This trip was fun as hell. Brazil is definitely one of the dopest spots in the world. I had to leave some stuff out ya know???? Wut happens in Brazil...stays....you know the rest.LOL
5-25-05 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I'm tired of course. No one told me it would take ten hours to get here. First thing I notice.....the women. Good Lord. I knew they would be beautiful, but this is crazy. Anyways, you know....the normal. Airport to the hotel...sleep then go eat. Its so much of a routine now that no one ever has to say anything to each other it just happens.Its raining like hell!! The ride to the hotel was me and ronald in a van with someone from the club we are performing at. He gave us the lowdown on Brazil. The ride was long and interesting. I mean I grew up in baltimore. In a pretty bad neighborhood.....but.....I passed by some areas on the way to the hotel.....this is the hood. THE HOOD. We got here around 9am Rio time, right in the middle of morning rush hour. The traffic was crazy. People walking down the dotted lines in the highway selling things. The houses look like they are about to just fall apart. This is a different world. Soccer fields everywhere. It was out of control. Maybe an hour later we arrive at our hotel in Copacabana. The hotel is super jiggy five star. The first thing i think when i get there is, man...we are gonna get robbed walkin out of this place.
We are all checked in and its time to get the first meal.( I eat so damn much on the road!) News is that Carlos missed his flight==something I should have done cuz the first night is a day off. Also word is that he is bringing his girlfriend with him. HA!! I feel sorry for him. I know that wasn't his idea. WE know his girl......anyway...im just saying, I would think a place with all these fine women would be the last place a man would want to take his girl. Ah well..im single.hehehehehehehehehe. So me and Ronald hook up with the guy that drove us here and grab some grub. I get some steak..killin and feel the itis......man they got this soda down here. I dunno wut da hell is in it but i think t is called guarana. Holy shit this is good. Im tired.....good nite,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I woke up just in time for dinner. MAn!!! I went to sleep at like 1pm===woke up at maybe 730pm. We all link up to go to the club we are performing at tommorrow for dinner. Neena Freelon is performing this night. I hadn't heard her name in a minute, but she sounded good. Anyway, dinner was cool and hilarious. Ibrahim has a homey down here that showed up at the end of our meal. Let me tell you bout this cat. Cool muhfucka. Apparently he has been living here for 14 years. This cat looks maybe 35 years old tops, but he is actually 60, no bullshit. Anyway, anything you need to know about brazil, he knows. He starts off by showing us women in his palm pilot......geeeeeeezus. He gives us the real low down. He talks of how sex and money is everything down here. EVERYTHING. Lemme try to tackle everything::
Ronald asks where to go to meet women and the guy, bobby(his name will change later), says oh your gonna have to pay. I jump in like, there are no regular clubs where you just kick it and meet people.?? He is like no not really. He explains===look your in one of the most catholic dense populations in the world, and 90 percent of the people here make less than 200 dollars a month. SO if you are lookin for a good girl, your gonna have to put in time. TIme he says is emails, calling, your gonna have to come back to brazil a couple of times before you get close to her. Everyone else is selling it. So he talks of this club called "HELP". Now since we have been here we have heard of this club maybe seven times. We heard that it is a club where you go to pick up hookers. To hear the real low down::: This club is like a tourist attraction. All tourists go here. HE says on a good night you may see 3,000 hookers inside and out side of this club. Then he says it may cost you about 20 rs which is around 7 dollars to get in. Then maybe 100 dollars to get a chick to leave with you. Then he explains how we are at this jiggy hotel, and they may charge you extra for bringing a woman in your room. Sounds crazy. Like how would they know. He says they just know. He says he cant always tell the difference between a hooker and a regular girl, but he says they always seem to know. We cant figure out why they charge you, but he explains. Look:::: the hotel is a nice hotel, families and rich people come there on vacation or whatever....if they just allowed you to bring hookers in there then the place would turn into some sort of whore house. Makes sense to me. The convo then moves to how snoop dog made his video with pharell down here. And Bobby talks of women that look better than that walking around here. Im like well im taking one home wit me. I think Im a find my wife down here. He is like impossible. Apparently the game has changed since 9/11 (im so sick of hearing that) Now, it is damn near impossible to bring a woman from brazil into the states. He says why the hell do you think i live here. He explains:::for most of the women they end up selling themselves for maybe 6 months, then they find a nice european man to take them away from here, but americans they cannot leave with because of george bush. The United States won't let them in. He said the best way to try to get a visa is to say that she is going to disney land, one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world, and just never come back, but that barely works!!! Funny. But the only way they will give a woman a visa is if she has major reason to come back::a house, family or something. This is getting deep. So i guess im not finding my wife down here, cuz i damn sure aint movin here....yet. He then talks of how to become a resident of brazil. He says a new law was enacted about 4 months ago that if you own a house of atleast 50 thousand dollars in brazil you get a permanent visa. He said it used to be 200,000. He also said that you just have to prove that you make atleast 2 thousand a month and you could get a permanent visa. Im straight tho...so far. Anyways, we were ready to go see these hookers!!!!emphasis on SEE...i hope.
