The Weekend Recap – Pre Tour Diary Pt. 1

thank you Jo for the photo, thank you Dial for the set, and thanks to everyone that came out to Blue Collar Gentlemen. The first Friday of Every Month if you didn't know by now.

Whaddup All,

I’m not one to keep a running diary of all my activities, but as I’m going on tour I thought it would be cool to document my experiences and thoughts as they come.  I’m still in Detroit (don’t leave until tuesday), but I just had my farewell show (just an excuse to have a show…i’m only gone for 3 weeks) so I figured I’d give this a test run.  I also want to give it a test run because i’m sitting by a CD duplicator burning out cd’s to take on the road with me.  Yeah, I wait till the last second (one part laziness and 3 parts everybody pulling you in another direction causes this).

So we’ll start with the Blue Collar Gentlemen show.  I woke up friday morning just sick of music in general (This happens often…it’s the same thing as when you fight with a loved one, and trust me…music is far more understanding).  Been trying to handle biz with this tour shit, and when it seems like I’m doing everything but actually creating music it is just frustrating.  However, this is neccessary for the modern day artist to do more than just write and perform.

I was completely not looking forward to the show at all, but then I had a vision of what would make me feel better.  I needed Dial 81 for the mission.  We’ve been working on music over the last year or so and he has made me fall in love with music all over again.  I called him and let him know my situation and he had my solution.  He was gonna bring his MPC and we were just gonna rock on the fly.  I’ve played so many shows in Detroit I wanted to do something a little different from just performing cuts off my album.   After we got off the phone I felt infinitely better

The joint was another success on the party tip for United States of Mind.  The Old Miami was packed front to back.  Performances started off around 11:45 (DJ Esso and Tree City’s DJ helped provide the vibe b4 that) and Mobil was the first to hit the stage.  His shit is dope and he really got the crowd into it.  It was a dare I say perfect kick off to the evening.

After that Keyel came out from Cleveland to show love.  I like these cats because they have a very Detroit sound about them (They started by playing Dilla’s “Fuck the Police” for goodness sakes).  Anyways, I got a text from Twizz from the crew and all he texted was “Keyel Love Detroit”.  It’s nice to be able to people from out of town in front of a Detroit crowd and it’s a beautiful thing when they enjoy each other.  This was the case here.

Next up was Tree City.  I believe this was their first show in Detroit as well although they are close being from Ann Arbor.  I really like these guys a lot.  They are a little younger than me so they put me in a mind state like when I was first starting to do shows.  The energy is there with them and they’re hungry so cats better watch out. lol.

After Tree City, Dante came through and killed his set.  I held him down on the hype tip as I’m gonna be doing a bit more of that while we’re on tour.  Dante brings a lot of showmanship to all his performances and the Energy level was definitely taken to the next level.  Dude comes out with a bull horn and you know the harmonica was by his side.

The closing duties were then placed in my hands as I was the last dude to go.  Dial plugs in the MPC and we start the show, but I wanted to throw in another loop to make me have a bit more fun.  I started to ask the crowd for topic suggestions and then I would have to freestyle off of that topic.  I can’t remember all the topics due to my music career being sponsored by Jameson (it’s not a choice when you’re addicted) but I remember doing one about love and one about cigarrettes and then one about money over bitches (thanks to this drunk named dolla bill).  I also had some fellow MC’s participate in the experiment with me.  Mobil came back up,  one of the MC’s from tree city, and dolla bill.  Dolla Bill was not really a good MC (didn’t even know how to hold a mic), asked me to sign him to a deal (I can’t even sign myself. lol.) but he did provide ample entertainment and for that I thank him because that is priceless and all that matters at the end of the day.  Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, the Ghetto Blaster was only $3 (support your local breweries), and I didn’t suck so bad, and friends were there.  But you know it’s not over…..on to the after party.

After retrieving my trusty pint of jameson from Rude Mary.  I entered and the vibe was already set.  Crate Digga was already on the 1′s and 2′s and Division Street Gallery (aka the Misinformants Loft) was starting to fill up.  I did some light hosting and we all danced the night away till about 6 in the morning.  I also woke up with a big hickey on my neck on some high school ish (that’s all i’m saying about that one folks).  Shouts to the performers and the crowd for it is all of us together that creates and sustains this Detroit vibe (even though many think it doesn’t exist it is still alive and very real…not to mention growing exponentially).  As this was just Friday’s activities there is more to come on the Saturday update if I can find the energy to write it.  Till then….

Tags: Blue Collar Gentlemen, D. Allie, Dante Lasalle, Dial 81, Division Street Gallery, Keyel, Mobil, The Old Miami, Tour Diary, Tree City