[RECAP] Tonedeff’s QN5 MEGASHOW 2009 Experience [Part One]

Posted August 13 2009

QN5 MEGASHOW Smashes. Thank You Blue Schoolers! The Love Is Mutual.

After 4 straight months of non-stop promotion, video commercials, flyering EVERY show in NYC, sponsorship by our peeps at 2DopeBoyz.com, a series of on-air interviews courtesy of DJ Eclipse & WNYU Halftime Radio Show, a dedicated travel blog, weeks of prep, planning, editing, writing & rehearsals… QN5 MEGASHOW 2009 went down without a hitch on August 7th, 2009 @ Highline Ballroom – BEAUTIFULLY.

All the pictures and video in the world couldn’t capture the electricity and love that blanketed that night. If you were there, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The energy and devotion shown by blue schoolers from all over the world is completely without measure in the world of hip hop. A lot of rap acts these days like to claim they have “movements” behind them, but last Friday was proof positive they are sadly mistaken – THIS IS A MOTHERFUCKING MOVEMENT. Their fans ain’t flying out from all over the WORLD to share an experience. The baby blue armada was in FULL effect and it was a night I’ll remember for the rest of my life – I’m sure most of you will too.

I was running around like a mad man all night, positioning myself next to the stage in tiny intervals to make sure that everything was running as smoothly as possible. Also, props to Louis Logic, Marco Polo & Torae, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah, J Arch, Donwill of Tanya Morgan and Mr. Mecca for kicking the night of performances off so cleanly. And I CANNOT forget the ridiculously talented DJ JS-1, who did a ridiculous job as the glue that held the sets together. This man deserves a medal for being our go-to DJ year in and year out. While I didn’t manage to catch every bit of the show, I definitely enjoyed what I did see. So, here’s my recap:

All Guns Blazing…

QN5’s newest signee Kokayi and his band TheCaesarz kick off the QN5 portion.

I managed to catch some of Kokayi’s set. He rocked live with his band TheCaesarz, joints from Mass Instructions, and a couple joints from his forthcoming QN5 debut album (more details on that later). When I first told him about the Megashow, I told him this was how he was gonna prove himself to the hardcore fans and he needed to “take it there”, and he did – even stripping down to his drawls. Koke sounds FLAWLESS live – crispy clean vocal work and singing, flows galore and a punk edge – definitely made me proud to have him on our official roster. Looking forward to showing him off some more. Drop him a line here.

Dr. Strangelove Operating On The Crowd @ The Highline.

I wasn’t able to catch much of Mr. SOS’s set, but from what I could tell he held it down with joints from HILTSWALTB, complete with nurse Intro (props to Houstonz for allowing us to borrow his Mrs) and his own scratches. I ran through a few off-stage overdubs on “Bionic” between dealings with the world’s most insanely dramatic stage manager. If y’all say he did his thing, I believe that 100%.

Substantial kicks off his set with a new rendition of “Go/Wait”.

Substantial is a motherfucking star. I say that with absolute certainty. From the second this man stepped on stage, the crowd was with him. Stan had planned to rock with his band, as well as Chew Fu who was on tour, but it didn’t pan out last minute. So, it was crazy to see him pull it all together as beautifully as he did at the eleventh hour. He proceeded to time-warp through the entire catalog – from the 1st album to the newer web-exclusives with ease. The house dancers on the remix of “Resurrection of The House Party” were a nice touch. I remember some press cat on the side of the stage saying “I know SOMEBODY stretched this morning”. haha. He also showed me the custom “QN5” kicks a couple months ago – just goes to show how much planning goes into this event. Many folks who I’ve spoken to (mainly chicks) have told me Substantial was their favorite. Then I tell them that he’s married with a kid and their vaginas dry up . Overall, a killer set by Substizzle.

The Human Highlight Reel Strikes Again.

