Saturday January 7th I was in Baltimore and decided to check out an underground hip hop show some of my friends from various cities were playing at The Hamilton Arts Collective. I arrived just in time for the third set, JE double F, of Atlantic City, to start. Anxious to get home after the last day of a 13 day tour Jeff was still able to deliver the intensity that he's been spreading across the country with his relentless touring promoting his ep Paganomics.
Next to play was local rapper DP the emcee who I was unfamiliar with but had a positive message to convey wrapped in a smooth laid back flow, and somehow was even nicer when he went off the top. My good friend Jack Wilson, originally from Pittsburgh but now residing in Baltimore, played next and was accompanied by a DJ whose stage name I can't remember, but considering he was the only one with a DJ next time some ipod rappers it made his set aesthetically more pleasing and his songs never slack either. Last to play was local rapper Trace Blam. Trace's set suffered slightly from a cold, but when I looked some of his stuff up online after the show I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Plus he approached me because I was carrying a skateboard and said that he skated, which made me even more of a fan.
The first two sets I missed were by Jumbled, who I've seen perform before at Charm City Artspace, and Avant-Garde originally from Delaware who I heard of prior to the show and was pretty bummed out when I missed his set. However during every set that Avant-Garde heard someone he liked on the mic, which seemed to be every set, he demanded a cypher session with them after the show at the end of the night.
So once the show was over and all the Natty Bohs had been thrown away, like the little underground hip hop fiends we are, we marched outside to start the cypher expecting the accompanied by everyone at the show, but we were severely let down when only myself, Avant-Garde, Jumbled, Jack Wilson, Trace Blam, Frank(Jacks DJ) and his girlfriend.
However this didn't prevent Trevor(Avant-Garde) from being first to start the cypher outside in the bitter Baltimore Cold. Young buck Avant-Garde undoubtedly the most excited about the cypher, spitting two verses to match everyone elses one. With no end to his flow insight we literally had to interrupt him mid verse and say,"we get it, you rap, now lets get the fuck outta here."
After that most of went back to Jack Wilsons place where he was generous enough to put me up for the night. There we nursed the last of our beers into the night, except Frank and his lady friend who drank authentic Mexican Cokes, and Jack and Avant discussed personal success in terms of making music.
It was interesting to hear the different perspectives of what they consider success to be and how to get to that point. Avant revealed his dream scape life of being a rapper as notable as the likes of MF Doom and more. While on the other hand Jack talked about how to a degree he already felt successful in terms of being proud of the music he's made, but hasn't reached his full potential of exposure, and a lot of that is undoubtedly due to living in rust city after rust city. He went on to say how he thinks things will improve when he moves to NYC, and rightfully so, if you can't reach your full potential in a city as productive and creative as New York you have nothing to blame but yourself. All the while this discussion was happening I sat there as stoned as I had ever been drifting in and out of consciousness only being a spectator to their conversation unable to produce any words and distracted by the 1980's looking skateboard I saw littered in his back yard.
The next morning before I left Jack showed me some of the music he had been working on. From long over do duos with Wovaka, collaborations with Avant-Garde, and some songs that pushed his boundaries as a musician the most to date where he goes beyond the realm of just rapping 16 bars at a time. I wish nothing but the best of luck to each of them and am excited to see what the future holds for them.
Trace Blam
Jack Wilson
JE Double F
Avant-Garde
Jumbled
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