So me, Ronald, Ibrahim, and bobby (kenny dipped of course) arrive at club help.LOL. YO!!! THis was sick. Its raining, but this didnt stop the ladeeeez. The club is right on the beach with tents and everything outside of it. Its around 1130pm, and the club opens at midnite. ITs crackin out there, but bobby tells us that is a slow nite cuz of the rain. I mean its women everywhere. Damn near naked. its out of control out there. And its not like a club back home, where the women are standing around, i mean its like the women are just walkin around everywhere up in every guys face, smiling and cheesin. This one chick (bad ass hell) winks at me and starts lickin her lips....bobby is like dont get caught up, she just wants your money. I snapped back into reality. So we catcha seat under the seat and post up and just sit back and take this shit all in. I instantly make up my mind:::I am not having sex with a brazilian hooker::case closed(i hope). This was depressing after a while. I mean just tons of women everywhere. Agressive women too. ooooo and the trannies...ill..im not mentioning them right now or ever.....Bobby begins to explain whats goin on. He says back in the day, before snoop made his video down here, it was different. He said that the women looked better back then. Ever since snoop dog made the video all these young knuckleheads come down to brazil and throw money around to all these women, even the ugly ones. SO now the caliber of woman has dropped off. He said he hadn't come to this club in years, but before he was always here. Its craaaazy. Women walkin up to me rubbing my hair and shoulders. i repeat..I am not having sex with a brazilian hooker::case closed.......(i hope).
After an hour of neck turning some of bobby's homegirls show up. Now these women arent hookers, he says. These are women he knows from somewhere he used to hang out i understood. They weren't like brazilian bombshells or anything, and they had most of their clothes on, so i believed him. HE introduced us and we kicked it, but nobody knows portuguese but him....anyways, he talks of his times out here. He talks of how the crazy thing is the turnover. Like you wont see the same hooker out here 6 months from now. He says maybe a few stick around, but the majority of them don't. He said that he had a reputation back in the day of bringing alot of his american friends down there to the club, and the hookers knew him for it. Thats more money for them. He said back in the day he wouldnt have to pay, just bring friends with him...thats out. So more and more women just keep showin up, and its raining harder and harder. IT seems that this is just the norm down here. Like we werent in some specific exclusive place. Like this goes on all up and down copacabana. Bobby, or what his female friends were callin him, Miguel, if you seee a woman out here at night alone, she is working. More women are working than not he says. People come here for that. Thats crazy. He then says tomorrow when the rain stops during the day, you wont be able to tell who is working and who isn't. WOW. Ronald starts flirting with one of Bobby.....uhh Miguel's friends. tHat serves for entertainment for awhile but im gettin sleepy. We had been sitting there for hours. I think i had two beers.....no one....I was just sick of trying to ignore all these women staring at me trying to get my attention..and money. I began to examine how these women worked. It was interesting. Miguel said that down here looks count for nuthing at all. You will see a gorgeous woman with a 75 year old beat up old man. MONEY. Looks are nuthing here he says. I see chicks setting up for the kill. This one chick walks by a table and acts like she trips over a chair slightly. And her breasts land in this old white guys face.....10 minutes later they both leave together. comedy. I see chicks leave and come back then with another guy...crazy... THen you see the white guy who seems to have fallen in luv.lol like he will be holdin hands and petting her and tongueing her down, when everyone out there knows whats goin on. Now don't get me wrong. ALot of these chicks were beat up. It wasnt like some fantasy land of all beautiful women. Some chicks should not have been out there. i.e. the pregnant lady!!!! oh god...anyways. Im tired and convince everybody to dip. As Im gettin up this chick is staring at me. She goes "I want you". I laff it off, cuz i know the real deal she wants my money. SO her friend who i assume was a lesbian (i dont feel like explainin) she goes.."u dont like girls or something". I say I dont have any money. Then the girl goes::"i dont care. I want you." comedy. So she slams her hands down and walks over to me. Ronald is like she tryna holla. Im like yea right. So she comes over and says..."you have no money?" Im like hell naw and i pull out my pockets. She says something in portuguese that i cant type, but i understood to mean "impossible". I then point to Ibrahim and tell her that he has all my money becuase he is my boss. She then gets the same eyes she had for me ten minutes ago for him. I start laffin, and Ibrahim hurries away. She then turns back to me and says but i wanted you so bad though. She hugs me and kisses me on my forehead and says come back tommorrow.....NEGATIVE!!!!! im straight.. Im not having sex with no Brazilian hooker::case CLOSED!!!
