A little while ago we put our heads together to address a notion that loomed around that no rapper reallly likes to admit.

Rap shows are generally terrible.

They’re unorganized...poorly lit...funny smelling....take place at ‘venues’ that were chinese food restaurants hours earlier...there’s no parking spaces...there’s no girls....the performers holler crowd-corraling cliches that were born in 1983...the floors are sticky..the bathrooms are unspeakable...there’s one million acts...and they all want to kill you.

To say it simply...there’s no quality control.

This being the case, its no longer appropriate for us rapper-types to sit back and bellyache about why people dont show up like they used to...there’s no reason to wax nostalgic about how the scene used to be. People got sick of it and they left.

“they only left us one option”

Throw better shows. This is the first of what we plan to be a seasonal series of shows that highlight the best that our label has to offer alongside some of the best that the international indie-rap scene has to offer.

This time we’ve linked up Busdriver’s Beaus$Eros album release party with a rare LA performance by Atlanta’s Killer Mike. Nocando will celebrate the release of his EP Zero Hour.

And I’ll start off the evening previewing a bunch of songs from my new EPs and my record that will drop this summer.

Thats it. Four quality acts. At a quality venue (the Echoplex). At a decent hour. Doors open at 8.

I start rapping at 8:30.

See you then.

So that thing happened.

Sitting at an elevated marble table in the Portland Airport. Slowly beginning to dislike the place as the silence of the red-eye phase gives way to full-blown airport bustle.

I could have meditated in here 30 minutes ago. I’m sure somewhere somebody in here was masturbating. We all have our different ways of coping.

Just wrapped up the first official Miraculous Rap Forest Tour. There will be others. Not only because I heart the pacific northwest, but because that affectionate name for it, coined by myself, DFD, Nocando, Intuition, and DJ Zo, isnt going anywhere anytime soon.

On this run I traveled and performed solo in Eugene and Portland, Oregon and Seattle and Bellingham in Washington.

I was pretty nervous to do it since being booked as a traveling solo performer means that if the shows dont crack its really all on me. Even if i’m not the one in each town pounding the pavement and distributing handbills, its still my decision who does. So if I find myself performing for the bar staff some mixture of my draw, my promotional network or my decision making skills are certainly to blame.

The first date was in Eugene, OR. The place always reminds me of my uncle Eugene, who was a great guy that smelled funny on purpose. My last memory of him is his choice of what had to be a magenta suit ensemble at my grandmother’s funeral. That really pissed me off for some reason.

This show was a swing and a miss. Had lots of good rap and afterparty fun with Sammy, K.I. Design, Undermine, Cerebral and others. But it was valentine’s day and apparently the local university’s ‘dead week’ (zombies? finals? BOTH?!) and it was at a new venue..called...’the venue’..that didnt really look like a venue from the street. I’m sure one day it’ll be the poppingest underground spot in town..but last tuesday left some important things to be desired...well..one important thing really..an audience.

Well thats not entirely fair. There were probably 15 people there. 5 of them were the other acts and three of the remainder were the other acts girlfriends. These ladies did their best to not appear disappointed that they were spending their valentine’s evening having people rap at them.

wait...

ok.

Im in the San Jose airport right now..theyre wifi is about some bullshit.  I've had to watch this as where this dumbass chipmunk tries to convince me to search flight prices with his company three times.

why the hell would I be searching for airfare when i'm already at the airport? and who takes travel advice from chipmunks?

anyways Eugene needs to get it together. Zombies are not more important than my show.

Portland was after that which was great. Got to rap with good friends, Cloudy October, EK, and Abadawn. Good show. Good turnout..and I would surmise that fun was had by all. Big up to Runaway Productions.

The day after the show I got to hang out in the studio with Pegee13 aka Taco Neck...who is a maker of fine musics like Why Pianos Break from my album and the Rent Party Revolution remix on the ol' soundcloud. He played me a bunch of amazing musics and also played a goddamned theramin..so for a short time I thought I was in the future.

speaking of which..im in my house now. Just ate some indian food and i'm sleepy. But I want to finish this today. Mostly cause I get a lot of support in my endeavors from folks that rarely get shouted out after all is said and done.

