Cali - Monday, March 28th 2008

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Friday, April 11 2008

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Philadelphia, PA – April 9, 2008
We left Amsterdam and headed to Meinz which is a little town in Germany with a dope scene for soulful music. Everyone manages to pass through there from hip hop acts like Blu and Ta’raach to electronic soul cats like Marc De Clive Lowe and Zed Bias. The shows at the Red Cat venue are always packed and a whole lot of fun. I was in bed most of the evening trying to shake a migraine headache and missed dinner. In fact, I think everyone was drained and in their rooms so no one ate. We expected to eat after the show but since we didn’t get off stage until 2am, nothing in this small town was open. I killed a turkey sandwich backstage and quickly headed back to the hotel to pack for the next trip.

We then headed to Lyon to play the L’Original festival. I had never been to the South of France so I didn’t know what to expect. I like it enough to stay for a little while. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a kid there at some point. Also on the bill was Method Man, Redman, Chamillionaire, and Scratch. We missed Method Man and Redman but I heard their show was bananas as usual. Chamillionaire was actually scheduled to open for me and Hez but he didn’t feel the room was full enough early on so he decided not to rock, last minute. We had a blast on stage that night for the crowd and afterwards, kicked it for a lil backstage with Charlie Ahearn, the director of Wild Style. He told us all what he enjoyed about each persons contributions on stage. Cool cat. We had a little farewell soiree in the band suite at the W hotel that night since we only had one tour date left.

Our last date was at one of my favorite venues in Europe, Royal Arena in Biel, Switzerland. The sold out crowd of folks always goes ape-shit to joints by Gang Starr, The Roots, Black Star, etc. They tend to be pretty open. So open, that Hez was crowd surfing. It was the 2nd or 3rd time playing at that venue so the crowd knew all the singles and some of the album cuts. I don’t think they fully knew who Jag was though because she had to fight with them a little to get their full attention. Once, she got the crowd of about 2500 fully captivated though, it was on. This show, was like a “hit it and quit it” type of situation since we all had to pack and be ready to leave for the States by 6am. Me and Hez rushed back to the hotel first to try to get our things together and get a jump on a couple of hours of sleep before the airport trip. We ended up laughing about a lot of the tour experiences and didn’t sleep a wink that night. Everyone was knocked out on the plane home and was relieved that the tour came to an end after a successful run.

The Sound of Change tour - Chicago

I guess I gotta start this tour blog from where the last tour ended. I was overseas for 10 days just getting it in. Shouts to Jaguar, Bahamadia, Hezekiah, and Statik. I caught up with them in Berlin. That show was a lot of fun.

Anyway people always say they never see me. Well here’s an example of why it’s like that. I landed at JFK in NYC from Amsterdam at 7:30 pm 2 days ago. My flight was like 4 hours late. My man Chum came and scooped me and we went to Brooklyn to watch some WWE at Poison Pen’s crib. Not really my thing, but it’s good to kick it with fam since I’m hardly everavailable. Then we headed up to CT to lay down some tracks for our new record. Normally I’d hop off the plane and go straight home but y’all gotta understand this was my ONLY day off on the east coast in the space of 3 months and we gotta finish our “Cool Aide” record so it can drop in the summer.

So we did that and I passed out exhausted then woke up and slid back to Philly. I copped some new garments, picked up some other gear from the crib and then it was off to PHL to catch a flight to Chicago O’hare on American Airlines. Before I knew it I’m back in the Windy City for the first time since last year’s tour with Souls of Mischief. The only problem was my luggage wasn’t.

Yep for the second time in less than a month American Airlines lost my shit! I’m vexed because I checked in my merch too. I never do that, I was just feeling wild lazy. My dj Fishr Pryce is hitting me up telling me we have to hit soundcheck and all that at the Abbey Pub. I don’t know though because my phone died - hahaha. Apparently Fishr was scolding me via text message and he thought he was doing it so well that I was speechless - hahahaha. Anyway after I set up the luggage thing with the lady we check in the hotel then catch an expensive cab to the venue.

