As
I hinted at last night, I was out of town on Saturday. My boy
DJ Nappy was throwing down the inaugural THUGSTEP set at The Killing Center (AKA some random, small basement in Rutgers town). All I knew for a week or two was that this was going to be a house party and that loads of people were going to be there. I figured OK, let's get it, especially since I had sadly never seen my boy throw down.
I didn't know what I was in for.
You have to understand that, while this wasn't even set to go off until 10PM, Nappy and crew (which included
Cousin Nick Evelation,
Definate, and this dude from
Dan from
51:51) scooped me up around 7PM to be on our way up, b/c from what I understood, we had to run to grab Nick's whip, grab
J Past and his mixer (which almost single-handedly fucked up the cut, more on that later) and grab some eats before all things thugsteppery, which included a special appearance from the one like
Pandamonium Jones, of
Caps & Jones fame. First, though, we had to traverse through NJ, blasting Hip-Hop I figured Nappy was up on, and grab some random McDonald's.
In any case, I hadn't been in a college town on a party night in a while, so I don't think I was ready for the just randomness that occurs at these shindigs. We arrived at the spot about 9PM or so to drop off Nappy's equipment and get the wonderful mixer set up. When we walk in, this lil ass dog is there barking. Dude who ran the event, who I found out goes by the moniker Machine!!!, told us to not pet the pooch b/c it bites. I see 4 cats huddled around a laptop, while watching something featuring
David Bowie on the TV in what I guess was the living room. That room was about as big as my laundry room, but whatever. We go down the worst set of stairs in the world (complete with a shady first step and no lights) to enter the best place to hear grimey music in the east coast, aka their cramped basement. Two rooms, one complete with bad plumbing, a dishwasher, and 2 kegs that I hardly touched (gotta love 12 packs of Heineken). We set up, pass out some
Wes Fif mixtape fliers, and then dip to get some eats from a number of the best places to eat in New Brunswick, although no one in New Brunswick can agree on which place is the best, so in a given night, you might be told that each and every eatery in that area is, in fact, THE BEST spot for tacos or wraps or whatever.
So after about 20 minutes of driving in circles, trying to find parking spots, and losing Cousin Nick and Dan a few times, we finally get some eats, pick up the
Serato records that got left in J Past's whip, and get back to the party for a rousing mix of gay ass house music and garage nonsense. If you know me, 4 to the floor and crappy vocals don't really sit well with me, so with people filing in and me hearing that James Definate was upstairs, I left the best basement in New Brunswick to go lounge in the "living room", which I later found out doubled as the waiting area for the bathroom. We shot the shit for a bit, discussed Wes Fif's budding career, and I got happy b/c Nick came in with a few Heinekens for me to partake in (I can't get with keg beer, I realized). After about, oh, 45 minutes of this, we get word that Nappy is manning the decks. WHOA!
The crowd was hyped and ready to get into some heavy beats, and Nappy started his set out with a nice mix of dubstep and ill beats. The speakers weren't the best, but being as the room was so small (Definate is a big dude, and was almost on the 'tilt neck' all night due to the low ceiling), it was not a bad look at all. Loads of bass. About 10 minutes into the set, Nappy went to switch and realized that everything was backwards. I am not 100% sure, but from what he told me Sunday afternoon, all kinds of faders and gains and knobs and shit were backwards. At one point I had to borrow a pen and paper so he could make arrows on the mixer, just so he knew where everything was going. I yelled at him to "spin it fucked up", but I don't think he heard me.
Now, I like going to see cats spin in elements where the vibe is kind of raw. This was one of those nights. No real posturing or cats trying to put on airs. And they knew that Nappy was spinning these ill refixes, but I don't think they really knew the FYI on
THUGSTEP like we know, so it also opened it up for the crowd to be truly amazed. And once Nappy's refix of
Big Kuntry &
T.I.'s "Throwback" dropped, and we heard that now-infamous "dee jay... nappy" in the intro, it was a WRAP! Bass shook the room, bodies started reacting to the beats, and one of the crunkest parties I've been to in a while commensed.
I can't even begin to break down how sick it was to not only hear these tracks I've been championing for the past few months on a good rig, with a good crowd, but the sheer volume of shit that got spun. Refixes included cats like
Slim Thug,
Omarion,
Tes La Rok,
Big Boi & the
Purple Ribbon All-Stars, Wes Fif, and loads of others sat alongside tracks I had no idea people would get off on, like
R.A. The Rugged Man's old school anthem, "On The Block", among others. I know most of the college kids were drunk/high and just shaking to the beat, but shit, for all of the
THUGSTEP HATERS out there, I think they forget that in trying to "secure their scene", they are shutting people out who would be just as ready to bug out to GOOD MUSIC. Everyone likes to party, so why shit on some blended/mashed up refixed beats?
Oh, and J Past poked me in the eye. We were going back and forth during the "Kryptonite" mashup, and he pointed at me and poked me in the eye. I was OK, but damn. Some other highlights: homegirl
rocking the fucking Nintendo Power Glove (wtf's with that?!); seeing the son of my old computer science teacher in high school, getting his on the dancefloor; me trying to pass out Wes Fif fliers to niggas on the floor, and them throwing them back on the dj booth; seeing 60 year old white dudes in Bentleys pumpin'
50 Cent down New Brunswick blocks; me rocking out and turning around to see Panda Jones standing right behind me; me actually being able to request a track and it get played like right then (gotta love being down with the selector); the fact that my "Make Dub, Not War" t-shirt arrived like 2 days after I ordered it; the random, cracked out dude who was saying he'd punch out any of these youngsters in front of one of those greatest eateries in New Brunswick; J Past telling Definate he couldn't throw away this tin plate in
Qdoba, and James powering that thing in like it was nothing... I could go on.
At the end, when a DJ gets to spin an extra hour after the requested end time, you gotta realize that, no matter what the haters (who are everywhere) think, something must be right about this movement. And oh yes, it's a movement. Roll with it or get rolled over.
I want to shout out my boy, my mellow DJ Nappy; Nick Evelation for trying to get me on the stumble bumble (no I did NOT drink 10 Heinekens; maybe I had 7 or 8?); James Definate for the ride(s) - you still have that CD in your whip, dogs; J Past for the eye poke and the crunk vibes, and the almost-night destroying mixer; Machine!!! and the Visits (Tuesdays, Marita's Cantina in New Brunswick, 21+ 10pm-1am, NO COVER) crew for putting it on; the crowd for being receptive and CRUNK; and me, for single handedly getting the crowd hype. I take full credit for bringing the dub to the venue. Or maybe I am dreaming...
For more on THUGSTEP, check Nappy's
MySpace page, or just keep it locked to this blog forever...
PS: I am being told that video will be crunk and runnin' tonight. Apparently they have shots of me wylin' out in the street. I don't believe it, but I will post everything I get when I get it.