PackFM’s music is BUILT for high capacity crowds. Neck-snapping Brooklyn boom-bap, layered with feverish call & response channeled via 32 megawatts of electricity. If you were even remotely attempting to play ‘wallflower’ that night, the second pack’s intro played, you knew you were done for. Pack kicked it off with “Stomp”, a song normally reserved to close shows out with, and lit the crowd on fire. When he told me he wanted to do this, I wondered how he’d follow it up but by the time his set was over, I was wondering how the hell I was going to follow THAT up. lol His entrance was also a big point of concern for him, being that he likes to switch it up every year…but as you can see, he nailed it. “Stop/Start” with SOS was a nice treat to see again. Domingo turned to me as the beat was playing and said “I still can’t believe you made this shit…it’s fucking crazy” – a high compliment from a legend. Pack premiered his new joint “Nasty” off of IFHR, which features him flippin flows in unexpected ways. The audience seemed to dig that very much, which bodes well for the album. Personally, I think Pack took home the prize for the livest set of the night – and that wouldn’t be the first time.

The best thing I remember about my set. I held y’all down. Y’all held me up.

I wish I could remember every detail from my set, but I was in 100% autopilot mode the second I went on stage. After 3.5 days without sleeping in order to get everything done, my brain broke and the rest just kinda happened. I even downed one of those 6-hour energy bottles for good measure to ensure I wouldn’t pass out on stage, which was a real concern since I recently discovered that I damaged the balance-system in my right inner-ear – I was sporadically dizzy and all that. Definitely not a fun situation to be in when you’re doing a huge show the same week.

Prior to the show, I had handled most of the organizational details of the show, including setup, dealing with the club, guest-lists, flyer design, videos, etc etc. A mammoth undertaking for any one person – let alone a performer. Pack was my commander on street team promotion, literally hitting every every show in NYC for 2 months, and alley-ooping whatever else needed attention. So be sure to give this man hella dap for the show as well. Also, I have to give a super-MAJOR shoutout to Mrs. Deff for holding it down for me. That woman is a gift to gift-givers and is solely responsible for me being alive right now.

So, with all that said, I STILL had to figure out all that “artist-stuff” I wanted to do with my own set. Now, I haven’t done a full set in NYC in over 2 years. I wasn’t about to come back with the same old-same old, so I decided to unleash some newness – and what better place to do that than the Megashow? I set it off with a new song I had specifically crafted for this show entitled “Sunrise”. I hired a string quartet to reinforce the arrangements I had written and after a rehearsal, it seemed to come together. I was certainly the most nervous about this track of all the songs that night, but at this point in my career, I know that my fans (ie. Auralarians) know to always expect the unexpected from me. That’s something that’s incredibly liberating as an artist, so I felt like I could take people somewhere new. Regardless, I hope y’all dug it.

YouTube Can Suck My Dick.

I also wanted to bust a few heads on the speed tip. I’ve seen way too much bullshit lately, passing itself off as “fastest ____” or “fastest _____” on YouTube, when in reality when you slow the shit down, they’re all saying “gibbidabibbidalibbidawibba” nonsense. And if they ain’t, it’s “killaniggamfuckabitchandgitmymoney” bullshit. And though I don’t like to focus on the speed thing too much, I just wanted to prove a point. Funny enough, when I was up there, the beat sounded slow to me and I remember motioning to JS-1 to speed up the beat. He later told me this via email:

“You are the only person to ever ask me to speed up a beat that was already at like 180 bpm. LOL. thats why i hesitated a lil bit on that one song. i thought you were motioning to make it louder. LOL. i was thinking to myself “is that wacko saying speed the beat up?”
- DJ JS-1

I must say though, without a doubt, that performing the end portion of “Optimist” while crowd surfing is one dream I can finally cross of my checklist. It was a surreal experience and I thank all of you who held me up from the bottom of my heart. I’m glad we could share that moment together. Also, I have to give a shout to Steph The Sapphic Songstress for her slick backup vocals on the night – you are a fucking gem of a talent and I hope you get your props soon.

The Fetuseahorse Is Revealed.