5/26/05 rio==========================
So I slept forever which sux. I get up around 3pm and sound check is at 4:30 dammit!!! I get up and take my time gettin ready for war. WE head to the club at 5pm (black people are always late for something). Sound check is cool, and loud. The bass is ruff. The strings are like high as hell, but whatever. I hadn't played in like three days. I have been going through alot back home, and hadnt had time for much playing. Im just glad I have the oppurtunity to get away from everything for awhile, so I won't complain much. Carlos is here now....with his girl. Finally some entertainment i think. To see Carlos act around her with all these fine women prancing around!! lemme stop. I feel sorry for him. Anyways I again ate too damn much and struggle to stay awake after i ate. I hit the gas station for a red bull, but I don't drink it. Im gonna save it for right before we hit the stage. Kenny sees me drifting and says.."oh we gonna do everything extra fast tonite, to keep you awake"......great!! Rush back to the hotel for a quick shower and its back to the club for the hit.
The club is like packed to the goddamn brim. SO many people crammed into this little place. Its sick. I dome the red bull and we hit the stage....and we're off!!! Damn I forgot how intense this is. I always do. Things are goin cool, and then bobby ehhh miguel walks in, then his female friends. ITs the one chick from last nite, but she has like 4 others with her. BADDDDDDD chicks. ME and ronald notice them at the same time and give each other a look. It was comedy. As soon as they sat down ROnald starts playin louder and dumber. It happens everytime. Its crazy cuz they sit at the same table as carlos' girl, and the whole time She is staring at CArlos.LOL. Anyways we get done this long set and the crowd goes nuts. We ripped it. Well they did I just hung on for dear life. So we kick it with the females. They are gettin sauced. This one chick, I forgot her name already smashes like a bottle of johnnie walker red. I have never seen a woman drink like this. And she wasnt faded. I have a beer, and I ask her if she drinks beer. She says she doesnt cuz she would have to drink like ten of them. She says.."10 biere minimo" Im like... SHIT!!! Thats one chick i wouldnt want to take out..nya mean?! Anyway Ronald is on this one chick quick, the baddest one. It was funny cuz the nite before he was on the other chick at the table. I just sat back and watched the drama unfold. The chick im talkin to seems to know the most english, but she is drinkin so much im not sure i can understand her.LOL Im like fuck it gimme some of this johnnie walker, maybe I will start speakin Portuguese.......noope it didnt work. but im sauced! The break is over and set 2.........
The second set wasnt as tight.. I got the sickest cramp in my left hand. I guess from not shedding. My pointer finger just locked into my palm like i was makin a fist and i had to peel my hand back open with my right hand. It happened during my solo so i had to play it off. PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then this blister on my right hand pops...PAIN!!!!!!!!! Ah well...aint the first time. The crowd is really into it tho. Set is over and im out in the crowd meeting everyone. A lot of people could speak english, i was surprised. This one guy was from DC. HE said he had a wife and kid here and wife and kid there. OUT!! thats life.lol So i head back to the table where the women are at, and I see ronald had made some progress....THey are sitting here kissing on each other. Crazy. It reminded me of the white guys from last night kissin on the hookers. OOOOO then there was drama!!!!!!
