There is no Behind That Suit without Da Main Source. They been putting on for Montreal for this entire wave the city been riding lately. I went to the 8-year anniversary event, that took place March 17th, 2023, and now we have a new blog.
DMS has a nifty set of accolades. They throw events. They published a magazine. They created a promo service that polarizes Montreal artists all over. I even hear Feezy is the guy who first put Enima on.
The more I've learned about building ecosystems, the more I've come to admire Feezy and what he's built. Once Feezy does a Bridge the Gap episode, we can praise DMS on this blog, properly. As we all learned, I don't know my DMS trivia.
Where the artists at?
My ticket said doors open for battles at 7. It also said doors open at 9 for music. This is weird, doors open is the singular time that indicates when guests can enter the venue.
I pulled up around 7:20 PM. I didn't want to miss the battles. When I walked in everything looked nice. The stage was ready, Anu Budz was finishing up prepping the smoke machines.
I didn't see the artists. Low key I'm pulling up early to chill with the people I'm paying to see. Sucks when those folk aren't there at doors open.
The artists may have been downstairs. Had they been upstairs I wouldn't wondering why they aren't networking with the crowd. Doing their part to greet the guests who paid money to see them.
The crowd can arrive whenever they want. But at least having the 15 people on the card in the room would flush it out more. This way when people do pull up it's less empty. Go downstairs once it's not empty.
DMS appeared ready. Maybe I desire something impossible. I know some folks have occupations where coming to the show loses them money.
I make a lot of fans between doors open and showtime. To be clear some of the performers were there, most were not.
3 effing no shows for the battles
I'm now on the bus after the event. I had fun but it's hella corny that three of the five battles could not happen. Why? Three humans who made a commitment, one people like myself put money into supporting, chose not to not honour their word.
I did shows on cold medicine when I "should have" stayed home. Maybe that's dumb and sick people should stay home. I can only tell you how I treat life and what makes sense to me.
To be clear this is not targeted Feezy or anyone at DMS. This is the lack of professionalism, from artists, that makes the regular citizens of Montreal not care.
I got to be part of the battle. I was the fake Spook One so Basics could at least deliver the verse he prepared. I sent Basics this section ahead of time, he wanted to make it clear he had 3 whole verses prepared, for the record and all. If y'all give Basics 1500$ word is, he may drop those verses.
None of the battle rap people were willing to get involved as a fake Spook One. Way I see it I spent 20$ for THAT battle. May as well have at least one verse go down.
Krome and Trevy both clearly wasted their time preparing. I can't speak for what happened with the others, but it was disappointing they disrespected us, the fans who paid, like that.
French battles and subtitles
If Da Main Source drops the French battles with subtitles, I'll be able to follow. Wink wink, Feezy please make that happen. The thing is there were no subtitles. My opinion on non English battles is pointless. The Sage is happy to tear you down a review, pay him to pull up.
The Witness vs Skywakka battle was cool. I was chopping it up with Anu Budz behind the stage, quietly. No one was asking for a "Hold It Down".
Neither of us could really follow the bars. When I read the bars as they are spit, I can focus and it's cool. Too much is happening for me to follow live relying on my ears. Legault did designate me a historic anglo after all, doing my best.
Witness has given me nothing but love so I was biased in his favour. The Houdini vs Alien battle also was fun to watch without understanding. I think the judges 3-0'd it for Houdini.
Everything looked like a battle. Felt like a battle. People were reacting to the bars. Jeffrey Lygitsakos, you really need to get him to your battles. Invest in your writers and watch the ecosystem start to pop off more.
Unless it's a compliment battle, I can't see myself battling. But I do want to go stand on the side of the stage and hype up people. I promise I won't be like Basics and constantly stank face bars against you.
Shoutout the music acts
All the artists who were doing music pulled up. That's lit. I can't say how many pulled up early or not but they all did really well.
I know music is different. I can perform Lose Weight any day of the week. My sets are prepared and rehearsed. This is what we do:
Shoutout Smoking Ink & Natasha Marie for babysitting my bag. I knew where it was at. But they good peoples.
Battle rap is a high effort endeavour for the one moment. Maybe you could argue it's easier for the music side. To me they are different.
Battle rap reminds me of sports. The skill is the technique. The writing is operating at this level where you literally require an education to follow it.