Finally, after the proper moshpit broke out for “Issawn”... Kno & I decided to unveil a new Chico & The Man song, (we’re not revealing the title yet) and officially drop the CATM ‘Fetuseahorse’ logo. I see y’all finally found the item for CATM clue number four, albeit a bit late since we’d hoped someone would find it before the show to increase anticipation. Close enough I guess. There were some puzzled faces when the logo popped on the videoscreen, but I guess those folks haven’t been following the clues. Anyway, be sure to cop a shirt.

PS. I certainly did not expect the “encore” that Mr. Mecca prompted. He & I have had our ups and downs as friends and performers and we’ve been through A LOT together, so it was especially impactful for him to do what he did. That moment will stay with me forever and it is deeply appreciated. Thank you for that brother, and thank you all for showing love to the kid.

CunninLynguists w/ Club Dub. APOS in full. Once in a lifetime.

QN5 shows are generally a workout, but Megashows are on a completely different level. I have to give all of you props on your cardio-conditioning for surviving the prior sets, but when CunninLynguists is up next you don’t need much convincing to stick around. The moment our own southern superstars broke into “Where Will You Be?” from their 2006 classic, A Piece of Strange, backed with the live playing of Club Dub – a volt of awesometricity shot through the venue and we knew it was on. This records sounds beautiful live, which is all the more impressive considering the original is a layered masterpiece of dusty chops and synths. The mere musicality heard that night was just another testament to Kno’s genius as a producer.

With Deacon and Natti taking command of the stage, they systematically bodied each song on the tracklist – complete with interludes. The rock-remix of “Hellfire” was hella on-point. I couldn’t help but get up there and lose my shit – not getting bounced for this is one of the fringe benefits of being a part of QN5. I went up next for “The Gates”, knowing the cameras were rolling so I tried to make it as epic as possible with the assistance of a stealthy MPC-stage monitor that would send me flying every which direction. Apparently, the HD footage and audio recorded that night looks ridiculous, so hopes are high it’ll all come together nicely for an APOS LIVE DVD. Holding down an entire album live on stage is no small feat, and for this, I believe that night solidified CunninLynguists as the best group in Hip Hop music today. Bravo, fellas!

Home Stretch of The Night…

We were running about 45-mins behind schedule, so there wasn’t much time to meet and greet at the venue. My sincerest apologies to anyone who didn’t get a chance to say whuttup and get a pic with any of us – bigger venues like the Highline are very strict with their times. Still, I had a chance to talk to hella folks and snap a slew of pictures (I’m honored to make your Facebook profile pictures). I hope y’all were entertained, I sure as fuck was, and I missed most of the show.

The after-party ran into some issues though. Essentially, some wack ass DJ who was spinning was double-booked by the club and refused to leave – playing a bunch of vomitous shit that attracted a bunch of drunken fucktards. When I walked in, not only was I confused but I was also accidentally jabbed in the chest by some drunken fool doing swimming-motions with his hands to the tune of some random ass Ron Browz song (wtf?). JJ Brown tried his damnedest to work it out, but I can’t blame anyone but the club. Still, I managed to catch some blue schoolers there, talked to a partially conscious PackFM, had a drink and kicked it till close. Not a total loss, right?

Well, after heading home at 4:30 AM, you’d think I’d finally take the opportunity to sleep, right? WRONG. The next part of my evening will be the basis for PART TWO of this recap. Also, stay tuned for additional Megashow related posts: including the official gallery of images shot by none other than Darren Nanos (@ JustaVisual.net), as well as the newly-infamous 2009 intro video. More to come!

Hollerate!
Tone.

[RANT] Shifting Standards Watch #1: Lyricism

Posted January 21 2009

SHIFTING STANDARD #1: Lyricism

This post was lifted from an IM convo I had this morning:

buddy: Have you heard of _______________?
me: yes. and they’re horrible.
buddy: haha, i agree, but i saw them live, they have an impressive amount of energy
me: So do alot of cats. I mean, my crew is mad energetic on stage and didn’t have to sacrifice rapping ability to do it. Plus, I’m not too keen on all these parody electro/rap groups that have been popping up lately.
buddy: haha, i don’t count you guys in comparisons cause its not fair
me: why not? they wanna rap… they need to be judged as such.
buddy: i wouldn’t really say that they’re rappers… they’re more like electro/techno producers who rap over their stuff
me: .... they rap.
me: I don’t give a fuck if they rhyme over accordians and laser zaps with monkeys on stage…if you rap…you need to be dope. I’m really tired of people making excuses for wack rappers. If you’re gonna use the artform for your own financial gain, you need to respect it enough to be held against its’ standards.
buddy: true true, good point.