Ok this is good.....SO during the show while CArlos' girl was sitting at the table with the females, she says that someone tells her that the women are "high priced hoes" WHOA. But she doesn't tell us or ronald, she tells carlos, but tells carlos not to tell ronald. WHaT?!?! Thats a little fishy. Why wouldn't she let a nigga know?? hmmmmmm cant figure this one out, but carlos tells ronald anyway, and then carlos has to deal with his girl. She was mad cuz he told him. So everyone is fussing over that. Meanwhile, im trying to figure out if they are really hoes or wut?!?!lol. Bobby...ehhh miguel explains, he has known these girls for ten years, and he ain't never spend a dime on any of them. ITs all bullshit he says. He says its because they are of darker skin. The white people assume all women of color that are found in rio are hookers. ITs flat out racism he explains. THis was deeep. But why the hell wouldnt carlos' girl tell anybody? just sit back and watch ronald make a fool of himself? thats shady. Anyways Ronald doesnt care and proceeds with his pimpin. Im cool, cuz...I aint havin sex with no Brazilian hooker:case closed. So i pick up this electric bass that was sitting on the stage and start messin with it, and one of the chicks comes over and says to teach her....PIMPIN time...no let me explain:: this is just recreation for me....im not trying to ya know. Im just seeing if i could ...ya know, so its like scrimmage pimpin..i swear. hehehehehehehe......
So i show her how to hold it ya know...hehehehehhehehe........
ummm yeah......................................
uhhh so i go back stage to get my bag, cuz we are ready to dip. The word is that we are all going to this club called zero zero. ITs wuteva, im down. SO on the way out, the guy who is running the club tells us again, they are high priced hoes....I start dying laffin. I get it on video this time click on something and you can watch it. SO i dont have to type wut went down.>>>PLAY VIDEO<<<<
So we get back to the hotel and its fifteen minutes then we all meet in the lobby. I go change my clothes and head back down. So I sit next to the johnnie walker chick, and continue talking. Apparently they think i am the intelligent one, atleast that is what Miguel says. He says i have the type of persona where the women here will fall in love with me, but I wont get no ass being like that. I will get some ass maybe two weeks from now, and they would fall in love. Meanwhile a crazy cat like Ronald would get the ass the next day and they will never do it again. Im not sure how to take that.....but...Im not havin sex wit no Brazilian hookers:::::so i dont givashit...sorry for the cussin, but errr uhh case closed.
So as we discuss wut we are about to do, i notice it is like 230 am, and miguel says that the chick that was on ronald wants to get it on. So Ronald is like fuck the club. So he asks miguel to kick it at his crib with the chick. Miguel has a pimped out crib with like 4 bathrooms. i want to be this muhfucka when i grow up. So my option is going to the club with these other two chix that could be hookers::::or go to the club wit carlos and his girl::NEGATIVE. Or Ronald tells me to come to the crib and kick it:::NEGATIVE. SO im like fuck it im hittin the sack.. And I stay down in the lobby and kick it with the chix and miguel while ronald goes and gets his shit, then Im up to the room.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ oh shit we out at noon tommorrow...wake up call please..uh 11:55.
I wake up to reality. I check my email and my brother writes me to tell me that my mother is not doing well. My mom has been fighting cancer for three years. Its been a lot of ups and downs. Before the trip was one of the down times. The email simply said to call him as soon as possible. I was terrified to call him. I lost both my grandparents while I was a away and didn't even want to think the worse. I woke up late and didnt have time anyways. I emailed him back telling him to email me cuz i had to leave in fifteen minutes and would call when i got to the next city. I also got into some other stuff before I left that had been burried in the back of my mind. Thank god for music. But enuff...im gettin too personal......
We hop in the van. I snatch the back row and stretch out. The word is that its 2 hours to this next city, so im thinking lights out. We hit the highway and in like 30 minutes the entire scenery switches. From urban areas and beaches to dirt, sand, mountains, and trees. It was incredible. Animals just kickin it everywhere. Streams with people in canoes fishing. Amazing. It was so peaceful. I needed that. Once in a while you would pass a group of small houses with clothes hanging everywhere drying. You would see mothers playing with their children. You could tell there was no tv out here, no cars....nuthin. It was refreshing to see people living like that. We live with a lot of conviences, but with those conviences comes a lot of stress and bs. I would trade all that in a heartbeat. See these people never knew these conviences that we have. So it wouldnt be an issue living without them. I would kill to be in their position. Could you imagine??? Me kickin it in the countryside with a backyard full of cows and shit? Playing bass all day. Fuck Television. All i need is a record player or something, and my homey on drums or something.LOL. I stayed awake the whole two hours with my eyes pressed against the window taking it all in. No strip malls, no stores, no billboards, no supermarkets, no macdonald's. It was interesting because suddenly all the people got darker.......hmmmmmmmm. I wanted to jump out the window and just stay there and get stranded. I started to reach for my camera to video tape some of it, but I felt like it wouldnt be the same lookin at all this on video. It was actuallly being there, taping it would cheapen it all.
