My favorite thing about doing music is that I get to travel all over this great nation of ours, visit places I would otherwise never go and meet people I would otherwise never meet. My most recent outing was a classic example of just that. This particular adventure was especially important to me since our destination was a place I knew well but hadn’t been to in over 15 years…
…a little background info, I was born in a town called Grantsville way out in the boondocks of rural West Virginia. When I was five years old my family moved to Charleston, WV well a suburb of Charleston called Cross Lanes where I lived until I was 11. That was in 1993 (damn I’m getting old) and I hadn’t been back to there since. Until now…
…My fellow road warriors, Quanstar and Evaready RAW met me in Sandy Springs around 5:30am and we hit the road, destination West Virginia. It was an uneventful drive and around 1:30pm we touched down in Charleston. We killed some time in the mall where I used to buy my He-Man figures when I was little. Then we took in some of the city’s fare at The Blue Grass Kitchen while we waited to hear from our contacts…
…Around 5pm we heard from Brew who was kind enough to let us grab showers and wash off 8 hours of ride funk. By 8pm we were all fresh and clean and ready to get down to business so we met up with B Rude who put the show together and was accommodating us with a spot (his house) to crash for the evening…
…9:30pm rolled around and we headed to The Empty Glass. Astoundingly enough we got to do a sound check and with all that taken care of it was time to sit back enjoy the perks of being on the bill namely free beer and wait for our time to unleash that United Underworld onslaught onto the unsuspecting attendees…
…As show time grew closer The Empty Glass got more and more crowded and continued to do so all throughout the night…
…First to rock was Extra Everything, hometown heroes who got the show started off properly with a high-energy and entertaining set. Then it was our turn, by then the crowd had gotten thick and the drinks had been flowing aplenty so when Evaready RAW asked everyone who was “nice and intoxicated” to make some noise, the resounding roar that rang out let us know we were in for a good night…
…This set was bananas, plantains even. As soon as we finished we all agreed it was the best United Underworld set to date. The amount of love and energy we received from everyone there undoubtedly contributed to that. We played a 40 minute set (which in the hiphop world feels more like two-and-a-half hours) and the beautiful people of Charleston stayed with us the whole time. Maybe I’m jaded from years of paying dues in front of less-than-enthusiastic crowds but when we play for that long and the crowd is still getting bigger and more amped 20 minutes in that is something to write home to mom about (or blog about on your website)…
…Victorious and satisfied, we relinquished the stage to the man of the hour, B Rude. Carrying on the legacy of The Rabblerousers–who’s journey came to an end far too early with the tragic passing of key member Mule (R.I.P.)– B Rude and his DJ (operating under the collective moniker of Dinosaur Burps) gave the WV faithful what they came for, commanding the stage and closing out the evening in exquisitely rowdy and raucous fashion…
…so as I sit in the back seat of the rental on the way back to Atlanta writing this I’m compelled to say nights like this one are the stuff dreams are made of, I couldn’t think of any better way to make a much delayed return to my childhood home than as a conquering hero. Also HIPHOP IS EVERYWHERE and there are dope ass rappers in places like West Virginia so wherever you are when you read this know your journey starts in your back yard and if you believe in what you do, do it and the world will come to you…
…in closing I would like to extend my deepest and most heartfelt appreciation and thanks to B Rude, Brew, Extra Everything, The Empty Glass, and all of the wild wonderful West Virginians who came out and made our visit to their fine city a success…
…Can’t wait to get back…
UP NEXT, we are back home in the A with Tommy Lee Soul, Rockmost to bring you Rapper Big Pooh of Little Brother @ Apache Cafe on March 4th need to know more? Go right here: http://tinyurl.com/bigpoohatl
Love y’all ’til next time take care of yourselves and each other
GG