AUDIBLE HYPE IS BACK IN THE WORST WAY
Posted by Justin Boland on May 04, 2010 | 0 Comments
“It’s been a long time…and I’m glad that I left you
been snacking on fresh fruit and practicing chess moves…”
Last weekend I played a show in Carbondale, Illinois. It was fucking awesome, even the part where my ride abandoned me there while I was dead broke and had to be at work on Monday. That’s what hip hop is all about, right? It was the first gig I’ve done in almost 2 years, and it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to re-boot Audible Hype for almost 6 months now. I had a great time playing-it was an audience of college kids and I did probably the most cynical and hateful set of my career. It was a blast. I was fortunate enough to open up for Blueprint, who impressed the hell out of me: born entertainer with a sideways sense of humor. If you get the chance to catch him live, do so.
The place was packed and the bar owner, of course, told the promoter there “just wasn’t enough turnout” to justify, you know, doing what he said he would do. That was the trigger moment, for me. I realized that there were easily 500 other hip hop acts around the country that particular Friday night, getting fucked the exact same way by the exact same species of human waste. I realized that this would happen 2x per weekend, around the world, from here to Eternity, unless….unless I started writing for Audible Hype again.
As a side note, the promoter himself, Phillip Garcia, was an awesome human being. That’s rare and he deserves a shout.
Photography by Gavin Gottfried
A lot of people asked me if I’d quit hip hop, and I’d like you all to know you’re unconditionally forgiven for being so stupid. I’m generous like that. Nobody ever quits hip hop, especially not the drama queens who make a big show of “quitting hip hop.” Nah, I just took some time off, got a great job in the Real Estate industry, read about 200 books on economics and counting, and wrote my way to a steady paycheck. It was a long vacation and it was 100% worth it.
While I was gone, World Around Records kept running smoothly. For me, that sentence is on par with “So I just ran the Boston Marathon,” or “My prototype for a time machine actually worked.” The fact that I could leave the collective so completely without any hiccups, fuckups or 10 car pile-ups was a huge vindication of the machine we’ve built as a team. In fact, I think the label got even more productive during the past six months. The recipe really does work.
So today I’m restarting Audible Hype with a slightly different purpose. I will of course continue to publish interviews (already got a number lined up) and continue to analyze the careers and strategies of established hip hop acts. But my main goal for 2010 is to bring World Around from a creatively successful internet label into the “real world” of profitability and name recognition. Everybody on the team (except me) has been upping their game, expanding their fanbases, and building their business-I have no doubt that we’ve got a roster capable of going national now. In large part, Audible Hype will be here to document that process.
Open Question: WHAT MATTERS IN 2010??
Game on, right? What do you want to read about? What did I never get around to before? What’s changed since I left? What are your burning questions? LET A MAMMAL KNOW.