.......my will power inst that strong so i taped only one minute of it just to remind me of the situation...oh wut the hell i say. >>>PLAY VIDEO<<<
We arrive in the next town and the people get lighter.lol. Stores start to pop up, but this is still pretty basic. The hotel is jiggy, but in the middle of the hood it seems. Its a really nice hotel, but my bed is smaller than a twin. There are two beds in my room and im thinkin of pushing them together. Apparently its a jazz festival or something that we are part of. There are a lot of people and musicians here(musicians arent people). Everything is still pretty basic. Small tv, regular phone. Im trying to figure out how to call out. I have no phone cards or anything. There is no internet connection here either........I'm stuck here for three days too. Hope I dont get in any trouble. I never do...I need to call home..........................//
Called my brother like 4 times, no answer. I decide to get on the internet and email him my itenerary so he can call here. My homey is online and he calls him for me. So I get the lowdown through him. My mom isnt doing to well. She is in the hospital////////////////////
I hit the wall. Cry my eyes out for a couple of minutes and sit in silence. The phone breaks me out of it. Its time to roll to the sound check. Im like already? Ibrahim is like be donwstairs in 15 minutes, and the sound check is really a line check. Which means, you just get on stage hook everything up, tweak everything and then perform. This never goes well with kenny. I hop in the shower and dip./++++
I get downstairs and everyone asks me if i went swimming. Im thinking cuz my hair is wet, but Carlos says its cuz my eyes were red. I start to explain my situation, but I back off. I just say it was the shampoo. Carlos is like naw...you been smoking that brazilian weed. I Wish!
Sound check is craazy. ITs the same bass from the last place. FOr some reason the strings seem even higher and more painful to play. I notice this huge blister on my thumb from rubbing against this thick ass fingerboard. The bass is obviously set up for some orchestra player. The strings are thick orchestra strings that im not used to. My hand got eaten up last gig, but I didnt notice it from the adrenaline cuz it was the first show in a while. Now im feeling the pain. Ibrahim is arguing with the promoter over some crap i dunno. But kenny shows up in one of those attitudes. I think they pushed the time of the gig back. Ah well this one should be funny im thinkin///
Show starts and its loud, as usual. Ronald starts flippin the beat. Like bad. This nigga sux! It happens like three times during Carlos' solo. Me and carlos are lookin at him like wut da hell. It always happens when he starts playin these crazy fills that never comeout on one. And he looks at everyone else like they are wrong.LOL. I dunno. I guess this is what happens when a drummer plays jazz, but doesnt listen to it.LOL. So my solo comes around and he lays out. Thank god. But then he starts adding these colors to my solo. At weird times. Like he will hit the symbol or something. Then he comes in with the time about three choruses in...ON tHE WRONG BEAT. Me and CArlos are on 2 and 4 and he is on 1 and 3.LOL Kenny turns to him like he has a disease. Carlos is like WHOA. Im like WUT DA FUCK!?!?! A bubble like busted in my head somewhere. Like my meter went to "just go over there and whip his ass finally" and busted and went down to "my mom is fightning cancer, this aint that deep". So i started laffin and shakin my head and just started playin anything. noise, crazy, randomness...i luv ths gig....keeps me humble.lol
After the show we hit this restaurant, and i get news that two of the chicks are coming all the way up here to hang out. I hope ronald doesnt think im takin an L. Anyway we get back to the hotel after dinner and they are both in ronald's room. I kick it hard for a minute. Arguing with myself in my brain. So the nigga on my left shoulder and the nigga on my right got into it. The nigga on the right one won. So the conclusion i came to was NO. lol. SO Ronald is acting a fool out in the hallway and these chix are teaching me protuguese. Ronald's girl has a portuguese-english dictionary. SO im having like a 15 minute convo in protuguese with them that takes like an hour cuz of the dictionary. I dont think the Compton Public school system is very good, so Ronald chose not to participate. I check my watch and my situation kicks back in, so im like i'll be back and i go to see if my brother has emailed me or anything. I get some emails, but nothing new. I sit there for a couple trying to clear my mind. Ronald is at my door. Im like wut da hell?????? He is like cmon cuz I need you. Im like o ok. So im thinkin he needs me to set a pick or take an L. The nigga on my right shoulder won so it will be setting the pick. So i go back to his room. And the shower is running. He is like im fittin to beat it up in the shower. Im like handle your biness homey. So the other one. Zeze is her name. Im trying to get to go to my room. NOT TO BEAT. IM SETTING THE PICK REMEMBER!!!??? But she is tells me to stay there. Me and Ronald look at each other like....wut?!?!?! So im like in sign language with my new grasp on the portuguese language...."he is fittin to beat it up in there we cant stay in here. come kick it with me." She replies in sign language..."its ok they did it last night. Its nothing new. I heard it goin on last night i can hear it tonite".......im like oh hell no. Im not kickin it here while this nigga is smashin. negative. or in portuguese Nehum!....eheheheheheh. So i shake my head. Ronald is mad. Im like i tried to set the pick. I tell him to go ahead and beat up both of them.