Don’t be silent folks.

Hollerate,
Tone

My Production Work On “whutduzFMstand4?”

Posted March 3 2006

Ok… so Pack’s album’s finally been announced. About fuckin time, right?

Y’all have no idea how difficult it’s been to keep this shit under wraps all this time. Those of y’all who’ve been paying close attention have caught glimpses of it throughout various shows, etc. (ie. Suzie & Free-Esta @ The Megashow), but those of you who are comin at this project with fresh ears are definitely gonna snap your necks.

I executive produced the album and I’m very proud of it. I’ve been working with Pack for years, and I think I’ve really managed to assist him in making the record that was as close to his vision as possible. He wanted a record that KNOCKED as hard as anything out there, but still catered to his personality and allowed him to be versatile. This is hands down his best record yet.

If you peeped Featured Material Vol.3, you caught some glimpses of the sound, but wdfms4? is that times 1,000. There’s not 1 track on here that I skip through, and every beat manages to have it’s own identity and still give you a neck cramp.

The one thing that I love about working with the different QN5 artists, is that everyone’s individual music is VERY different from the others. It allows me to grow as a producer to do something like Archetype, turn around and make street-bangers for Session’s Spicasso, and then turn around to lace brooklyn-bounce joints for Pack’s LP.

I put alot of effort into constructing tracks that would bring out different dimensions of Pack’s flow and working with Pack to select beats from the supporting producers (ie. Kno, Domingo, Static, Elite) that allow him to do different things thematically that show his growth as an artist. I really think folks are gonna be suprised at how good this album is.

I think alot of cats sleep on Pack’s talent and hopefully, this album will silence the naysayers, make loads of new fans, and re-affirm the faith in him that FManiacs have held for years in the process.

Needless to say, I’m excited as fuck. If any of y’all are fans of my production work, I encourage y’all to “PRE-ORDER”:http://www.qn5.com/pack/main.html it. I guarantee you’ll dig it.

I’m lookin forward to everyone’s reactions.

Hollerate.
Tone.

Megashow Weekend Part 3: Sunday Stress

Posted August 3 2005

(RSC & The Keys Incident)

12:10 PM: So, I finally get a chance to sleep for about 4.5 hours after this huge night. We got SOS, Pack, Kno & Vanessa in the crib and Pack was scheduled to rock a little something at the Rocksteady Anniversary in Harlem that afternoon.

So, we decided to split up, cause Pack had to be there early, and Kno had to pick up Natti, SunnyStylez and Sicari who were stayin at some chick’s house uptown. I left Kno & Vanessa with my house keys and broke out with Pack & SOS with whatever Merch we could carry. Kno would then take the other half with Vanessa and meet us at RSC.

So, Pack, SOS & I arrive at the RSC Anniversary. I respect these brothers because they go through the trouble of organizing this event every year and it’s always fun. Still, It’s upsetting to watch this event become scaled back in the past couple of years because of the city’s bullshit politics and red tape.

Anyway, We set up a merch table and sold a few CDs…SOS then broke out to catch his bus back to ATL and Mecca showed up. Around 5 PM, Pack & I hit the stage for Pack’s set…did the damn thizzle and then I had to break out.

Kno wasn’t gonna be able to roll through to the event in time, and I needed to get Vanessa to the airport for her flight at 8:50 pm. So, I hopped in a cab with the 6 boxes of merch that we brought to RSC and headed to meet Kno, pick up the remaining merch he had brought for RSC and pick Vanessa up in the process.

