Life is great.

Thursday night started out with the Producer's Swap Meet at Apache Cafe Hosted by Big T, Fort Knox, & Hotep. It was more than I expected, to be honest. What I mean by that is there was more than one school of hip hop on hand. There was hip hop with a pronounced southern inflection, there was retro-flavored hip hop and also standard boom-bap offered up. In the house Thursday night were Producers with production deals with Atlantic Records scouting talent for upcoming projects, A Producer known by the name of Drugz (I could be spelling that totally wrong, btw) who is working with Atlanta MC Ludacris, Atlanta transplants that have worked with former #1 Billboard artists from out of town like Teddy Riley, and hungry new acts looking for footing in the scramble of the Atlanta Music scene.
There was a nice crowd out and it was easy to almost forget that BMI was having a showcase of their own just down the street aways over at the Luckie Lounge scheduled to be headlined by Lil' Wayne. Hopefully local acts like Hollyweerd secured a record deal after their performance. With a single like "weirdow" and a team led by former Young Jeezy manager Coach K, the sky is the limit for them. Two other Atlanta artists made the final four as well: MC Jarren Benton & Young Trimm. Word is that Atlanta singer Keri Hilson was also on hand doing a performance. Any time ATL acts can share the stage with Lil Wayne is a good look.
My experience was mostly about Life The Great Thursday. I was invited out by his management and we had a good time talking about the industry and about Life. The man can perform. I won't lie to you. He had great presence, breath control. He coaxed the crowd into being involved as well. If you haven't heard the first installment of his 4 part project, check him out at his myspace page for the FREE download.

After the Life's set I had to rush from Midtown over to East Atlanta to meet some friends to talk about some business. Cenci is a great spot to chill late nights. The atmosphere is laid back, the food is good and the bartenders are friendly. After checking in with Rock Most and DJ Fudge on the wheels of steel downstairs, I bellied up to the bar to talk about Atlanta Hip Hop History with Amdex of ATL Hip Hop Group Clan Destined, DJ Injection who spins an old school set @ Cenci on Tuesday nights and a friend from my Georgia Southern days, B-price from the Uxnoun Ceeds crew. We had a great time. Dj Sky popped through to say hi, we spoke with ATL MC Mojo Swagger and we ended up talking for hours.

We began talking about ATL Hip Hop going back to the late 80's and exploring the relationships, the lineage of crews to the present day. It really is amazing how much common ground that mainstream artists from Akon, DJ Drama and D4L to Toomp and Jermaine Dupri share with Outkast, Binkis Recs, The Unxnoun Ceeds, Killer Mike and present day underground ATL acts. It truly is amazing. We'll get more into that in the upcoming weeks. As for right now? It's like 6am. Granted, I got in at like 4am, but I'm still tired. I'll talk to y'all later.