It's Been Pretty RealBBC Event PhotosDiplo PhotosNorway and Copenhagen PhotosBasically the past 2 weeks of my life...

Shit, I don't even want to look at the last post on this here thang thang we call HoustonSoReal. I was on such a roll, posting regularly and bringing you so much useless information on a daily basis and then spalsh. I took the plunge into oblivion where beer and adventure trumps anything computer related. Being without one of these here things for a cleans 2 weeks almost felt good though, I have to say. And my main man Roger just gave me his old laptop (I been hinting to you guys for some time now) so may we never see such a lapse again. Anyway, I'll splain everything throughout this here long ass post. Grab and ice tea and get comfortable. We going around the world.

First a bit of a plug. This weekend my peoples will be in H-Town. Hydroponic Soundsystem and DJ Ayres will join CeePlus and The Rhinestone Life at this here event:


You know I'm all about th emuseum events. They go hard as hell and attract a pretty beautiful segment of the Houston progressive community y mas. Tomorrow, Saturday night, 8 p.m. - 12 a.m. come meet me and all my folks up in this beeyatch. if you missed DJ Ayres last time he was here with The Rub, then you must not miss this and if you caught him last time well then I bet you will be there anyway.

On top of that, this will probably be the first time any of us really see Hydroponic Soundsystem in their entirity. They and Trae have released the best records of the year so far in 2006 and I don't think either will be beat. Come see my partners Skin and Rube as they are joined on stage by MC's Mr. Blakes, Head Krack, Mes the Jive Turkey, Chucky Sly, MYK and I am hoping Tahiti and crew. Anyway, you wanna see a real fly side of Texas, come to this show. I will not miss this for anything.

And um man, The Rhinestone Life is one of the greatest bands you will ever see. Think a fat, white James Brown type who kills it. Brian McManus is the second coming of the FUNK. I don't know how else to describe it but McManus the king (featuring Cl'che).

Anyway, on to the madness that has been my life for the past couple of weeks. Good madness. Heavenly madness in fact.

Wait, but first peep this photo out:

This is from the Warehouse Live Event. I had to start with this one and ask you what you know about it? Better be something or you're fired.

If you don't know. HoustonSoReal (Me) and BBC 1Xtra teamed up to produce three hot radio shows live from Houston. Basically the first one was a show where everyone got together and Studio 7303 and did interviews with Semtex. The second one was a "History of Houston" show with me, Semtex and K-Rino and then the third was 1Xtra Live from Houston with Ill Tactics, Grit Boys, Trae, Bun B and Devin the Dude. Below you will find some pics, but click the link below to go to the BBC Page and listen to all of these shows. If you don't, in the words of K-Rino, "You ain't real muthafucka you ain't real."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/usa/houston


DJ Semtex in the super secret studio for the history show.

Oh yeah shit I went to Studio 7303 without my camera and took a gang of shots with Semtex's camera and damn if I don't have those yet. When I get 'em you will see 'em.


Emma from 1 Xtra and one of the fabulous sound men!


K-Rino in the place


Semtex, Ray and Julia from 1Xtra

Shit was off the chain. But wait, the night before that recording Diplo, CSS and Bonde do Role were in town. CSS and Binde do ROle are both from Brazil and Diplo, well, he's from Florida. Originally.


Diplo, friend and our man Brent


Chris from Lemon-Red was in the house!


My man Joe, aka YPPAH was in the turntable group The Truth and is now signed to Ninjatune Records. Look out for more other side of Houston flavor.


DJ CeePlus and Dr. Knuckstable


CSS


Chris doing his merch thang thang that's my dude


Monique from Hater Magazine in the house


Then after the show we all went down to Damage COntrol and Diplo wrecked and Bonde do Role drunkenly freestyled about fellatio and queefing some in English, some in Portugese. DL the show in a post about 2 down from here.


Super journalist Criag D. Lindsey was in la casa.


And here them Brazillians wilding out




Yip


DJ Chill and Diplo


This would be the tattoo just above DJ Gloss's ass


Martina


Me, Diplo, DJ Chill

Then the next night, not 15 hours later we set off that 1Xtra Live event. Live concert in its entirity on BBC 1 Xtra now, go listen.


Me and DJ Semtex the realest


Ill Tactics opened the show.


My Dallas peeps Big Ben and Riflman were in the house.


DJ Chill wrecked all night long


Riflman, BP Of STreet Pharmacy, Sydnee and Friends


Scooby of the Grit Boys, they of course WRECKED!


Pretty Todd


Niq




Playboy Poppy SoReal after the show


My man Eric Thompson in the photo pit. Peep his blog to see this shot from his perspective.


Another super journalist Lance Walker with Monique from Hater. Lookin' like they finna get married.


Super Photographer Peter Beste and DJ Chill


Name these


Trae fuckin' killed it


Bun B and MDDL FNGZ killed it


Then it was time for them Coghee Brothaz, here's Domo and DJ Chill getting ready to set it off.


Coughee Brothaz


Devin the Dude


But you already knew that


Jugg Mugg of the Odd Squad!


And here's that Odd Squad!


Rob Quest and Jugg Mugg


Rob Quest new album coming soon and it is some amazingly new sounding shit fo dat ass.




These two fine folks are from my hometown of Erie, PA and now live here. More on Erie in a short minute.


And this is Julia, one of the fine people from the BBC who made this all possible. Whew.

