Bubble Gum Pop Rap: photos

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Photos: 2011 Little Five Fest (taken by Dave Batterman)

Last year, when this was The Other Sound festival, I didn't know about the event until the middle of the day it began. I promised myself I would not miss this year's, and, fortunately, I am a person of my word!

I covered Little Five Fest for Examiner this year, despite some camera issues, but was taken care of by the Little Five Fest crew. The photos you'll see below are taken by Dave Batterman, a well-known concert photographer, a man who knows his stuff.

A Photo Recap of Atlanta Indie Festival

I had the privilege of covering Greedmont Park's annual Atlanta Indie Festival for Frank151, and I took hella photos. I am so proud of the results - like the ones when I covered the Soul Train Awards - that I want to share all of them!

Check out the full recap of the event on Frank151 Atlanta Backwoods League.

Featured in this slideshow is:

J*Davey

Project Pat
Rahbi
CyHi da PrynceGrip Plyaz
Karima Harrison from Noot d' Noot
Tuki and Go Dreamer from Hollyweerd

Thurzday from U-N-I

and much, much more!

Sidenote, plus a bonus photo, I went to the Arts Beats & Lyrics show the night before as the purveyor of awesome that I am, and got recruited to take a photo in front of a person's work because of my KeepItClassic.com "I Grew Up On Hiphop" shirt. Lo and behold, it was for a friend of mine! Check out all of her Rhythmic Images pictures by clicking on her picture of me!

The Drunken Unicorn Chronicles: OK, Not Really (Video)

The reason why there was no post last week is that I was waiting on getting some photos and video from a show I attended this past weekend in Atlanta. After being invited to an Attention System concert when I covered them for AOL City's Best, I decided since I was doing nothing else (but watching the slickest box set of the universe, The Wire) I should take my behind to the Drunken Unicorn.

With the walls full of band stickers and other illustrations eluding to music and fantasy figures (i.e. unicorns and robots... If they count anymore), this music venue instantly reminded me of The Union back at OU in Athens. Even the sound system's booth was identical to my favorite bar on Union Street! But back to the music...

I'll just get to the point. Attention System was everything I imagined them to be live, and then some! They had a light show, lasers, fog, and all kinds of bells and whistles associated with a rock concert, even though the size of The Drunken Unicorn is a quarter of the size of a typical arena. Their music was on point, and if my battery hadn't died, I would have video footage, so just go by this visualization: you're playing laser tag during the early 00s at a small nightclub during Armageddon while a band that looks nearly 40 performs like they're 20. If that sounds like fun, you would enjoy this show.

Although I do not have video of Attention System, I do have video footage from their opener Siberia My Sweet. This band had the most distinctive, untouched, and non-faux sound I have heard coming out of the A. Siberia My Sweet is a combination of new wave, electronic, emo-darkened, acoustic indie rock, and whatever else they could create on a keyboard. These women (and the drummer guy) had everything going well for them, except enough time. The video I have is actually the weakest part of their set, although the song is great!

Photos: 2010 Soul Train Purple Carpet and Award Show

I got the privilege to cover the 2010 Soul Train Awards for the website I intern with that I've mentioned several times throughout this blog.... Oh, you know! The Electronic Urban Report, EURweb.com?!?!?! Yeah, you better...

Anywho, I was among the massive amounts of media outlets flagging down as many celebs as I can for interviews and clear photo opps. These are some of the photos I took while interviewing some folks.

A3C Festival - A Recap with Some Photos

Woke up today and looked at my booklet like "what's going on at A3C today?" Nothing, because it's over!!!

After a star-studded three-day hiphop festival, I'm slapping anybody that says hiphop is dead. This event was almost like a family reunion for some, and a jaw-dropping experience for all. It's the only place where there are several generations of one community under one roof (sort-of, if we omit the fact that two of the five stages were outdoors).

So I should back up first.

This weekend long festival had five stages - two outside, three inside - with over 70 artists putting on a small yet powerful 15 minutes show a piece. From 6 pm Thursday to 3 am Sunday, people from all over the country, well at least people from "All 3 Coasts (A3C)," came together and made friends, future collaborations and even family.

I know of at least one artist that reunited with someone that raised her as a hiphop artist, Lyric Jones. After speaking with her, she said her brother DJ Raydar Ellis taught her just about everything she knew about hiphop - from what's real to what's fake, how the music is made to how the culture has evolved - and he has credentials to back him up, as he is a professor at Berklee School of Music in Boston.

At least every journalist, blogger, vendor, DJ, breaker, emcee, event volunteer, and patron found at least one new favorite artist out of A3C. Amidst the minor technical difficulties from the venue, like microphones cutting out, loud vents, and unlevel floors, each and every artist that I saw perform was near FLAWLESS. The only thing, which I think was weird, was that many of the performers forgot their lyrics at one point through their set. But I heard a lot of backstage action was going on, so there may have been some pre-performing distractions. Some of the artists that stood out for me, and I did not really know much of them, are:

Torae

Skip Coon

Lyric Jones
Sha Stimuli

RA the MC

El Prez (I'm still singing "gone, beating my chest like King Kong!")

Coolroy, aka Lite

The Grand Prize Winners From Last Year

The Jacka

Ayomari & TiRon (the two were inseparable, and it was quite adorable)

STS

Lyrical Preacher

Aside from the emcee aspect of this hiphop event, the only other element that was tended to very well was DJing. Every night, there was some sort of showcase or cnotest dedicated to DJs and producers. Nwo, there is a distinct difference between a DJ and a producer, and although I feel like the two shouldn't be merged together, A3C did a nice job of making producing a part of the hiphop culture. I won't go there and say it was wonderful or it was any good, if anything else having the DJ and production events almost back-to-back like they're the same is rather demoralizing the hiphop culture. I will say the events that unfolded - having the guy from Kane Beatz speak with other up-and-coming producers about the industry, and DJ Shiftee putting on a "DJ" workshop - were very entertaining and informative for people to know how to conform to the way of current society. If that felt like a shot, it was.

The only good news about the other elements was seeing the legendary DJ Rob Swift of the X-Ecutioners put on a show wherever he was, whether he was the DJ or the judge of other DJs. He put on a funky-fabulous set at the Red Bull Music Academy 45s Show, as well as a guest DJ set at the Unique Squared DJ contest he judged. The main reason why he was so amazing was that he only used TWO TURNTABLES!!!! DJ Shiftee had all of his little hook-ups and his laptop with the DJing software, but DJ Rob Swift had a near-identical sounding set with just two turntables and a stack of records.

The breaking tournament was late yet rushed, making the breakers not really flow like they wanted. The result was a blahzay tournament, so no need to go any further.

Overall, the event was like Jasmine Solano said "a hiphop super mall." There were some things that fit very well, some things I wish I could fit into, and some things that just weren't my taste. Fortunately, there was something for everyone! All of the interviews I did with my favorite artists were amazing because of the chill environment. There probably isn't a more welcoming place in Atlanta but A3C, too bad it's just three days.

Below are photos from my phone, because I seem to have lost my USB cord to my camera/camcorder, plus a video I caught of a dope remake to "Thriller":