The First Ever Cut
To say I was nervous on Friday night would be a massive understatement. Even once all the artists had arrived and we had The Acoustic Cafe completely set up with the Elemental Magazine and LIFEbeat promotional stuff I was still stressin. The DJ tables looked amazing as we ran a sheet of large Elemental stickers around the top of the table and hung a LIFEbeat poster in the center, covering the cords and everything behind the tables. We still needed to attach a CD player, though, because all of the artists had their instrumentals on CD. Luckily Dyalekt had his portable CD player on him (God bless jeans with big pockets), but we knew it would need new batteries if it was going to last for the entire show. There was a corner store two blocks down so we walked over and picked up what we needed. About two steps from the store, however, my sandal slipped off, or at least I thought it slipped off. On this night, one of the most important night’s of my life, my trusty sandal, the same sandals I’d had since my sophomore year of college (that’s 1997 for those who want to do the math) decided to break.
I walked the two blocks or so back with one sandal on and one bare foot. I think that might be the record for longest walk with a bare foot in Bridgeport history. When I got back the sound guy and I tried to staple gun the broken sandal back together but it wasn’t happening so I had to duct tape it. Not one to walk around with one shoe looking radically different from the other I then duct taped the other sandal for fashion’s sake. I made sure to make fun of this while hosting the show, but no matter how many times Dyalekt said "maybe losing a sandal on opening night is a good omen," my already shot nerves weren’t helped by this additional situation.
Substantial, Insanate, Dyalekt, Hushh and Far East all rocked the mic on Friday night and from an artist standpoint made The Cut’s opening night a success. All the artists said they had a great time and they all seemed to connect well. DJ Cue and DJ Halo were amazing on the turntables. Halo and I had an bit planned out where I talked about Chicago Hip-Hop history and how everyone is biting from the originators and he threw on the 1985 Chicago Bears’ "Super Bowl Shuffle." That elicited a good laugh from the crowd. Cue seemed to almost subconsciously know what to play to calm my nerves as he threw on classic cuts like "C.R.E.A.M" along with some newer stuff that I like.
All the artists seemed to really appreciate the show and the venue and Substantial went as far as to take time during his set to shout me out. I covered my face to be humble. It feels REALLY good when artists tell me I’m doing a good job, but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts I can be very hard on myself as I’m constantly thinking I’m not doing enough.
My lone complaint of the night, other than losing my sandal, would be that a lot of people who promised they’d not only come to the show but bring friends, didn’t show. We still had a pretty decent crowd, and I give a big shout out to those who stuck to their word and came through (including my parents, who got to experience their first Hip-Hop show!), but I’m a perfectionist, so anything less than a completely full house was a little bit of a personal disappointment.
One very interesting note was that one of my people noticed there were about 20+ people outside of the bar taking a listen to what was going on inside. How wack is that? It was only $5 to get in but those cheap asses sat outside. One of those people who was apparently out there was a person I have a significant problem with and it was funny to hear that he was there but was afraid to step inside. He considers me quite a threat and just his presence outside the bar illustrated just how threatened he is by me. It’s a Friday night and he’s sitting out on the street trying to find out what’s going on at one of my shows? LOL!
The next morning I dropped off some friends at the train station and had my interview with Jerry Ferrara, Turtle from HBO’s Entourage. The interview went amazingly well. Ferrara is still a down to earth individual despite being on one of the biggest hit shows on television. We ended up talking for nearly an hour and I got a ton of great stuff for my article. It’s going to run in the October issue of Soak, which will hit newsstands in Chicago in September.
Saturday night I actually got some sleep, which was nice since my Friday night consisted of all of two hours of sleep and I had apparently told my Dad we’d go shopping for a new air conditioner on Sunday. He called Sunday morning and I was literally dumbfounded and couldn’t remember the conversation. I wasn’t about to turn down a new air conditioner, though, so we linked up and went to Home Depot. The one we picked out was really inexpensive, but dope. It has a remote control and a sleep timer so I can program it to turn off X hours after I go to bed, which is a great feature. It’s also far more energy efficient than my last air conditioner, so hopefully I’ll see a slight reduction in my electric bill.
