The League Abroad

“this is for the League across foreign seas”

The Community League has been away for a while adventuring but we’ll be back real soon….watch this space…

PEACE

Yamaha Band Competition

Last week I took part in the annual Yamaha Band Competition. The bands are made up from all the different classes at the school and we were charged with composing an original song. Despite studying keyboard and both electric and acoustic guitar at the school I was asked to join a group as a rapper. When I came in to meet the guys they played me a really funky number that immediately got the creative juices flowing. I have been thinking for a while now how I can write songs that appeal to non-English speakers, how I can write simple songs that are catchy and easy to understand without compromising the message. This was a great opportunity to put that into practice and I wrote a couple of short verses with a hook and some line-for-line interaction with the singer (who we only got a hold of the afternoon before the show).

We called our group COSMOS (because when trying to think of a name I said out loud “como somos?” and then “cosmos!”) and the song was called Rise n Shine. The idea was that we are all stars and this was our opportunity to showcase our talent.

The show was held in a University theatre in town and it was packed with students and parents. There was so much talent on display and as we stepped out onto the stage the crowd were screaming for us. Up for grabs was the chance to win sessions in a professional recording studio and the finished product would get regular airplay on the radio this summer. Not only that but the winners would be going to the regional finals with a chance to compete for the international competition in Thailand.

Well, we didn’t win but we gave a damn good performance and a lot of people told us how much they liked the song so that was really great. Hats ff to all the competitors y muchas gracias to all the organisors and everyone who took part. Respect.

Here are some pics:

t.wise

Efrain

COSMOS

*thanks to Nora for the great pictures

Check out a great video of the event here

BONUS: Hopes were high for all involved but you can’t win everything, and some things are more important, Puffy is good but….

I want you all to know that this is The Wize, and I love you all….

PEACE

Expo de Tatuajes San Luis Potosi

The tattoo in the last post was done at the Expo de Tatuajes here in San Luis Potosi by my man Memo from the Metamorfo shop here in town (we’re actually neighbours, them and the school I work at). The expo brings together tattooists and aficionados  from all over the region and it is an experience I greatly enjoy. This was my 2nd year in attendance and the atmosphere was wonderful once again. Last year was my first tattoo exposition and on first walking in it is a slightly surreal experience – lots of flesh and lots of tattoos on display. At first it feels weird to stare at people but everyone has their tattoos on show and after the first few people walked up to me and started talking to my chest or arm I was fully acclimatised. People were open and friendly and as I am obviously not from round these parts people like to ask me about myself and the parts of my story told in the various ink on my body.

I had already had one done at the Metamorfo shop (a Golondrina on my inner left bicep) so I knew that I wanted Memo to do the next (last year I got two traditionl decorated skulls from Dia de Los Muertos), I had a great time chatting with the guys from the shop for hours as I waited and then went under the needle. I stayed around afterwards and entered the competition…if memory serves correct I won 3rd place for the “men’s colour” category.

Here is a photo montage from this years event:

And for good measure here is the montage from 2009:

Tattoos are still not socially acceptable in conservative Mexican society with many employers refusing to hire people with tattoos on the premise that anyone with a tattoo is likely to be a bandiero or narco-traficante or that through the process itself whoever has a tattoo is likely to have contracted HIV. That says something about hygiene standards and the plethora of home-made tattoos and unofficial back street shops especially amongst the poorest people (a friend of mine claims to have been tattooed in a back room with animals in it whilst the artist was smoking and people were eating i.e. just any old back room). This also gives some insight into the working conditions in a country where it is not unusual for all workers to be subjected to a compulsory full medical by the company doctor but that is another abusive and exploitative story. Thankfully these standards, and attitudes, are changing albeit slowly (however, I was in line behind one chap having his prison tats touched up, they look like they’d been done with a biro).

So you can imagine the stir when my colleague, a white haired lady in her 50s, got her neck tattooed at last years event.

What I also find interesting is how body modification goes hand in hand with tattooing here whereas in England or the USA this is somewhat of another extreme. In Metamorfo they also perform piercings, scarring (a horrible practice!) and implants. “Expansions”, where a circle or disc is put into the earlobe, are also generally very popular.  I guess that if a tattoo puts you on the margins of society then it doesn’t make much difference to take it a step further.

These are just some observations of another Community that I am a part of here in Mexico.

