See, I don't always start the extra-thowed posts with "It Went Down." Sometimes I say, MAYNE HOLD THE FUCK ON UP!
Cuz sometimes you got to stop the world from spinnin' for just a quick second and let 'em know. Holding the fuck on up can be very theraputic, believe me, I try to do it a lot.
Though our capitalist system sometimes thwarts such efforts and such, I don't know. I'm high off that Ivarest right now, that's right, your boy got poison ivy AGAIN! Those who follow HoustonSoReal know this is the 4th time in 18 months and well, I just attribute it all to balance. You take the good with the bad, and alas and alak, I'm still alive... to see my beautiful daughters second birthday, Norway for the 6th time in 12 months, Amsterdam for the 4th time in 12 months, The Frio River for the first time ever, etc.
I have a really hard time working in the summer. I still do a lot of it, but it's just so much harder in the summer. So many distractions, as evidenced by the following photos... and accompanying story... and such.
BUT FIRST CHECK OUT KENIKA IN THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY WORD TO DIRTY SOUTH JOE AND BRIAN MCMANUS!
AND WORD TO DIGIPIMP FOR THIS PIECE ON KENIKA ON SOHH.COM. AND IF YOU SEE A HATER POINT EM OUT (You are not the king of Texas my friend, Digipimp is).
Last year, round about this time, was my first time to ever go to Norway, to the Quart Festival in fact where Devin the Dude, Bun B, Rapid Ric and Slim Thug all performed. It was also right at the time of Avant Garde Noise Rocker MC Elena's first birthday. Anyway, my post from last year that featured sun filled photos of all the above artists inspired Sasha Frere Jones to entitle his link to said post "Live This then Die" and also inspired my tight potna Craig Lindsey, to genuinely hate me.
Well real talk, when I got on the plane last week (after 40 days and 40 nights of non stop torrential downpours in Houston) I thought to myself "Mayne! It's gonna be another one of those weeks! I'ma make greater journalists jealous and the general population salivate." Or some shit, I don't know. But um, yeah, this years Quart Festival wasn't exactly a repeat of last year. See, the festival had quite a lot stacked against it. First and foremost, it's founder Toffen left and started a festival called Hove that ran the week before. Seeing as how Norway has 4 million people total (same as Houston), they can't really accomodate two HUGE festivals in a week. Add to that, non stop rain, rain, rain and the fact that Denmarks Roskilde Festival ran at the same time, and well, the Quart Festival kind of got fucked this year.
That's not to say it wasn't a lot of fun. I went with one of my favorite rappers of all time, Killer Mike (as evidenced above) and saw another of my favorite rappers of all time - Jean Grae (though for some reason I didn't get any photos of her) and also got to see and meet 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, Whoo Kid, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Karpe Diem, El Axel and my brothers at Passit Records, etc... Just peep the photos below, I'll stop rambling and get to what you want. New Damage Control link towards the bottom too.
Anyway man, Killer Mike and I met at Schipol - Amsterdams airport - and headed off to the Quart Festival. He was scheduled to perform like 6 hours later so we got a little rest then went to the event.
Where Passit Records El Axel, Nasty Kutt and Nico were posted up ready to open for Killer Mike.
As evidenced by these photos. Word to my man Daniel for the love in a baggie, Julian and everyone else int he Passit Crew, y'all are like my brothers from another mother. A Norwegian mother, quite liberal with good taste in food and music.
Nico is a reggae singer and real talk, he kills it.
EL AXEL PON DI STAGE!
Anyway, Quart Festival does it right. Here's a photo from backstage...
Killer Mike with baby Malcolm, our newest homeboy in Norway who also lives part time with his daddy in Liberia. We learn so much when we travel.
Nico, Killer Mike, Malcolm and El Axel.
Anyway, it was a lil hectic cuz a couple people in Killer Mike's crew were not able to get on the airplane and Rapid Ric got his ticket with frequent flyer miles and they ended up bumping him, so guess what? I got to be the pseudo DJ! The dork who stands behind the tables doing nothing but pushing a button here and there, and well, that sucks, but it worked out. Instant Replay is a fabulous machine. No skipping, and easy to search for all your tons of beats. I'm actually glad to have had the opportunity to learn such a thing. Yes, I am now officially and Instant Replay DJ. Recognize a playa when you see him on the fjord.