This week looks kind of light with one, maybe two interviews. I think I’m finally going to relent and throw a few of my older ones that still haven’t been sold to online outlets. I’m also going to spending some time improving on The Reality Box and creating a new site for In Da Mixx and Subways & Sidewalks. It’s time to start doing some ruthless self promotion, though Lord only knows how since every time anyone praises me I get ridiculously shy about it. I guess humility is better than arrogance, though, right?
I walked the two blocks or so back with one sandal on and one bare foot. I think that might be the record for longest walk with a bare foot in Bridgeport history. When I got back the sound guy and I tried to staple gun the broken sandal back together but it wasn’t happening so I had to duct tape it. Not one to walk around with one shoe looking radically different from the other I then duct taped the other sandal for fashion’s sake. I made sure to make fun of this while hosting the show, but no matter how many times Dyalekt said "maybe losing a sandal on opening night is a good omen," my already shot nerves weren’t helped by this additional situation.
Substantial, Insanate, Dyalekt, Hushh and Far East all rocked the mic on Friday night and from an artist standpoint made The Cut’s opening night a success. All the artists said they had a great time and they all seemed to connect well. DJ Cue and DJ Halo were amazing on the turntables. Halo and I had an bit planned out where I talked about Chicago Hip-Hop history and how everyone is biting from the originators and he threw on the 1985 Chicago Bears’ "Super Bowl Shuffle." That elicited a good laugh from the crowd. Cue seemed to almost subconsciously know what to play to calm my nerves as he threw on classic cuts like "C.R.E.A.M" along with some newer stuff that I like.
All the artists seemed to really appreciate the show and the venue and Substantial went as far as to take time during his set to shout me out. I covered my face to be humble. It feels REALLY good when artists tell me I’m doing a good job, but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts I can be very hard on myself as I’m constantly thinking I’m not doing enough.
My lone complaint of the night, other than losing my sandal, would be that a lot of people who promised they’d not only come to the show but bring friends, didn’t show. We still had a pretty decent crowd, and I give a big shout out to those who stuck to their word and came through (including my parents, who got to experience their first Hip-Hop show!), but I’m a perfectionist, so anything less than a completely full house was a little bit of a personal disappointment.
One very interesting note was that one of my people noticed there were about 20+ people outside of the bar taking a listen to what was going on inside. How wack is that? It was only $5 to get in but those cheap asses sat outside. One of those people who was apparently out there was a person I have a significant problem with and it was funny to hear that he was there but was afraid to step inside. He considers me quite a threat and just his presence outside the bar illustrated just how threatened he is by me. It’s a Friday night and he’s sitting out on the street trying to find out what’s going on at one of my shows? LOL!
The next morning I dropped off some friends at the train station and had my interview with Jerry Ferrara, Turtle from HBO’s Entourage. The interview went amazingly well. Ferrara is still a down to earth individual despite being on one of the biggest hit shows on television. We ended up talking for nearly an hour and I got a ton of great stuff for my article. It’s going to run in the October issue of Soak, which will hit newsstands in Chicago in September.
Saturday night I actually got some sleep, which was nice since my Friday night consisted of all of two hours of sleep and I had apparently told my Dad we’d go shopping for a new air conditioner on Sunday. He called Sunday morning and I was literally dumbfounded and couldn’t remember the conversation. I wasn’t about to turn down a new air conditioner, though, so we linked up and went to Home Depot. The one we picked out was really inexpensive, but dope. It has a remote control and a sleep timer so I can program it to turn off X hours after I go to bed, which is a great feature. It’s also far more energy efficient than my last air conditioner, so hopefully I’ll see a slight reduction in my electric bill.
This week looks kind of light with one, maybe two interviews. I think I’m finally going to relent and throw a few of my older ones that still haven’t been sold to online outlets. I’m also going to spending some time improving on The Reality Box and creating a new site for In Da Mixx and Subways & Sidewalks. It’s time to start doing some ruthless self promotion, though Lord only knows how since every time anyone praises me I get ridiculously shy about it. I guess humility is better than arrogance, though, right?
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