Metamorfo Cru Thik

P.S.

I am only the League’s amateur tattoo man, here President Ruff can be seen judging this year’s convention in NYC held the same weekend (on the left at 27 seconds)

PEACE

- wize

COMMUNITY LEG

Tattoos are a passion here at Community League so what better way to show our Community Spirit than getting inked up? Since moving to Mexico I have developed a relationship with the guys at the Metamorfo tattoo shop and I always enjoy working on designs with Memo, the head tattooist. This design will be familiar to regular readers and people with an intimate knowledge of President Ruff’s body! Originally designed by BJ Betts this is our official logo and it appears on our clothing (and now various member’s person’s!)

T.Wise & Memo

Community Leg

Whether it’s doing the leg work or throwing up the trophy, I am always proud to be a part of the Community League. You can read President Ruff’s feelings about all this over at Black Lodges .

PEACE

- wize

LOVE FEST REDUX

Painting, Dancing, Theatre, Music, Writing, Rhyming: A Video-Photo Blog.

PEACE

LOVE FEST

Peaceful Enlightenment And Community Evolution

El Festival En La Calle

In the month of December  LOVE Cafe played a part in the staging of EL FESTIVAL EN LA CALLE here in San Luis Potosi and they invited me to be a part of it. In place of a big concert in Centro as is the norm it was decided to hold smaller events in various neighbourhoods around the city during the weeks leading up to Christmas. The idea was to bring the party to the people.

I took part in 2 of the events, here in La Concha Acustica, Industrial Aviacion, and later on one of the City’s main shopping streets.

This day was bitterly cold but a whole load of talented bands thawed out for long enough to perform and I really enjoyed the show:

Here’s to the COMMUNITY!

PEACE

Adventures In Rap

Back in September the boys from La Base invited me to play a club gig with them. They work in nightclubs (antros) playing mostly cover songs of the latest hits – from rock to reggaeton. Rappers are a rare breed here in Mexico so the band felt that it would give them an edge to bring me along to rap on the songs that feature rap, I didn’t need to learn the words because I could just tailor my verses to fit the songs (as few understand any of it anyway!). Bringing a rapper on board could add a lot of value to their product and, for me, nothing is better than rocking with a live band. Plus the pay is very good and we might be looking at an opportunity to make the music earn and balance my working life out a bit.

The club in question was MIA in Tampico. Tampico is on the Gulf Coast and to get there from my home in San Luis Potosi you have to cross the jungle covered corner of the state on the way to the sea. The lads were playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and the plan was for me to join them on Saturday because of my work commitments during the week. On Saturday I went to my music classes as normal and then hopped on a bus. It was hard to pass through the paradise that is La Huasteca but the pouring rain made it a little easier although it didn’t ease my passage - I was told that the bus took 6-7 hours but 8 1/2 hours later I was just pulling into Tampico and then stepping out into the rain soaked streets. I always have trouble with my phone when I go out of state so there was a bit of confusion connecting and we were almost due at the club. I took a taxi straight to MIA and met the lads there (finally, I got to tell security that I was “with the band” hahaha). There was just time for me to nip to the house we were staying in a few blocks away and have a quick (cold) shower and change clothes before zipping back and hitting the stage.

This was my first experience rapping in a club and it was brilliant, lots of people and a big stage to roam around, plus MIA is a kind of swanky place and of course we had an open bar to provide for our thirsty work! We were actually playing a shortened set because Saturday night featured a famous band as the headline act so we played 1 set instead of the usual 2 meaning that the only bad thing was that I only performed a few songs! When we were finished I was ready to go back on and do it all night!

Well, I didn’t get to go back on but I did enjoy the open bar and taking pictures with the beautiful girls in the place, the next band was pretty cool too (I even earned myself a nickname – “El Pedote” or “The Drunk” oops). A little trick I have to stop me getting sleepy is that I don’t take my watch with me but in fact this just adds to the surreal feel! 8 hours on a bus, straight to the stage and then getting drunk until, hmmm, I’m told it was about 6am hehe. After that we crashed out and awoke sometime the next morning from whence it was straight into the van for a hungover bumpy backseat ride home (since this night I have switched from Rum to Brandy on the advice of Eddy the guitarist – far less aggressive!).

