LET'S BE THE SHOW ME STATE

My Brother Mvstermind

It's 10:30. Cool lil night. The weather 72 degrees. You with your homies in a venue. You with the gang. You got a lil liquor in you but you not drunk you just right. You got a lil tree in you but you not super high you just right. The DJ of the night is fucking killing it. Dropping nothing but heat. You see women dancing. You see niggas dancing. You got too cool niggas who too cool to dance vibing out in they zone. Just a lil bounce but nothing too crazy. Nothing but love in the building. No hate. No beef. The location of the after show kickback has been secured. For scenario sake I'm a play a fortune teller. Everyone will get home safely after when the night concludes making this the perfect night and you off work tomorrow. All that is left is for the artist you came to see to come put on a show that you will remember for a lifetime. 

The host getting you ready. Michael Buffer Let's Get Ready To Rumble like energy. Floyd Mayweather Jr main event type energy. You've been waiting for this moment all night. You move to the front of the stage as close as you can. You ready to turn the muhfucka up. The artist comes out and puts on a hell of a show. You rapping/singing out his or her lyrics. You participating. You forget to Snapchat cause the show is that damn good. What makes it more special it's someone from your hometown. They represented as a artist for your hometown. You represented as a fan from your hometown. Love was exchanged for more love. After that everybody slides to the kickback and everybody walks into their homes like Snoop Dogg at the end on the "Nuthin But A G Thang" music video when the night is over.  

All that shit above this for me was the perfect scenario for a local show but what's the percentage of it happening consistently where I'm from? It's not high and I'm not saying that to shit on where I'm from. St.Louis made me. I'm global with this shit. It go where I go. I can go to New Zealand and I'm screaming U.City USA all fucking day. Partridge Ave and Canton to be specific. 1-4 block when I was growing up. The Entering University City sign that Nelly was standing in front of in the picture inside the Nellyville booklet. Yeah that's my section. That's my DNA. 

Back to the shows. What's the deal? Why is it lacking? I need the promoters to step up. I need the artists to step up. I need the fans to step up. Like I said there's good shows but they're rare and they're are many reasons they're rare. This isn't a smear campaign that's the last thing the scene needs. This is a conversation. I'm a speak to each of you. 

PROMOTERS

After VIBES STL I have nothing but the utmost respect for promoters. It's a difficult fucking job. Almost everything is on their shoulders. They have to make sure everything and everyone involved does their job. If shit don't go right they take all the blame and suffer the most. 

They're the most important. With that said a lot of promoters just about money, a quick buck which isn't bad but if it comes at the expense of your brand and reputation is it worth it? If your brand is tarnished then the money will slow up. Quit prostituting your brand. Stop letting niggas who name not even on the event flyer perform just caused they paid you. If all someone has to do is just pay you a couple hundred to perform on your platform then your platform has no integrity. No meaning. No mystique. Make them EARN the right and privilege to stand on your stage. 

One thing I learned about promoting a show is that you have to put your ego aside. It's not about what you like. It's about your customers. The people that pay for tickets and spread the word after the event. If it was up to me I'd play Max-B the whole event but not everybody want to hear that. I could just throw a Max-B party and see how many people show up. You have to make the experience worth their while. Why should they come? What's interesting about the event? Quit throwing 20 rappers on one fucking bill. No one is sitting through that and a lot of y'all have the nerve to be mad when people leave after they see the person they came to support. You made them sit through 12 struggle rappers of course they about to go to another bar and finish their night off somewhere else.

STOP ENDING SHIT SO FUCKING LATE! My nigga I don't even stay up to 1am in my own house what makes you think I'm a stay at a rap show from 7pm to 1am where there's no food or drinks and the event is one dimensional? People don't even stay in clubs that long they usually hit clubs from 12am - 2am. That's 2 hours. Simple. 8pm - 11pm is more reasonable for a rap show to me. Huge festivals like "Roots Picnic" don't even end at 1am. They end at 11pm. 

