Listening to rumors is never a good idea. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This little bit of life advice is especially true when it comes to celebrity appearances. Upon word that OutKast's Big Boi -- the less sartorially experimental but equally talented yin to André 3000's yang -- would be performing at the Jones Pool Friday night, I headed over to the rooftop lounge giddy with excitement.
"Which songs from his long-awaited solo album, Sir Lucious Left Foot, would he perform?" I wondered, stepping into a packed elevator. "Would it be the effervescent and P-Funk inflected single 'Shutterbug'?" I pondered as I waited in a line that stretched outside and onto the lounge's rooftop lawn.
Sadly, dear reader, I have no idea. By 1:20 a.m., after waiting for a
little over three hours, I headed home, without seeing hide nor hair of
the rapper. (I did however see someone vom in their wicker recliner, as well as heightened security due to a Cordish brother's presence).
The next day I heard grumblings that Big Boi didn't perform at all, instead favoring the company of a bevy of beautiful women while getting wasted in a cabana. However commenter "bryan" said that Big Boi did come out and "performed literally for 5
minutes at the very end of the night. pretty shitty. but i got to meet
him and get a picture so it was worth
it."
Really? All I got was this tweet.
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Actually DJ Just is only partially correct. To start off, Big Boi was fully paid in advance. If you know anything about booking music artists, then you know that the artist has to be fully paid before they will even set foot in a venue. DJ Just was told by the cordish guy not to play hip hop music because he didn't want very many "urban" people there. The promoters did their part in full. They even worked at The Jones the entire day to hang lights and video screens to give the place the look that it did. The Jones had the responsibility of testing & providing a minimum of 3 mics for Big Boi to perform. They also had the responsibility of providing specific beverages for Big Bois cabana. The mics were not tested, nor had any way to be connected to DJ Just mixer. The promoters worked hard for over 2 hours behind the DJ to try & come up with a solution. Again this was The Jones equipment & their job to assure that the mics worked. The manager at The Jones had to send someone to the store to get the beverages for Big Boi. All of this was supposed to be done well before the day of the show. Big Boi would not perform with one mic because there is more than one person on stage at a time. The promoter finally got one of the mics to work only. At this point Big Boi would have to pass one mic around to his stage mates which would make them look silly. After so long, still with no assistance from The Jones management or staff, the promoter was finally able to convince Big Boi to at least get on stage & sing over 2 songs by him self at 1:45am. The equipment issue is the fault of The Jones. The beverage issue is the fault of The Jones. The non hip hop music is the fault of the cordish guy. And oh yeah, the long wait in line at the entrance as well as the hundreds of people being told that if they did not purchase a ticket in advance, they could not purchase one at the door and had to leave. This was the cordish guy too. This all started happening before the doors even opened & went on throughout the night. It was said that the cordish guy simply didn't want many "urban" people there. Much respect to DJ Just, the promoters, & most of the Jones staff. The fault of what happened lies with the upper management & the cordish guy. So "Mr. Cordish Guy", what does "urban people" really mean? These are the facts!
I don't remember the name of the "promotion company" or the names of the 2 guys who run it. I had just met them.
I also want to defend the Jones staff because they are all awesome and I play whatever I want there. This situation I felt kinda made them look bad. Guaranteed if this had been a Jones deal, it would've gone off smoothly and proper.
DJ JUST, who were the promoters? I want to make sure to avoid their mess in the future.
I don't care what anyone really thinks about my djing skills/song selection, but I was asked to keep it generic, popish & dancey with the rap shit once i was allowed to even go there.
Cordish guy being there was not planned and the house music thing was his deal.
Screw Cordish (did they learn nothing from the Jazzy Jeff debacle?). Screw these know-nothing wannabe greasy promoters who spread all this bullshit hype before they figure out how to put on a show and pay people. It happens all the time. My wife was never paid for a show she performed in at Mosaic last year for another bullshit "magazine launch".
It's just another case of caveat emptor: if the show doesn't sound legit, there's a good chance you're going to be disappointed at the end. And this one was basically surrounded by red flags.
Just, thanks for clearing up the Big Boi situation. Deep down I was hoping the mess wasn't all his creation, and to hear your take in detail helps a lot.
my bad man, didn't know you were put in that spot
i'll try to catch you another time
For the record,I hated all but about 3 songs I played that night, so I actually agree with you about my song selection. I'm an old man who grew up DJing in the Golden Era playing real records at house party's and raves, not going to clubs to hear "hip hop", but I have been in the KC club/bar scene since '96.
I don't care what anyone really thinks about my djing skills/song selection, but I was asked to keep it generic, popish & dancey with the rap shit once i was allowed to even go there. What's even funnier is that when DJ Swift (OutKast's DJ) went on around 1:15 (and again after Big Boi "performed") he played about 15 song's I had already just played. I was planning on doing me and playing real hip hop and the promoters expected me to or they would've never chose me. Cordish guy being there was not planned and the house music thing was his deal. U:Move was throwing a party from 5-9 before I got there and I continued the vibe til around 10 because it felt proper since nobody had left from the party and it was early nobody was really there yet for the show. Once I was ready to change the music I was told not to. Wack. It made me look so fucking stupid and I was more stressed than I had ever been in my life. Mad negative vibes. I wish I could've just left.
The 2 outside promoters didn't have all of Big Boi's money and that's why you got a short "performance". He went on so late because they rented 6 wireless mics and transmitters but no mixing board. Genius. They didn't know what to do and had the light guy, of all people, trying to figure it out for 2 hours and during this time they were surrounding the dj booth, totally blocking almost every move i tried to make by trying to look at the back of my mixer because they refused to believe that was only 1 mic input. I guess Big Boi would'nt go on until they had at least 2 mics. If the cordish guy wasn't there, and if the outside promoters would've had their shit together, shit would've been epic. It was far, far from it on many levels. I did get to hang out with Big Boi afterward, got him to sign my "Get Up, Get Out" 12" and had a very cool conversation with him.
As far as the hip hop "legend" thing, I wouldn't say that but you can ask around about me. Your "magazine/paper" is the one that always nominates me "best hip hop DJ" or votes me best club DJ. I never ask for it nor do I give a shit and never have. If anybody that worked there knew a thing about hip hop in KC in the first place, Joc Max would be nominated every year.
well, whoever was DJ'ing did not play any hiphop before midnight
I don't doubt his abilities (the mixing sounded fine), the song selection however was avg at best (if he's a so-called hip hop legend in KC, that just speaks to the low standards of hiphop in KC) : \
You are F'ing kidding right? This was a complete sham outside job by yet another crappy "promoter" trying to boost the name recognition of their sorry excuse for a magazine. True, it was a bad look for everyone but do not sit there and lay the blame on P&L because this entire event was the fault of the morons that put the event on in the first place. Secondly "mndr" I'm going to assume you can't be older than 22 because if you were you would know DJ Just is a hip-hop legend in KC. Just because he wasn't playing "Stanky Leg" doesn't mean you have any place to doubt his ability. People are so quick to blame the venues and their staff but maybe, just maybe you looked to see who's name was plastered all over the place.
What did you expect? Anyone with a brain could tell P&L was paying him to hang out and increase the status of downtown, not perform.
He showed up around 10:30/11, chilled in his cabana until 2 am, then came out to perform 1/2 of "Kryptonite" and all (half-heartedly) of "Shutterbug".
Pretty disappointing overall (though the dance/club-heavy selections of the Jones DJ were even more so ... didn't he realize the place was packed w/ hiphop fans???)
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