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 He also brought some leftover CD’s from past collaborations, but realistically, CD’s are already outdated.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.

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

Indie Raps in Paradise

I’ve taken a little summer hiatus from my blog. Summer is always too chaotic and busy to have focused on blogging. Plus I started an exciting new job in July at an auction house, so it’s been even crazier. Even though Fall has hit and life’s starting to normalize, we managed to squeeze in one last adventure.

My sister works for a destination club and won ‘hostess of the year’ with her company. The reward was five free nights in any of their properties around the world. So we spent five luxurious days in a ten person villa in Turks and Caicos with our own private pool and beach. I expect her to keep up the good work and win next year as well.

We pretty much spent the entire trip by the pool. With pool floaties and an outdoor grill, fridge, and speaker system, there really was no need to stray too far. The only time we left the villa was to check out da Conch Shack. Apparently white people giggle at anything with "da" in front of it. Paul just shook his head at us. But more importantly, on Sunday afternoons da Conch Shack hosts the Hump and Bump. The Hump and Bump is supposedly a dance party on the beach, but we were disappointed to find no DJ and no humping or bumping. Maybe we were too late in the season for it, but at least we still got to feast on conch and rum punch.

da Conch Shack

Maria gets a little overzealous about planning though (she may or may not have sent us a grocery/booze list for our approval two months before the trip), so she had a playlist ready to go for our poolside listening pleasure. My sister has gotten to know a lot of the rappers Paul works with and has become a fan of their music too, so scattered throughout her playlist were quite a few indie rap joints.

Obviously, she included a number of songs off the Willie Green album, We Live In The Future, but there were also some of her faves from billy woods, Open Mike Eagle, PremRock, Angi3 and Toussaint Morrison. Turns out Prem and Green’s song, Jogger, is perfect to listen to while drinking margaritas in a pool. Who wants to jog when you can float? Our friend Ali was laying in one of the second floor balcony hammocks (yes, we had those too) and yelled down to ask who the artist was cause she liked it so much. Paul was flattered obvs. Another converted indie rap fan!

It's a funny thing to be thousands of miles from home in a tropical island paradise and suddenly have a song bring me right back to my kitchen in Brooklyn.

My Very First Rap Battle

PremRock had his birthday party this past weekend at a friend’s penthouse in South Slope. It was an awesome space, with a balcony that was possibly bigger than my whole apartment and perfect views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Seriously stunning. I was coveting pretty hard.

Rap Battlin'

Naturally the party was chock full of rappers. But there was this random guy who was going around, cornering people, and then just rapping in their faces. It was bizarre and annoying. Throughout the night, he managed to pester most of the rappers. Until finally something amazing happened. Prem snapped and a real life RAP BATTLE went down!! Really! In real life! It was one of the best things I have ever witnessed. If I hadn't been so enthralled, I would have taken video documentation.

I’ve seen a few rap battles at shows before, but those are usually done in good fun and are prepared in advance. This was spontaneous and basically two dudes fighting via rap. Instead of fists, they used words. Imagine a rap version of the West Side Story. Amazing. Prem crushed the other kid too.

That dude. I'd like to thank the photo
bomber in the center for making my
very first rap battle happen.

I think it’s because I went to an all girls school for middle and high school, but I have actually gone through life without ever witnessing a fight. This is the closest I've come. Based on movies I've seen though, this is exactly how I expected it to look. A group of bystanders all circling the two people beefing, while laughing and prodding them on. Except, of course, this was all very non-violent.

When I mentioned that it was my first rap battle experience, everyone was surprised. Apparently this happens more often than one would think. I don’t know how I've been with Paul for so long without witnessing one yet. 

I’m pretty pleased my first rap battle was on a Brooklyn balcony against a backdrop of the city skyline though. It felt like a very perfect New York moment. I think that one day, when I finally leave this city, most of my favorite memories are going to be of nights on Brooklyn rooftops.

Fireside Raps

Last night my art world and my rap world melded together in the most interesting and bizarre of ways. I went to hear a lecture on the art of the fireplace and see a rap performance all in the same space. I attend lectures and rap shows pretty much on the regular. But I had not yet had the two combined. Until last night.

