Thursday February 9th. I woke up at 4:45 a.m., showered and jumped into a taxi to Bush Intercontinental en route to Canada. Cab was late, Devin was there before me. With all paperwork in order the trip into Canada was a breeze. No shakedowns like in Vancouver just a few extra questions and BAM we're out in the streets driving a Jeep Liberty like we live there.
We started the trek in Montreal. If I were more on point I'd have links to all the press Devin got while on this 4 day trek, but um, I don't. Dude was in every daily and major weekly paper in every city along our way. In the London weekly, the Scene I think (shit I can't even find the fucking magazine) they ran an advance piece of Devin the Dude with a photo of DJ Chill. Now, they didn't just somehow google Devin the Dude and find a picture of just any dude they thought was Devin, they ran a photo of DJ Chill. That shit was insane. I assume they got it from Roxy's site as the photo of Chill WAS taken at the New York Devin show, but shit man.
One of the many reasons I love Canada right there. Shit was below zero fahrenheit most of the time we were out there, but I was feeling right.
Shout out to the Kops Crew, Pop Montreal, everybody at the Kop Shop, it's hard to believe this was Devin's second time in Montreal in six months.
Devin pretty much caught shit for smoking in every venue. Seems Canada is yet another place where you're not allowed to smoke in bars.
Rapid Ric ripped every night. Seriously, each night he hit 'em with 20-30 minutes of straight down south shit and then cut for Devin. Boy made an impact.
Thanks to Dan Seligman for sewing this up once again. When we bringing Bun B? Ottawa? T-Dot? What?
Mark Lawson held it down.
Then after the show, Rapid Ric spun at an after party in a loft apartment on St. Laurent. Shit was crazy packed and ran from 3 - 6 a.m. Remind me that I don't need to be up till 6 a.m.
Kops Crew!
Liam Thurston in full effect. He put together the after party.
DJ Hatch Matic killed it alongside Ric all night. I heard everything from "Southside the Realest" to " Sweet Child O' Mine" or some shit. I don't know, by this time I think I had smoked like 5 grams of hash and had been up 24 hours.
After a clean 3 hours of sleep we set out on what was to be a 1.5 hour drive from Montreal to Ottawa. We did so well. I saw a sign that said "Ottawa 20 km." That's like, nothing. We're cruising and all of a sudden I see a cop mobilizing up ahead. Then BAM. Traffic stops. We hung there on the highway for a good 45 minutes trying to find some sort of a report on the radio. There was a fatal accident somewhere just ahead. We ended up turning around and driving the wrong way back on the shoulder to the last exit and somehow made our way around some country road and back to the highway somewhere past the wreck. 3.5 hours.
Come on now.
But man, Ottawa was off the chain. We got in late, but just in time to catch some serious curling action on the TV whilst we smoked enough weed to forget about the 2 hour delay.
Boys killed it. Thanks to Club Babylon and Kapacity Entertainment! And to the store Mags and Fags (I'm not kidding) for selling that Ozone Magazine. Team Canada too. Wow. And um to, well, the Prank Call King. The name says it all. Dude is the king, of Canada at least. The ultra-top-secret prank call king made a rare public appearance to hit Dev off with a CD of like 27 of his greatest works. We jammed it the next day in the Jeep on the 4 hour drive to Toronto and laughed pretty much the whole time. But on this one, we're lucky the Jeep didn't flip.
Download "COMMUNITY SERVICE" by The Prank Call King (Of Ottawa)
Boy killin' it.
I knew Toronto was going to be real from start to finish, so we got up early and hit the road. My man Harris from Peace Magazine was set to leave for Berlin like an hour after we arrived in town so I headed to his crib to participate in his Bon Voyage Fiesta and get my mind right for the impending (once again all night) adventure.
Julia Beverly from Ozone Magazine and Lance Walker from the Houston Chronicle joined us in Toronto. Here's Julia, Ric and my man Jay from REMG in the hallway at Much Music, Canada's 24 hour, off the chain, music network.
Sarah Taylor interviewed Devin for The New Music.
Like I said, JB joined us.
Julia and Ric went up in the CN Tower AND went Ice skating.
Boyinadaze.
Said ice skating rink.
Rodrigo Bascunan of Pound Magazine was in the house at Reverb.
WendyMorganandRoryThemFinestSoReal came thru and kicked it with us and also threw the INSANE after party. Thanks so much y'all. Thanks to Jay Cohen, Ramos Ent., REMG, Reverb, everybody man....
T-Dot R&B Sensation Ayah and Will Strickland. I've known Will since 1991 when I was first starting on KPFT. He hosted to Bass 917 Zone on KTRU and connected me with a lot of promoter folks within the industry. Ayah actually came through and sang with Devin on "Too Cute." She has her own version you need to watch out for.