So, all in all a 15 hour round trip to perform 4 songs and I didn’t even see the sea! Nevertheless it was well worth it – a good piss-up (and payday), lots of nice girls and of course the rush of performing live on stage! The remainder of the ride home was uneventful but I am hoping that next time I can persuade them to stop off in paradise for a dip in those waterfalls!

*All photographs courtesy of Tampico VIP

Performance Entertainment And Community Excitement

Titulos De La Calle

I’ve been slacking on the blogging recently so I’m going to take a look back at some of the big events from the year in which the world of music really opened up for me.

First up I am going to go back to an awesome event back in the summer called ‘Titulos de la Calle’.

The night before I was drinking Micheladas with my mate Patrick and I was awoken on Saturday morning (feeling a little worse for wear) by the sounds of Hip-Hop wafting in through the window from the venue next door. I got up to investigate (i.e. looked out of my bedroom window) and I saw a few people milling around and a little sound-checking going on so I called in on my way to my guitar class.

I met the organizers and discovered that it was an all-day event celebrating the four corners of Hip-Hop – MCing, Djing, Breaking and Graffiti. I was offered a spot in the MC battles but I explained that no one would understand me and I wouldn’t understand anything being said to me anyway. I explained that I was an MC from England and I showed them my Community Spirit and I managed to blag myself a 20 minute set later in the afternoon. I was also pretty pleased that I had done all this in Spanish!

When I got back there later on the place was packed with writers, breakers, skaters, MCs, & DJs with every available surface getting graf’d up and the tunes spinning.

Hip-Hop culture is still kinda young here in San Luis but the graf scene especially is really strong. My man Scratch asked if I was ready right away and I gave my disc to the DJ and hit the stage. It’s a strange thing rapping for people who don’t understand a word, no matter how dope the lyrics might be nobody is moved by them whatsoever so you have to make sure that the flow and the energy is right up there. It went off pretty well, I did win over the crowd as I showed and proved, it felt good to throw out some CDs and the people showed their appreciation.

La Gente de la Calle

Some heads came up to me as I left the stage and asked about my album and then I went walking around and shopping it to the people in the crowd. I got a lot of good feedback and met a few good connects from local crews. We exchanged CDs and kicked some rhymes before watching the battles.  Man, these kids went loco for the battles, I didn’t get any pics or footage myself but I dug this up from youtube:

I’ve got my own photography project in the works called Street Paint of San Luis but for now here is a little taster of the scene here:

Later on I went back to my building and watched from my roof with a blunt and a brew feeling pretty contented. This was one of my performing adventures this year and I’ll be back with more before the year is out.

PEACE

OB4CL2

Yo, the wait is finally over and RAEKWON’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…II has hit the streets… I love the album already but it is actually growing on me, I can’t get these new classics out of my head. To celebrate I have done some digging in the archives so travel with me as we go back 4 years to a classic night…

Date: 13^th October 2005. Venue: Coco, London. In Attendance: Me, Tes.

Occasion: Harry Love’s Birthday Bash/Only Built for Cuban Linx… II Tour.

Can I get a “Suuuuuuu”!?!

A sweet day off proved that I have the best Dad/Boss in the world and it was with leisurely pace that I made my way to Mordor.

“Everything Tes rocks is Topman / doesn’t do washing, goes shopping when Tom lands”

Tes “every other day my whole dress code change” Odigie was low on clean clothes so we went to buy some new ones in a shop full of meterosexual fashion victims, then we went to buy mixtapes. After eating a lot of Chinese food in a short time we headed to Camden to experience the Saga continue…Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang.

We were kept waiting outside the spot for a long ol’ time and the only entertainment was a police raid on a nearby bar but none of us could work out what was going on. Needless to say if they had crossed the road they could have seized enough funk to give them munchies till Christmas.

When we eventually got inside we got a John Smith’s and checked the place out, it was pretty impressive. In addition to the usual standing area there were 3 or 4 steep tiers of balconies and the place was lavishly decorated.

Quality control was high as the DJs spun a catalogue that Premo would have been proud of (including lots of Preme tracks), Shimmy Shimmy Ya gets an early run out and goes on to be dropped at least 4 times. On the 1s and 2s are DJ Mk, Harry Love and Sarah Love.

