I'm doing this post over left over adrenaline from last night's show so I'll probably be fading in and out. Let's start at about 5:30pm last night. I'm in a computer lab chillin' with my folks at TU. I'm tired as freak trying to check email but falling asleep at the keyboard. My boi's girl (who's also a good friend of mine) is hungry so she and I go to get something to eat. The cold wakes me up. I'm not hype yet for the show. Actually, I'm thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I get back to the computer lab and she and my boi start doing they're little girlfriend/boyfriend thing so I'm headed over to Temple's SAC (Student Activities Center) to play Blitz 99. On the way over there I run into this kid from class who's just funny as freak, and our bassist walks up. We chill for a bit, he sees this cute jawn he knows and starts rappin' to her on a strictly platonic tip. The other boi is off, and I go to play Blitz. Dern Cheatin'-@$$ game beats me in OT, but it's all good though.
I catch up with our bassist and the jawn and we just chill for a short bit. Then we're headed off to the place. I walk by some members of Mom Sug, say wassup, and go in. The stage is set up, the sound seems ok, so me and kwo go chill. It's 7:30 now. The time we're all supposed to be here. I begin to wonder where Dave, Leon, and Tyrone are but it's cool 'cause the only folks up in there are Mom Sug and some other cats. Kwo goes for a walk as Mom Sug starts doing their B-Boy routine to a DAT. They're not bad, but one cat looks like he put more time in it (B-Boying) then the others. While I'm chillin', makin' out some demos, the founder of the Elements magazine walks up and starts chattin' with me. It's cool. He knows the guy who worked with us on our demo so we click. He seemed really interested in us so who konws wassup. More time passes as the rest of Mom Sug's crew arrive and some other folk. 'Rone straggles in around 8pm with Leon's keyboard. He informs me that Leon brough his girl and their looking for a place to park. Cool. Dave is coming with his cousin, brother, and a set of drums. Word. Kwo returns to do a sound check on his bass. Leon arrives about 15 minutes later. It takes about 10 minutes for me to get him to do a check on his board. Dave, his cousin, and brother enter with the drums. As usual Dave is more hype than anyone or anything else. He immediately starts a cipha with Tyrone. It's cool but the notice Mom Sug started their own cipha, so they get in and join. It's cool. The instrumentalists are on stage preparing the drums and keys while the MCs get their freestyle on. It's about 8:30 pm. Show starts at 9:30. We leave to get some grub and vibe.
We're chillin' in McDonald's for a bit, straight trippin'. My mind is here but it's elsewhere also. There's alot going that I was thinking of. I was anticipating the show but I was anticipating the future also. My future, I-Phunk's future. We make our way back to Mitten Hall around 9:00. Leon takes his girl home 'cause she "had a negative vibe about her." Say word. He returns and we go over the order of our set one more time to make sure we're all on the right page. Leon informs us his keyboard batteries are dying. Damn last minute sh*t. He and 'Rone go in search of batteries in N. Philly at 10pm. The show hasn't started yet. I breath only a slight sigh of relief. We're scheduled to perform at 10:35. Scheduled is the key word. The rest of us mill in and out of the Owl Cove for the next 15 minutes. Kwo informs everyone that we didn't have our pre-show prayer (it's done at every show we do). Dernit!!! I'm moving almost uncontrollably now. Mad nervous energy going through my body. I'm just walking around the Grand Court in Mitten Hall. Dave and 'Rone finally return. WE get together and Kwo does one of the best prayers I've heard in a while. We're all hype now. The order of the show was Kevin O'Neal (I like him but I don't know/think the rest of the group felt him), someone else (can't remember who), Bassey, Savidge, us, and some other folk after that. Supernat and PRT were last. Were.
