D Nuts || December 15, 2006
Deep Ellum Live is alive again?
For tonight, at least, when legendary New York rapper Slick Rick rolls through town tonight at the long-vacated venue at the far end of Deep Ellum. We received a flyer for the show last week and have spent the past seven days trying to track down anybody who operates the club...but, of course, nobody does, as the venue isn't really alive. No true management or long-term lease tenant exists; it's just a slab of concrete owned by a realtor group.
The only thing attached to the show, really, is a promotional company we'd never heard of, Fundamental 1s, but their site is sloppy and only has two shows scheduled: the Slick Rick gigs (one in Dallas, one in Austin). So is some ramshackle bunch of guys busting the windows at DEL and partying until the cops show?
MYK
Turns out things are more organized than we'd suspected, and the culprit behind F1s is none other than local rapper MYK, better known to a few of you as Jesus Chronic and better known to most everyone else as "who the fuck?"
"[I haven't been up to] very much," MYK says about his sparse music career. "I really hadn't cared to [gig], just cuz of the shape of the industry, and my real life is not that bad, so I wasn't really motivated."
MYK's performing name, Jesus Chronic, impressed the hell out of us earlier this year at an appearance at the city's biggest monthly local hip-hop showcase, Final Friday, and we were surprised to learn just how deeply rooted the man is in the local scene, complete with connections to Erykah Badu and more crews than an aircraft carrier. So we're glad to know that 1) he opens for Slick Rick tonight, 2) he has a Jesus Chronic album set for release this Spring and 3) he has aspirations to throw even more hip-hop shows at DEL.
"We're trying to acquire the building," MYK says. "There's nothing there, know what I'm sayin? Deep Ellum Live, those cats, that entity, is no more. It's been about three years. Basically, for the last three years, it's been Halloween parties for the realtor group that owns a lot of Deep Ellum."
That realtor group, Westdale Asset Management, is leasing the space to F1s for the night (teaching us that one-day leases actually do exist), but MYK has plans for more at the venue. "We have some stuff lined up for 2007. One is officially signed in, but until we lock the order of how exactly we're gonna do it, I don't wanna leak anything." The relationship is there, as is the insurance policy, to resume shows whenever F1s book 'em, and he has plans for rock shows in addition to hip-hop gigs, though he's not shy about his priorities.
"Dallas is a fickle market, especially with hip-hop and the presentations of hip-hop that we've had in the last couple of years. It seems like nobody has stepped up to the plate; we've had a few local shows here and there, some real underground stuff, but no one has put forth any money. It just seems like there should be more options for such a large city. More mid-range venues...think about it. There's Gypsy, and that's basically the only game in town."
The aspiration to buy the building outright, of course, is insane--property values in Deep Ellum are sky-high, and we told MYK that he'll need to sell a bathtub full of kidneys to afford a long-term lease, let alone the building. And there's no telling how the show will do tonight; with ticket prices between $22-$45 and bad receptions for big-name hip-hop club shows in the past (Chingy cancelled his last Dallas gig outright upon seeing the low attendance), the show isn't a guarantee. But Chingy is no Slick fucking Rick (who, uh, never tours), and from our experience, MYK is no slouch about the face of local or national hip-hop. We're looking forward to tonight's show, also featuring Headkrack and Money Waters, and hope that the mainstream hip-hop community shows up for a potentially huge party.
Tickets are available at FrontGateTickets.com, though you can probably safely dodge the service charge and buy at the door.
[NOTE: We're skipping our concert preview blurb tonight, as this is We Shot JR's night to shine. His curated noise-rock gig at the Art Prostitute is a short walk away from Deep Ellum Live, so imitate us and check both out this evening.] -SM
For tonight, at least, when legendary New York rapper Slick Rick rolls through town tonight at the long-vacated venue at the far end of Deep Ellum. We received a flyer for the show last week and have spent the past seven days trying to track down anybody who operates the club...but, of course, nobody does, as the venue isn't really alive. No true management or long-term lease tenant exists; it's just a slab of concrete owned by a realtor group.
The only thing attached to the show, really, is a promotional company we'd never heard of, Fundamental 1s, but their site is sloppy and only has two shows scheduled: the Slick Rick gigs (one in Dallas, one in Austin). So is some ramshackle bunch of guys busting the windows at DEL and partying until the cops show?
MYK
Turns out things are more organized than we'd suspected, and the culprit behind F1s is none other than local rapper MYK, better known to a few of you as Jesus Chronic and better known to most everyone else as "who the fuck?"
"[I haven't been up to] very much," MYK says about his sparse music career. "I really hadn't cared to [gig], just cuz of the shape of the industry, and my real life is not that bad, so I wasn't really motivated."
MYK's performing name, Jesus Chronic, impressed the hell out of us earlier this year at an appearance at the city's biggest monthly local hip-hop showcase, Final Friday, and we were surprised to learn just how deeply rooted the man is in the local scene, complete with connections to Erykah Badu and more crews than an aircraft carrier. So we're glad to know that 1) he opens for Slick Rick tonight, 2) he has a Jesus Chronic album set for release this Spring and 3) he has aspirations to throw even more hip-hop shows at DEL.
"We're trying to acquire the building," MYK says. "There's nothing there, know what I'm sayin? Deep Ellum Live, those cats, that entity, is no more. It's been about three years. Basically, for the last three years, it's been Halloween parties for the realtor group that owns a lot of Deep Ellum."
That realtor group, Westdale Asset Management, is leasing the space to F1s for the night (teaching us that one-day leases actually do exist), but MYK has plans for more at the venue. "We have some stuff lined up for 2007. One is officially signed in, but until we lock the order of how exactly we're gonna do it, I don't wanna leak anything." The relationship is there, as is the insurance policy, to resume shows whenever F1s book 'em, and he has plans for rock shows in addition to hip-hop gigs, though he's not shy about his priorities.
"Dallas is a fickle market, especially with hip-hop and the presentations of hip-hop that we've had in the last couple of years. It seems like nobody has stepped up to the plate; we've had a few local shows here and there, some real underground stuff, but no one has put forth any money. It just seems like there should be more options for such a large city. More mid-range venues...think about it. There's Gypsy, and that's basically the only game in town."
The aspiration to buy the building outright, of course, is insane--property values in Deep Ellum are sky-high, and we told MYK that he'll need to sell a bathtub full of kidneys to afford a long-term lease, let alone the building. And there's no telling how the show will do tonight; with ticket prices between $22-$45 and bad receptions for big-name hip-hop club shows in the past (Chingy cancelled his last Dallas gig outright upon seeing the low attendance), the show isn't a guarantee. But Chingy is no Slick fucking Rick (who, uh, never tours), and from our experience, MYK is no slouch about the face of local or national hip-hop. We're looking forward to tonight's show, also featuring Headkrack and Money Waters, and hope that the mainstream hip-hop community shows up for a potentially huge party.
Tickets are available at FrontGateTickets.com, though you can probably safely dodge the service charge and buy at the door.
[NOTE: We're skipping our concert preview blurb tonight, as this is We Shot JR's night to shine. His curated noise-rock gig at the Art Prostitute is a short walk away from Deep Ellum Live, so imitate us and check both out this evening.] -SM
1 Comments:
deep ellum is dead. someone just needs to throw the dirt on the coffin. go ahead, give it to the night clubs, ill see you at haileys instead.
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