Bobby Ray (B.o.B)- No Man's Land Video

Motion Family still getting some video work in. Nice.

Managed to have fun last night.

1. It was hot.
2. There were about 15 acts that came on stage while all the while the host claimed Wale was coming up next.

What saved the night? Colin Monroe, Bobby Ray as well as Cameos from Killer Mike & T.I. The DJ wasn't a real DJ. That sucks. I'm kind of tired of seeing Serato/CDJ "DJ's" get up there and fumble around in the dark for tracks without an understanding of music, timing or how to mix.

The Host claimed to have hosted several parties here in ATL and could rip off a list of many venues but he didn't know any music from Atlanta dating before late 2007. I'm sorry, but when you say "Are we in ATL?????" and the only two artists you can think to ask for songs from the DJ to play are Jeezy and Gucci Mane with the DERTH of artists we have here in Atlanta and have had even in the past 2 to 3 years, that is just shameful.

It was hot.

I'm going to say it again because it can't be repeated enough: There were lackluster performances from filler acts, AND the DJ was off point. Thank goodness for Bobby Ray aka B.o.B and Colin Monroe. T.I, Killer Mike, Big Kuntry all had great cameos as did Playboy Tre. I can also attest to sleeping on Mums FP who had ME rocking. His production is terrific.

Haziq stepped out and did a few songs. He seems to be getting alot of love here in the Atlanta underground scene but I just didn't get it. I wasn't impressed, but maybe I need to sit down with his music and give it a strong listen. It's easy to be wrong when you first hear something new. That said, I'm a transplant. I make no bones about it. But the last thing I'm going to do when I'm in a city is shout out whatever city I'm from before I shout out the city that I'm in. That's just disrespect.


Bobby Ray. He was fantastic. I've seen him live about 5 times in the past calendar year and his show just continues to grow. He's added a guitarist and Drummer ALIen aka Ali Warren aka Alien1 who has played here in ATL with HEED, Era of The Stereograph, Spree Wilson, The Radiant Kidz, Dj Wreckineyez and other acts. The show is out of this world, really. If you read this blog often, you know what kind of energy Alien brings. I've only seen two leads be able to hang with him: Spree Wilson & B.o.B. aka Bobby Ray. Bobby Ray not only hung with ALIen but he seems to feed off that energy.

His show is leaps and bounds beyond where it was at A3C last year. Last year you could see that he had so much energy but with only a DJ backing him, there was nowhere for him to put it other than getting crunk on stage by himself. It didn't translate. The first time you saw him live, you could be blown away by his ENERGY. After that? You'd wonder why he had itat all. Not now. Now his show has balance because with live instruments he has a proper outlet for that energy. He has an energy twin in ALIen that he can spar with on stage as well. You could see the artistic glimpses of promise before from Bobby Ray with the Winehouse record and with songs like "Gangsta" you could see he wanted to bring music that actually says something to the people. The new Bobby Ray is a fully fleshed out visage of those promises. I couldn't be happier with his progression. I feel like we're witnessing greatness emerge.

T.I. came on stage and did a "freestyle" which tore the house down. I put freestyle in quotes because now-a-days so many people spit written rhymes. I can't tell if it was or not. Bobby Ray then followed with one of his own that was clearly a freestyle and just continued the energy. Mo Garland has been trying to put me up on Playboi Tre for like a year now. I was sleeping on him. Wow. He's a lot better than the first time I saw him at A-town day 2008. He's got prescence on the stage and rocked the mic well. He can actually spit lyrics, which is a welcomed relief in today's Atlanta Hip Hop scene where folks have reverted a bit to the stripped down, bare-bones lyricism of our not too recent BASS music past.


Once again, ATL shows that we have live artists that can do a great live show, and we also showed just how shallow of a pool of talent that can be at times. Overall it was certainly worth it because Bobby Ray and Colin Monroe were worth the price of admission.

While standing in the ticket line, I heard Yelawolf playing. I'm not sure if that was the DJ or a set. If it was a set, I'm kicking myself for missing it because he's one of my favorite acts in Atlanta.

Wale? Oh, I don't know what happened with his part. I got tired of clothing line commercials and filler acts so I left. I hear Bun B made a cameo during his set, though. I'd be mad about missing that had I not seen Bun B a few months ago.

And y'all know it had to have been wearing me thin for me to miss Wale. I've been blogging about him for 2 years.

Peace, family

synergy

I know I promised a review of the Weekend tonight

I'm going to have to break my promise. Don't look at me like that. I'm sorry, y'all but I am TIRED. A-town day, El Bar on Thursday, A3C & Fuggin Awesome have WORN. ME. OUT. I don't have any energy at all. Didn't even have time to check out Janelle Monae and Tendaberry at Smith's Olde Bar. What I do have, however are pics. Tomorrow I'll edit the video I have, God Willing and post that as well. I have video of Yelawolf's performance at Fuggin Awesome, I have video from ATL day featuring East-Atlanta Rock Band The Stereophones and Atlanta Hip Hop Band HEED performing live with assistance from the Tower High School Marching Band @ A-town day as well as video from A3C from the Juice Crew's MC Shan, Roxanne Shante and Biz Markie. Should be fun stuff. Tonight I was supposed to swing by Apache Cafe to peak my head in the door for a second to check out Van Hunt's show as well as see Contraverse at the Relaspe Theatre, but again...I'm tired. I have projects due in the morning, and I did very little work on them this weekend. In other words I'm in big trouble. It was worth it, though And I'd do it all again.

Here is the Flickr set of pics from AC3 2008. If you want, you can peruse the pics of ATL day too listed under my account there as well.

Thanks to DJ Hotsauce of SouthernStyle Dj's for this footage. People talk about crunk like the old heads in that scene, etc don't respect the culture. They are fools. I watched DJ Jelly recite EVERY verse from the Juice Crew.




Peace until tomorrow, family.

You know, I aint gonna front.

I'm not always up on what is going on in the mainstream in terms of urban music- or even other genres for that matter. It's not like I don't like all mainstream music just because it's top 40. Some of that shit is good as hell. I just get tired of hearing the same 20 songs on the radio- and to be honest half of that nonsense is garbage for real. No damn imagination, no skill.




Alot of the D4L and UNK shit today is what Kilo and Bass music was of the past. Jeezy is today's Juve. I used to listen to all that shit when I was a kid. HARD. You think I wasn't up at Stern's Angle, Legends (GEORGIA SOUTHERN!) or the Gate acking a fool to this shit? So I don't hate on that coke rap/street rap shit. Shoot...I still listen to Killer Mike (like every day). ...Lawd knows that as much as I love their music that I don't want to hear no damn MF Doom or Kev Brown in the club. I wanna hear some Mr. Magic 'n shit. Uptempo or swingin' bows music. The club is what that shit is for.




Fucking around with the avant garde shit, tho I almost missed this cat B.O.B
This shit aint bad.
If anything I'd say he's inconsistant, but you can see the talent. On "Gangsta" he went off, for real. He's still young. He'll only get better.



Fuck with him. Get the Dj Smalls Cloud 9 mixtape here.
If you don't like that song "Gangsta"? Something is WRONG with you.