Penzance & Aachen

Okay remember when I said my throat was giving out? Well it turns out my entire upper respiratory has a problem with me right now and I have a wretched cough as well as cold symptoms. This plus the fact that my battery died and we were in transit for like 30 hours made updating hard so this blog is 2 for the price of one.

Penzance was where my sickness set in. It was still as scenic as ever and while the fish n chips spot we wanted wasnt open we settled for another place where I got a huge plate of whitehead fish and dubbed the term “acoustic folk dubstep” with my new friend and bandmate Robyn.

This was out last date with Souls of Mischief (who also had a rough travel day) so it was just like a big hang in the green room complete with photo tips from Phesto, stories from Tajai and Patron with Opio. I didn’t have any liquor tho because I was sick. Well I did have a bit of whiskey but it’s good for your throat right? The show was a madhouse. They like hip hop but they dance to it which never ever happens in the US. People were rushing the stage and getting thrown out all around me while I just kinda rapped in slow motion cus my body was shutting down.

As soon as the show ended it was off to Aachen which was a car-airplane-car ride away and while that may not sound so bad trust me I’m sure you can think of other ways to spend 2am – 5pm especially when you’re sick. As I type this from my hotel bed that I’m clinging to do dear life until check out I can say that it was a pretty rough ride.

Aachen was all about wi fi and food. We hadn’t had neither of which properly in almost days so while yes I’m sick the venue had both of those things so I showered and muscled my way to soundcheck. The show was cool but man they can still smoke in venues here and it was murder. I remember a long time ago the Roots came to Cincinnati and I was on the side of the stage smoking a cigarette. If I remember correctly Riq was like ‘whoever smokin in here put that shit out I’m sick already and you ain’t helping’ into the mic which was embarrassing but effective. Last night that wouldnt have worked because of the language barrier so I died a very long slow death and am suffering for it now. To the point where on the solo songs we’d take turns leaving the stage for air. It was bad.

Tonight we go to Darmstadt and I’d imagine they can smoke there too. Man, hip hop is trying to kill me.

Sidebar:

the local brand of Thera-flu that I bought tastes so gross. Like cigarettes and cough drops.

The fact that Von hasn’t tried to kill me yet based on my being awake dumb early sneezing hacking and dying is testament to the strength of our crew because if I die sales go through the roof haha

*that picture is from Manchester btw

London

Today was our off day and we acted accordingly. Not much going on on a Wednesday night anyway do we just did some normal stuff and hung out around our hotel. Had a decent meal and went to a mall. Real touristy and extra laid back. This is probably a boring update because off days are boring if you don’t have friends in the city. Like you are constantly moving and running so the one off day you have is basically spent doing the total opposite of that.

I went to a Starbucks and got on wi fi and hung out a bit on our roof since our room was on the top floor. Von bought a scarf that he can’t wear for fear of football whooligans roughing him up and I got my daughter a phone booth coin purse. Good times lol

We are headed out to Manchester now and I’m pretty excited about being there so it should be fun lets just hope that all wi-fi isnt lost afterwards I’ll holler back regardless.

Day 5

Ipswich

We just spent 20 minutes searching for a lost passport which was pretty terrifying. Luckily we found it and now we are off to eat to eat at a spot called Nando’s that is supposed to be amazing.

The stage has been therapeutic for several reasons that I’m not too sure I should go into right now. It’s like I wrote these songs in the past so that I could fully appreciate them in the future. Sure they meant something to me at the time I wrote them but there are moments in life where some of the messages resonate louder than ever. In Norwich I kinda blacked out on stage, I don’t remember much about the show at all and we got a sold out house tonight to boot so the energy in the room should be nice.

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Yeah therapy didn’t go so well tonight. The stage wasn’t well ventilated at all and I immediately overheated. When you combine that with real world problems creeping in it makes it hard to focus. I tried to leave it all on stage to tonight but it seems like it just got on stage with me and stood there next to me. It definitely threw me off big time tonight.

Other than that though Ipswich is cool as usual. We watched a few movies and chilled online for a while. I also saw the rock the bells video and it’s looking great.

After the show we hung out upstairs and a few of us got new tattoos from one of the dude who lives in the house. He promised to let us tattoo him in return but I had knocked out by the time he finished the last one.

We are on the way to London for our day off which should be cool because I’ve never been there long enough to just hang out.

