One thing I notice when I go to shows is how little, if any, fans there are in the crowd. When I say fans, I mean people that are not in your immediate circle; friends, family, people that you invited. I’m talking about people who saw the show flyer online or opened a paper like The City Paper and decided to check the show out. They show genuine interest in the music and not a particular artist. In other words, they weren’t invited by the artist directly or feel ing some way obligated to attend because an artist hit them with a guilt trip.
I believe a major part of the problem lies with the artists themselves. Part of being an artist is that you have to acquire a fan base from the music you produce – GOOD MUSIC. A lot of artists kill their careers early (if they were ever to have one) because they think just because they recorded a couple songs, that they are ready to jump up on stage and people are ready to receive them. WRONG!!!

If publicity is what Keys was looking for with the Nicki Minaj diss, then she’s got it. Keys’s diss video has gotten 900,000+ hits on her own youtube page and 3,000,000 or so on WSHH. Very impressive.

I wasn’t too sure how to take the “beef” when it first sparked off. At the time, I had no idea who Keys was nor her reason for going at Nicki Minaj in the first place.

For the record, I’m a Nicki Minaj fan. She’s just a great entertainer. The “Beyonce” of Hip Hop I would say. Nicki Minaj represents the current musical objectification of what the kids want to hear and emulate. Don’t see too much longevity with this “Barbie” bullshit.

Now back to Keys. Like I said, I’d never heard nor seen her before. I’m a big skeptic when it comes to new artists. Especially local artists. I can’t count all the times I’ve seen artists hyped up and bragged about, only to finally get the chance to see them and think to myself, WTF!!! So for me you gotta show and prove. I watched the first diss video Keys did and I was impressed, for the moment. I just wanted to see how everything played out before I could see if Keys was the “real deal” or not. Ask anybody that knows me – I not a big on the “FRIENDS AND FAMILY” hype. People in your circle will hype a brown paper bag full of shit if it had your name on it.

So as each day passed I paid close attention to Facebook statuses and such to try and gauge everyone’s thoughts and opinions. Seems like people where split down the middle. Not a whole lot of hating going on but those that weren’t on the side of Keys felt like I left – They just wanted to wait and see. So before the rest of Baltimore could catch up Nicki Minaj posts a ustream video in response to the diss. Now rumor has it the video that is up now is not the first response. From what I have heard and been told that Nicki dropped Keys name in the first video and then took it down and put up a new video. In the video that is up now, Nicki doesn’t say much. BOO!!! Overall, she really doesn’t have to respond at all. I think it would do more damage if she did. HOWEVER!!! If she is what she claim she is and all these other female rappers are “…her sons”, they lay down the “big hand” Nicki and shut the haters up. It’s not gonna happen. IMO, Nicki’s not built for war. I’ve never seen a Barbie with a “Kung Fu Grip”.

The days go by and I’m starting to lose interest. Just as I’m about to give up on the hype, someone posts a video from WorldStarHipHop. An official Nicki Minaj diss video. Okay, my interest has been sparked again. Why? Well it costs money to put a video on WorldStar, unless they deem it worthy then they will post it themselves. Also, the site get thousands upon thousands of hits a day. So now Keys is getting legitimate hits. Not to mention Smash and Bossman are in the video. Now she’s getting cosigned by two legitimate Baltimore artists. Hmmm…this might be something worth getting behind. Ummm…still not convinced. I just gotta see her live. That will seal the deal for me. Fast forward to April 28th – Harder Then Baltimore Show at Sonar. The flyer listed a special invited guest…hmmm….who might that be. Now being the intuitive person I am and a little help from an undisclosed and trusted source – I narrowed it down to Keys before it was confirmed by my source. The day of judgement had arrived. I must say I quite impressed, for the moment. Keys handle herself quite well on the stage, better then most emcees that have been doing it much longer than she has.

But just when you think this whole Nicki Minaj Diss thing is about to die down and Keys can ride the instant fame to something substantial, another female emcee enter the rings – Ms.Hustle, from New York. I don’t know much about why she is going at Keys. From what I have been able to piece together, Ms. Hustle put out a Nicki Minaj diss 4 months ago. Sent Key’s camp an email about a collaboration. Apparently, a response was sent back that Ms. Hustle didn’t like and afterwards put out a Keys Diss. This whole thing is getting interesting. Now from what I’ve heard from Ms. Hustle, she can spit. I think she spits better than Keys. However, I’m pretty sure why she’s throwing shots. I’ve watched a couple videos of her on YouTube. One thing I noticed is she spits ummmmm…just like 99% of the emcees out there. So she’s really nothing new, except for the fact that she’s a female that can spit. Quite frankly the novelty of a female emcee is wearing thin on me. Female emcees have proven to be able to hold their own against male emcees. Bottom line, “A dope emcee, is a dope emcee”. I can understand why she might be a bit upset as well. Her videos have only gotten roughly a total of 175,000 views. Stack that against Key’s 4 million views and a Dikembe Mutombo finger shaking rejection from Keys, I’d be a bit perturbed too. Sorry. Ms. Hustle. Looks like you just got left in the dust.

