It went the fuck down. In one of the most whirlwind weeks of my whirlwind life, somehow I got to accompany Devin the Dude on his first shows in New York City and Amsterdam. Seriously, you might not know this about me, but this past week is something I have been focused on for many years. I mean shit, what better city to take Devin the dude to than Amsterdam? Pussy, weed and alcohol flow like rain in that quaint little town, and if that's really all he raps about cuz that's all he does, then it just makes perfect sense to take him there.
But first we had to make a stop in New York City for a lil event sowed up by my girl Roxy.
Reppin' the H and she ain't even been yet, she just knows real, b'lee dat.
So yeah, we took Damage Control live on the road (love to DJ Keno and the gang for holding it down in the studio, sorry for not calling but we was thowed...) to New York City to show 'em how we do. JD opened the night with a set of Houston and down south classics. For those who don't know, I knew JD when he was like 17 and lived in his girlfriends garage. Used to give him records and he's always been my man. Another factoid about JD is he was the first DJ to ever spin on Damage Control, our inaugural show May 23, 2002. He just moved to NYC (for whatever reason) so we had to give the man a call. Then DJ Chill hit the decks, then JD hit the decks again as Chill acting as MC.
Chillsofocused
Chill basically kept the crowd hyped with shouts of BLONDE BOMBSHELLS IN THE HOUSE (a nod to the girls dancing stage left) and FADER MAGAZINE IN THE BUILDING FADER MAGAZINE IN THE BUILDING FADER MAGAZINE IN THE BUILDING...
Cuz him and CatchDubs is just like that
One of said bombshells
There's lots to be said about this show. They killed it man. Everyone. But I know what you want to see, that's right...
NAS, and Kelis, showed up to greet the dude. Stayed for the whole show, whoa. Seriously, Nas and Kelis made the trek to a small punk rock style bar in the LES called Rothko to say what's up to the Dude. Nassoreal.
Roxysoreal and Cool Spankrocka
Man, so just after Nas and Kelis walked in the building, Spankrock took the stage. Spankrock lives in Philly but is from Baltimore (right?) and this dude takes these ill Baltimore house style beats (though quite hip hop and avant garde) and just goes ragge over them. Fucking wrecks.
Dudes set was off the chain. Very different from that Texas shit, but a decent compliment to Devin's style. For real, it was some ill shit. Like this totally unique and raw east coast dude with this totally unique and raw down south dude. Fucking had me fucked up. That and them drink tickets.
He even had a nice nice dancer who's name I know, but not right now (no sleep for a week literally and here I sit blogging probably forgetting everything but maybe not fuck man, I should break down the sleep patterns of the last week for y'all before this is all said and done).
Then the dude hit the stage. Straight up, Devin has this serious energy that is just infectious. He's one of those people who just draws you in with his realness and his niceties. For real, on stage back in the day I used to question him a bit cuz his laid back style almost came off as nervous and his crowd rocking techniques weren't quite there. But in the past couple of years, this intense smoking machine has mastered the art of breath control and has figured out how to rock a crowd and still be Devin. Like for real, you've never seen a crowd get so hype to someone so mellow before in your life.
He opened up with "To the Extreme" and just went on and on for about 45 good minutes, dropping a melange of underground hits to a New York crowd who sang along to pretty much everything. Spankrock made a comment on the Hollertronix board about how there were no girls in the house and all the black people except Nas and Kelis came with him. Well I mean, he was wrong. The crowd was fairly diverse, with like a decent majority of folks in there being press people, obsessed with Devin like me. But shit, there was some ladies in there and shit, there was a lil some of everybody in there.
Devin straight wrecked.
Roxy and Devin... Peep dude checking Roxy's ass or maybe legs or both HARD.
After the show, as Devin wove through the crowd, he was greeted with pounds and extremely excited thank yous from a good portion of the crowd.
VIP's CatchDubs, AnalogBeauty and Emynd (I Never met so many people I only knew virtually in one night in my entire life, amazing thing the internet)
And neither did Devin, tell me who dat is?
DJ Ayres brought us a CDJ. SOREAL!
Brought to you by the SoReal Family Representaz. For real. So Real. Thanks Roxy. You Rule.
Peep the fly MECCA shirt I'm wearing courtesy of my girls Sataurius and Joelle. Y'all really hooked a couple of bum ass Texans up. My trouser situation has been in tatters for months.