Last month, Prem told us he was going to be the first rapper to perform at the National Arts Club, a private club in Gramercy Park. Obviously, I was really intrigued. The National Arts Club was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Some of the club’s more famous members over the years have been J. Pierpont Morgan, Frederic Remington, Mark Twain, Robert Redford, three U.S. presidents, the list goes on...

Walking through the doors of this Victorian Gothic Revival building, with all its intricate woodwork, moldings, and beautiful stained glass, I had to wonder how a rapper landed a gig at one of the notable cultural landmarks of NYC. Not because I don’t think rap is culturally significant, but usually the people in charge of such clubs don’t think so. My expectations were confirmed when we entered the room and saw the crowd- a relatively older audience all wearing business attire.

Prem’s childhood friend Christian Herrmann is a stonemason who has been doing renovations at the NAC for the past year. Since he recently restored the chimney, he was asked to give a lecture on the topic of fireplaces. He did a run through on the history and evolution of the fireplace, and then showed some of his own masonry work, including time lapse photography of his restoration of the chimney. He ended with a discussion about the fireplace as a communal space where people have gathered around for hundreds of years to talk, eat, and perform.

And this is when the rap show started. Prem wrote some verses that he delivered alongside a cellist. The setting and the cello made it feel like a poetry reading, but delivered by a rapper. I was pleased to see an older gentleman in a bow tie bobbing his head to the beat. But I loved the moments where the two worlds didn't quite line up.

After he performed, in true rap club fashion, Prem asked everyone to raise their drinks for Christian. I looked around at the slightly confused older folks lifting their champagne glasses in the air, probably wondering why they weren't applauding instead. After the music ended, a member of the NAC took the lectern and clearly a bit flustered, exclaimed “Wow, that was something” before he went on to thank everyone. I’m pretty sure that was his first time seeing a rap performance ever.

It was a bit unconventional, but I actually thought it was lovely, especially in the context of the fireplace. I imagine many a distinguished person has gathered around the fireplace at the NAC to hear musicians sing and play the piano or harp or something charming like that. It’s time to break down some barriers- for both worlds. Getting to hear some fireside raps set to a cello seemed like an oddly fitting tribute to a restored 19th century fireplace in a 21st century world.

Also, I want Christian to build me a fireplace when I have a house one day. Check out his amazing portfolio.

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)

Fasho Fasho! Get Your Pick-Up Lines Here!

Today, Paul put out a remix of “Fasho Fasho!” from his album We Live In The Future. For those who haven’t heard the original version yet, you can get a taste of Paul’s knack for grimy pick-up lines here. As the ladies in the song, I think you’ll find that Keisha and I didn’t have to act too hard.

If I’m out and Paul is meeting up with me later, he frequently will slide up unexpectedly and jokingly hit on me. One night, Paul came out to meet me and started laying it on thick. Someone who hadn't met Paul yet was just about to intervene until he saw me burst out laughing. When you have to explain that your husband isn’t actually skeevy, he might be a little too good at it.

For the remix, Paul got raps from PremRock, Zilla Rocca, and Mad Dukez. Some gems were turned out, and it’s definitely as funny and catchy as the original. I laugh every time I hear Prem’s verse “I got dvd’s on my homeboy’s netflix, check it”. Of course, this also means Paul has an arsenal of new pick-up lines to use on me. Paul’s chorus of “I respect your tan lines” and “girl, I love you from the waist down, but the top look good too” have been getting plenty of use lately.

Suz made a little trailer for the remix, and I find this so convenient. I like that it fits in with the comic book theme from the original album artwork. Paul works with rappers from all over, so I also like being able to put faces with names. Take a look, get to know your rapper. And his pick-up lines.

Zombie Easter

Zombie Easter

Yesterday was Easter, but it was also the season finale of The Walking Dead. So we decided to combine the two. After all, Jesus did rise from the dead, so he was technically a zombie, right? My friend Jenny said it best: “Nothing celebrates the Resurrection like a zombie-themed Easter.”

We had some friends over to watch the show and eat an Easter dinner, with an emphasis on zombie inspired foods (bloody marys, beets, etc). Mark/PremRock also came over. He and Paul just got back from tour, and Prem started watching the show on the road since all the other guys were into it. When the rappers stayed at my parents house after SXSW, it was a Sunday night and we all sat down to watch the show together. There’s a reason they call themselves a rap family.