...14 Boxes and 15 minutes later, Vanessa and I are in a cab, and we decide to skip dropping the boxes off and make our way back to the Airport, just to be safe. We hit Laguardia… I drop her off from the cab and make my way back home. I get home, unload all the boxes and drag all 14 heavy ass boxes to my stoop all by my lonesome.

I reach into my pocket to open the front door.

...

WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY KEYS?!!

...

OH FUCK. VANESSA HAS MY KEYS AND SHE’S ON A FLIGHT TO MIAMI!

...

I had a fuckin breakdown. I literally just sat on my stoop. I just couldn’t deal with anything anymore. See, the problem was…Mrs. Deff wouldn’t be home for another 2 days and I’d be locked out of my house with 14 boxes of merch I couldn’t leave out there.

...

OK, LET ME CALL VANESSA!...FUCK… I FORGOT.. HER PHONE PLAN DOESNT WORK UP HERE IN NEW YORK.

...
So, I made a gut decision to call another cab [Luckily I had $20 left] and drag all these boxes with me to the airport. I’d have to reach her somehow before she left, or I was FUCKED. She had her wireless laptop, and I called a few people to see if maybe she was online – she wasn’t. Damn.

I got to LGA and It took a minute to find a way to make it from the curb to the inside of the ticket counter. I managed to steal a cart and loaded the merch up…rolled into line and waited. The clock was ticking and this shit was taking forever. I still wasn’t sure if she had the keys or not, but I couldn’t get Kno on the phone to verify cause his reception was shitty too.

I stepped up to the ticket dude and I explained the situation to him… I gave him all the relevant info: her name, departure time, destination… he located her flight and had her paged.

He left me at the counter for a second…5 agonizing minutes later, he returned with my keys. As he placed them in my hand, he said, “She told me to tell you not to kill her”. To which I responded, “I can’t, she’s already past security.”

It’s kinda funny. She was with me the whole weekend, and endured my last night of editing and was a LIFESAVER for the show, etc. So, I’m not mad at her at all. It was partially my fault too, cause we were BOTH too fried to remember the important little details. I love my niece…but this definitely woulda sucked. haha

My adrenaline was sky-high by now. This weekend had kicked the living shit out of me, and I was dehydrated and just starting to melt. I lugged the cart of merch over to the Wendy’s at the other end of the terminal and ordered the Biggie Sized Dr.Pepper.

I collapsed into one of those metal chairs in the food court and sipped my way back into reality. I still had a cab ride back home and 14 boxes of merch to lug up 4 flights of stairs.

Well, to make a ridiculously long story a couple paragraphs shorter, I managed to get all the merch upstairs. I was exhausted, spent, drenched from the humid summer heat, bruised, moderately dehydrated and sleep deprived.

I surrendered to my living room couch, falling into it like a truckload of bricks. My heart pounding from 5/6 arduous trips upstairs. My eyes shut themselves…and my mind blanked out.

I suddenly recalled the rush of walking out onto a stage in front of a frenzied crowd.

And even after ALL of that, somehow…it was all worth it.

Hollerate.
Tone.

Megashow Weekend Part 2: Megashow Madness

Posted August 3 2005

12:30 PM: Security basically forces us into one dressing room and is extremely rude and pushy anytime anyone needs to walk out, etc. So, I hang out in the dressing room, fielding inquiries from 100 different people every couple of minutes and coordinating Vanessa on the cues for the DVD, that she’d be controlling (Nicely done, babe!).

1:00 AM: Sleep deprivation and stress are beginning to get the best of me. My limbs start getting numb.

1:05 AM: I hear Bad Seed beats playing. I ask someone in the room, “Is that Bad Seed berating people out there?” Someone replied, “Well, yeah, it’s Bad Seed.” I squinted in thought…”Good Point…Sounds good.”

1:10 AM: I hear Pumpkinhead doing his new shit from *Orange Moon Over Brooklyn* & then I hear ArchRival on stage doing “Swordfish”. The crowd sounds like they’re into it. So far, so good.

