Don’t try to fight it / There ain’t nothin’ that you can do
— Disco Mike
At first I was hesitant. Perhaps my pride kept me from reaching out. For years, I’ve had a mostly silent affinity for various “Christians who rap” in Texas — folks like Playdough, Sivion, L. Moore, The Warriors ATX, D-Kutz, etc…
To make a long story short, I hit up Bruno.
That’s Fred Bruno, or Freddie Bruno.
Not Bruno Mars, although I admire the hustle, the songwriting ability and a knack for writing hooks that could bring Shamu home for dinner.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The struggle continues (dap)
Music by Grimy Styles, lyrics by Chalie Boy and such
[ The Backroom, South by Southwest Music Conference, Austin, TX 2006 ]
Embrace my versatility, to face what the world instills in me
Try not to lose my identity in the process, while it’s not yet killing me
Got knocked unconscious
But I somehow just revived with revised, like, strength in my Levi’s… Continue reading “Still Standing”→
Below is the work of lifestyle photographer and great friend, Charles Reece of Charles Edward Photography. Sometime after midnight in the early morning hours of Saturday April 16, 2010, Chuck shot these and a few more. He is one of the Top 10 inspirations in my career, a good brother indeed and a primary contributor to BavuBlogs, in case you haven’t noticed yet.
Above is a clip of us performing Smiley Faces. Shoutout to S1 lol
[ Vooski daps Chucky Sly ]
This is me dapping up co-headliner Chucky Sly, not to be confused with Chuck Reece who captured these moments with his camera. Sly and I merged our sets by transitioning with “This Just In” (Special Edition). We also went straight to the studio from the show. He also lives less than an hour from me now, in Corona, California.
[ The Look of Love ]
The experience I had on this Dallas trip was basically the exact reason why I perform and record music. There were at least 200 people there, and they were noticeably from different segments of the community. I’d estimate that about five different “scenes” all came together to make this night go as well as it did.
[ In the Face of Adversity ]
Despite a nagging injury, I did my best. Two weeks prior, I had an abcess sliced open and stuffed with gauze to drain. Then I had to change the gauze several times per day. Now if I told you where the abcess was, or how when they shot the numbing agent through the needle into it, it felt like a blowtorch shooting up my — nevermind. Overall, I felt like my energy and focus were lacking at this show, but the audience wasn’t treating me that way.
“Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good”
— Run-DMC
[ image by charles edward photography ]
These guys are bad, though. It’s such an honor and educational experience to know them, hear them, talk to them and play with them. The above photo is from the Music Lab on Oltorf in Austin, TX, on Sunday, January 16, 2011.
A week prior, I caught them playing a jazz set in downtown Fort Worth with a mind-blowing organist named Bobby Sparks and the homie Philippe Vieux on flute.
All that to say, make sure you check in or subscribe in February.
I would say Samax is the man, but that’s ridiculous and corny. Samax Amen Randolph is a grown man in Dallas/Fort Worth who makes dope art aka GhettoManga.
Lots of folks from the homie Ofeezny to the healthier Chalie Boy are loving this “Garland Globetrotter” piece he somehow worked up for me for less than a Grand. Ofeezny lauds his work, while Chalie wants to work with him.
Check this post he put up on Ziontific. It relates to the stream of info I’m prepping for you from these two Texas trips. Basically I serviced around 100 buttons to The Nobody Who Knows down there in Austin. If you don’t know what The Nobody Who Knows is, or, should I say, who they are, just ask me.
[ that was a lotta commas… ]
If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of The Nobody Who Knows… (dap)
“Tell ’em I’m doing fine / Tell ’em I’m doing great / They remember the Mister / Now it’s Minister Blakes / Tell ’em I’m doing fine as my fourth week in ’08…”
I went to Austin for three days and three nights, during which I got a haircut from Delton on Pecan Street, checked on the house, played Matt‘s bday party (video below), caught up with D and Willette, reconnected with the Extra Plairs to rock the MLK Day Fest at Huston-Tillotson, and recorded a new project with producer Reggie Coby of the League of Extraordinary G’z. That’s a short list, but you get the idea… Continue reading “How Are You Enduring?”→
Scholar Emcee 