Rappers With My Ducky Pillow - The Mo Niklz Edition

When I first started my blog, I began it with a post called Rappers With My Ducky Pillow. I had hoped for it to be a recurring post, but over the past year we haven’t hosted as many rappers as we have in previous years. Maybe they are fearful of me stalking them while they sleep? That’s fair. Luckily, Mo Niklz crashed on our couch the night of PremRock’s album release party and I was able to revive the series!

In case anyone thinks I’m a really big creep, Mo was aware that this would happen. No Mo Niklz were eMOtionally harmed by the taking of this photograph.

For those of you who don’t know Mo. He’s a DJ based out of Connecticut, but he seems to DJ most of the hip hop events in the tri-state area. There is rarely a NYC show that I go to where Mo isn't behind the turntables. After winning the title in 2012, he was nominated as a finalist for best DJ again this year in the Connecticut Music Awards. Good luck Mo!

He is also a big fan of “Mo” puns- as seen in this charming photograph of Mo Niklz with monocles. When meeting him, the easiest way to his heart is through a good Mo pun. For more on Mo's music or for Mo merch, check out his bandcamp.

Professional Shout Outs

In my last post, I joked about how I tone down my work attire on days when I also have rap shows in the evenings. But sometimes when you have the annual Silver Society dinner to attend before your rap show, you don’t have that option. Then you have to show up to the rap show in your most professional business attire. Occupational hazard.

It’s always a bit of a shock to the system to go from my work events to Paul’s work events, but I kinda love it. It reminds me of how much we expand each others world views. At the Silver Society dinner, we heard a talk on some of the silver from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recent catalog of their American silver collection. When I was in grad school, I spent a year long internship at the Met doing research on colonial silver for this catalog, so it was a topic near and dear to my heart. I formed great relationships with the two silver curators there, so I was super honored when they both thanked me for my work during their lecture. I got a shout out in a room full of silver curators, scholars, and researchers from major museums and institutions across the world. I felt like the coolest nerd in the room.

PremRock

But as soon as the lecture and dinner were over, I hopped in a cab and raced to Williamsburg to get to PremRock's release show for his new album, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. It's Prem’s fifth album, all of which have been engineered by Paul, and there was no way I was going to miss celebrating that achievement! Prem always puts on a fantastic show, and this new album is some of his best work. You can buy it for only $5 on his bandcamp. One of my coworkers came, liked what she heard, and bought two of his albums. Maybe we’ll be listening to rap (instead of classical) in the silver department soon?

Willie Green & PremRock

Prem asked Paul to join him on stage to perform a few oldies from their album, PremRock & Willie Green. Following a glowing introduction from Prem, Paul took the stage to a crowd chanting his name. It’s a good feeling to be celebrated for your work. I imagine the exhilaration he felt was equivalent to mine as I got shouted out at the Silver Society. I kid, I kid. Kind of.

So here’s my shout out to all the musicians that night- PremRock, Willie Green, Armand Hammer, Curly Castro, Zilla Rocca, Karma Kids, and Mo Niklz. This isn’t a hobby for these guys. This is their passion, their calling, and they put in the work. A special congratulations to PremRock, who treats his pursuit of music with the up-most professionalism. He is very deserving of all of his success.

SACOOO!

I was recently at a show where up-and-coming rapper, Milo, performed. He had a nice write-up in LA Weekly over the summer, and I was super surprised to read that he’s originally from Saco, Maine. For years, I went on this annual canoe/camp trip on the Saco River with a group of friends.

I hadn’t been in a while, but my sister, Paul and I decided to revive the Saco trip this past July with fifteen of our more adventurous friends. There were a few semi-seasoned campers, but we had a solid percentage of first-timers. I got many emails before the trip asking me to clarify the ‘bathroom situation’. Our two born-and-bred New Yorkers didn’t even know how to swim! I can’t believe they agreed to be confined to a canoe for two days. I wish I had footage of Keisha wading in the river repeating “I’m in nature, I’m in nature…”.

It really isn’t that strenuous though. We tie our canoes together and float as a giant canoe raft for the first few hours. It’s a nice way to start, and it makes passing beers way easier. The only difficult part of the trip is carrying the canoes around the dam. Incredibly inconvenient, but pretty cute to see all these jaded New Yorkers get their camp counselor on and work together to get it done. Teamwork at its finest. At one point, even our resident smart-ass Matt was clapping his hands and saying motivational stuff like “dig your heels in, we’ve got this!”.

I had also forgotten about the frat party that is Saco. The beaches are lined with flip cup tables, people shout “SACOOOO” at every passerby, and mottos like “drink ‘em and sink ‘em” originated there. The newest bro catchphrase on the river was “dump ‘em out”. Seriously. It took us ladies a minute to figure out what that even meant. Naturally, I googled it when I got home and learned two interesting facts. One: the Saco River is in the Urban Dictionary. Two: that charming catchphrase was another Saco River original.

Since several of our friends that went on the trip are in the rap scene, there were a good number of Saco survivors at this recent show. And we may have all shouted “dump ‘em” when Milo took the stage.

eighteen New Yorkers go camping

hot dog on a stick, it's what's for dinner.