Kevin O'Neal did his thing, and some other crew got up and did their thang, can't remember who, then this spoken word chic Bassey got up and truly represented. Truly. Girl is no joke, she's from Batimore, MD. She was just speakin' mad truth. It had all of us like straight. By this time, some of folks were there also. Everyone anticipated our performance. Oh yeah, I was hype. The plan was Savidge needed an instrumental and we were going to drop something for him before our set. That was the plan... But, lo and behold, Mecca Star and Trinity got bumped up before us for whatever reason. It's cool though, no prob. She points up Wise Intelligent in the audience and PRT. Cool. He gets up and does his thing, freestyles and alladat. So they're set starts to run long. We're informed by the coordinator that Savidge is on after them. Ok, we're later informed that we can only do one song 'cause they're set is running long. What???!!!?!!? Serious kink. We meet outside the Owl Cove and decide we're going to do one song... well, it'll sound like one but it'll really be two. No break in between. Aight, aight. It's a plan.
Wise Intelligent starts freestyling and this cat goes on. He's just kicking lyrics at first but then, it's like mad weird. I know there's a few NG∓E heads in the group so maybe y'all can help break things down for me. Do NG∓E heads follow Biblical principles or believe in the Bible? I really need to konw. After Wise was done his lyrical onslaught, boi started preaching. I mean REALLY preaching. He was like the Bible is the realest book on the planet. When he said that, I didn't know what to expect. I worried whether or not my friend would stay because she's much more spiritual and religious than I and I didn't know if he was going to attack Christianity or what. But lo and behold, he gets up and is like the Bible is true, it's jsut the interpretations that are false. Wow, did I miss something? He goes on about the Y2K bug and some conspiracy theory stuff which i thought was cool 'cause that's what I'm into. He talks of God and Christ (mostly of God [the Deity, not the Black Man] though) and how the end is near. Real Revelations type ministry. He was making sense though, and he put it on a level in which he related everything to our (Black folks') struggle. I mean, boi was kickin' it and putting things into verse at that. I mean this cat was kickin' the type of stuff I'd preach on if I was a minister and the type of stuff I think upon, but can never get alot of it into rhyme. If you took Goodie Mob (from Soul Food) and Boogiemonsters (from both LPs), that's the kinda lyrics he was kickin'. Dave was like... I don't think Wise is 5% anymore. I told him, if he didn't cuse so much he could be a minster. So, y'all, NG∓E folk let me know if this is unusual or what? Anyway, Wise continued on for literally an hour in and out of freestyles saying basically the same thing over and over. It was cool when he started, but there was no variance. He just said the same thing in defferent ways. Cool, though. About 15 mintues from the end of his jawn, the coordinator came up to us and was like y'all can do y'all whole piece after Word O'Mouth (who was up next).
Word O'Mouth did on song and was out. Then Supernat and his folks went on...huh? Boi said Supernat told him either he's next or out. Now, no doubt Supernat represented and all but, yo, we wasn't none to happy. Supernat still has skills as a freestyler. Still. Boi is no joke. He was everyone in the audience hold something up and he'll rap about it. Boi was going off... cats were holding up ids, watches, hats, wallets, and my boi even put up a Pepsi cup. 'Nat has some serious skills on the freestyle tip for sure. So, hear it is, midnight, the jawn s'posed to end at like 12:30 and it's our turn. The crowd... probably about 100 or so at it's height, had now widdled down to about 30 or 40. That majority takin' leave after Wise did his thing. WE got up onstage and cats was feeling us. I mean they was really diggin' us. I can't really give a review of our performance 'cause all o y'all don't know our material, but the folk who was still there (including my peeps) really enjoyed us.
I got home about 1:30 this morning. Adrenaline still surging in my exhaustion. I had to be to work at 7 this morning. I got her 5 of. I don't usually get here 'til 10 after. The adrenaline is the only thing keeping me going today. If any other folk reading this attended last night's show, post your thoughts on us and the show in general. That Wise Intelligent thing through me though, I really need to be enlightened.
-Steve S. Jackson, I-Phunk