The show was good. We rocked with my peoples Qwel, Robust, Pugslee Atomz, and DJ Intel. It’s always dope to catch up and check in with fam. I’m rocking a lot of new material and putting the focus on creating a party atmosphere and putting on an actual performance with our shows rather than it just being some rapper shouting at a crowd of dudes and then walking back to the dj like “yo what’s next?” I’m trying to rock a show that when girls go they don’t leave early saying “What a waste of an outfit.” Yahmean? With that said I’m still working on the balance of all the high-level lyricism with the party shit. With that said we killed it - hahha! Fishr opens with some party-rockin mashup bangarangs and then I come out and annihilate it with that high energy shit they love me for. The crowd was feeling the fact that even though I had no cds to sell and I was wearing a donated t-shirt and sweatpants I wore on the plane I still left it all on the stage for them. I got some flicks from the show but Fishr Pryce (no relation to Sean) left the USB cord for camera in Dallas.

On the road the fatigue can sneak up on you and all the sudden you’re sleep before you realized it. That happened to me on the ride back to the hotel. I just remember waking up this morning in my clothes wondering if my luggage ever showed up.

It didn’t.

So I had a breakfast of champions…iced tea and a honey bun then I started to badger American Airlines for my belongings.

I called them people 3 times, explaining that I gotta leave for St. Louis I GOTTA HAVE my bags. They kept telling me how they were overwhelmed and there was nothing they could do for me. I thanked them for losing my bags again and waited around in my hotel pressing F5 on the www.aa.com/bagstatus for hours until I realized that the worker at AA had put the WRONG HOTEL ON MY FILE!!! I called the other Radisson to see they had my bag, they didn’t. Then I called AA back to get them to fix it and the guy had the ill attitude with me like it was my fault and shit, and he said that I’d called already and they were gonna have my bags sent to St Louis on the next plane out and there was nothing he could do about it. I thanked him for his great customer service by introducing him to my buddy Tone.

Defeated Fishr and I decided to just finally check out and catch a bus or whatever to St. Louis when my phone rang. The Radisson downtown Chicago had my bags. Great!

A $50 cab ride, a shower (where I put the same clothes back on), and a show where I coulda sold at least half my merch later I got my luggage back. I will never fly American Airlines again. Now we’re on the Amtrak heading south. This’ll be my first time ever in St. Louis! I’m excited despite the rain that is dancing outside my window.

I guess nobody ever said the road to success was easy.

It’s whatever though, I’m happy to be here!

My current donated shirt says “Single Moms Prone to Bone.”

Now if you’ll excuse me I gotta put my unapproachable east coast black man face back on so nobody sits next to me!

See y’all tomorrow, maybe with some video…..

peace
-iCON

Amsterdam, Holland, Tuesday, April 2, 2008

I really wish I could keep a daily log of happenings on this tour but we are literally running from place to place nonstop with little or no break. Plus there has been a lot of bullshit in the meantime. Where do I start?

First of all, our gig in Bucharest was a freakin circus. From the 8 hour wait at the Vienna airport for our incorrectly booked flight, to the crappy hotel the promoter booked which ran out of running water to the next hotel resembling a murder scene in which me and Jag ended up going to take showers, the entire experience was something I’d like to forget soon. I mean, no one on this tour is a diva believe it or not. But no running water at the hotel?!?!? Even though the promoter showed very little concern for us and even argued with Bahamadia outside the venue, we still chalked it up, did an extremely professional job and gave the audience in Romania exactly what they paid for; an amazing show. Immediately following the show, we headed to the airport which was a final nail in the coffin that was our trip to Bucharest. The entire airport was like a Chuckie Cheese on the busiest Saturday afternoon of the year. People everywhere, no order, everyone bumping us, stepping on feet, some girl fainted, people were throwing up, and none of the staff seemed to have any idea where we were supposed to go to catch our flight to Paris. It was a miracle that we made it out of that city on time. Unbelievable…

We made it to Paris, all feeling like zombies, after not sleeping or eating in over 24 hours. Not to mention that the hotel mishap prevented some of us from showering. Once we arrived at the hotel, there was some other issue and the rooms were not ready. I think this was pretty much the breaking point for most of us after so many hours of chaos. Thankfully our road manager, Gez is really level headed and knows how to get results quickly. The room situation got sorted out after about a half hour and we were on our way to sleep for a few hours before going out to dinner to laugh and joke about what we had just experienced a few hours ago. The show the following night was sold out and as usual extremely live. We even got the chance to catch up with some old friends and tear the sneaker shops up while in the city. Business as usual. Off to London…

