 - wow hall in eugene with grynch, macklemore and blue scholars
april 3 - hawthorne theatre in portland with grynch, macklemore and blue scholars
april 13 - slim's in san francisco with blue scholars
april 16 - viper room in hollywood with blue scholars
april 19 - the queen is dead music video
in between those dates i've been busy writing and recording for these projects that seem to have no end in sight. so, i write all this down not just to show you that i've been doing shit, but to gain some sympathy from y'all before i say this: i'm sorry. i've been slow to post and for that i apologize.
here go my updates with some pictures i stole from other folks. i'll post the official pics when the homegirl lauren gathers them all up and sends them my way. until then...
all of the shows in the northwest were amazing. every single one sold out! i had little to do with that fact, but that's not the point -- the sets with dj phatrick were some of our best to date. the audiences were all with us. grynch made it hard to hit the stage after he and nfared put it down! grynch is one of the next -- trust me! macklemore. hmmm... he's responsible for one of my favorite songs highlighting cultural pride, irish celebration. dj phatrick said, via twitter, that macklemore's set was the best live show he's seen in 7 years! i do not disagree! he and ryan lewis had me standing out in the crowd in admiration. of course, it goes without saying that the blue scholars were the top dogs of each of those nights. i've been fortunate enough to have been around these dudes and watch them grow as artists and performers. i, along with the thousands of others in attendance, were given samples of the material that may or may not make the next blue scholars album! the future of hip hop sounds like the new material prometheus brown and sabzi are piecing together... so, in summation, the northwest shows were perfect! from getting brick-sized brownies hurled at us onstage by fans to spending 3 hours in a vintage megastore, this tour that happened completely by accident was a great success and one that i'll remember for many years.
then we headed down south to california. san francisco is a place that consider my second home. suprisingly, i haven't performed there a lot in the past few months, so i was excited to get there and showcase some new material. sold out show again. dalorean and jern eye opened up the night with great sets before i hit the stage. i knew that whatever show followed the northwest was going to be lackluster in comparison -- gotdamn was i wrong. no disrespect to the northwest, but i was home this night. hella fam in the building and it was truly a party. thank you for all the love bay area!
la la land. viper room. okay, since this memory is a little fresher in my mind, i can give a better recollection of the night. the scholars and i pulled up to the viper room parking lot right at 10pm. when we pulled up, the look of concern immediately took over. there were a bunch of bearded white guys rocking leather vests with "hell's angels" patches along the back of them... hmmm... we got inside and it was the same shit. a whole bunch of residual attica (the band headlining the early show) fans scattered inside the viper room. the viper room security announces that they are about to start letting the 'next' show in, so they wouldn't be allowing re-entry into the venue -- which immediately made us assume that they were letting the attica fans who wanted to stay and drink remain inside. not cool. i was supposed to go on at 10:30pm... 10:30pm came around and the stage wasn't clear, the white bikers were still milling around and no fans had gotten in yet. now i'm starting to trip. but, right at about 10:32pm, the venue turns the lights on and really start to herd all the "angels" out. whew. now we can start to focus. right at 11pm i hit the stage. the first song of the set is supposed to be real chill, but it was hard for me to contain myself. the crowd was right there with me and by the second song i was so hype that i ended up straining my voice from screaming over the crowd. hella fun and yes, the rumors are true, i was rocking a tight diamond supply company cardigan. this was the perfect way to end this series of shows with the northwest's finest! thank you, my fellow angelino's, for making it out and showing the scholars how we get down.
i want to really thank the blue scholars for allowing me to be a part of their movement. my brothers -- i truly believe in your music and know that greater things are coming your way. til' the next round...
also, i want to think my sidekick, dj phatrick for loyally rolling with me and complaining all the way! ha. can't do this shows correctly without you, brother. of course, kat carrido, the woman behind the business, was there with me all the way. thank you for your loyalty, hard work and support.
on to the next one.
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5 comments:
If you wanna hear some epic, ambitious hip hop, you should check out my Spaghetti Western Concept Rap album, called "Showdown at the BK Corral." It's basically an epic Spaghetti Western over 9 hip hop tracks - very influenced by Wu Tang and Morricone. You can download it for free at sunsetparkriders.com
good shit with rockin' the Diamond cardigan. i'm tellin you -- cardigans, sweaters, and sweater VESTS...it's the steez.
...you'll come around, brotha.
Viper Room was LIVE!
-wes
I just started listening to you recently and goddamn...couldn't believe I've been missing out. Telling all my friends about how dope you were wasn't enough for them to listen to you until you killed it at the showbox. You definitely got some more fans up here in the pac NW now. Keep up the good music and I'll definitely be waiting anxiously for upcoming music or anything that has to involve you.
Bambu-
show HHitP some love...you and phatty killed it last year and this year we got your boys, Blue Scholars, headlining for us...
Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102348386474624
UC Berkeley Students for Hip Hop Blog: http://calhiphop.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/hip-hop-in-the-park-2010/
Hey
I'm organizing in Norway with an organisation called Motmakt (Counter-Power). Mostly I wanted to pop by and let you know you have fans on this side of the world too; I think you, Kiwi, and Blue Scholars are making some of the best political rap today. Always on point.
But I have a couple of political questions. I dig what youse all are doing but I have some trouble understanding the Maoism.
Maoism is a lot of different things; I understand that in the Phillipines it's currently the only mass-based anti-capitalist movement, and that the NPA, the national democratic movement, and before that, the Huk, have been at the forefront of resistance to imperialism and exploitation. In Norway, on the other hand, the marxist-leninist movement was, and is, completely cut off from any kind of class struggle/effective organising and mainly consisted, or consists, of small-ass groups who don't get a lot done but hate on everyone else on the left. So I'm open to the idea that my impression of maoism as a movement is skewed from the get-go. I'm a council communist/syndicalist as well, we have fairly different organising principles and a different conception of socialism. Check out the zapatistas (Chiapas), the industrial workers of the world (US), and abhlali basemjondo in South Africa for examples of this type of movement.
Essentialy, my question is; given the failings of state socialist ideology to adress the authoritarianism at the centre of capitalism, and the failure of marxist leninism both in "actually exisiting socialist" states historicly and in adressing working people's problems today (in most countries) why persist with it? With the fall of the berlin wall, the exposure of huge atrocities under Stalin, and the uncertain beginnings of an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist global movement going on today,
why not look into other organizational approaches and conceptions of socialism?
I'm not out to hate, I genuinly would like to engage you guys in a discussion on this, cause I respect your views and you seem a lot more for real than any maoists I know personaly.
I have a couple questions on nationalism-type stuff and anti-racist work too, if you have the time, feel free to send me an email. I realise this probably isn't the most appropriate forum for this type of shit.
Yours in the struggle
Vincent P. Møystad
vincent.moystad@gmail.com
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