So...Seattle was awesoeme. Seattle is always awesome but this particular date owes its awesomeness to MC Type who convened, and promoted the show and played it with his band Worst Animal whom I had the pleasure of sharing a case of PBRs with before their set. The homies Graves and Sarx killed it and broke furniture in the spot and my good friend 3Ninjas got it started delighting the crowd with his raps and electronic compositions.

A quick word about cats.

I was supposed to crash with Type at his pretty new house in his empty new guestroom. Then I saw his long-haired hippy ass cat. At this point im pretty sure the cats have put my name in some kind of database where they tell each other to fuck with me on sight. There is no honor to my allergies.

So I ended up crashing with my good friend Geoff who is an amazing musician and an amazing person. So amazing in fact that he was willing to wait for me to finish rapping, finish watching the crew after me rap, finish selling merch, and finish drinking whiskey to guide me to his home. Where, of course, a cat greeted me with the holy sign of congestion.

The rap forestry mission ended in Bellingham. Where the Bad Tenants, Triceracorn, and my new favorite rapper Jesus Chris Willis helped me to have one of the most memorable rap nights I've ever 'membered. It was an incredible show full of attentive and enthusiastic rap fans and I cant wait to go back. Big shout to Chance Random and the new homie Blasfomi.

Thats all..just wanted to shout out some folks and wrap that tour up in a bow. I was hella nervous about hitting the road by myself for the first time..but the shit ended up being magical.

I have no idea how to end this.

http://www.facebook.com/events/306714519380503/

 
Ras G & Open Mike Eagle - Warhorn

2/14 - Eugene, OR - The Venue

2/15 - Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan

2/17 - Seattle, WA - Nectar

2/18 - Bellingham, WA - The Shakedown

Its good, its frightening, and its here

Its a podcast I recorded with stand-up comedin Paul Gilmartin. It isn't very much at all like many of the comedy podcasts that I frequently listen to. Whereas Adam Carolla, jimmy Dore, or Scott Aukerman invite guests on their shows to entertain with off-the-cuff banter or inform of upcoming projects, this podcast is more like Marc Meron's. Guests are compelled to lay down the “representative” part of their outward personality and dig into the dark shit that lies beneath.

I stepped into this conversation fully aware of what to expect. And to my memory I certainly dug in. I told my story from some of the very earliest moments that I can remember. And since the focus of the podcast is self-esteem issues and old points of pain, I found myself in the midst of some old, painful thoughts.

And because of that...I'm not going to listen to it.

You should tho...if you're at all interested in learning about the darker shit in the center of my creative heart. If you'd like to keep things at a distance I suggest you skip it.

The entire record is a treatise on perception and black male identity.

Hopefully I wont have to answer that question in interviews anymore.

The above sentence is the single most pretentious thing I've ever written that I actually meant.

The sentence above this one proves that within five sentences I can go completely off-topic.

The album moves in the same sort of manner. The title track sticks to the thesis in a straightforward manner (twice.) but in exploring the topic I end up touching on everything from Weezer, to NBC's Community, to the order in which I select dishes to wash.*

I have so much to say on the subject that I've chosen to expand some of the material into a series of standalone EPs. Four to be exact. Each one anchored by a remix of the song on the album that inspired it.

The first in the series is the Extended Nightmares Getdown: The Dark Blue Door

1. Nightmares (Busdriver Remix)

2. Billy's Quagmire (prod. Blockhead)

3. Four Days feat. Serengeti (prod. Busdriver)

4. The Secret to Negro Alchemy (prod. N/A)

5. Experimental Dream FLCL (prod. Awkward)

This EP can be obtained for zero american dollars for you and you only at the following link:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/11/premiere-open-mike-eagles-extended-nightmares-getdown-ep.html

This first EP is a group of songs that were written by my shadow self. They all feel like the darkest part of happy. They are cotton candy monsters that smell like night-time. The prevailing themes are reminiscence, anime, and my grandmother's ghost.

You go ahead and get your thoughts together about it. Sit with it and let it haunt you a bit.

and whats this? A limited edition cd that looks like a floppy disc? indeed.

Only 200 of these will be made and they'll be sold at the low low price of $5

 
you should prolly buy it now.