Make the event like a party. If you want to be the relevant you have to adapt. I don't like a lot of the music out today but I'd be a fucking fool not to play it at events. If you want to only play Neo-Soul and do spoken word at your events it's nothing wrong with that. You just have to market it to the audience that loves that type of atmosphere and would pay for that experience but don't get mad when people outside of that audience don't want to come to your events. It's not their thing so you can't knock them for it. They'll go find something else that fits them. 

Also give events room to breathe. Especially if it's the same people performing at damn near every event. I just seen them 2 weeks ago. Why should I see them again? Do they have something new? Unless I saw them give a life changing performance I'm not doubling back that quick. I see a lot of promoters just throwing events just cause and their brand gets watered down. QUALITY over QUANTITY every time. Make each event special. 

ARTISTS

Get the fuck off them drugs. You're not Kid Cudi. You're not Jim Morrison. You're not on yet. Do drugs after your performance. I cant tell you how many talented people I've seen on stage give awful performances that I know they're better than because they're geeked out of their mind. Somebody in that crowd just seen you for the first time and you just gave them a terrible impression. Now I have seen some artists be in outer space and put on a hell of a performance but it's rare. Put the fucking Henny down. It'll be there when you get off the stage. Just take a shot to knock the nerves off. Don't drink half the damn bottle and fuck up lyrics in front of people who paid to see you. 

I'm tired of this half assed shit. Put some soul into these performances. Show me that this is what you want to do for a living. Show me you want a legacy when this is over. Show me you want your name STAMPED in the game. Give me a reason to give you money out of my pocket which I worked hard for. A reason why people don't want to come out to shit is because these artists aren't serious. They just want to do this shit for local popularity. They want to "play" performer. People talk about your performance but in a negative light. They telling everybody you a goofy and don't waste any time on you. Prove them wrong. 

Artists who throw their own shows. Start that shit on fucking time. I'm tired of coming when the times on the flyer say to and the shit 2 hours behind schedule. Get your shit together. The next person on that bullshit I'm asking for a refund or you gotta run me my fade when it's over and I'll rob you for my money back. 

Quit performing on these bullshit shows these bullshit promoters throw. Don't ever pay to perform EVER! Unless it's Coachella or you can double what you paid THAT NIGHT with your merch, cd's, etc.. Pay for something where at least thousands of people will be in attendance. It starts with y'all in weeding out these fraud ass promoters who don't care about the consumer or the game. Boycott these frauds. 

FANS

Especially to the fans at hip hop shows. If you came just to stare at niggas then take yo looking ass home. Scared to come to the front of the stage. Showing no love but then going on social media fronting like you had a good time. Shit so fucking phony. No participation. In St.Louis niggas will literally just look at you. You can be killing shit as a performer and you'll be so unsure if you're doing good or bad because people just stare here. God can come down from the heavens with Biggie and Bankroll Fresh on stage and niggas will just stare while they're rapping. No reaction. Not even nod their head to the music. Nothing. I promise you it's okay to react and have fun. Get off that too cool shit and have fun and enjoy yourself for real. Not fake enjoy yourself. Fuck coming just to take pictures for the avi's on your social media accounts. Come kick it and show the artist real love. 

I remember people used to jam at shows so tough that you'd forget someone was on stage performing. We have to bring that feeling back. 

Fuck that fashionably late shit too. You not important bruh. Man or woman nobody give a fuck about your outfit but you and only you. People will compliment it for a second and move on with life. The room not stopping when you walk through the door. I don't care who you think you are or how good you think you look. If you able to be on time then please be on time. Help pack the house for people who made sacrifices for you to have a great time. The reason why some artists push the times of shows back is because the crowd not deep enough yet. 

This is about the bigger picture. We have the talent here and it's time to bring back authentic shows. In the words of my nigga Smino "I'm from the Show me you gone have to show me somethin." It's time. Let's be the show me state and get these shows cracking again.