I head back to the room and get back to my emails. Im talkin to a friend about my situation on the IM when i notice a lizard or something on my wall. THIS SHIT IS TOO DEEP. Nothing big. I dont know what the hell it is. But this lil thing is quick. I caught him on the floor and stomped the lights out of him....wut a day/////////////////////////>>>>PLAY VIDEO<<<<
SATURDAY...I lost the dates=================================
SO im awakened of course by ronald's phone call.LOL. Its time ti eat. I wash ass and dip out. Get to his room and we go to eat. Its like 230 i think. The food was so-so. We leave the restaurant and hit the beach. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH RELAXATION. Aint nuthin like the beach in the middle of nowhere. Not that many people. Its just kids and a couple people fishin. I take my shoes of and run crazy through the water. The brazilian kids are laffin at my goofy ass. I start to chase them and they run in the water laffin. I wouldnt have done that in Rio. Those fools Will ROB YOU!!! I stayed out there forever. I ran into another band that was down there. I forget, but it was a blues band. THis one guy had a crab in his hand and it pinched him and he flung it, but it took his wedding ring. I was like oooooo your wife is not gonna believe that one cuz. Your in Brazil!!! LOL. Lucky for him his wife is with him. I need to shave, but i left my clippers home. My neck looks like the amazon. So i ask one of the chix to tak me to the Drogaria. Across the street is a Farmacia. (see portuguese aint that hard.LOL). SO i go in looking for a bic or something. THe bic is no problem, its the shaving cream that they lack. The guy points me to this tube of cream to use. Im like do you use it. He is like of course. Then I notice the razor bumps all down his neck. Im like you know wut Im cool. Im a grow my shit out.lol The chick, Sandra, tells me that i should cut all this shit off. She says its feo, ugly. Im like no girl this is pimpin. She is like no "dont like". LOL. I start to tell her that i will shave my beard if she shaves her mustache.lol but she cant understand a word of it. I love this place.!!!
Sunday===================+++gig in rio das ostras
I wake and head to breakfast with ronald. Im starting to get sick of this restaurant. I have eaten three meals a day on the road. I dont do that at home, maybe one a day? Anyway, it takes me all of breakfast to notice that that ronald is not with his "friend". I ask him and he says she is sleep. I wish she would leave-he says. LOL. He says he asked her if she new his name and she said jeffrey. I fell on the floor. COM-mo-Dee. So i finish eating wish him good luck wit that and head to the room to chillout.
I take a quick nap and am awakened by Ronald again. LOL. its lunchtime he says. LOL. Fuck it maybe i can gain a few pounds. I go down to the restaurant to meet him. He tells me that the chix left. He is elated. Ibrahim walks in and says sound check is in an hour. WUTdaHell?!?!?! its 3pm he says be downstairs by 4pm. I finish my chicken leg and dip out. I need to call home.....
I figure out how to call out finally. It is 0 to get an outside line then 0 0 31 to get the us..then 1 plus the area code. I have a computer science degree, and I still cant figure out where the 3 came from. Anyways I call my brother and he pix up...........Bad news. Nuthin but bad news......===========================================He puts my dad on the phone. I love my dad to death, but this fool puts me on hold....from brazil. Anyways i get the heavy news of my moms condition. I take it hard, but I dont have time to dwell on it. Soundcheck is in fifteen minutes, and i need a shower.