I’m going to end with this. Although, I’m a strong supporter of Baltimore Hip Hop; I am also a cautious supporter. Meaning that I’m not ready to through all my eggs in the Keys basket. I need to see longevity. I need for her to be surrounded by a strong team. I not jumping on the bandwagon on faith alone.

For Keys, whatever you do, don’t ride this diss thing into the grave. Use it as your launchpad into bigger and better things. PLEASE. Also, be cautious of the snakes around you. Even though they are your peoples, fame brings out the worst in some people. More often than not it’s the ones you thought you could trust.

There was more I wanted to say, but I guess I lost track halfway through. LOL

Last night I decided to take an excursion to one of my favorite spots – Club Reality. Usually, I sit at home on Sunday nights and vegetate in front of the computer harassing people on Facebook or staying up to watch Adult Swim. I really didn’t have much to do and decided to go and check out this “Get The Gigg” for “Want Tv” – neither of which I had not heard of til a couple weeks ago.  Actually, it was highly “unrecommended” by a friend who had been there the week before. Being the adventurous type I decided to give it a try so I could formulate my own opinion. I’ve sat through enough crap shows over the past 4 years, so I figured this couldn’t be that bad.

The nights competition was all female, which got me really excited because three of the four contestant I knew or have seen perform before. I figured I was in store for a good show. WRONG!!!

Let’s start with the first “act” . Don’t really remember her name – didn’t care to. In fact, as soon as her “original” beat started I gagged. Straight up crap. I commend people who make their own beats, write their own lyrics, drive their own car to the club, feed themselves before the show, burn their own show cds, use their own legs to walk in the club or whatever else they do “on their own” to try and win over the judges. Lord knows doing everything on your own just makes you that much more talented.  Seriously, it was awful. Lyrics sub par. The beat sounded like it was made with that midi program that was in Windows 95 (Google it!). The one thing she did have, which I agreed with the judges about, was her stage presence. She did engage with the crowd (majority of which was her friends and/or family). Other than the aforementioned things, the performance wasn’t that great. The judges thought otherwise. I thought the scores she received were too high. I think she even got an 8.5 from one judge. I did my Cosmo Kramer impression when I heard that. They did give constructive criticism which is a plus.  By the way, the judging was done American Idol style. Booooo!!!! So anyway, the next act up was, Elle S. She’s been a favorite of mine since the first time I saw here perform. Elle is a bit of a double threat – she can sing and rap. However, the energy she usually brings wasn’t there tonight. In fact I was  disappointed. If she had turned up the energy a few more notches, she would have had the competition in the bag.  So at this point, I disgusted by the first performance, have no faith in the judging, and feeling down about Elle’s performance. This couldn’t get any worse – it did. The next two acts were veteran’s as well. Don Diva and Teflon Dona. Don Diva hasn’t really been on the stage in a bout two years and it showed. Judges scored her lower than the first act. You could tell she was rusty. Teflon pretty much gave up before she even started. She had a hiccup during her performance and it throw her off. Judges killed her for that. Now I’m shaking my head. I know the first act has this in the bag. In my opinion, Elle had the best performance of the four. But I guess energy is what it takes to win. So after all the performances ended, the judging was left up to the crowd. Now I’m ready to shot myself. You know how this is going to end. The first act brought the most people. “Tay. Double shot of JACK please. No ice.”

So in summary, first act sucked. Last three did not bring enough. Judges, get two thumbs down.

What I learned

If i ran a race against Usain Bolt, Micheal Johnson and Carl Lewis, came in last, and told the judges before the race began that I made my own shoes and sewed my own uniform, I’d still win.

I want my $5 back.

My facebook Status during the show - “Just cuz u make ur own beats and write ur own shit…does not not mean u still don’t suck…the fact that u admitted to make crap makes means u suck even more….that wackest act just won and I’m pissed…”

If you are interested in “Get The Gigg” call 1-800-220-9606 for info and to register.

The GRAND PRIZE is

The use of CLUB REALITY for a night
4 hours of FREE Studio Time
1 FREE HD Music Video
& a 30 day feature on Want Music’s Internet Radio Station

And I almost forgot. They are charging $25 to get unlimited plays on “WANT MUSIC” internet radio station for 30 days. THAT SOUNDS LIKE PAYOLA TO ME!!!

PHOTOS BY ME