Hustled hard this weekend in Vegas.
Originally, the plan was to go to the MySpace Secret Show featuring E-40, Mike Jones, and Lil’ Scrappy, stick around for a minute, and drive home. Instead, here’s what went down.
Made it to Vegas from LA in 5 hours with the homeboy J.Bandler, just in time for the E-40, Lil Scrappy, Mike Jones show at the University Theatre. Much thanks to Jeremy at
Day19 for the passes, we got into the show, which was swarming with Warner Bros reps (seriously WBR, we see you.) At the front table, WBR street teamers were handing out “label cleared” DJ Smallz produced Lil’ Flip mixtapes (hmmmm), which I later found out were terrible on the ears.
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Mike Jones came up on stage and introduced Lil’ Scrappy, who got up on stage and spit nothing but ZZZZZZZZs (even Mike Jones looked bored.) Scrap and his crew left the stage and Mike Jones (who?) stepped up and performed a couple of songs, old and new. After a minute, Mr. Jones stepped off and then we waited. E-40 was running late, so we sat outside with Turf Talk (E-40’s cousin and protégé) and his Hyphy dancers. There, I met some WBR Urban rep and we talked about the mixtape game and DJ Drama and she admitted Drama’s strong influence in T.I. and Young Jeezy’s success for Warner Brothers, but shrugged off his arrest for piracy (the hypocrisy of it all left a sour taste in my mouth).
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Later, some dudes roll up with cases of E-40’s “40 Water,” the hyphy equivalent to 50’s Vitamin Water (I'm told 7-11 will be featuring 40 water soon.) Tried a bottle and it doesn’t taste very good (lots of sugar and syrup, yeuughh.) Finally, E-40 arrived. Small show, small crowd (and not a very enthusiastic one, at that.) 40 seemed to get the crowd movin’, performing all his Yay Area jams. He held it down harder than Mike Jones and Lil’ Scrappy. Let me also say that E-40 is alive and well (though he admitted he was hung over), so don’t believe the
hype.
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After the show, we snagged those limited silkscreened posters
Fader was up on (313/600!) and headed to the MGM Grand for the Vitamin Water Celebrity Poker Tournament. We rolled through, met up with Lara "Got Them Vitaminz" Bandler, who at the time, was with 50 Cent while he was doing an interview.
We walked up and said hello. 50 extended his hand to me (really friendly dude), I shook it and introduced myself. I said “I heard about that beef with Cam’Ron,” to which 50 replied, “It ain’t nothin’. I crush him.” Hung around for a bit longer and watched the Poker tournament, then hit up New York, New York for Time Crisis 3.
Got a call later in the day, telling us we had gotten comp'd at the Wynn. Skipped Dewayne Wade’s party at Mandalay Bay and walked around the casinos. Crashed at the hotel. Left Vegas the next day with a couple cases of Vitamin Water and a fresh perspective.
More pictures coming soon.
Word has it that Arthur Magazine is no more (the story differs between Jay Babcock and Lime Publishing as to whether Arthur will ever return, but it certainly isn't around for the present moment.) Fortunately, you can share in mourning the loss of Arthur at FAMILY this Thursday at 7:30PM - they're hosting a reception for the now defunct magazine, featuring several writers for the magazine, who plan to share their work with you.
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