I wasn’t always so into zombies. I enjoyed Dawn of The Dead and 28 Days Later as much as anybody, but after watching Walking Dead, I became obsessed. I now have a zombie apocalypse escape route planned, and I assess people on whether I think they could survive the apocalypse or not.

Growing up in Texas, I was taken to the shooting range my whole life and given a rifle for my thirteenth birthday, so I’m a pretty decent shot. My dad is trying to get Paul involved with hunting too. While we were in Texas for this past Christmas, he signed Paul up for a hunter safety course. The class was outside of Houston and attended mostly by rednecks. Paul was the only black person, and we were a little nervous to leave him. He aced the exam though, and my dad has started to try and find times for the two of them to go on hunting trips. I’m just glad my dad now has a “son” he can drag on these trips instead of me. But if Paul can also get pretty good with a rifle, I think we may stand a chance when the zombie apocalypse hits.

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.

Livin' In The Future

Today, Paul's album "We Live In The Future" (via Fake Four distro) comes out! Anyone who is or has known an artist understands the emotional ups and downs of working creatively. When they feel uninspired they can be in bad moods, when they are inspired they feel great. It has been a long, but exciting year of watching Paul put together this project. And I couldn't be more proud of the end result.

Paul's focus has always been hip hop and rap, and while that edge still comes through on this album, it's definitely got more pop and is dancier than his previous projects. I joked before that I felt like he made the album for me, but me and my sister really were sounding boards for this project. Maria lives in Manhattan, and we have her over for dinner all the time. It makes me so happy that my sister and my husband are such good friends. So Paul will invite her over for dinner sometimes, and while we are in the kitchen cooking, he will play some of his beats and gage our reactions. When we started dancing to a beat, he knew it was a keeper. When we just stood there chopping veggies, he tossed it. We were his product testers so to speak.

Since I work in the visual arts, I often think about the producer process as similar to an art curator's process. Obviously, by making the beats and the musical arrangements, he is also the artist. He even wrote the scores for the live horn and string sections. But as the producer, he chooses the artists that he thinks would sound best over the different songs. Then once he has the finished songs, he figures out which order he wants the listener to experience them. He even writes liner notes that discuss each song, which are akin to artwork labels in a museum. The end result is a creative, well thought out exploration of Paul's futuristic interpretations of funk, dance, disco, pop, rap, and even rock.

You can buy the album on iTunes or Amazon. Get ready for a dance party!

My Parent's Halfway House for Rappers

I flew home to Texas this past Friday. It's rodeo season in Houston, and I try to come home for it every year. The rodeo is a month long affair. It starts with Go Texan Day (yes, that's actually what it's called) and a trail ride into Houston, where cowboys/girls from all over literally ride their horses down the streets of Houston. Then every night for the next three weeks, there are livestock shows, rodeo events, and concerts (usually country western). Some of my favorite high school memories involve dancing to Clay Walker with my girlfriends at the rodeo.. ah, nostalgia! Of the actual rodeo activities, the highlight for me is mutton bustin, where 5 year olds are placed on top of sheep and try to stay on for as long as possible. You can find videos on YouTube, it's beyond hilarious.

The other reason I chose to come home this weekend was cause SXSW just ended, and for the past few years, Paul and his tour crew have been stopping afterwards for a night at my parents house to regroup, have a bed to sleep in, and get a good meal. Since I hate not seeing him for a month, I figured I would make sure to overlap with him on his Houston stopover this year.



Clockwise from left: Fresh Kils, Relic,

Toussaint Morrison, B. Durazzo, Mad Dukes,

Prem Rock, Willie Green, Ron Perks, and

Corina Corina

He's on tour with seven other guys though. Corina Corina and Toussaint Morrison are also on tour and have a show in Houston, so they are crashing at my parents place too. Which means my parents have NINE rappers staying in their home. Every bed, couch, sleeping bag is currently being used.

Last night, we treated them to some bbq and tex-mex. A true Texan guy, my dad is a big hunter, so he had some recently hunted elk burgers and sausages on the grill. While I'm pretty sure my parents never thought they would be hosting rappers, my dad definitely loved having an audience of dudes to listen to his hunting stories. And it was pretty cute to see my Italian mama making sure that all the rappers were well fed.

The funny thing is, as soon as the rappers leave, they are being replaced with a bunch of girls from the Harvard track team. You never know who will be staying at Chez Merrill.

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.