Killer Mike making his set list with said Instant Replay machine. Whoo Kid has TWO Instant Replay Machines for 50.
Killer Mike got it freakin' crunk. I've seen many MC's in my day in much better shape than him, do it way more lackadaisically.
I'm serious, this meant a lot to me.
He's pretty much the most relevant MC today. Dude freestyled twice. Once he just went off, then later he went to Stage left and went down the line and rapped about EVERY person in the front row off the top of his head. It was total insanity.
Dude for real, I work with the best performing rappers in the world. No one can fuck with Killer Mike and Devin the Dude live. No one.
Killer Mike and Whoo Kid after the show.
Killer Mike, Tony Yayo and Whoo Kid. Tony Yayo was everywhere this weekend! He hosted the Juicy Party and was just out and about non stop. Was great to see him on his first trip out side the US!
Of course Mona B from Lydverket got the Killer Mike exclusive!
Backstage with 50 Cent and the G-Unit.
Killer Mike and 50 Cent!
Next day we did a lil press.
Here's my man Gisle and his lovely wife Sharon with their one year old baby!
And my boy Malcolm and his daddy.
This my people!
Working!
Mike signing autographs for the people.
Interview with Halleger of Kingsize Magazine.
Maria and Kim from The Voice TV!
?uestlove from The Roots!
I see my peoples from Bergen everywhere. Here's Lars and crew in Kristiansand!
LARS!
Heres in these two pitchaz are the members of Karpe Diem, a HUGE Norwegian rap group.
DJ Chill and I saw them perform at a student center in Trondheim earlier in the year and man, they killed it in front of 1500 people.
Randy...
... and Therese found a restaurant that was open late in Kristiansand after the Roots show and took us there for beers and Norwegian tapas. Therese then showed Randy - in front of everyone - what to do if someone hits on you and the shit escaltes into force. You see, you grab a bottle then do some sort of ninja stance where you break the bottle against the ground and swoop it up into the guys nuts, effectively cutting the dudes nuts and then you just sit, eat your tapas and watch him bleed to death. I don't know.
Therese and Black Thought.
Anyway, it was actually cheaper to fly home with a one night layover through Amsterdam than it was to go directly home on Saturday so Killer Mike and I made the executive decision to stay the night in Mecca.
First stop was the shop Wolf and Pack. Great shirts and such. They recognized Mike straight away and said "I just read about you in Mass Appeal." I need that issue.
Amsterdamis the fuckin' realist. As an old man, I like Norway a bit better cuz it's just prettier and the people are so great, but yeah man, you can't front on Amsterdam.
It's beautiful architechture... and well...
Everything else. Word to Johnny Rap!
Anyway we once again found ourselves at Kadinsky Coffee Shop/Bar, as the exclusive guests of Johnny Rap and AJ. Two of the thowedededest Europeans I ever met. n
They know more about southern rap (and Hyphy) than I do.
Johnny Rap actually told me that since he's been listening to Damage COntrol he's realized that it is ok to mix the dirty south with Dizzee Rascal, stuff from Gary, Indiana, and Hyphy all on the same tape. Glad I could be of service and very glad that I know Johnny Rap. So Real!
in fact, whilst Johnny was DJing I heard a lot of deep southern jams, most notably "So Real" from DJ DMD, DJ Screw and Al D, and "Perceptions" from Starchy Arch and YZ, which he DLed from this blog here right here.
Mike even got some writing in (we spent like literally 5 hours here).
Djef from Lijn5.com and StateMagazine.com interviewed Mike.
He the man. Peep out LIJN5.COM CUZ IT'S OFF THE CHAIN!
Mike on some Amsterdam stairs. Most rappers can't handle Amsterdam stairs.
Anyway, back in the front of Kadinsky.
Kadinsky and Grey Area are my spots.
Mike in front of the Peace Bus Painting.
And at Dam Square.
Again at Dam Sqaure.
Het Palace.
Bomb ass wall in a store that seels $200 sneakers.
Anyway, we kicked it fuckin' hard. What a job this is indeed. I mean seriously, just when I am getting sick as fuck of the joto rap that is permeating our urrea, I get a chance to go out of the country with pretty much the most relevant rapper out today. One of like 10 maybe, rappers who has something to say. Killer Mike. Grind Time Rap Gang. Bang, Bang Bang.
And that's only half the story.
