Rocked a show with Wale the other night. Wale’s old as sin, I’ve heard his name since I was about 14 as a rapper. He got big off his song “Nike Boots” and his remix of Justice’s “Dance”. Interscope went on a ludicrous signing binge last year and picked up a bunch of mediocre acts, of which he was one, so we’ve all been hearing his single “Chillin” with Lady Gaga make its rounds. I think that single’s just gaining steam, and might break through late this year, we’ll see. Lady Gaga is rumoured to be a replacement for MIA (who recorded it, then said they can’t use it rumour says, or asked for 1 million of some ludicrous number). Listening to the hook, and to Wale’s verse, it makes a lot of sense that that could be the case. The video is lackluster which is too bad, it’s a hot track.
So Wale ended up at Pinky Ring in Phoenix at Bar Smith, a place we’d never performed at, but a very interesting night. Basically about 10 deejays in AZ banded together to create a night they could play what they want (electro and random things) and to get the best deejay locally (JR) out of Scottsdale, where his residencies are. It’s a cool but pretty unsuccessful night, they bring in awesome acts (Z-Trip, Afrika Bambaataa etc) and pack it out, but aren’t really cracking weekly. I’m a super fan of what they’re trying to do and hope it works out. They got a deal to bring out Wale and put us on this gig and packed it out with about 250 people (it’s a rooftop bar, so that’s crackin). I felt our show went good, as usual people just kind of stare at us in complete shock, but sound was good and we did our thing. Afrocollective was after us and killed it, they’ve obviously been doing shows for years and they do kinda completely irrelevant underground rap but they we’re tight and really did their thing.
Wale sucked, his hype man couldn’t sing and tried to, and he was at like 60%, and they cut off most the songs like they we’re bored and it was very unexciting, but it was a good act for Phoenix to get and we’re happy to have spots on those shows. On the plus side Amen Ra did a Go-Go/Baltimore set that was OUTRAGEOUS and made me respect him as a DJ, whereas I thought he was drastically overrated prior.