By contrast with songs, the goal is to make people sing the songs. Not the people who can remember bars and finish them after hearing them once. No, we drunk people who are trying to get laid to remember our words. Super different energies.
Either way, I think people agree to stuff knowing what they are getting into. This is again me whining about how 3 battle rappers not coming. It's my blog and I will whine if I want to.
But the fact that all the music acts pulled up, and they my peers, I have to give them love.
The dancing begins
I am not sure the order everyone performed in. Still, Syla did his thing. I liked his set and energy. He even hit me up during sound check to make sure he was crispy.
You can tell he takes his craft serious. He performed a great group of songs that had the crowd going extra hard. I enjoyed his music and would recommend pulling up when his name is on a flyer.
Fresh'Era was impressive. That Onlyfans joint slaps as hard live as it does on record. He performs good music that makes people want to dance. He's also clever and brings a lot of skill to what he does. Good performer.
My pic of him was super trash. My bad.
The Bur2times set was special. She knows how to move on stage with sheer boss energy while performing flawlessly. She knows exactly what she is doing. Her music is catchy and, as with the others, makes people want to move. I can't wait to see her perform again.
I love to dance at this stuff, that matters to me. My bias is for what my bias is.
The vibes kept coming
Lil Deezy had a super fun performance. Upbeat songs that made me do my wannabe sturdy. At one point he asked if we were done with the drill sound, I said no. Evidently my opinion didn't matter, nor should it, in that moment. He moved onto a more classic sound.
Klee 013 brought the show to a new level. There was posse. There were strippers. It was a vibe. Klee, unlike me, knows what to do when girls are on stage. He told me after he had props he did not use. His music is good, stage presence proper. I liked it a lot.
I want to emphasize that if there was a standout set it was the Klee one. I don't think I was aware of him before today. Seeing what he did turned me into a big fan of his live show. Now I want to check the music for reals after seeing how much he cares.
APXO came next. I very much like his music and energy on stage. I saw him the Friday before as we both opened for Paul Wall. He did a great set. He owned the stage, commanded the crowd and showed me again how good he is. His music connected well with the audience.
Why do artists gotta pull their crowd early?
Unfortunately for APXO, by now all the battle rap fans were gonesos. I find that particularly corny of them. I have seen it happen at all 3 DMS events I've been to.
My criticism is for the battlers themselves who are part of the event. I follow a rule, if I'm on a card, I will pull up early and be there until the event is done. There are obviously exceptions to this, but anyone who doubts this can literally just ask about me.
When the battler dips, they take all their people with them. All the music cats brought their audiences to watch your battles. Then the people start leaving before the show is done.
To be fair some of the musical acts did the same thing. I can say I've seen it happen with the battle rap folk at all three DMS events.
Watch for it at the next one. If we want to see DMS pop off, it will help the brand if the battle rap folk made more of an effort to support the musical side.
The event was done by like 12:30. This didn't go super late. The metros were still open.
DejaFresh was fresh Af
Once upon a time we were all children. Most of us go to some school or another. DejaFresh and I both when to the same primary school.
We were classmates. Then went on to have drastically different lives. Yet, we both hit the Belmont stage this week. Funny how life works.
His crew was like, "who in the fuck is this guy?". I do get that a lot. However people will see more and more of me and get used to it.
There were a lot of MILFs feeling his music extra hard. Of all the sets Deja, his homie, and dude from Jamaica brought the most aphrodisiac music. The Jamaican dude just had to talk and the girls were reacting.
Deja hits multiple styles across his set. From island sounds to drill music we get a plethora of stuff that makes you feel compelled to turn up. Okay, me, it made me feel compelled.
Some of y'all dudes need to watch some YouTube dance tutorials and be less boring at these shows.
DejaFresh is one of them dudes that I never hear us talk about, but actually makes bigger moves than most of us. Was great finally seeing the man perform live.
I danced, I networked, I took the bus home
I saw FunkLo and was like what's the move. The options were Blue Dog to see what's up with their St. Patrick's Day party or to go home. He said it was an easy choice.
FunkLo was right. I got on the 51, which arrived pretty much as I got to the bus stop. Shoutout Rico Blox for being my walk up the street buddy.
I used the bus ride to start this blog. I wanted to capture the passion of the moment and I'm supposed to go to MakeWay today with JS #NOREGARD, KDIITimes and Chris Chrome.
I had a lot of fun at the DMS event. I will be at the next one.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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