I get to the gig with a heavy head. Im trying to not think about it. The stage is this tent on a rock reaching out to the ocean. It was carzy. The stage was maybe 15 feet from the cliff. This was pretty scary at first. So we hit the stage. The first song is comedy::
Since the set up was on this long rock, the stage could not support a grand piano, so carlos had to play keyboard. The stage was also pretty rickety, cuz the rock was full of bumps and ridges. So in the middle of Carlos solo just as he is feeling it the stage is rockin and the keyboard falls on his foot. He gets pissed off and stomps the keyboard and walks off the stage. Meanwhile, Ronald and I start laffin. So kenny points to me for the solo. I start playin something simple trying to figure wut the hell is goin on. Then next thing I notice the stage causes the pin on the bottom of the bass to go in. LOL Now im out of comission.CRaaazy, Then kenny laffs and points to Ronald for a solo. Ronald starts goin crazy. I can sense wut he is trying to do. He wants his shit to fall too.LOL Cuz he is dumb. So i set back up and jump back in on the song. The crowd is goin nuts. So next thing i notice is ronald bashing on his symbol until it falls down. This is stupid. Anyway we get through the song and the stage crew fixes everything. The rest of the gig was pretty dope. It was hundreds of people packed on this rock to hear this music. It was extrememly nice. After the show we were mobbed for autographs and pictures.
Get back to my room to chill out and steal some sleep. It was an early show so i figured i take advantage and just rest and get my mind together. I hit the bed around 10pm,but i cant sleep. So i open up iTunes and put on the knockout mix. I start with Coltrane's Alabama, then I go to Circle== off the Miles Smiles album. Next is Flamenco sketches, then blue in green. I never had to listen to this playlist twice. Usually that first note on Flamenco Sketches knocks me out. Or by the piano solo in Blue in green. But I had to put it on repeat. My mom kept popping in my head and I would fight it. I finally squeeze out two hours of sleep and wake up around 8am. I figure I'll get on the internet. I get an email from a friend that totally cheers me up. I had been talkin' my situation with her and she has been helping me handle this. I sit there and respond with like 3 chapters of shit off my head. It feels great. I never thought typing out something could have the same effect as talking to someone. It almost felt better. Its like when you talk to someone you have a limited amount of time to organize your thoughts before you say them, but when you are writing it you have all the time in the world and you can pin point just exactly it is your feeling...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Can you feel that? I can.
Anyways, the email i wrote lets some air out of my head and i feel tired again, like i can sleep, so i hit the sack..WRONG. Ronalds at the door. Time to eat. I tell him im going to kill him. I chase him out of my room with a wet towel. He comes back begging me to go down to the restaurant with him. I say fuck it and roll. Breakfast is awful. Its time to check out. Its a three hour ride to RIo to the airport, then a 45 mintue flight to sao paulo. During the trip the van with all the luggage in in breaks down. We have to put all the luggage in the van with us, but we finally make it to the airport.
Monday May 30 Sao Paulo, Brazil=========
Sao Paulo is dope. ITs like skyscrapers everywhere. It feels like LA with all the smog, but with the busy vibe of new york. Its crazy. We hit the jiggy ass hotel and I hit the sizack.
Dinner time .....im getting fat....never. We head to this restaurant.HOLY S!@#$ this was killin. IT was like this huge buffet. I finally found chicken wings!!! They had everything. Then these fools come around to your table with different cuts of beef. IT was sick. They must havehad every part of the cow. On a stick!! The s#@$#@ was killlllllllin. We ate til our eyes were full. FRshly squeezed coconut water. OOOOO and the vodka with crushed strawberrries. this was pimpin. On the way back from the restaurant the promoter tells us of the clubs. He runs by this club that is next to the jazz club we are playin at. Well not next to, maybe a block over. Its called American Show. LOL.WTF??? Anyway we walk in.....its a strip club. All these brazilians do is have sex??lol Its like nobody in there(its a monday) but like three white college guys sitting at the stage, but women everywhere. And they are all up in our faces saying stuff we cant understand. The women here are funny. WE pop in and pop out. WE stumble our full asses back to the hotel.
ME and Ronald watch this show on tv. ITs crazy. We cant understand a word of wut is goin on, but it seems like they take a couple and they set one of the people up. Like they have an actor seduce one of them and see if they cheat on their partner. It was like some Portuguese Jerry Springer game show. Anyways im out. I hope I can sleep tonite. Tomorrow is another off day which sux. Im trying to stay busy and i need to play to keep my mind straight.........................
