The Paid Dues Festival was bananas…well, at least the second half of it was. There were a bunch of underground acts to start the show, but they weren’t exactly my cup of tea. I say MY show started around 7pm with B-Real…then came Brother Ali, SLAUGHTERHOUSE, Living Legends, and finally Tech N9ne, who ended my night with an electrifying performance (with Krizz Kaliko and Kutt Calhoun of Strange Music). Atmosphere was the final act, but I took off after Tech…

Anyways, NO CAMERAS?!? Get the fuck outta here, you rent-a-cops! No camera deez nuts! And it wasn’t even difficult to sneak it in. Where there is Hip Hop, there will be SPTV. Here’s the first installment of my Paid Dues series…dedicated to Slaughterhouse…I tried to step my game up and give youtube HD a shot, but I don’t know if it’s cuz I uploaded the vid during their maintenance, but they are STILL telling me it’s “processing” after several hours…

Oh, and so I took a break while I was editing this video late last night and stopped through my favorite hip hop blog, NAHRIGHT.COM (shout out to Eskay), and what do I find? It was an HHO interview of Royce at Paid Dues, and he was wearing the custom Slaughterhouse tees I gave them after their set. Yep, that’s right, a Sanz Pareil and Mac N Teez collabo piece, exclusively stamped for Slaughterhouse. Who is Mac N Teez, you ask? Stay tuned and all will be revealed in the episodes to come… Big ups to Royce!

Peace, “BK”

I think many REAL hip hop fans would agree that Slaughterhouse is probably one of the best things to happen to hip hop since the turn of the century. I personally think it may be one of the best things EVER…or maybe that just comes from me yearning for something big, for such a long time. But don’t get me wrong, I feel that hip hop is on a great path right now…rappers are puttin’ out some dope shit and really on their independent grind.

If I had any complaints, it’d be two things: 1. There is SO MUCH shit out there, I CANNOT keep up with everything… 2. Although I love the internet and what it provides, it just comes with so much of the bullshit (if you’re a hip hop head, you know exactly what I mean)…but I understand it is what it is. I miss them days where you hear a dude on a leak, the radio, or a feature…then you wait months for an LP to drop and if that shit was hot, that’s ALL you’re listening to for the next year!! Well, not literally, but you get the point.

Anyways, back to Slaughterhouse…a fuckin’ super-group consisting of Crooked I (LBC), Joell Ortiz (BK), Royce Da 5’9″ (DET), and Joe Budden (NJ). I made a post about them the other month, but just to recap, they are 4 highly respected and lyrically gifted emcees, that just decided to run with this random idea, about half a year ago. Although I never been a fan of Royce or Budden, I always heard enough through their careers to know they can spit. Well, thanks to this collaboration, they are growing on me with every listen.

This shit JUST dropped a few hours ago.  Check out their first music video as a group…”Move On”.  The track was originally Joell and Joey, for Joell’s upcoming album “Free Agent”, but they ended up throwing the rest of the gang on it as a remix. Hey, who’s complaining? Crook’s the last verse…KILT EM haha.  Enjoy.

Peace, “BK”

You ever get that excitement about going somewhere or doing something, that you start preparing weeks ahead (when it’s completely unnecessary)?

Not that I’ve actually been doing anything physically in preparation for it, but the 2008 Paid Dues festival will be taking place this Saturday in San Bernardino.  For those of you that don’t know Paid Dues, it’s a HUGE independent hip hop festival thrown in collaboration by Murs (LA rapper) and Guerilla Union (who throws Rock the Bells).  This will be my first one and I am fuckin’ glad that it is.  Why, you ask? Tech N9ne and SLAUGHTERHOUSE!

I mean, the entire 9-hour line up is bananas…nothing but dope independent/underground MC’s. We’re talking about a show full of REAL MC’s.  Dudes that really rap.  I’m definitely not a “fan” of the majority, but that’s just comes from my preference.  The whole show will be dope , but if it wasn’t for Nina and Slaughter, I probably wouldn’t be going.

For more information about this event, visit http://guerillaunion.com/paiddues/.

Peace, “BK”

What’s good people?

Coming off a long weekend…

Headed back to San Diego on Friday to help Steve (the other half of SP, for those that don’t know) pack up his apartment and load it into the moving pod. He’s headed to Minnesota. Yep, Minnesota. What’s in Minnesota? “Bass Fishing,” he says haha. Foreal tho, he is moving out there, but he’ll be back and forth, so no big deal. Safe travels from the SP fam!

Celebrated my 19th birthday for the 9th time…that’s right, I’m still 19. I didn’t exactly get smashed, but man, the hangovers were still crucial. I guess that comes with age, right? And I guess it didn’t help drinking two nights in a row. I just can’t do it like I used to. The drinks go down and stay down fine, but the day after ain’t no joke!

Check this out…

Peace, “BK”

Man, this show was CRACKIN’! It had literally hit capacity…not that bullshit number from the venue’s fire safety code, but LITERALLY. You couldn’t even walk around the mutha fucker. Every time I had to take a piss, I was on the verge of exploding in my pants, cuz it would be so difficult and take so long to get to the bathroom from where ever I was…ESPECIALLY from the roof top deck. If y’all know Canes, y’all know exactly what I mean…

I apologize for the sound quality. I mean, even at the venue, it’s not exactly a clean and crisp sound, but my camera doesn’t do a very good job of filtering out the bass. Hopefully, I’ll figure shit out as we move along…

Peace, “BK”