Before I get into this, I gotta #Salute the #Housegang for landing the cover of The Source. Anybody who knows the full history between me and these guys (I’ll explain later) can dig how deep this is and why. All I say is better late than never. LOL! Good shit guys..

Now, back to the road…

Tonight was the last night of the US tour and I needed to go out with a boom. The next move for the #Housegang was running to Europe and there was no way I was gonna make that move. I got hit up for music after every show and all I had to give was T-shirts and some website links. If being on the road taught me anything, it was that a tour with nothing to promote was not the business. I didn’t want to have to learn how to say “Sorry, I don’t have any CD’s” in French or German and be a bi-lingual loser. So the plan was to finish I Can Explain..! shoot a video or 3 and be ready to roll for the next swing. But that was the plan for after tonight. The plan for this evening was to tear down with the boys and mash out like its my last.

And tonight’s victim was Northern Lights…

Me and DJ LoKash rolled up still pumped from Lupos and the line outside the spot told us this could be the kind of night ya make memories out of. I even had a hand-full of folks out front shouting my song titles out and giving me fives when I was walking up! I can honestly say we we’re off to a good start tonight…

Sold out gig, high spirits, fans in the crowd already, I was feeling invincible when I got to security! Buut where would my life on the road be without some form of fuckery…?

Dude, that train is never late.

We walked up, introduced ourselves to main promoter, let him know we we’re the opening act, and he gives us the “WTF face” and here’s why. See, most folks outside of the music business are under the impression that dudes who throw shows find the best local talent that they can to accompany the headliner so the audience can see the best show possible. That’s what people believe because that’s the way it should be and it only makes sense.

But some promoters start seeing dollar signs and do what this one did, rather than look for and audition local talent for the night, this promoter sold the opening slots at the show to anyone who had the bread. They didn’t have to be good, they just had to have the money. So thanks to him, the crowd now has to sit through 8 opening acts before I got on stage and since quality wasn’t a factor, lets just say a lot of them were not ready to be onstage.

After a bit of back and forth with said promoter, I hop on the phone and connect him with SL management. After he talks to dude, I get back on the line: Mecc, I had no idea there were this many people on the bill. It’s some bullshit. I don’t want you to do it, there’s no way I would ask you to go on after all those people. It’s on you but I don’t like it and wouldn’t do it if I were you, that’s just too many motherfuckers… the crowd is gonna be pissed off. I don’t want them taking it out on you.

Now I could sit here and tell you guys about the way these thoughts were going through my head. About how I told them I’d make a game-time decision. About how I just wasn’t sure if it was the smart move. How I didn’t know if my stage show could win over a crowd of frustrated fans that had just been forced to sit… stand though a assembly line of lackluster MC’s.

I could tell yall about that, but It’d be a lie.

Instead of hesitating, I repeated my grandmothers favorite quote bout moving forward.. I ain’t come this far to turn back now and proceeded to tear that crowd DOWN.

And if this was gonna be my last day on the road with these dudes, then it was gonna take more than a janky promoter to stop me from finishing what I started.

This was my test and opportunity to get the one thing I’d always asked for. A chance to show and prove. And thanks to these guys…

I got it.

Shout out to everyone in the #Slaughterhouse Machine. Th trip was amazing and I cant wait to do it again. Maybe next time, you guys can open up for ME! LoL!

J/K!! (not really…)

Till next time yall….

I Can Explain..! coming soon

Mecc

#Latepass

The show in New Haven was a few shades light of a nightmare. But by the grace of God I got through it and got love when it was over. Even got asked to come back by the radio’s main DJ in the building! S/O to Bigg E!

But I couldn’t WAIT to get on the road and get the FUGG OUTTA DODGE…

The thoughts running through my head on the way to Rhode Island we’re bananas. You have to understand, in all my time doing this, which isn’t that long compared to some, I have never heard the sound of booing!! At least not directed at me! I’d always considered myself a natural on stage because of how comfortable I am and be lying if I said I the whole thing wasn’t a little jarring. That ride to Lupos was a loooong one for real. I kept replaying the show in my head, looking at where I went wrong and how I could have fixed it. All the while DJ Self Doubt has the same soundtrack spinning in my head..

Why didn’t I see that coming?

Am I losing my touch?

What if it’s already gone?

Maybe I’m not as good as I Thought… now what?

And just as DJ Self-Doubt is doing his best Jazzy Jeff impression, we pull up and I see this…

Yep, typical sold out show. Big ass line packed with raving mad, foaming-at-the-mouth fans ready to spaz out. And here I was trying to figure out if I still deserved to be in front of them. I’m not gonna say that I’ve never questioned myself but I’d shaken that shit off forever ago. Now the opener is on, the clock is ticking and I’m trying to figure out how I did it.

I focused on the typo on the set list to distract myself (my set was 20 min, not 15) while the opening act doing his thing. The crowd wasn’t being to receptive to him. He couldn’t get their hands up, they wouldn’t sing along with his hooks and they’d even thrown some cd’s he’d thrown to the crowd back at him which had me more uneasy than I already was. I stated thinking this show was gonna be a rewind of New haven and I was in trouble. And then, it happened… Just as I’m fighting off that sinking feeling in my gut I hear him say “MAKE SOME NOISE IF YOU’RE HERE FOR SLAUGHTERHOUSE!!”

The crowd roared… I cracked up.

