The Beacon Hill Pub. The Elefaders and Zulu bring back the peace.
At 4:30 on Saturday afternoon I get woken up from my pre-show nap by my phone. I answer, its Hail “Did you know a couple people got shot in the Beacon Pub last night?” The show we had scheduled in a couple hours was the monthly Zulu Jam at The Beacon Hill Pub. I called King Khazm, he’s the promoter and head of the Seattle chapter of The Universal Zulu Nation. Khazm’s moms works at the Beacon along with other family and I was hoping nobody was hurt. Khazm’s fam was ok although his sister was working that night. I asked “Are we still doing the show?” he replies “Yeah, we are if you guys are down. We’re gonna have extra Shakas on security, and I think it would be good to exemplify positive hip hop and hold it down.”
So I got up, had dinner with the fam, packed up my gear and headed down to the show. Hail and Showbot were already there when I rolled up. The News truck was still parked accross the street and the News dude was doing his “stand up” down the block. I loaded in my gear and set up. The vibe of the place was a little tense at first but as more Zulus and hip hop heads filtered in things lightened up.
We were the only act, just mostly playing records, mixing and cutting a little. Some other deejay cats came thru who had caught us at some other shows and were feeling it, me and one of the dudes named DJ Fed chopped it up outside for bit. After a quick swisher break at around midnight we came back in and fell into a 45 min Elefaders-trance and really did some tight shit. All this practice is def sharpening the blades.
Attendance was mild but the vibe was good and very peaceful. Peace to all my Ahkis who came and represented positivity and the middle path…
-Able
The Scoop….
Wassup my party ninjas? I rolled out to Spokane again with Tulsi to hold him down and we had a really clean set. I always like rocking with Tulsi ’cause he knows how to actually work with a DJ. Alot of emcee cats are slippin when it comes to interaction between the DJ and MC, and the proper use of negative space in a set. In these areas Tulsi really puts it down as well as having savage beats and a good flow. I think we left a big mark in peoples minds in Kane-town! Plus we got a really nice write-up in their version of The Stranger. I can’t wait to get out there with The Elefaders. Speaking of the ‘Faders; We have begun work on our actual album!!! That’s right The Elefaders are actually going to release a real record! and its gonna be dope as hell. Our man Dume41 is helping with production and we are shooting for early summer to finish it. Stay tuned on this shit!
The Elefaders played quite a few shows in the last month. We did Graffiti Rock! with N/NW and DJ 100Proof at the Sunset Tavern on March 1st. It was packed and the crowd was cool. Next we rocked at Showbox Sodo with the homies for Asun’s StyleOut Showcase 3/13. It was kinda wack mostly due to Showbox Sodo being hella huge, mediocre attendance, way outta the way in sodo, and cold as fuck, and I had just returned from Oakland CA where I lost my damn wallet with ID etc. The fuckin dickhead security guy was super on his job and was going around checking all the performers IDs (after we had all our gear set up on stage) and was not gonna let me slide (even tho I’m 32 and look old as dirt)! I was able to do the show but I was only allowed to be either backstage or on stage the whole night. This was wack. I had a nasty cold and had to sit in the cold-ass backstage with with no alchohol to warm me up for like 8.5 hours cause the damn club wanted us there for soundcheck at 5-fuckin-30. I soldiered thru and we put down a pretty dope set (although short) and swore I would talk infinity shit about Showbox Sodo. OK I’m done. Asun put in a WHOLE lot of work on this but it was an uphill battle trying to get our crowd to come to that club and pay $15 bucks to see an all local bill. The concept was good and Sun really knows how to rally the community (not to mention being one of our dopests emcees. real talk.) but the venue was just all wrong.
Our next show was much better: The second installation of the ressurected FOOT TRAFFIC at The LoFi on Eastlake on Sat March 28th. This was B-Girl’s official album release party for her “Love or Fate” LP. It was packed and the night generaly went off. We put it down in true Project Mayhem style with the faders holding down our PM brethren alongside B-Girl. She played all her cuts and the PM emcees performed their songs from the “Love or Fate” album (hella dope go cop it) while The Faders cut it up. I deejayed Hip Hop 101 that night before I went down to The LoFi at about 10:15. Me and Inkubiz had a couple nice little freestyles. Biz is always good on the drop. Bishop I (Dim Mak) from Old Dominion performed a couple cuts and he was filthy. I really enjoyed watching Graver and his Pop Randy Hanson do there thing and especially liked the second cut they performed. Def pushing envelopes with Gravers beats and rhymes and Randy’s veteran guitar chops. They were also joined by my man Jewlez Hunter (watch for this cat).