*If you haven’t noticed yet the … means time has elapsed

Norwich pronounced ‘nahr-ich’

Ryanair is the fucking chinabus of the airlines. Long story short we came extremely close to missing our flight, incurring a 110€ fee for a new flight and possibly a 50€ fee for a checked bag. Now gone head and currency convert that then come back and tell me how FML that would have been, all because we didn’t read the fine print regarding US customers. Oh and did I mention that we were hours early for our flight? LULZ

Fortunately we made our flight though and while their customer service absolutely sucked our original flights didn’t go to waste.

For what its worth i guess running top speed through Dublin’s airport did serve as excellent cardio though.

I haven’t been to sleep since I woke up to the bodega video shoot I was telling you about yesterday and not only is the sun up but so is my heart rate is from all that running. Imma close my eyes for for a second and try to calm down. The silver lining is that we have loads of time to kill before tonight’s show.

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And we killed that time squaring away a botched van reservation then finding a hotel. The actual silver lining was that they didn’t have enough double rooms so they just have me and Von our own single rooms.

The show was great. Packed house and they all were super involved. It all sort of becomes a blur at some point and I feel like last night was that point. We were with souls of mischief last night and we gonna be rocking with them again for 2 more shows. Should be a great time.

I guess I need to shake this hangover off and get ready for the next city.

Remember yesterday when I said I woke up and it was call time? Well somewhere between waking up, repurposing my undergarments and leaving I helped the Bodega Brovas shoot a video which I also appeared in.

We are now on our way to Cork and I just got schooled on gypsys. Those dudes are fucking hardcore. I hope I dont run into them out here. I’m excited to see Cork though.

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We spent the day walking around Cork only to eat at McDonalds which breaks the local flava rule but whatever, I spent under 5 € so I’m good.

The show itself was amazing and the crowd definitely was glad to have us. I really have been enjoying interacting with the fans on this trip and they seem to just as excited to see us. That’s been the coolest part.

We didn’t go to the Jameson factory which hurts my alcoholic heart but I have had more than enough pints and shots to make up for it. The pavilion staff showed so much love man, it was awesome.

We left the show to go straight to the airport so that we could make our 6am flight to Norwich and link up with Souls Of Mischief. Ireland definitely set a high standard for this run and that’s no bullshit at all.

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There is some very bad music on Irish radio. Von dubbed it Romano wave cus the guy singing sounded like ray Romano. We haven’t slept and delirium is setting in. Probably wont sleep until we get to Norwich at 9am. This airport is crazy, shits like a bus terminal without the rats.

Lemme finish repacking and board this flight.

Its actually Day 3 in real life but for this blog it’s day 2.

I still haven’t figured out how to do this in a linear fashion but life ain’t linear and it seems to just jump out at you however it pleases so I guess these entries shall follow suit.

I keep almost getting hit by cars. The other day it was a car and bus combo that almost took me out. This reversed side of the road shit is hard to get used to especially when the drivers are so aggressive.

I’m trying very hard not to spend all my money on candy. That may sound silly but word to caramilk it’s a lot harder than you think.

It’s still weird to walk into a venue and see my face plastered on the walls an even weirder in another country. I couldn’t imagine being on a billboard, that’s probably hella trippy.

Even crazier seeing people who show up because of that flier and connect with you. Like my problems and random thoughts help people get through their day. That’s fucking weird, especially when you haven’t figured much out besides how to rhyme words on beat in your own way.

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Ok just woke up and it’s call time. I just used a sock for a washcloth and tore the elastic off my boxers to form a makeshift belt because I left my belt in Brooklyn.

The show itself went well and it turned into some huge dance party after. The shit felt like Brooklyn for a hot second. As for us, we came home and went to sleep before the party ended hahah.

Dublin, Ireland

Woke up early to shower and went to the local store for coffee and wi fi. Internet is my lifeblood and I can’t live without it (bloglife) so I gotta get a signal or else.

The first show was last night and the crowd was dope. Had a few hard core fans on the house and they were really cool folks. I like talking to fans when it’s not a crowded venue because the interaction feels more human. Like we both just there chillin with no pressure. The sound at the venue was amazing too and from what I hear Ali shaheed agrees.

The toilet in this hotel has a pump flush which is a new one by me. Random I know. All in all it’s off to a good start and I’m having a pretty good time. I’m especially looking forward to seeing the Jameson factory.

Okay gotta go make the van call time before i get left. Follow me on instagram to get photo updates.

*I didn’t think to do this tour log on day 1 so unfortunately you don’t get to hear about my 6 hr flight with free booze or my 9 hr layover in Frankfurt. Maybe later…