The wheel of fortune is wild. One day you are clueless and fumbling about. The next thing you know you are clueless and fumbling about eating chicken wings at The Green Room.
This is above the restaurant next to the store. Jeru the Damaja is looking at Good Friday Ent. Man like, is he (me) good? Good Friday Man says yes, he’s chill.
Jeru then says we look like each other. He is a true performer, jokes as ready as a comic. I forgot to say it yesterday, but Jeru even hit the tables and mixed a few songs during his Belmont set. I've never seen an artist perform back-to-back like this before. I was excited.
Finding a ride
The car people love to tell me about the freedom to get up and go. A car is not necessary for me in Montreal, for the most part, whatever the car people say. With the 10-12K I save a year not having a car, I can Uber.
Kanasatake however, is one of those places I need a ride to get to.
Good Friday Man was like pull up and we'll have a good night. Unfortunately for me, Jeru had a friend with him and there was no space in the whip.
I spent a chunk of the day kind of stressed and hungover. Uncertainty is not my favourite thing. Thankfully Will E. Skandalz said he'd be my last resort.
Spoilers, I rode with Will E. and his man.
I feel pretty lucky. It's been just under a year since that first CY show we all did. It feels like we have come so far.
Now I'm stressing on trying to get to meet and greet events. Ones where I opened for the artist the day before. It's pretty cool and I am counting my blessings.
I also bought a DMS ticket
Basics has been setting a standard lately for promo. Feezy, if you read this, dude SOLD me on this event.
It will be my 4th ever battle event. My third DMS one. I hope they start using some Google Lens thing to put translations on the stage with the projector.
I'm excited to dance. The music acts always are my favourite part. The battles and music tend to draw different crowds to a DMS event. It's super nifty to look at from a marketing PRSPCTV.
Back to our scheduled programming.
The Green Room is casino level dopamine
The drive up was uneventful. We get to The Green Room and Will E. has a VIP parking spot waiting for him. It's good to get out and stretch my old man legs.
The Green Room makes it clear that you can't take pics or videos of what is going on inside. I grabbed a few related to the event but that’s it.
Before you get inside there is music playing. Every time I've been it's Hip Hop. In the summer there is a cool outside smoking lounge area.
You walk inside and see a long counter. Think of a cannabis related product. You will find it there. The sheer volume of options can make a trip to The Green Room take over an hour if you are a stop and smell it all kind of person.
The lighting and ambiance are perfect. This is not simply a store; you feel invited to take your time. There are tons of employees there to answer any question you may have.
They have a bakery where goods are baked and sold, infused of course. There are some video lottery terminals, our driver homie put in 5$ and came out with 40$. That never happens to me, ever.
I lost 4$ trying to win 100$ with the claw machine. I knew it was a pipe dream. But when in The Green Room waiting for the Jeru the Damaja show, play the claw machine.
If going to purchase the product is not really enough motivation to go, these concerts add a lot to make this trip worth it.
Less loosey more floaty
The thing about Jeru's performance at Belmont is I was too drunk to properly remember it. I had a great time. I remember his energy and these flashes and moments of things he'd said between songs. I only know a couple of his joints well enough to drunkenly cling to.
While I respect and admire the Golden Era, I am less familiar with that music than you would think. We started a podcast called The "Classic" Quest in 2017 to explore Hip Hop properly. At that point we were contributing to the scene, but ignorant. No one wanted to become a vulture, so we learned.
The Green Room let's you green in the room. At least during concert time. I don't recall what the smoking policy is for regular business.
This has a crazy impact on your crowd. They don't go outside at all.
Most shows have people going outside to smoke for significant chunks of the show. Great networking transpires with the smokers. You do miss a lot of the show.
Any time I've been at a show where people can smoke weed inside, The crowd stayed in. The ciggy people can run those quick, joints take time.
I have a pretty high tolerance. Sometimes when the venue is being liberal with making the crowd float, I go hard enough to order Chicken Big Macs when I get home, true story.
Rickey D & The Green Room put on a show
I was there during setup, so I overheard them setting up. They took real care and consideration to make sure the audience would have a good time.
There was a container full of joints. We're talking like 500 plus joints pre-rolled ready to go. Throughout the night, Will E. Skandalz and various Green Room folk would just give them out. I ended up with like 11 of them by the end of the night.
