Thursday, February 1, 2018

Marcel P. Black Travel Blog #2

#FromBatonRougeToJerusalem
A Marcel P. Black Travel Blog

Date: Saturday January 20th, 2018
City: Houston, Texas
Venue: The Secret Group
Show: 2 – City: 2 – State: 2

            Mane hol’ up… The last time I did a show in Houston was May of 2017. I did my “Hip-Hop Is Alive” concert there and booked all Houston acts that I either went to college with, or made friends with in my years of doing shows in Houston. One of them being Kyle Hubbard, an incredible emcee, and really good guy. He’s been tryinna bring me to Houston for a long time, the time was finally right, and he made it happen.

            Originally, I was supposed to do San Antonio too, but I got the call to come begin the process of moving back into my apartment that day, so I opted to cancel the San Antonio show so I can move back in. Though I hate cancelling, the show wasn’t gonna pay as much as I normally get aaaaannnndddd it was an 8 ½ hour trip. My wife wanted to go because her sister who we haven’t seen in like 7 yrs was lives there, and even though I had my main mane Mark Dub riding with me, it just ain’t really make sense to not adult and move back in to do that show. Bad timing, hopefully they don’t think I’m a flake and they’ll book a real nigga again.

            Update: We’re moved back in!!!

            However I didn’t cancel the Houston show. HTX is only 4 ½ hours away, a pretty easy slab. We pick up Part Man/Part Thug and head to Houston, pull up at my wife’s soror’s crib in Katy, a big ase suburb of Houston. We’re kinda late, so I hurry up & change then head on back into the city, an hour drive from where we are.

Avoid TF Out That Lava…

            Though I was a special guest, I was really there to open for my man Casey aka Full Metal for the release of his stellar LP “Avoid The Lava.” This dude can really rap, as well as Kyle and my guy Virgil Wolfe. DJ Discipline is on the tables spinnin’ real ass Hip-Hop, I realize I can’t play with these boys tonight. While I’m at the table, Mark tells me my boy David aka Dirty of Dirty & Nasty along with his wife Dara. D tells me that since that he had to come because he didn’t wanna fail the #PullUPChallange, which I found hilarious with all the respect in the world. Long story short, I had a lot of people who say they fool with me tough or wanna work with me not pull up when I came to they city last year. I told folk this year, if you don’t pull up when I’m in town, we ain’t got nothing to talk about. Well D accepted the challenge & pulled up, so we gonna build. 

            Virgil goes up first, and rhymes his ass off. Good energy, good productions, really good raps. Next up is Kyle, who is the scenes local hero, and he’s going for it too. I’m like shit, I can’t come outchea and get washed like that. Another note, my guy D-Risha is supposed to come, and I haven’t seen him in like 3 years, and I know he wants me to put on a dope show, so I can’t afford to even have a mediocre tonight.

            Kyle finishes and D-Risha comes in. You can tell this nigga ain’t been out in a minute since fatherhood/family life has him working hard af to provide the wonderful life for his daughter and fiancĂ©. He was lit af, and I mad at him one bit. I start off with “BR7MC,” and Risha is screaming “talk yo shit Black” at the top of his lungs, in the front of the stage, and it’s giving me all the like. Then I hit em with an acapella, going straight into “Stare & Whisper” adding a li’l crowd participation to it, which I normally don’t do, but it’s working tonight.

            Next is my 5 things, and into “Where I Stay,” which has a Pimp C sample on the hook, so I was hoping it would go well, and it did. More really good call & response. None better than “Hallelujah” though, a song in which I have a room of roughly 60 mostly white Texans screaming “Fuck Donald Trump” at the top of their lungs. Mark told me one guy was looking mad uncomfortable, but he ain’t wanna fight, so NDC.

            I hit em with “FreeBLKPPL” next, one of my all time favorite songs that I still haven’t figured out how to perform yet. I manage through it and before I’m bout to “Freedom Music,” they tell me I only have time for one my song. I chose “Cry Freedom” for 2 reasons:

1.      It has a Journey sample and crowd is mostly all white.
2.      On “Freedom Music” I profess the Black Woman is God, but there’s no Black women in the room (#Wypipo wins again… smh).


Lemme Find Out You Racist Against Jesus & God
“Cry Freedom” goes over well, another mostly white crowd in the South I converted with these Black ase raps. I then go to my table and sell tf out some merch. One the way to the table, a white guy stops me and says, “I’m a Christian too, I didn’t understand anything else you were saying because of our different experiences, but I support rappers who are Christians.” I tell him I believe Jesus was Black and that God is a Black woman. He looks puzzled, I dap him and tell him to come to the table, he never shows up. Lemme find out you racist against Jesus & God lol…


“After the show It’s the After Party…”- Jay Z
After Casey kills it I sell more cd’s & shirts, then head over to the big side of The Secret Group for their “90’s Dance Party” which didn’t play all 90’s music, but they played nothing but dance hits from all genres, and it was lit. Mostly Mexicans and White folks, but mane they knew every song that played, and we cut up.

3 Dope things me & Mark witnessed:

1.      A small Black dude dressed like Ini Kamoze whom we called the “Hot Stepper” who came in for dolo literally vibed with every type of MF in the club including Black’s, Whites, Gays, Latinos, Asians… That nigga was intersectional af.

2.      A tall Asian lady tryinna make her booty clap to some ignorant rap song. She failed miserably, but what she lacked in booty she made up with in heart.

3.      I had no idea Daft Punk’s “One More Time” is White People’s GOAT club banger. That bih came on and White folks lost they mind. Which led me on a journey to figure out what touches White peoples’ souls… Stay tuned for my findings.


At the end of the night we had a great time, got some fire Whataburger, and headed on back Sunday afternoon. Another successful show in the books, def felt like I shook that monkey off my back with this show.

Venue: 4.5/5 (Small, but perfect for an underground Hip-Hop show)
Crowd Response: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Merch Sales: 4/5

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