The trip to the UK was pretty smooth and nearly got accomplished without a smudge. That is, until we got to border control. They gave us the ultimate run around because we didn’t have our working papers with us. The booking agent simply forgot to send them with all the other important information so we got stuck for about an hour at customs which caused us to miss our ferry to the UK. We then had to wait another 2 hours for the next boat and then drive another hour & a half to London. Again, straight to sound check followed by a 20 minute window to eat, shower, get dressed and get back to the venue to start spinning. This life is hectic but I wouldn’t trade it. Surprisingly the show at the Jazz Café wasn’t sold out as we expected but the decent crowd that did come out was really appreciative and not shy about expressing it. One guy even had Jag’s name tattooed on his back. We linked up with our friends Yarah Bravo who opened the show and DJ Vadim back stage and got the chance to have some laughs with them before it was time to head back to the hotel. I was so damn tired I made the mistake of leaving my laptop and all my serato stuff at the venue. Fortunately I realized it as soon as I got to the hotel lobby and was able to go back to retrieve it.

This morning we left the UK, made the ferry just in time and got to Holland after nearly 12 hours of traveling. Too bad the Amsterdam show ended up getting canceled. After some of the days we’ve had on this tour, a day off was nothing to complain about. Not to mention that our drummer got the chicken pox somewhere between Paris, London, and Holland. It’s been a challenge overall but mad fun. Will be seeing Philly in a few days. Chea…

Budapest, Hungary – Thursday, March 27, 2008

Statik: So much has happened in the past few days. We did a couple shows, ate a bunch of meals, got the run around in a couple taxis, and bought a bunch of sneakers. Vienna has one of my favorite shopping centers in the world. The outlet stores there have prices that cannot be matched. I couldn’t contain myself in the shops. My life long sneaker habit had to get supported.
Every time we go on the road, we have to get creative with packing techniques to fit all of the clothes and sneakers bought. It’s become a frequent issue but one I’m not complaining about.

We played Warsaw in Poland for a dope crowd the other night. Definitely the hypest crowd on the tour so far. Afterwards, we decided to go out to see what was popping in the city. The taxi driver ended up taking us to his friend’s bar alllll the way on the other side of the city which turned out to resemble what I would imagine is a Polish Mafia whore house type of situation. It wasn’t really a good look especially considering that we didn’t take the address of the Hilton that we were staying at and without him would probably not have gotten back to it. That portion of the night overall was a huge waste of time and cash.

Last night we rocked at B72 in Vienna. The last time I played there was in 2004 with Bahamadia, Kev Brown, and DJ Roddy Rod. The place is always filled to capacity and the energy is always ridiculous. The only semi wack thing though was that there was no room for me on stage so the DJ Booth was set up right next to the stage so technically it worked but visually it wasn’t the same.

Hezekiah: The chemistry has gotten so much better between all of the acts and the band throughout this run. Me, Statik, Baham, and Jag share tons of laughter everyday. We would like to take a tour like this to the states and continue the fun. Who knows what may happen. As an encore to the shows every night, following Jag’s set, Statik had the idea of throwing on The Roots’ classic joint “What You Want” from the Best Man soundtrack with Jag on the hook and having everyone come back to kick exclusive verses over it. The crowd goes stupid every time we do it. Sometimes all of us aren’t up for it but when we do it, it really comes across well. Philly we wish you could see that shit. We reppin y’all well!

Vienna, Austria – Sunday, March 23, 2008
Zurich’s show went well and the venue had nearly an all female stage and sound staff. It was dope because everyone was professional. It sounded good although the place had a sound ordinance and it had to be kept kind of low which irritated the shit out of us.  I wish we could have stayed aother day in Zurich. I love Switzerland.

Stuttgart is an interesting place. Hezekiah and I went out on the town to see what the city had to offer only to find that most people there seem to hate hip hop. We asked everyone who looked like they’d be headed to a club and everyone said they thought hip hop was wack. So needless to say we didn’t really find anything interesting to do that night. The show the following night was dope afterall though. We played at a multi-room venue that was big but the stage was small. The whole band had to squeeze onto a platform smaller than the stage at the Khyber. Lucky for me the DJ booth was on the stage but separated. It’s actually what took up all the space. Ha! After the show, I had been booked to play a guest set for the afterparty. Europe always reminds me of that feeling we all had in like 1993 when so much dope hip hop was coming out. All DJ Premier records set the parties on fire out here so I made sure I gave them a proper dosage of that sound along with some Philly favorites and some newer joints to keep things moving forward. Nothing worse then stagnation with music. Too many DJs out here get lost in Nostalgia.