The Megashow Begins

1:30 AM: I’m stuck backstage….tHe QN5 set starts… a full half-hour after we’d originally planned it to. The lights go dark and I hear the titles come up and people start makin noise. They laughed at all the jokes (although, I think they missed the Rakim joke after the Mike Jones video). I feel a sudden rush of relief, that the DVD is working and the crowd is excited about the show. I start to calm down a little.

MERCH-MESS-MAYHEM
It’s at this point backstage, that I’m told that BB Kings wants 30% of all our merch sales. Pack confirms it for me. I launch into a fucking fit of rage, because I put up alot of my own money to manufacture all this new shirt, and we all lugged TONS of merchandise to the show, and NEVER ONCE was it specified or mentioned in any way shape or form by the club that they would be taking 30% of our merchandise earnings. Also,

I flat out refused, because that’s really the only way we make money off these things, and I’ll be damned if this club is going to rob us. It was then I decided that we’d take it outside.

...AND BACK TO THE SHOW
1:42 AM: Session does his first “solo” performance with Debut backing him up. Normally, we’re doing a QN5 Allstars show, so either Pack, Mecc or Myself are up there with him…but this time around, it was really for dolo. I’m stuck backstage listening. He lit it up with “Spicasso” off the album, his first performance of “The Only Way” and then into “Watch Yo Back”...and when the beat dropped for “Don’t Do It”, I heard this GIGANTIC ROAR from the crowd. I was like… “Oh shit, this is gonna be a hot ass show”. (By the way, I produced every track he did that night)

1:53 AM: Mecca hits the stage with his 2 singers and GC on the sax. Mind you, DJ Sicari showed up with CL/Kynfolk that day, and never had a chance to practice with us and wasn’t familiar with our set at all. So, he was just helping us out on the strength [Props to Him].

Mecca gets into it..things are rolling smoothly, then he goes into his “throwback set”. THIS was when Buckshot was supposed to come out during “How Many MCs”....well, he was backstage somewhere and missed the cue. Someone found him and he came on stage after the fact.

Mecca told DJ Sicari to bring it back for Buck, but the entire throwback portion was burned as ONE track on the CD (for a reason), “How Many MCs” was in the middle of the track…so when the shit restarted, it was from “Flava Of The Month” (the 1st track). So, then Buck starts rhyming… and let’s just say we were just as surprised to see him bring Steele on stage…completely unplanned…Acapellas…and verses are exchanged. I’m listening backstage looking at my watch. We’d planned our set out to-the-minute for months. Mecc’s set was supposed to be 11 Minutes long, but obviously, it ran longer than it was supposed to due to a few things – this effect would eventually domino for the rest of the night with dire consequences for the set.

I felt bad for Mecc, cause he was basically winging it on stage as the entire set shifted in front of him, and he did his best to keep the crowd engaged, even though his initial plans for the show with the Live Band were sqaushed last minute. He’s a trooper indeed.

2:10 AM: PackFM’s titles hit the screen and the crowd erupted with noise. A) It felt good to see Pack get the love he deserves and B) I was happy the DVD was still working.

Now, Pack had been planning the crates for months. When he told us about it…we weren’t entirely sure how it was gonna work, but he insisted it would. He had Akolades guarding the crates throughout the night so that they wouldn’t be moved or taken before he’d need them.

He launched into an airtight set, that he’s been perfecting over the past year at various spots around the country, and ran through “Spit In The Wind,” “Forever Shine,” “Free-Esta,” and then into a brutally rugged rendition of “Stomp”, complete with CANING action.

Throughout the whole thing I was backstage with the cordless mic chiming in with adlibs peeking through the curtains at this monstrosity of chaos Pack had created around himself, and thinking… “This dude is KILLING shit right now”

Props to Pack. Beautifully done.

2:35 AM: Tonedeff time. Now, I’ve been looking forward to this show for a year. And since there was no Archetype release party, to me, this would be the first time I’d be able to see if heads really felt the album in person.

