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.