I also have been doing a little secret monthly gig at The Rendezvous for my man the illustrious J. Goldenschwartz. These nights are on the last mondays of each month and are pretty much attended only by other artists. I have seen Silent Lambs there pretty much every time as well as the homies Yirrim Seck, Pearl the Dragon, Language Arts, Rajni, Inkubiz, Soul 7 and Numberman, Specs Wizard,and many more of the scene’s most flavorfull. If you want to come to a REAL hip hop show on some ear-to-the-street shit this is the one for you. It may be a little messy sometimes (not when the party-pro DJ Able is on the wheels!) but this is like sitting in on an intimate rehearsal session and I have personally witnessed some amazing performances from behind the tables especially from the like of Silent Lambs, and Specs…. Sleep if you want, but this show is the real shit… plus I kinda like it the way it is (although J. Golden would def like to $ee the attendance crack!) Damn I’m a long winded mofucka today… -Able
FOOT TRAFFIC back in effect
Thats right folks, Foot Traffic the legendary weekly that used to be held at Temple Billiards every Friday night back in 2003 is back! We had our kick off in Dec 2007 and will begin a monthly schedule of every last Friday in March at The LoFi. The Elefaders will be on the decks of course (We were the original residents at the first Foot Traffic and thats when we started doing the crew-scratch thing!) And we are joined by our Ahkis : Alpha P, Mind Movers, Dj B-Girl Chillz, and many more of the best and brightest from the 6! The Homie Mic Flont is also responsible for putting this back together. Much props Mic! your hustle skills are trump tight!
-Able
I been Slippin…
Its been a long minute scince my last post. So many exciting things have happened! On Dec 12 2007 we had a show at The Nectar for The Think Tank Compilation release party. The place was packed on a thursday and the night went well. Show, WD4D, and I all have cuts on the compilation and it features the best emcees from Alpha P, Mad Krew, Mind Movers, and Project Mayhem. Mic Flont of The Mind Movers produced the whole thing (that aint no small thang! putting together a project of this size with as many talented foos as we have in this crew is like hearding cats!). Check out some video of The Elefaders set here .
My lovely wife Karen designed the poster for the show using my 8 year old son Leverious’ drawing of a tank. It got “Poster of the week” in The Stranger! My fam got crazy art skeeelz!!!
-Able
Tulsi’s CD release party at Nectar…
…was crackin! Where did all those people come from? I hosted the night and introduced each act. The crowd was deep and hella hyped! We had a great night and all the acts came correct (with the minor exception of yours truly trainwrecking in the middle of The Faders set due to having hit one-shot instead of loop on my RC-50! oops sorry fellas!) We recovered and put it down for the rest of the set. I was really feeling the two out-of-town acts; Ohmega Watts, and Pigeon John. They def had the crowd juiced. and Specs Wizard was fresh as always. Tulsi sold hella CDs and had em screaming and shit. Me and Modul8tr had a nice little cut session after him and Tulsi’s set. I wish every show could be like that!!!
-Able
Last night at the Beacon Hill Pub
That was real Hip Hop. We had a great night last night at The Beacon Hill Pub. The place was packed and almost the whole Zulu crew came out. The Elefaders held it down and we were joined by the homie DJ Tecumseh. Deejays WD4d, HNS and this other cool cat (whos name I cant remember damn it!) got in a savage cut session at the end of the night. All in all it was just a packed-out pub full of respectable grown folks who just happen to have grown up emmersed in Hip Hop culture. Plus about 30 pirates…. We got lucky with a random birthday party of 30 heavy drinking foos dressed up in full pirate costumes! 30 extra covers we were’nt expecting and they were cool and seemed to be feeling the vibe. We even put on an instrumental so they could do a “pirate rap”… Shows like this is what its all about. We will be doing this again soon fo sho so stay tuned…
-Able
Zulu Jam this Saturday Sept 29th
King Khazm hooked up the spot for us at The Beacon Hill Pub this Saturday. The Elefaders will be on the wheels all night party rockin and sneakin in a lil a that good old elefading!!! This spot is very comfortable and its right in the Beacon hood. Cheap and stiff drinks, pool table, soul food, Khazm’s moms tending bar and everybody’s favorite scratch crew playing those golden era cuts!!
Kane-Town
I soldiered out to Spokane last night on the plane to cut for Tulsi and hold down a show at The Blvd. Freetime opened with his man Quiz Ten and I liked em. This cat MJ rocked some pretty clean beatboxes, then a crew from LA called Area 51 (a name after my own heart!) put it down right before me and Tulsi, they were dope and I was def feeling their DJ’s selection. Props to DJ True. We had a super dope set and my cuts were on fire but there was another fight outside the club during our set!!! 2 shows in a row!! what the fuck! This one was apparently started by an Iraq War vet with PTSD. It was very sad, folks said he didnt seem to know where he was and Po-po rolled him up. I hope they took him to a hospital not the county… We will be seeing more of this as more of those cats over there start coming back home. Fuck Bush.
Artopia Festival - Dope Emporium
Hail and I held down the Georgetown Artopia Hip Hop Festival “Dope Emporium” (disregard the date on the photo, Hail needs to figure out how to set his camera!)
It was def a highlight of the summer and we hope to do it again next year. There was two stages one inside one of the old warehouses and one outside right up against the train tracks. There was live graff outside as well as vendor tables and food. The community came out in strength and were rewarded with an absolutely beautiful day and many dope performances. Giant freight trains were rolling by a few feet from the back of the outdoor stage, even though the sound of the train drowned out the beat a little it was the most hip hop feeling moment I’ve ever experienced! foos rocking pieces people with their kids dancing, the sun setting behind the old brick buildings and me on the cut! Much props to Jace from Silent Lambs for putting this together!
-Able
The Elefaders at LO_FI August 17th with TULSI
Crazy night at the LO-FI!!!!!!!! Fights and dope cuts mix like water and oil but we held it down tuff!! This was our first night rocking live as TULSI’s back-up band. We did four songs in his set scratch-team style!!!
-Able