He was doing the exact same thing the openers in New Haven did. Shouting out the headliners to get a rise for himself, a rookie mistake I’d seen a million times. Not being foul but I just couldn’t help myself and laughed my ass off in the corner. When I stopped, I realized all this self-inflicted pressure was because I wanted to do better tonight than last night. But the thing is, I want to do better EVERY night! The nerves were on me because I’d fallen short of that the night before but the need to be the better was what gives me the touch/edge I was worried about losing in the 1st place!

As soon as show-time hit, I’d made my mind up..

I deserved to be there… and I’d prove it tonight.

I’ll prove it every night….

And hey… the perks of trying ain’t bad!

Crisis: SOLVED

Next up: Northern Lights, Albany NY

I Can Explain..! Coming soon

Mecc

After burning it down in Boston, meeting a ton of new people and making some new fans it was time to hit the road and head to the next spot. I won’t front, after everything that popped off at Wilbur Theater, I had some pretty high hopes for New Haven spot and couldn’t WAIT to get there. I just KNEW this was gonna be an AWESOME day… And then the day became an exercise in Murphys Law… The sound was the 1st thing to go south. My normal guy @DJSammyNeedlz was pre-booked and couldn’t make it out. So I had to call my guy Mo Nicklez to come through and hold me down. Great idea till he told me he was booked up too! Travel was the 2nd thing to go south. Traveling from Boston the, the rise was supposed to be about three hours tops. I figured Since my set time was at 9pm, I could leave at 3:30 pm and be there as the club was opening up. Yeah that plan went to shit as soon as I hit the station and saw the ONE bus I wanted was done due to traffic and the only one I could get would have my pulling in at 9pm exactly. So not only might I miss my set time, but my secret plan to catch game three of the Knicks/Heat series was fading fast… FML Now I’m not gonna front like everything was all dark everything… I the bus was on time, there was no traffic and thanks to the Slaughter boys running a bit behind, I got a call letting me know my set time was pushed back to 9:30 so I’d be on time. I got a call from Mo telling me that even though he couldn’t cover it, his boy DJ LoKash was in. Turns out I’d done a drop for him many moons ago that he’d just used in a DMC competition and dug my shit! I even managed to catch some of the playoffs during the layover and the Knicks were winning! I really convinced myself things were looking up…

…riiight up until I hit the club.

,

Me and Lo hit the spot at about 9:10 and get led downstairs to the performers area. But instead of going over the songs and prepping the set, we had these two dudes already down there to deal with. They were cool but one of them talked NON-STOP continuously the whole time we were down there… You know the kind of unrelenting, staccato machine-gun, tsunami of bullshit that you join in with just to try and end? That was him. This dude didnt stop until we go the call to hit the stage and the last thing he said was “Yo, I’m taking tonight pictures so I’m gonna be on stage with yall too!!”

Oh Joy…

Then there was the crowd…

Standing by the side of the stage I could see the natives were restless. I had gone up to check em during another opening acts set and saw that they weren’t getting a lot of love and the crowd was pretty fed up with them. To make matters worse, the group kept shouting to the crowd “Make some noise for Slaughterhouse!!!!” because it always got a reaction. Then while I’m standing at the side of the stage waiting for my cue, the house DJ starts doing the same thing! “Y’ALL READY FOR SLAUGHTERHOUSE?!?!?!” What a fuckin setup…

(Side-note)

I just gotta say this. To any DJ, opening act or show host, Never, evER, EVER shout out the headliner like they’re about to come out unless they are. If you’re an opener, the crowd is NOT CHEERING for YOU, they ARE cheering for the HEADLINER. All you’re doing is reminding the crowd that you aren’t them. If you’re a DJ and your doing it, all doing is hurting the momentum of the act that’s coming out next and disappointing the crowd when they see they’ve got another opener to go through.

Which brings us to my set, or as I’ve come to call it, The Day After Tomorrow…

From the door, things didn’t look good for our hero. The act before me wasn’t getting any love from the crowd (as you can see) and had pretty much left them fed up with openers in general… even though they were only the 2nd act out. To make matters worse, while I’m standing on the side of the stage waiting for my cue, the DJ damn-near starts a Slaughterhouse chant with the audience knowing that I was coming out next!! I shouted at Lo, and ran out to do damage control and salvage the shit-show my set was becoming. I cracked one good joke about how I was NOT Slaughterhouse but I Windex Royce’s glasses and jumped right into the 1st song. I figure I had about 90% of the crowd rocking with me so I figured I’d shout out the city to get that last 10. So I started to say how I came a long way to rock in Hartford….

…but I was in New Haven. FML!!!

90% turned to 30% and the boos started. Big, loud, angry, ugly obnoxious boos that seem to come from everywhere at once, giving me 0 chances to play it off. So I stood there and let the 1st boos of my career sink in with a smile. I went into survival mode and did what anybody with their back to the wall would… I improvised.

The DJ came up behind me and said “We’re in New Haven dog!” in my ear and I used it to get back in the saddle. I rattled off a quick joke set about how I was under pressure from 2 baby mamas and 4 baby daddies and how my kids big wheel just got repo’d. As soon as they started laughing I went into song 2.

Long story short, after clowning somebodies mom in the crowd, out-heckling my hecklers, pulling a chick on stage to dance with and basically pulling out all the stops, I got back to about 80%. It was an uphill battle for real but when i was all said and done, I got a lot of love from the crowd, sold a bunch of shirts and even got a shout from the local radio station for “pulling his set back from the brink of death.” I learned a couple of things that night.

1) Comedy beats screw-ups

2) Avoid motormouth mu-fuckas before the set

3) Even though this pic sums up the reaction of the crowd after I got off stage…. 

…next time, I’ll just shout out the damn venue.

Next up, Lupos Heartbreak Hotel, R.I.

The Saga Continues