13 years today.
I had Ready To Die on cassette that I bought with money I saved. I loved it.

probably my favorite shit he ever did…

GANGSTARR is one of my all time favorite groups.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT HIPHOPDX

more Tim Burton

I HAD GUNS FOR ARMS.

…it’s right in front of ya eyes

I watched all the promos, this one gets me the most amped.

THE CHALLENGE OF PAIN!!!!!!!!

my favorite of all time.

photo by Todd Westphal

We were supposed to be at the van by 12 but noone was ready at that time. When we finally got it together it was probably 1, and we were all hungry. It was a crazy night and when we get back in the van it’s usually the time where we recap what happened the night before. It helps to put the pieces together because my memory of what took place last night is scattered and selective. It’s actually hilarious and somewhat shocking when you find out and see pictures of yourself in the rarest of forms. Anyway, we are starving and we love Chili’s so that’s where we go to fill our deprived bellies. When we left I regretted not getting that molten chocolate cake with ice cream or whatever it’s called, but I also think I’m done with Chili’s for a while anyway just like Denny’s and Subway. Tour is winding down and we’re headed to back up to the North East where we are going to hit a few major cities like DC, Philly, and Boston, and then finish out with a secondary market, Providence, RI. We are on our way to DC. Everyone hates that I can sleep for the majority of the long drives and I wake up to banter about my sleeping habits. I don’t normally sleep as much as they say but sometimes I sleep better in the van than I do at night. As we approach DC, I wake up and look at the Washington Monument when we make it in the city and the thought of hundreds of thousands of people filling this exact location for President Obama’s inaugural speech crosses my mind. We pull up to DC9 and it starts to pour. I’ve played in DC a few times but never played here. We are informed that it is a small place and the pre-sale is already more than half so chances are it may sell out. Cage takes a while sound checking and I can hear him going back and forth with the soundman very courteously to get the sound right. I sense that there is some difficulty and he’s feeling it out. By the time Cage got off it sounded good and I told the dude to leave the same levels because it is nearing time to open doors, however, he insisted on changing everything. At this point I’m hungry and impatient so by the time I get up there and I realize how much of an asshole this guy is while I’m checking, its proving to be difficult for me to keep my cool, but I manage and get it sounding decent all things considered. Our friend Seannie Camera’s is here and doing an interview with Cage for Vimby before showtime and asks Sean and I to spill out some words for the Cage piece and we both do, all while loading up on spritzers before showtime. Cage pisses in the garbage can backstage and it was pretty funny because he didn’t feel like walking through the crowd to use the bathroom. Time for me to go on. I get up there and I can’t believe how bad it sounds. It actually sounds nothing like it did at soundcheck. Mics feeding back and music so low. I try to signal this guy and eventually I said something but he just left me hanging. I think it’s because he kept coming backstage and acting like he was running the show and we told Todd to tell him to stop coming back because he was annoying us and he spitefully fucked with the sound as a result. The crowd was so awesome though and Chauncey and I have been vibing so well together that it just feels good to play, plus the with crowd right there with us, the soundman cant take it away from us. Smash that set and went back and told Cage to make sure to get things sounding right before he goes into full swing. He did as well as he could but I still could tell the soundman didn’t do certain things that we had asked earlier. Either way, the crowd didn’t lose an ounce of energy for Cage and he tore it down. Afterward, we kept drinking. We finished all our liquor backstage and used the rest of the drink tickets up front.

photo by Shabooty

Shabooty showed up and I got him a spritzer and show the CCWM official blogman how we party. Everyone was in good spirits and inebriated by the time we got to the van. We were definitely not done partying at that point. We irrationally cracked a bottle of red wine on the ride. I don’t know what we were thinking. At one point we pulled over on the highway and all decided to pee on the side of the highway. Instead of actually taking a few steps, Todd decides to pee right outside the doors with his back to us and I went to push him and as I did I fall off the seat. Timmy grabs my foot as I dropped to the floor of the van and almost out of the door. It’s hilarious. I can’t believe I almost fell out of the van. We then stop at the Baltimore travel center. Chauncey opens the van door, swings around, and some how loses his footing and falls directly out of the van on his side and ends up on his back and his sidekick was next to him at his feet. Karma for laughing at me. It happened so fast, and it looked so crazy, we didn’t know whether to laugh or ask if he was ok. It turned out to be a combination of both and we were crying. He hurt his elbow a little but he’s fine. We pick up some snacks and get out of there. It was so seedy. We stuffed our faces with trash all the way to the hotel and checked in. I pounded water, shot the shit with Todd, took two ibuprofens to prevent the hangover, put the AC up to a FREEZE, and went to sleep.