After Harry’s first set host Mystro introduces Chester P and Ramson Badbones, neither of them look like much – Chester is slightly chubby and dresses like Tes whilst Badbones is a skinny little guy. However there is a reason why Chester P is basically a God in the eyes of Rufff (he is simply one of the nicest on these mic devices) and so when he announces that Ramson is the best MC in the country you listen up. He’s not wrong either, with Harry Love spinning his own beats Ramson Badbones starts out ok before hitting full stride with confident battle lyrics and an easy swagger you can’t teach. The highlight is an a cappella run that name drops every cartoon character you ever heard of, if you are imagining a bite of Ghostface’s ‘The Forest’ you’d be right, and wrong, this is no rip off. Every other line has the crowd open, there were too many to remember but he ended with something about smoking weed with the white Rastas on Rosie and Jim. Bluh-Bluh!

Chester was backing Ramson on the tracks and was actually reading the lyrics off of some note paper which was quite a funny sight, then when Badbones was done Chester spat an incredibly boisterous freestyle in which he even named dropped his mans he’d spotted in the front row.

The Taskforce lads were not to be the only surprise guests on the evening – after they were done Mystro spotted Jeru the Damaja on the sidelines so he called him up to say hi. Jeru was in town for a concert the next night but telling Harry to keep playing the beat (one of Harry’s) he did a couple of verses, an a cappella and a quick freestyle. Harry was to be seen mouthing that that was his birthday present right there.

DJ MK took over the decks for a while, interrupted only by a DJ Cash Money cameo, before Terra Firma took to the stage.

This was exactly the sort of crowd that Terra Firma deserves – loud, excited and rowdy – and it is quite a sight to see them on stage. With all the main sayers present (Klashnekoff, Kyza Smirnoff and Scriblah) and a gang of cru backing them I knew it was gonna be special. This was confirmed when Klash started things off having “been on the Southern Comfort”.  The new joints from the mixtape were done well (still can’t find that damn tape!) and for once Klash kept the long talk short, didn’t turn the beat down and didn’t forget the lyrics – but his man possessed performance was intact. I haven’t seen Kyza and Scriblah for a while but there was mic time for all tonight, Kyza is an absolute monster when doing ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Real’ and Scriblah hasn’t lost a step as the trio perform ‘B4 U Die’. This and other songs ‘Daggo Mentality’ and (of course) ‘It’s Murda’ get bigger with every performance, also the Marley dub ‘They Call It…’ has to be added to that list, out in the streets they call it Fiiirmaaa!…

It’s a dangerous game having the Firma Fam as a “warm up” act, everyone has been giving it all they got and Sarah Love was not about to stop anyone dancing with her set. As it turns out, I had a little in reserve…

Clan in the front, let your feet stomp… my excitement reached crescendo as familiar notes started up… “I grew up on the crime side/the New York Times side”…

As I lost my head like I had failed to Protect My Neck Raekwon, decked in the fly Wu-Wear garments, tells us about the times when he was stuck with that same damn ‘lo sweater. Rae was a one man Clan as he flowed through the chambers, bringing us jewelz from the far flung corners of Shaolin Land. Taking us from staircase to stage, from Enter the Wu-Tang to the Gravel Pit via verses channelled from GZA, Deck and Method Man that were joined by a strong chorus, the Chef cooked it up somethin’ marvellous.

“This is what I love to do; this shit is like drinking water to me”

The most heartfelt Shimmy Shimmy Ya of the night came for fallen Clansman Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Tonight however was to be all about the …Cuban Linx era, as Lex Diamonds played out the famous scenes. He explained how the situation with him and Ghost was all love and support, to demonstrate he held an imaginary phone conversation with his partner in crime that was realer than reality.

Long talked of and speculated about, the Only Built for Cuban Linx…II album has finally reached fruition, the man tells how he gave us his whole life in his rhymes but for this one he was going back to the cracks in the staircase. Hopefully this new epic will answer Rae’s question to us, as fans: “What is up with Rap music at the moment?”

His concern was real but on this night, Wu-Tang…that’s what’s up.

Before it came time for us to be cast out we were treated to a precious gem from Outkast that kept it jumpin’ like Kangaroos.

Yes this shit is raw comin’ at ya door/start to scream out loud “Wu-Tang back for more”!

We barely had enough energy left to give him a send off but having somehow managed that we made moves into the night that contained a little chicken and a little kickin’ tales over herbs on the Double Decker.

PEACE

- Wise