Las Vegas, NV Recap – To All My Friends Tour
My first time in Las Vegas was in 2007 I believe, on a Weightless tour that featured Dj Raregroove, Envelope, and myself. We played in a hookah lounge. It was packed at the time it needed to be packed but for whatever reason there ended up being like 3-4 more opening acts added to the show last minute that kept pushing my stage time back later, and later, and later. By the time I ended up going on it had to be around 2am, and the majority of my fans and the crowd had given up and left, probably believing that I wasn’t even going to play. It was so bad that there were people in there literally asleep at tables waiting for me to go on.
For those that stayed it ended up being and pretty good show. For those that left, it was perfectly understandable. I probably would’ve done the same thing, and it wasn’t even a weekend, so people had to work the next day. That night was a big lesson for me. Prior to that, I had never had to pay much attention to whether the show itself would be managed properly, and because I didn’t my fans paid the price for it. I’ve always wanted to make up for that show.
I think that experience is definitely behind me in Vegas, because the last 3 times I’ve been there have been great.
I returned to Vegas in 2008 with Atmosphere at the House of Blues, and had one of my best nights on that tour there. Met a ton of fans and supporters, and even a few cats who actually stuck around to catch me at my first show there. I felt like that show got me back in the win column.
Then in the spring of this year I returned again for the Greenhouse tour. We played at the weekly night with Killah Priest and it was a really good again. One of the best nights of that tour. Two wins in a row.
And last night’s show with Atmosphere was something else altogether. The show at the House of Blues was sold out. It took quite a while to get a line that was stretched down the hallway into the venue, which was an even bigger testament when you consider that doors opened at 5 pm and the show was over by 9:30 pm. A lot of those kids were there at 3 or 4pm. As far as my performance is concerned, I felt like I had one of my best sets of the tour, extremely comfortable on stage like I didn’t have to rush and could talk and take my time. I felt pretty confident when I finished, but the love and support I was shown after I got off stage really confirmed it.
There was a beautiful vibe in the air. Atmosphere absolutely shut the place down. There was a moment when I guess a fight broke out and security was about to wrongly throw out a girl who didn’t start the fight, and leave the dude who started it in there, and Slug was like “Nah man, yall got the wrong person, she’s good. Don’t throw her out. Throw that cat out.” The crowd went nuts. I wasn’t close enough to see if they ever got it straightened out, but it was such a fresh moment.
When the show ended the merch table was an absolute madhouse. And I really mean madhouse–selling merch on top of merch, on top of people, around people while getting something for somebody else. Everything was moving. We thought that the people would be ready to leave because they had to walk back through all types of barriers to be able to buy merch but they didn’t have any problem, and stayed there until security had to almost physically remove them because they had another show starting right after ours. It was dope. I mentioned this to somebody who lived there and they pointed out to me that people in Vegas are actually used to going thru all types of weird barriers to get to the stuff they really want to see, so they were used to it. The fact that the House of Blues is located deep inside the maze that is the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino is just proof of that.
Z-trip has a residency at a different spot and Jbird said he could get us in so we went there after the show. Got there like 10 deep and saw it was a “real” club, with hella security, strict dress code, and serious lines. We were all underdressed and didn’t think we could get in, but Bird made it happen and I overheard one of security tell another security person that “no, they’re SUPER vip, so they’re good. they’re on Z-trips personal list” and they let all of us go. Shake from 2dopeboyz blog was with us, and he was FADED. He said it was his night to not give a fuck about anything. Shit was funny, because we were nt supposed to be in that club at all but went straight to the express line. While we were in line one of the security dudes told Grieves and Shake they had to take their hats off real mean. Then another one walked up after he left and was like,
“Don’t listen to him he’s an asshole” – 2nd security guard
“oh he’s an asshole? i can tell” – Grieves
“yeah he is, but don’t put your hat back on because he will throw you out” – 2nd security guard
Shake’s homie didn’t get in because he had on shorts, and Shake was like “Fuck it, i’m going in anyways. I got the car keys so he can’t leave me“. Security kept moving dude further and further away from the line until we couldn’t even see that cat anymore and we were walking into the club.
Shit was like something you see in a movie where a bunch of fuckups finesse their way into some shit they’re not supposed to be in. We hit the dancefloor immediately. Shake disappeared, J Bird went into the DJ booth with Z-Trip. He asked if we wanted to come up there but me, Rare Groove, Grieves, and Budo were already on the dancefloor by then. I was trying to get groove to dance with this big girl but he wasn’t going for it.
Z-Trip had this crazy ass intro, and visually it was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen. Two 20 foot tv screens. 50 tv monitors in there. Stripper looking chicks walking across the monitors doing random shit. He had this ill video intro, that was like a movie or something, and pretty much everything in the club stopped completely–then he went in, and the place went nuts. There was a 20-foot wide, metal, circular chandelier that dropped over top the dancefloor and started blowing out flames every few seconds. It was crazy. Big ass 5 foot balls of flames and shit. We didn’t know what it was at first because it would get really hot for a split second and then disappear, but then you looked up and saw this thing about 5 feet over your head blowing out flames. It was a next level partying in there. Basically the kinda shit you only see in Vegas; part music, part spectacle, always entertaining.
Since we had to dip at 8am we didn’t get to stay long and left after 4-5 songs into Z-trips set. Plus it was already 1am when he started.
As me and groove were walking out we saw Shake’s homie sitting alone at a slot machine off in the corner of the Palms, looking hella sad. Obviously Shake hadn’t come back for him yet, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him how it was in there so we just slid by and didn’t say anything. Didn’t wanna look like dicks for leaving him out there like that.
What a night.
Thank you Las Vegas.
p.s. 2dopeboyz.com posted some pics of the show HERE if you wanna check them out
BLUEPRINTMy latest album Two-Headed Monster is out now. Order/Listen here HERE
