Pack the Converse, Wear the Jordans: A Helpful Guide to Packing for Rap Tour

Paul has been on tour for the past three and a half weeks doing shows all over the middle of the country. Apparently the crowds are great for indie hip hop in places like Montana and North Dakota because no one ever makes it out to see them.

When it comes to packing for tour though, I generally lend a helping hand. Paul has questionable packing skills. One time we went to a wedding and he forgot to bring his suit pants. Packed the jacket. Left the pants. Being a former Girl Scout, I consider myself an expert packer. Two weeks at summer camp with just one trunk means I can certainly pack for three weeks of tour with one bag and a road case. I got this.

In his effort to pack light, Paul decided that he was only going to pack one pair of shoes. One pair! I mean these are shoes. You gotta have ‘em. What happens if something happens to his only pair of shoes on the road. He’s going to have to find a Foot Locker in the vast emptiness that is Wyoming? I set him straight. Pack the Converse, wear the Jordans.

In addition to clothes and gear, he also had to pack merch. Paul decided to get custom wood USB drives containing six of his albums. He also brought some leftover CD’s from past collaborations, but realistically, CD’s are already outdated. A friend of mine bought two PremRock CD’s at one of his shows and then realized she had no way to listen to them. Her computer doesn't have a CD drive to add them to her iTunes, and no one has CD players or discmans anymore. So Paul decided on some cool USB drives. They take up less space and can be reused after the music is uploaded.

I also convinced Paul to pack a tote bag. This was a HUGE triumph for me. Paul does not carry totes. I always ask him to bring one when he goes to the grocery store so we don’t end up using a million plastic bags (why do they double bag paper towels?), and he usually sighs and grabs his backpack instead. Since he had to pack other things in his backpack, he was going to use plastic bags to carry his merch into the clubs each night. First, plastic bags look bootleg. Second, they tear and fall apart. Paul was eventually persuaded that a tote bag was the most efficient and logical way to carry his merch.

Paul sent me amazing pics from the road

Paul also has some of his own great tips for touring. After doing this a couple of times, he figured out a few tricks. Laminate your merch sign. You need to have a price list printed for when someone else is manning the merch table. And considering it’s going to be on the road, you can’t print a new one every time someone spills a beer on it or when it inevitably tears. Go to Kinkos and laminate.

He also got a Square reader. We live in a time where literally anyone can accept credit cards. Which is why it annoys me so much when restaurants in NYC are cash only. It is easy, efficient and only takes a small percentage of your profits. It seems worth it.

Although touring on the indie level is never easy, it seems that if you pack efficiently, it can improve the experience. Especially when you have three guys driving twelve hour stretches through the middle of nowhere with all of their stuff in a sedan.