Thoughts on upcoming Adelaide gig

How do I remember all these words? I don't know. I'm like an actor in a stage musical reciting 40 mins of densely packed, physically demanding monologue. Maybe I should have been in stage musicals? Instead I'm in hiphop. That's okay. That's good..

We have a little gig coming up James and I as the mysterious, ambiguous Deep Crossing. But this isn't your usual down the road type affair, for this gig the both of us are travelling back to the place where it all began, our home city of Adelaide.

This has taken considerably more cost (principally in air fare) and preparation than gigs closer to (our current) homes. And there's a real drive in the both of us to make this shit fucking happen for real. We have about 3 untried tunes, about 13 total for this gig (we have more in the bag). Really hot ones. The song writing has gone from more loosely connected poem verses (e.g. Streets Move Gently), to more chorus centred, concept driven tunes (Motivate - a new one, come to the gig and see).

With my rap writing I seem to continually push the limits of what I can physical do in terms of breath control. My new third verse on Deep Inside finishes on about 7 bars of triplets. It pushes my breathing to the limit. Previously tricky breath control tunes are rendered easy! I try to rap with the ipod while I walk the dog, it increases the demand on my breathing as I rap and walk up hills.. fuckin ay. There goes Mr Emery with his little dog, muttering.. that fine line between eccentric and crazy.

But going back to the difference between musical theatre and hip hop. I recently watched The Art of Rap, at James's encouragement (thanks James), which for me was at once thoroughly inspiring, yet kind of demoralising at the same time. Ice T and the grand masters of rap come back to a familiar theme throughout the movie. "What is the difference between a rapper, and an emcee?", T asks.

To summarise. A rapper is one who rhymes words together, kinda like what I do. An emcee can "move a crowd", s/he commands the attention of the room. So for me, I'm trying to get these rhymes deep in my body so they can just be secondary to my challenge of scaring the fuck out of people.. hiphop is self creation. The audience is my canvass.

Watch out Adelaide.

The gig's fb invite here check it