Devin played the back of the crowd till he hit the stage.
And man.... he killed it. Toronto was so full of energy. Positive Energy. Picture a couple hundred Canadians at the front of the stage singing every word to Fat Pat's "Top's Drop" then all of a sudden completely losing their shit when Dev's set kicked in. Man....
More trouble. The security guy next to me actually just took off completely flustered. As soon as Devin lit up his joint on stage, the entire place just erupted into a smog out. There wasn't much that could be done.
Dynamic Duo if only for 4 days.
Leslie and video director Erika Shallow.
Me, JB, Ric
Esthero was in the house. Turns out she's a big Devin fan. Those two need to work together. I might bring her to Houston in the spring for an acoustic set.
Devin and Esthero.
Toronto after party was buck wild, but I didn't get any pictures. I'm not sure that my eyes were even able to fully open at that point. But I did perk up when I heard "Southside the Realest" and the whole club exploded. In fact we even went to an after party after our after party, where boy Rory showed 'em how it goes.
Sunday, after a 3 hour lunch at Irie, a Jamaican restaurant on Queen Street with Rodrigo and Wendy, we hit the road to London, Ontario. Pulled straight into an in-store with the ultra good folks at Groove Records, then went to eat at the Alex P. Keaton. I'm saying. It's a bar/restaurant called the Alex P. Keaton. Dynamic wings and pizza.
Fritz the Cat is a long time Devin supporter in Canada. He sewed up the show and even made these crazy t-shirts. His set was off the chain.
Shout out to Fritz and Josh for making this happen!
Then Monday we got home, heads all cloudy, me, practically braindead.
Wednesday night was Damage Control. You can read about that elsewhere, but straight up, after our last few failing fund drives, we raised $1,690. You can't front on that. Big thanks to all of you who helped make that happen. I don't want to leave anyone out, but we had some good folks really come with it. Go-Gettaz and 3rd Degree came with it BIG. Chamillionaire donated $35 X 15. Meaning he made 15 people in the studio new members at $35 a piece ($525). That's what I'm talking about! Thanks Cham!
Go Gettaz from Beaumont, TX
Golden Child, Showtyme
Chyna Whyte showed up!
Swift has produced a lot of the tracks you love from Houston, TX.
Then Thursday During the day we went tot the All Star Music Conference where me, Charlie Braxton, Carlton Wade, Greg Gates, FLX, Bavu Blakes, Rapid Ric and a gang of other folks gathered for a networking mixer of sorts. It wa slike th emost focused underground, real, industry gathering I have seen. Peep the flicks and shout outs to Bernard of Street Pharmacy, the whole Street Pharmacy, Dirty Dave, and everyone I saw/met today. Wow. What's up Club Taylors! What's up Hiram Clarke! (Bavu Blakes and Bernard pictured above)
Bavu Blakes, Bernard Gambrell and Kiara DuPree from Street Fame Ent./DV8 Magazine
Dirty Dave on the mic
Caps-N-Jones joined me on this little excursion. Everything was cool and all, but we showed up about and hour and a half too early and were dropped off by Melissa. So we were basically in a parking lot in Hiram Clarke chopping game with FLX for about an hour when we figured we might as well get some beers, and for some reason pour them in white cups behind the dumpster at the Shell station. I don't know.
Charlie Braxton made the trek from Jacktown, seen here with Chingo Bling's sister Dalila of Big Chile Enterprises. Thanks for the hot sauce!
Donnie Cross reinforces the fact that he's a hater. Great to finally meet this guy!
BP of Street Pharmacy and Juan from 3rd Degree.
That's Greg Gates there right in front of me. Murder Dog alumnus whats up mayne!
TJ from TJ's DJ's and man I forget dude on the rights name....
Kiara DuPree
Clockwise from top left DJ Ryno, Donnie Cross, Rapid Ric, FLX, TJ, Charlie Braxton
Mike Mo, Beltway 8
Rapid Ric, DJ Ryno
Whoooooooooooooooooooo
Then that night I headed out to Proletariat where them boys Caps_N-JOnes were spinning at a special Rockbox in celebration of:
The birthdays of Crystal Lee (seen here with Witnes)
My boy Bobby Hinojosa
and Mike Frost.
Boys smashed 'em.
And no matter what anyone says Caps-N-Jones were definitely NOT smoking weed in the club. That was like some fruity clove shit or some shit. Like special herbal clove type thang thang.
Dizrokwel and Kat
Bobby brought the party with him.
DJ What Now? WHylin' out on the dance floor...
Seen here with Laura Flossin'.
Heather B and friend got down
That's how it goes down. Bed time for me. All Star Maddening recap by Monday....
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