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Sept 3, 2010, 1:17am

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Pizon
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Hip Hop Appreciation Weekend recap
« Thread Started on May 24, 2005, 4:38am »

Wow. I'm just now recovering from the festivities. Right off the bat, I wanna thank everyone who supported HIP HOP this past weekend in any way, shape or form. Experiences like these reassure me that I'm doing the right thing with my life. I write this in an attempt to share some of the magic with you. Now, onto the recap...

Things started off beautifully. Our flight landed in Detroit almost an hour early, and we had no problems obtaining a rent-a-car. Since we had some time before our scheduled radio interview, we decided we'd look for a hotel room and get ourselves settled before heading to the studio. Unfortunately, the only spots we could seem to find were some grimy ass motels, which in itself didn't bother me, except for the fact that none of them had irons. I don't mind sleeping among crackheads, but I was not about to perform in wrinkled clothes.

Before we knew it, it was midnight. I turned the car radio to 89.3 and heard "You are listening to the Heads Up radio show with DJ Osiris... Joining me shortly in the studio will be Pizon and Timid..." We still had no place to sleep at that point, but fuck it. We had to represent. That little homeless problem would have to step aside. Off to the radio station we went.

After scoffing down a candy bar from the vending machine in the lobby, I joined Timid (who himself was putting the finishing touches on a bag of chips) and Analyze in the studio with Osiris. In my experience with college radio, I've discovered that there are two types of DJs: the ones who do their research and ask you relevent questions, and the ones who think they're doing you a favor by having you on their show. Osiris unquestionably fits into the former category. He was so on point, that he made his own radio edits of our songs just in case we didn't bring clean music for him to play (which of course we did). We plugged our shows for the weekend extensively, discussed our careers, spoke on the current state of Hip Hop, played exclusive new tracks, and joked around. Timid offered any lady in the Detroit area a foot massage and breakfast if she could provide us with a place to stay for the night. The phone rang, but Osiris told the caller to call back when a song came on, as he wanted to discuss this behind the scenes. They never called back. Notwithstanding, it was an excellent interview and I can't wait to get a copy so I can share it with y'all (now you got a reason to check back here).

It was now 2 AM. The show was over, and we once again had to face reality: we had nowhere to sleep. Well, except for the car, the back seat of which Timid quickly made his bed. Analyze and I weren't about to attempt to sleep up front, so we hopped on the I-96 west headed towards Lansing. Approximately 90 minutes later, I got off at a random exit, hoping we were somewhere in the vicinity of Saturday's show. This time, we had no problem finding a hotel with an iron. In fact, there were several, but the first few we tried were on the expensive side. Finally, we rolled up to one and found the desk clerk sleeping on the job. He was so embarrassed when we woke him up (and likely afraid of getting fired) that he offered us a considerable discount on a room. By 6 AM, we were in bed (well, Analyze and I each had a bed while Timid somehow ended up on the sofa) with a wakeup call set for 8.

A few hours later, we were back in the car with our bags. DJ Addverse from Code of the Cutz had booked us a room for Saturday, so we had planned to travel straight from one Lansing hotel to another. A last-minute excursion to Dennys had us running late for Timid's in-store performance scheduled for 1 PM, so Analyze instead had to drop us off at Code of the Cutz while he went and checked us into the hotel. By the time he got back, the show still had not started, as the art festival in Lansing had caused mad heads to get stuck in traffic. A few hours later, people started to pack the cozy record store (for NY heads, Code of the Cutz is very similar in size and vibe to the Cop Shop in Long Island) and Timid and I set it off.

Being the opening act is never an easy task, especially if said act aims to reach far and beyond "warming up" the crowd. Timid's goal was to steal the show, and that's exactly what he did. He had heads vibing to his intro and responding vigorously to our call-and-response requests. After dropping science with "The World is a Ghetto," he recited the classic first verse to Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise," which set the stage for the reflective "30 More Years." With lines like "More get your hands up/ more in the air/ more waving them around like you just don't care/ more yes yes y'all/ more we don't stop/ more break of dawn and just more Hip Hop!" it couldn't have been more perfect for the occasion. (The song is so rich with old-school Hip Hop references that someone told us after the show that she did not want to even move at the risk of missing one of them.) Of course, a Timid and Pizon set on Hip Hop Appreciation Weekend would not have been complete without "Hip Hop 2 Me," so we ended it off on that note.

We supported the rest of the acts that performed (peace to Silent Army, DarkStarz, Quese Imc, and everyone else who did their thing), occasionally being plastered with random compliments on our set from earlier. Everyone held it down, though on Saturday Timid's set easily trumped all the others. Ironically, the one who came the closest to raising the bar Timid set was Breathless, who surprised even Timid when she called him up to perform their collaboration "Fuck You" together. He may not curse in his rhymes, but he's got a million ways to say "fuck you" regardless. And Breathless is just raw.

After the in-store, Breathless and her DJ Brooklyn Dolla wanted to shower and freshen up for their show at Club Temple later that night, so they came back to our room with us and did their thing. We then hit the club. Breathless ripped the same set from earlier, once again calling on Timid to perform with her. She was actually opening for Mr. Dibbs that night, but unfortunately we couldn't stick around for his set, as we had another radio interview to bounce to.