Butthen on Sunday we woke up, caught a $75 taxi to the airport and got on our respective planes. I went to Houston and Mike went to Atlanta, with dreams of our next big trek. I actually just switched planes in Houston though and went to San Antonio where I was picked up by my wife and daughters for a lil drive out to West Texas to the Frio River. Concan, Texas to be exact. Neal's Lodges in Concan, Texas to be exact.
This is pretty much where we like to be.
For like the past seven years, our good friends the Lomaxes have come to this place every summer to camp and swim and basically just chill away from the hustle and bustle of our big city. Out here you are pretty much in between two small mountains along the banks of one of the cleanest most incredible rivers you will ever see. The Frio River is like Heaven and we shall return next year (word to Neals Lodges, camping with Satellite TV isn't exactly imperative, but I have to admit that watching the baseball all star game whilst cutting veggies and making guacamole for one of our many outdoors feasts, goes quite hard. And I don't give a shit about baseball.)
Anyway, Eva found many rocks including one that might be an arrowhead (sorry no photo) and I even got Elena to float down the "rapids" with me.
Heaven.
Yeah so I'm a fat hog, so what. Deal with it. I mean HAWG. In the game.
John Henry Lomax and John Nova Lomax - Music Editor of the Houston Press and great friend of the HoustonSoReal Familia.
Elena in front of the cottage. Photo by My wife, as are most that follow.
The kids took my $3 bottle of camp ground shaving cream and had a lil party of their own.
As evidenced by these photos.
Hattie Lomax and Elena.
Supastar SoReal.
Supastar Eva and her daddy.
We don't really let our kids watch much TV and at bedtime every night we all lay aorund and read books and snuggle till we go night night, but whilst camping we decided to let them watch a lil something before bed and here you can see my little angels watching a ballet on DVD, straight rapt. Then they watched Angelina Ballerina. Then they watched Power Puff Girls. Then we made them go to bed by um, going to bed too. I love camping, you can go to bed early and get up late, eat what you want and swim. And drink a lot. This is what I like to do.
That being said, for every yin there is a yang, and my yang just happens to be my fourth bout with poison ivy in less than 2 years. I was so careful. I saw nothing that looked even remotely like poison ivy in our travels but alas and alak, on the last day I woke up with it on my inner arms and it's now on my face, neck and legs. Luckily, so far, it's not on my cock and balls like last time. I'm just gonna keep my fingers crossed and the Ivarest at bay. I can't complain, cuz like I say, for every yin there's a yang and my yins have been top notch as of late. That being said, wearing long sleeves and long pants in the summer in texas is not easy.
Also, another lil yang thang was how when we were driving home we stopped in Castroville for a lil lunch and when we returned to the car it wouldn't start. Luckily it was just a battery that needed replaced, but for those two hours, my poison ivy infected body shook with fear that we'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere for yet another night with no cell phone service, I'd miss Damage Control and well, whatever. But we got out in enough time for us to get home, put the kids to bed and for me to go to Damage COntrol.
WHICH YOU CAN HEAR BLY CLICKING RIGHT HERE. I MEAN DONT JUST CLICK IT, RICGHT CLICK AND SAVE AND LISTEN TO IT ON YOUR OWN SYSTEM. IT'LL SAVE ME BANDWIDTH AND YOU THE BUFFERTIME. YOU NEED THIS ON YO IPOD ANYWAY.
Cuz the show was thowed.
J-Dawg of Boss Hogg Outlawz was in the house seen here with Kalio, Damon Dizzle and Lo Key of ICE AGE!
Lokey and CLub Ice Age are KILLIN' IT on Sundays in Houston.
IB3 is also another female who is KILLIN' IT in Houston as well. She's on Music World and hopefully will see her day in the sun soon. She's stupid fly fresh. And has a full band.
T-City Promotions runnin' the game. Cotorola taking a break to check his MySpace.
DJ Chill and the Circle G's
ChopTV interviews Damon Dizzle.
And that's how it goes. Yeah man, life is good. I'm blessed. Elena is 2 years old. Party this Saturday at the house. It's goin' down. I'd appreciate any natural posion ivy remedies you can leave in the comments section please.
Maybe my homegirl Melissa Milam can help. She was just named DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA inthe state of New Mexico! That's real. Party in NM coming soon. Congratulations Melissa.
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