Top 2 Things Said By DJ Chill on His First Trip To New York:
1. Damn, they put they garbage right on the street here.
2. Lookit that lil ass MacDonalds!
Then we headed out to Amsterdam...
Boy ripped it to a full house at The Melkweg. Props to State Magazine for really representing and bringing us out to their kick off party.
The show was Saturday night, but Friday night Kees de Koning and company brought us out to 3fm (Hollands biggest pop station)/3voor12 to do a lil interview and have a surprise birthday party. That's right, Devin's first appearance in Amsterdam/Europe happened to happen on his birthday. The interview was so fuckin' real they even talked to me (link later).
They even had a cake. Fucking lekker. AND they let us smoke weed right there on the mic.
After the show Kees put us on the list at Paradiso where they had this incredible party and I hung with my man...
LeanSippa from Brussels and my man
Remington Steel (Murder Dog UK) from London as well as my man Steve and Brian Bartholomew from Murder Dog London, who I didn't get good photos of.
Which is a pity cuz Brian is MY MAN! Filmed the whole show so get ready to rumble.
Saturday Devin hooked up with Lange Frans, a HUGE rapper in Holland who has a few big pop hits and even does some hosting for MTV Netherlands, here you see Devin doing said MTV interview.
And here as well.
Then came the show. Now this show was a part of a kick off party for the new webmag called The State. So it was big, poeople were in the house. I had to wonder as I peered out from backstage just before Dev went on if these folks were in the house for Devin or the party, but when the first beats from "To the Extreme" came on and every hand in the house went in the air and people were screaming I knew Devin fans were in the house. The response was really incredible. I been telling Devin and Rap-A-Lot that Devin has fans everywhere (as well as a lot of Rap-A-Lot artists) but no one ever listened to me. Hopefully they will now.
Peep the photos. Fucked up thing is the CDJ was fucked up and would not play his beat CD continuously so I had to stand back behind the tables like a pseudo (read: fake) DJ and push the play buttong between every song. So my photos suffered a bit, but look at that crowd...
When I was on stage I saw this dude in the crowd with a Whut it Dew T-Shirt, found him afterwards, but I didn't find the dude I spotted with the Screwed Up Click shirt.
The dude in the Whut it Dew shirt said for me to tell you - "Yo tell them niggas all we do is jam Screw over here nigggaaaaaaaa."
After the show I stayed at the club and watched this FUCKING AMAZING set by Dutch artists Stick, Jawat and Kubus. The show was hype as fuck and all I gotta say is Kubus has some of the finest beats I've heard in years. Dude killed it and my stoned ass was vibing hard, in the back though so I didn't get photos. The weed does hold me back at times.
Next time, we'll be in Europe for a bit longer. Japan, New Zealand and Australia are next. Houston stand up, the shit is possible. Start thinking about it. I'm ready to go anytime. Holler back yung un.
Links to More Thowed Bitnes Regarding the Devin X-Treme Mini Tour of Amsterdam and Niuew Amsterdam:
Live on 3 Voor 12/3fm Friday Night Listen HERE
CatchDubsSoFuckingTrill
Bubonic B Photos from Amsterdam
Hardly Art Take On NYC Situation
Good Good
This One Has Video Clips of NYC Show
RoxyExtremelyRealPhotos
Wifebeater on Devin
www2.statemagazine.nl
Fader Magazine In The Building (DJ Chill Says So Respect Dat)
EmyndSoReal
And then Catch Dubs Said THIS and I had to go cry to toilet: "This sort of goes without saying, but I will say the shit out of it anyway: props to Matt Sonzala for working to make this TX/NYC exchange program happen. Where some people will take a needessly provincial attitude towards their local scenes on some cornball "I discovered this first, you're not entitled to enjoy this, blah blah" sense of pseudo-ownership, my man Soneezy actually appreciates that other people are into the same stuff he's into, and is down to collaborate with folks like Roxy and put in work so that creative and lucrative shit can pop off for all involved. Real talk."
I'm about to elaborate on this very statement later this week in an article entitled "White on White Crime: Why You Gotta Be a Bitch About Things Bitch?" What you is reading my mind now Dubzeezle?
If I don't hit 200,000 hits this week I'm killing a kitten. I mean, probably just um bitch about it, but I might kill a kitten so tell a friend about HoustonSoReal.
Devin Live in Amsterdam audio coming soon courtesy of 3voor12.
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