Now we’re in Vienna at a small hotel owned by the promoter’s family. We’re the only guests here and they cooked us a great home-cooked meal and served us cocktails and appetizers to make us feel extra comfortable. There isn’t much to do here since it’s a Sunday night and a holiday weekend at that so we’re just sitting up watching clips on youtube. Tomorrow I was planning to hit the Adidas store out here but we have to fly to Poland for a show before we can indulge in anymore shopping. Damn. I’ve been trying to shoot some photos but we’ve been running so fast that I haven’t really made time to capture anything worth shooting. I’ll work it out.

Zurich, Switzerland – Thursday, March 20, 2008
Berlin was dope last night. The venue has a small stage in comparison with most of the other venues on this tour but what Bohannon lacks in size, it makes up for in crowd support. People packed into the tight spot and made it feel like a night at the Five Spot back in the day. It was the first show on the tour and the first time we’re all performing the sets with this band so we were all excited but hoping it all went well. We rehearsed a few times at the Live Demo rehearsal space and got things damn near to a science but you never know what can happen on stage. Icon the Mic King was in Berlin for a few days so he jumped on the show as well and did about 20 mins before we got there. I did a set of all my favorite Philly records and then the band came up and brought Hezekiah on for the first part of the show. The sound was a mess thanks to a sound guy that didn’t feel like being at work but we kept it together. I know within the next few shows it’s gon sound crazy. Bahamadia came on and ripped the show to shreds and then Jaguar came up and captivated the room for about an hour before everyone came back for an encore. Dope show overall.

A couple of hours of sleep, a quick packing job and an 11 hour long ride later, we ended up in Zurich and have to get right to work. We sound checked before going to the Hotel and have to go right back to the venue in a few minutes. This stage here at Rote Fabrik is much bigger and the overall production is more professional. I’ll be returning to this spot in a couple of weeks with Jneiro Jarel for the Shape of Broad Minds tour so I hope everyone is easy to work with. Gotta roll…

To view Norm Maxwell’s painting click HERE

Norm Maxwell’s iconoclastic blend of Daliesque surrealism, cubism, jazz, and raw hip-hop flavor has evolved into a style as spiritual and emotional as it is confrontational. His work is both socio-political commentary and spiritual testimony. It is deeply confessional, containing all the drama and pathos of urban life, and revolutionary in the way all true art should aspire to be but few ever come close to attaining. In his own words:
“In my paintings I tell you the story under the story…There is something called the subconscious mind and if you allow it, it can open you to new perspectives.”
It is easy to get lost in his paintings. A kaleidoscope of colors, textures, urban iconography, and religious symbolism invest his work with staggering beauty and intensity. At times subtle and thought-provoking. At times a dizzying journey into the very heart and mind of modern America. Maxwell’s art is a revelation.
Born on the streets of Philadelphia, Norm Maxwell began his career as a graffiti artist before attending the Hussian School of Art where his talent evolved and matured. Since leaving Philadelphia in 1989 Maxwell’s unique artistic vision has infused the music videos of some of the most successful musicians in the industry. Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Madonna, John Legend, TLC, Destiny’s Child, Lil’ Jon, and many many others have all benefited from the immense talent of Norm Maxwell.
For more info on Norm Maxwell please visit the following websites:
normmaxwell.com
nomzee.com

Berlin, Germany – Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:45am

Thanks to the folks who supported the Hezekiah Video Release Party at Silk City on Sunday night. It was a nice sendoff for the tour we begin today in Europe. This one is the Philly Sounds Tour featuring Jaguar Wright, Bahamadia, Hezekiah, me and the band from Live Demo here Berlin.

Jeez. The U.S. Postal Service never ceases to amaze me. I thought we were getting off to a rough start with this tour when there was a major miscommunication about my involvement with the show and my plane ticket didn’t get purchased at first. This also explains why my name or image isn’t on the main tour flyer… Anyhow the plane situation got resolved with me getting a separate flight and then the physical airline tickets for everyone else got lost in the mail shuffle, so as I sit here at the Subotage (Booking Agency) office after a long sleepless overnight flight, we’re a little concerned about who else will be showing up from Philadelphia today. I haven’t received any crazy messages from Hez so I’m sure we’re all good but it’s a little nerve wracking since no one but me had an E-ticket or physical ticket thanks to USPS. Good lookin out guys…

Anyway, provided everyone shows up in a couple hours, today the plan is to rehearse with the band and prepare ourselves for the dates to come. I’m especially looking forward to the Jazz Café date since I haven’t been to London in a few years. Other than that, I’m happy to just be linking up with all my friends here in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and a couple other spots. More coming…