I watched Rozwel try and say no. The dude basically said fuck you, you're taking the joints, but politely. Rozwel seemed like he wanted to say no bueno, but it was si, muy bueno. I was glad Rozwel pulled up, more fun when the team there.
The stage area is small, intimate, and nice. You are going to get an up, close and personal performance. Belmont is more of your traditional concert, Green Room is where the artist's spit may land on your face, in a good way.
We spend a lot of time focusing on traditional venues. Rickey D & The Green Room have shown me how a space like this could work. Because seeing it on a regular day, I wouldn’t have pictured a show there.
Big tip, use TVs to project the stage around the room.
Going upstairs with the big boys
Sometimes I act shy and meek. It's not what people expect because we always try and project strength online. When it comes to social lives and networking, this is all a work in progress for me.
The nice lady from Green Room and I were chopping it up. I asked if most of the artists were as enthusiastic as Jeru was. He sincerely was chopping it up asking questions about the product and being jovial. Big charisma packed into a man with a fly hat.
The nice lady was like, no. Jeru is special. Then the talk shifted to a closed area where Jeru could chill. Jeru clearly was down to stay and mingle but they did need a spot to drop a bag.
The... VIP posse for lack of a better term, proceeds to leave. The nice lady could tell I was being a shy fucker. She was like you want to go? I said yeahhhhh.
Then she brought me with them and that was cool. Honestly, if the nice lady wasn't there, I would have been scolded later by Good Friday Man for not coming with him.
Learning lessons one day at a time.
I was hungry, literally
The upstairs we went to was above the restaurant next to Green Room. I was already lustily looking at the restaurant. I was hungry AF.
I am standing there, clearly looking goofier than I meant to. I know one day this kind of thing becomes common place. The novelty of everything is still overwhelming for me.
I don't want to intrude on anyone. I'm not sure who to talk to. Then they bring up chicken wings and various other delicious stoner heaven delights.
Inevitably I start chopping it up with Good Friday Man. Then Will E. Skandalz pulls up, grabs a plate of chicken wings and becomes my hero. I really enjoyed those wings. They get you high and got the wings next door.
It was incredible to watch how good they took care of Jeru. Made sure he had food and anything else he needed. Jeru is super humble and was like no, I'm okay.
They brought more food anyway.
This was a surreal moment. I know that if I play my role, I will have more of these moments. It took 10.5 years but here I am making my own memories comparable to the ones people have shared with me on my show.
It's showtime
DJ Crowd was doing his thing entertaining the folk while I was upstairs eating the chicken wings. I saw DJ Crowd do his thing at a club the other night. He been around the scene for a hot minute doing it big.
I end up next to Horg Man in the audience. It's wild how you can open for a guy on March 4th and then on March 15th be right next to him. It's not that wild, I just wanted to plug that.
Jeru comes on and just owns the stage. I learned a lot seeing him perform, without booze. He is such a professional. The more I witness greatness the more I can try and emulate it.
Seeing him do his thing back-to-back was a vibe. As he performed each joint or said certain things it would trigger memories to the night before. This man understands how to work every group of people he is in front of.
I had fun, so did the people. It sounded good. Given the wireless mics in theory Jeru could have walked all over. During sound check we could hear Will E., but not see him.
Post show chit chats
Once the performance was over people started to migrate out. There was the question of who would drive me back, Will E. Skandalz made that happen.
I was talking with someone about the logistics of shuttle services to Kanasatake. Unfortunately, a bus presents a problem. While most people won't surpass the legal limit of 30 grams individually. A large gathering is probably going to blow past 150 grams.
If the feds watch a bus leave the weed store, they kind of have probable cause as I understand it.
It would be interesting to solve the travel issue. There is a lot of opportunity to curate experiences like this. Lot of not car people got bread stills.
Also, I would not want to be designated driver at the get super high event. The Green Room offers a lot it seems. And they helped bring multiple artists to our part of the world. Kudos to them and Rickey D for a great night.
Knowing in advance I may just rent a whip
A lot of my ride problems were due to the last-minute nature of the invite. Because I don't spend 12K a year keeping a car, I can always rent one if I know in advance.
I legit may cycle to the DMS event if the weather keeps up this beautiful trend towards spring. It may slap us again with snow. For now, we hope.
I feel very inspired and grateful for the way the last few days of played out. Now I have this fat stack of Smif-N-Wessun tickets to distribute, and my own pack to sell.
Looking forward to seeing you all at future stuff. Who knows, maybe I write about you too.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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