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Dec

Hip-Hop, Music News, New Music, Nightlife

DC People: Lupe Fiasco, Flex Matthews, Asheru

Asheru - Boondock’s Theme
Flex Matthews - For Yourself

This is downright crazy. Lupe Fisaco is finally doing a proper show in DC at the 9:30 club, and he has local MC’s Flex Matthews and Asheru taking the stage as openers. Since a lot of our readers aren’t from DC, I take it of you haven’t heard of Flex, but Asheru recorded that little known theme song for The Boondocks on Cartoon Network. (”I am the stone that the builder refused…” and all that jazz.)

Something like this makes me dig Lupe even more. The dude is supporting local hip-hop acts. Would Jay-Z do this? Or Jeezy? I doubt it. The reason I’m making such a fuss about this is that this is one of the suggestions that I was going to propose at the local music summit that I’m planning for May: Have local artists open for national touring acts.

Its an easy idea, but its not often practiced in DC, which is sad, because although we’re overshadowed by Baltimore, Philly, and of course, NYC, this city has a long and storied roster of hip-hop. And lets not get started about go-go…

For the record, I’m gonna be at 9:30. Although I hate going to hip-hop shows there, I have to support Lupe and the “scene.” Let me know if you’re rollin’ through.

Lupe Fiasco with Asheru and Flex Matthews
9:30 Club
815 V St. NW
Washington, DC
Metro: Green Line - U Street/Cardozo
Tickets.com | Tel:800-955-5566

On an unrelated note, the owners of the 9:30 club are worried that the club might close because the city just signed a letter of intent for the (Clear Channel owned) House of Blues to open downtown. That would just be messed up.

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10 Comments

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Browngirl on December 5th, 2006 8:18 pm

NO! THEY CAN’T CLOSE 9:30 CLUB! WTF IS HAPPENING TO DC???

anon on December 5th, 2006 9:32 pm

it is a low down shame that the city and mayor williams sold out a local independent institution like 9:30 for the corporate interests of clear channel. i for one will boycott HOB when it opens.

mrkamoji on December 6th, 2006 11:22 am

Stone, Its more on the promoter to chose who opens not the artist. I mean a head lining artist usually travels with an opening act, but after that its up to the promoter to set up local and/or other opening acts. Well thats the way it has worked for all the shows I have put together.

Stone on December 6th, 2006 12:55 pm

Browngirl/anon

Yes, they can close 9:30 club. They closed CBGB’s in NY and that place has a hell of a lot more history than 9:30.

And don’t get me started on the complexities of this city. Its f’ed up that the city is giving Clear Channel a tax break to force out 9:30 club (CC forbids artists in their contracts to play competing venues), but unfortunately, most people in this city would be for it and i’m not surprised.

kamoji - Good point. I wasn’t able to get to the show, so I don’t know if this was handled by a Local promoter or not. It depends at the 9:30 club. Most major acts already have their openers pre-booked, and they never do local artists.

dcfist on December 6th, 2006 1:01 pm

the promoter set up the local acts.

ash and the els killed it.

flex kind of ethered himself.

Miss Hipstah on December 6th, 2006 3:49 pm

Stone, MN8 set up the show. He’s basically the promoter who has the entire monopoly on the DC hip hop/r&b/soul scene.

You should know this!

Stone on December 6th, 2006 4:18 pm

MN8 set this up??? I got nothing from them about this. Weird.

And yes, I’m out of it. I had to work so I missed the show entirely.

dcfist - how did Lupe do?????

dcfist on December 6th, 2006 5:07 pm

lupe was very very good. came out with a lot of energy. he did 6 songs before he touched anything from Food and Liquour. He’s got a deep catalog. Very good presence, he can rhyme his ass off. Good interaction with the crowd. A little too cocky for a Muslim if you ask me. At one point he started rattling off all his accomplishments, magazine covers, etc. He needed to say Al-Humdullah a little more often…

Asherus set was incredible.

Flex needs better beats.

dcfist on December 6th, 2006 5:07 pm

mn8 sucks at promoting. sometimes. but this shit was PACKED. 930 shows promote themselves.

ray on December 7th, 2006 9:36 pm

yo don’t get that shit twisted with CBGBs. The reason why they closed down is because they owed a huge amount of back rent.

This is an entirely different issue.

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