So after the BBC show ended at 12 midnight I went home only to fly out at 6 a.m. for a lil vacation with my family in my hometown of Erie, PA. We actually rented a cottage at the beach, on Lake Erie, with a few family friends and all just chilled. SHit, it was great. We were on the side of a hill right at the water, so no cell phones worked and there were no computers for like 5 days. That's what I'm talking about. After that I'm thinking about taking it back to abacuses and snail mail. For real.


DJ Eva and her cousin Katy


My sister, Aunt Krissy, with a lil improvised pool for Elena


I caught the kids gambling


These are my 2 best friends from my high school days, though none of us went to high schoool together and I barely see anyone else at all from that life, but somehow we always cross paths at least once a year. Mike and Aaron.
....and Yuengling, also one of my best friends.


DJ Eva likes Yuengling too.


And everyone loves glowsticks. Daisy and Eva


My nephew Jake is a punk rocka


And here's a shot of Roger, my mother and me, taken by me, in the sunshine.


Some fruitcakes watching the sunset (note, I prefer watching a sunset to almost anything)


More glow stickage with my niece Sara

Then less than 24 hours after returning to Houston, I took off to Oslo, NOrway and Copenhagen, Denmark for a weekend with The Dude.


One of the first people we saw of course was Mona B, host of a great music program on NRK TV in Norway. In Spetember the special she filmed for Houston will debut and well, I hope to be back then with another show.


The Oslo show was insane. Super packed and incredible vibes.


Got to kick it a bunch with Tommy Tee who is a long time old school DJ out there who I used to write letters back and forth with in the early 90's and I woul dget copies of his magazine Fat Cap which was a bout mostly graffiti but music too. In fact, you'll see a photo of my man Raide down below. Back in the early 90's he was writing about people like Fesu and Gangsta NIP in NORWAY!


Ida, from Mira Craigs crew came to see the show. Peep the black panther.


And of course, Julia, our Mom of Norway came thru as well.


It's like Deja Vu and shit. Peep the last Norway series...


So Deja Vu, Jeanett and Leif aka Bad Boy Leroy Brown from Downtown!


DJ Hercules put it down for the Loudmouth Choir - opening act for Devin.


This is Fred from Tornado Booking in Oslo. I suggest working with him as he is the man.


This how they do it in Norway. A bunch of old school legends, together as the Loudmouth Choir.




Yup yup


This Tommy Tee getting ready to rock shit


Where's the real hip hop?


It's definitely over here.


And then it was show time. Devin gets so much love in Norway, shit, look at this shit.












The world hath been screwed up.




DJ Ross! Super great DJ and one hell of a guy. He hooked us up with Pasit Records for a clean feature. Wait till you hear Devin on the Norge tip.


This girl gets Best Dressed Award of the Night. I'm really waiting for that French Maid look to hit Houston. It's a good look.


And this girl wins the Best Drinker Contest as she downed every one of those Heinekens before Devin even hit the stage.


This sweaty guy must have been her security guard I don't even know where he came from.


Girls in the club, Friend, Photographer Junn, Ida

Lady Ahy was in the house once again!


And them Make Dollaz shirts making their way around the world SoReal.


Ross and Daniel of Passit Records

Then early the next morning we caught a flight to Copenhagen for the GAM3 Tournament. This was like an outdoor Street Basketball tournament that Devin headlined. Crazy thing is, they had a B-Boy exhibition and it was with our Houston potnas HAVIKORO! They tour the world doing their thang thang!


The legendary Joe B was on the wheels. I have known dude since like 1990. Super homey and a great DJ. A Houston pioneer for real.


Doing the dew.


Havikoro




DJ Noize was in the house. He is one of the top DJ's in the world man. He is here spinning for the slam dunk contest.




DJ Noize


And then it began, Devin ripped it.








Haaaaallllllloooooooo


This dude handled his


Devin is for the kids

Then after the set our man Micro took us to a park where we watched some Danish cats rap and well, the crowd was us, and these kids!

Shit was dope.


Micro getting down


Found this in the portajohn if you need it


The skaters came out right after the rapping stopped.




This was my laminate for the GAM3. I was a "Supervisor"

The next day Dev had another show at Lille Vega in Copenhagen, fucking dope as well.






Cigarette Machine


I didn't get many photos from the CPH Vega show as I did some video taping and was just not able to get any good photos. So whatever. Here's a shot of Devin with Martin, he booked the whole Copenhagen shit and took care of us. SHit was amazing!


Then Monday we headed back to Oslo for 2 recording sessions. I think Devin recorded three songs that day. Coming soon!


Passit Records was first, check out Mira Craig in the middle. She came to see us.


Devin with them Passit Boys! Nico D and Fe'M 1




Oslo bridge


Patrick from Juicy and Devin and Photographer Sebastian at the second studio we went to. Actually it was Tommy Tee's studio. Too drunk to get a lot of flicks here by this point.


Oral B from Playboy Foundation and Devin. Oral B has worked with Baby Bash and a whole lot of other artists. The track he laid with Devin is off the chain and I would love to see it feature Baby Bash or Chingo or somebody. At any rate dude is off the chain.


Old school graf legend Raide and Patrick. Raide's knowledge of Houston hip hop history is unparalelled by almost anyone in Houston even. Dude was writing about people like Fesu and the SPC back in like 1994 and shit. Maybe even earlier. He's one of the founders of Fat Cap Magazine and really hooked us up in Oslo.

Anyway, I'm home now. Boyzinadaze indeed. You will learn more about this trip on the HoustonSoReal on the Road DVD out in September and you will read more about it in the book that is forthcoming. For now, I gotta take these little girls to the pool. It's summer time ya know.