Tasty Keish & Mo Niklz do nature 

Prem does too

Rappers At My Wedding

One of my favorite things about the wedding photos was seeing our worlds come together and how perfectly everyone got along. Captured in the pictures was so much joy and legitimate happiness for us. While this makes sense for a wedding, you have to keep in mind that I have a conservative, Italian family who is not always so open minded. Paul and I were more than a little nervous about our families colliding catastrophically at the wedding. But instead, everyone got along seamlessly. Even racist grandma was caught beaming while holding onto the arm of Paul's cousin as she watched us cut our wedding cake. Paul and I joke that our love helped the world get a little less racist that day.

Obviously, with Paul's line of work, many of his closest friends are rappers. Considering that the older generations are not always a fan of 'that rap music', I also loved seeing pictures and hearing the stories of rappers interacting with our families. Apparently, PremRock dubbed himself "the Merrill whisperer" that night after dancing with both my mom AND my grandma. 

Going through the wedding photos, I found some of those captured moments, as well as a few other gems:

Rappers That Break It Down With Your Mom (rap name: S.Breeze)

Rappers That Wanna Know If They Can Cut In (dj name: Mo Niklz)

Rappers That Are The Merrill Whisperer (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Take Their Beers Seriously (rap name: Uncommon Nasa)

Rappers That Are Also Your Wedding DJ (rap name: Tah Phrum Duh Bush)

Rappers That Are Also Vikings (rap name: Pastense)

Rappers That Keep Their Identity Hidden Even In Wedding Pictures (rap name: Billy Woods)

Rappers That Schmooze With The Rents (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Your Mama Is Gonna Love (rap name: Pastense)

Hi, My Name Is Alessandra. What's Yours?

Paul's first album

I’m often curious about how rappers choose their stage names. Paul got Willie Green from a character in the blaxploitation film, Dolemite. When he first adopted it, he was actually Big Willie Green.. ya know, back when rappers were always Big or Lil’ something. Luckily, that’s since been dropped.

Not being in the rap scene myself, I never know how to address rappers. It’s not weird when they do it, but I'm pretty sure I sound ridiculous when I use rap names. To understand my predicament, here is a sampling of names of the rappers/producers/dj’s I have been introduced to over the years: Pastense, PremRock, Uncommon Nasa, Mo Niklz, Sketch tha Cataclysm, Tah Phrum Duh Bush, Illustrate, Urban Miracle, Varyus Waise...

Of course, the names that are a mouthful get shortened. Tah Phrum Duh Bush is just Tah, Sketch tha Cataclysm is just Sketch, even PremRock is just Prem. That’s easier for me to do, cause it feels more like a nickname.

Made by KC of MakeShopLive!

Since some rappers stage names are their real name (like Warren Britt), people sometimes assume that Paul’s name is Willie. He even had someone put him down as a reference on their job application as Mr. William Green once.

In the beginning, I asked rappers their real names and used those, but some people don’t like to share them. It was pretty funny when we went to address our wedding invitations, and Paul needed to ask a few friends for their real names. We joked that the reception place cards should also include people’s rap names in parentheses. I actually wish we had done that in retrospect. I think it would have been amazing. Especially in juxtaposition to the adorable bow magnets my crafty bridesmaid KC (check her site: MakeShopLive) made to display the cards. Rappers with bows? Yes, please!

Anyway, I'm getting better about using rap names. So when I introduce myself, I'll ask you what your name is and you make the decision what I call you.

Rappers With My Ducky Pillow

I think I would like to inaugurate my blog with a series that I have entitled 'rappers with my ducky pillow'. It’s pretty self explanatory. I hope for it to be a recurring entry.

Growing up, my parents always opened up our home to friends and family. My sisters and I were frequently booted from our bedrooms to make room for a guest. I loved the sense of community that my parents fostered in our home. Our friends always felt welcome and our house was always bustling.

Being married to a musician means that he has musician friends and they go on tours. So I made it clear to Paul that it was never a burden to have his friends crash on our couch if they needed a place to stay when travelling to Brooklyn.

How I obtained my ducky pillow is actually a funny story on its own. I saw it in a store, thought it was cute but not worth the forty bucks. A month later I saw it at a garage sale in my neighborhood. I was so excited.. only three dollars! As I am handing the woman the cash, her young daughter comes out of the house and bursts into tears that her mom was selling 'her ducky pillow'. I look at the woman and she mouths “just go”. I didn’t know what to do... so I just did what the mom said and backed away clutching the ducky pillow. Yep. I took a little girls pillow. While she cried for me not to take it. It was slightly traumatizing.

That saucy duck now gets cuddled by rappers that crash in our home. It’s kind of amazing. None of them use it as a pillow. They curl up with it. I thought it was hilarious, and I wanted to take pictures of these tough looking guys cuddling my ducky pillow, but I realized the creepiness factor of them waking up to me taking a picture of them sleeping. Unfortunately for this series, but perhaps fortunately for Pastense and Mo Niklz (my favorite of all the rap names I have heard so far), I didn’t know them well enough at the time to feel like I could photograph them sleeping. Luckily, I knew Mark (aka PremRock) well enough to take that chance with him, cause now we have this gem. In the future, I’m just gonna embrace the creepy. Rappers beware.