Yesterday, Shelby and I drove 10 hours to the Centennial State to play a show with some artists who have been doing this whole music thing for a while now. Chuck Inglish, one part of the duo "The Cool Kids" was the headliner of this #SoundsLikeSummerTour that I was asked to be apart of. Alex Wiley and Josh Sallee would be the 2nd lined artist if you're looking at the tour flyer. Both, different in rap styles and demeanor, seperating themselves from the everyday artist wanting to be a mainstream supersatr. Then there's K.A.A.N., who up until yesterday, has only said a handful of words to me that normally are just, "Hey what's up man? How are you? Me? I'm good" hahaha. He doesn't say much off stage normally, but something about Denver had his spirits high... See what I did there? Anyway, K.A.A.N. has been on the watch lists of many movers and shakers in the hip hop community and the stop in Denver has proven his popularity amongs the culture junkies (I may write a seperate piece about him in a day or two, we had a funny experience). Support for the show ranged wide as artists from Colorado and the remaining midwest region spent their 10-20 minute sets rhyming, vibing and occasionally dabbing in front of a solid crowd, the best so far of the tour. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah... My set. So the absence of an artist allowed me to have a performing DJ set (which I love) instead of a house DJ set which was COOL with me. I stepped up, chatted with the young eager ceowd for a few moments and cue'd up my first song of the night, "Heatin Up" by my brother Retro P (https://soundcloud.com/retrosworld/heating-up-prod-by-drew-the-producer). I wanted to test the masses, I knew that the response from this first song would determine where this 20 minute set would go. They loved it, bobbed heads, grabbed each other as if they needed to be held up when the beat dropped, and looked at me waiting for the next joint to come in, and I delivered. The set continued and finished in fun fashion with Chance the Rapper's "No Problems" from the recent Coloring Book project. We, yes me & the rest of Cervantes (the venue in Denver) rapped along as 23rd Chance screamed "You don't want no problems, want no problems with me". I stepped back, thanked the wonderful crew for vibing, reminded them to stick around for the rest of the show and exited the stage where I was greeted with a GOOD JOB from my right hand lady. What does all of this mean? It was an everyday set right? Normally yes, but for me, no. I spend a lot of my time DJing for less animated crowds. I have fun with my audience at Topgolf, weddings can get interesting, but when you have 60-70 new ears zoning to your craft in a foreign state you've only visited once before as an adult, it means just a LITTLE more than what it may to the average disc jockey. I had a blast, to say the least. I exited the venue for a breather, it was just 9:30pm which meant the night was as young as Kylie Jenner when she met Tyga but my performing was done and I could enjoy the time remaining before 12 hours passed and I had to be back on rhe road to the 405. The whole drive home, today, I've been assessing what exactly happened the night prio. It was great, it was everything that I had hoped for and more, but how could I do that again. I don't get ENOUGH of energy like that. I don't get to play explicit, grungy, bass-heavy music in an entire set but once or twice a month. I need more of that. I'll state this again, I love what I do. I love the "power" that I have when I step up and plug that 2011 macbook pro in to my Numark. It's intense, but i keep asking myself, how can I do that more. It's like drinking water, hahaha, it's good for me. It keeps my sanity. You see, when I quit ball a few years back, i really didnt know WHAT i wanted to do as a DJ. I didnt know if i wanted to be in radio, tour, produce, or put on evenrs for local artists, I just knew I wanted to be apart of the culture the best way I could and now, now im finally figuring out how to do that. Denver was eye opening, as a lot of things are in my life. I think I saw a glimpse of something really good to come. Consistency will keep me heading in the right direction. I'm just ready to get back at it, which I will be in about 4 more hours. - LiTEBRiTE ps: Blogging is gonna help keep me sane to, if you do get a chance to read this, let me know. Bear with me as I get this whole writing thing back in order.
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