I heard the sounds of my video intro playing, and the people started making noise. I took a deep breath and made my way to the stage. The second I hit that stage…I felt this tremendous rush of energy as the screams from that entire place lit up like it was the fourth of july. I was FLOORED. I couldn’t contain my smile.

We launched into a medley of “Heads Up” & “Clear Em Out” which to my surprise, were memorized and recited back to me verbatim. Mecc & I threw down in a salsa-off, which he won (I need to step my Salsa game up, son) and went into “Spanish Song”. That was fun.

Then “Pervert” came on. People started buggin the fuck out, singing the chant and jumping. It was surreal. Much to my pleasant surprise, there was a couple literally FUCKING on the side of the stage during this song. That’s some real rock star shit, y’all. Jeeeuh.

I closed out with “Porcelain,” “Champion,” “Case Closed,” and brought out the big guns with “Issawn”. ‘Tearing this bitch down’ has never been so fun. Although, I kind of regret not crowd surfing (I’m still a little timid about that since Scribble ‘03).

I still haven’t watched the tape of the show yet…so I’m going off memory right now. But as you can imagine, choosing songs to do at a show like this, is tricky…but I think I made the right selections and most importantly…people had fun.

3:05 AM: CunninLynguists hit the stage with this wild ass intro I hooked up for them – complete with fire and satan himself. The Crowd sounded live and when “Hellfire” dropped, I could just feel that floor rumble. That’s one of the baddest beats known to man, seriously. (Kno!)

I’m not sure what happened next, but I was distracted by all the backstage theatrics. Apparently, someone wanted to go on immediately, and we were being told to cut CL’s set “NOW!”. The club was threatening us that they were going to close down at 3:30 (which is NOT what they told us initially). Of course, we weren’t gonna let that happen, but CL wound up cutting half of their set short anyway. Ras’ DJs intruded on CL’s last song and that was completely uncalled for.

CL left the stage, and we were forced to cut our final surprise for the heads. We’d intended on doing “Slogans,” (with ELITE too!) and a couple other of our more well known posse cuts, but that didn’t happen. Worst of all, we wanted to close the show out with the first performance of Extended Famm’s FYRIB in nearly 3 years. BUUUUTTT…apparently, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The Party Is Over

3:16 AM: Ras Kass is on stage and I make my way out of the back for a second. I meet up with a slew of folks on the side of the stage. 2 girls apparently drove up from North Carolina to be at the show…they asked me to sign their iPODs, which I did. (Gully). I said whuttup to a bunch of people and basically signed random artifacts/memorabilia. Then, People start asking where the merch is. We launch an all out offensive to get the merch upstairs and out of the club, so we could get to selling.

3:45 AM: We get up there, and we’re met with cops galore…it was almost as though they were just WAITING to fuck with the hip-hop kids that night. NYPD are the biggest fuckingprickfuckassholes on the planet. With all the shit going on in the world, these fucktards have nothing better to do than harass a bunch of young folk trying to buy a CD. They started pushing people around, taking IDs from folks, threatening us with handcuffs and basically telling me they were gonna arrest me cause I was in charge. So, basically we HAD to split.

In the process of the mess, mob, cops and confusion…I’m pretty sure some sonofabitch stole a box of Merch with Kno’s *Excrementals* & Sloppy Seconds 2 in it. I know our fans wouldn’t steal from us, because they know we put out own money into this shit and we struggle. Shit is fucked up, seriously.

4:15 AM: Anyway, we hit an alternate corner as a meeting place after the show, slowly, everyone begins to show up, so that we can reorganize the boxes and get home. I then notice that we’re missing another full box of t-shirts. I bug the fuck out.

4:45 AM: EPIC (Thanks again, homey!) offers to gimme a ride back to BB’s in a last ditch effort to find the merch. LUCKILY, the bald white-dude security guard was MAD cool and knew right where the box was. We took the box back to the meeting corner, and headed off to Soup & Burger on 8th & Broadway for our post-show grub.

7:15-8:15 AM: We finally make it home and everyone basically collapses for a few hours before tomorrow’s RSC event.