2Racks Brooklyn: A Synopsis

Last night I was in Brooklyn, NY for the 2Racks Rap Contest. It was a... worthwhile experience. Some observations:

1. Totally disorganized. Didn't start until 10, when the ticket and contract said 8. I suppose that's to be expected, though. Oh, and by start, I mean the host went on and did a 3-song set of his own a little after 10. What I found ironic was that the contest stressed performing completely original songs, yet he rapped over 2 different 2Pac beats.

2. This thing lasted entirely too long. This was a 32-artist tournament, with each musician performing 1:30 of a song. Judges pick the better song, that artist moves on. Nice concept, but when you spend 4 minutes bullshitting between each performance, it takes FOREVER.

I don't know how it finished, because I didn't perform my 2nd round song until 1:30 AM. Brooklyn law says they were going to have to shut the place down at 2 AM. So, from 10:30 PM to 1:30 AM, there were fewer than 48 songs performed. That breaks down to an average of 3:45 real time elapsed per song performed. At that rate, they would have finished at roughly 3 in the morning.

The place was full at the start, 70% when I did my first song, and at about 30% when I did my second song. That line graph trends downward for the championship round.

Also, the host REALLY liked to talk about all the great things he was doing for us by putting this together. If you're profiting off of something you're organizing, your self-proclaimed benevolence kind of loses steam.

Also, one judge was visibly drunk when I did my first song. That number climbed to 2 when I did my second one. Maybe that's why I "lost" to a dude wearing some kind of forest animal. Watch the video to understand:

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The crowd and DJ's responses to me throughout the night though tells me I'm doing something right. I sold a handful of CD's and was on stage for the first time in a while.

That, and a chubby white kid from suburban Houston performed at a rap show in Brooklyn. Which is a lot in itself.