Tuesday May 31 off day============================================
Didnt sleep much last nite, BUT I did sleep today. Slept until about 6pm. I think my body has had enuff. Im starving. I think my skinny ass has gotten used to this three meal a day thing. SO I link up with Ronald and we hit the streets.....OOOOPS. We are like in a hotel that seems to be surrounded by highways. ANd this nigga Ronald starts gettin scared to walk far. He thinks we are gonna get robbed. Im thinkin...YOU DONT HAVE ANY MONEY..WUTdaHELL. This fool is supposed to be from Compton? Anyhow, we spot a gas station across this highway and figure we will hit it up for some "batata chips". Crossing the street was like a high stakes game of frogger.....mission accomplished. im goin back 2 sleep.
Wake up for dinner at 9pm....hit the jazz club we are playin at after dinner. Its this Brazilian Big Band. They are killin. Order a bunch of beers. Get my chillout on. Now its time to kick it. The manager of the club wants to take us to the club, we're like cool of course. SO we hit Club Itaka. OK OOK OK. SO like....i dunno. We Walk in and there are swole ass bouncers everywhere the manager is apparently a big shot so he eases us in. This guy at the front hands each of us these credit card thingys. We walk into the club...... LADEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ....ehem i mean... HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES
Yes ladies and gentlemen, wall to wall hookers. Its not even suprising anymore. WE grab a table and the owner says he will be back in a half hour to get us. Ronlad is like, "i dont have any money" the owner says drink wut you like I will come back and pay....LOL. Remember that part.
SO its woemn everywhere. Dancin on poles. ITs stupid. Carlos and I get Red Bull and vodka, and this fool Ronald gets orange juice and vodka, but Ronald doesnt really drink..... So women start comin over to the table and trying to talk to us, but we cant communicate. A group of em will sit doen at our table for a while and act interested then we will notice some other chicks across the club and be like ..OOOOOOO SHIIIIIIT. Then the hoes at our table will get mad and leave, and the ones we are screaming at run to our table. It was comdey. The last bunch of chicks to come over are beat up tho and they wont leave. Its funny cuz they are all working for some money so they hate on each other. It was hilarious. So of course with my luck THE most BEat Up Hooke in the club sits next to me. Im sour. And she wont leave.LOL
So eventually i get up and go sit by myself in a booth. Im on my 4th vodka. I need kris time to get my shit back together. So this hooker comes up to me and starts talkin. She speaks english. I think our cover was already blown in the club, cuz all the hoes came to our table, but none of us were buying, and im sure word got around. But this chick thought zhe could break me,lol. So after a while I start having natural convo. Like im interested..NOT in HER. but in her situation. She says that she is in school. I forgot wut she studied(vodka). I ask her how much she makes. She says most of the women in here charge 200 rs for sex. I noticed that all the women come to you with 250 as their price and end up at 150. She said she hates doing it. She only is in there once a week. She does it to pay for school. She says some men she cant even do it with she will refuse, no matter how much money they throw at her. Im thinkin o this hoe is trying to get my with the sympathy pimp game!?!?! aint gonna work. How u gonna pimp a pimp?!?!? ehehe ehe heheh
THen she goes, but you are different. YOu not like other guys in here. I like you...im thinkin......BaHaHAHhaHaHAha. These chicks really got their game together...SiKE. IM like oh really girl?? in my pimpin voice. LOL. She starts the physical aspect of her pimp game. :) She says why dont we go upstairs and get a room. Im like this shit got rooms? she is like: yeah you pay the club 59rs then you get a room upstairs. Ewww im thinkin. Im like naw im cool. She asks me where im staying i tell her and her eyes lite up. OOOO you are rich? she asks. Im like naw girl. Broke as hell. She is like: you lie! And know she is really into me.LOL. So she is like, I will give you a tour of the club. So we are walkin all through these rooms. It was crazy. These hoes dancin hard for this dough. So we get to this part of the club where it is empty, and she starts her game back up. So uhhhhh Help me out how much money you have. I pull out a US 20. LOL. She is sooooooo sad. I try to get her on the math..This is like 300 rs.LOL. She thinks hard and then is like ...no no no. ITs really like50rs. So im like come on girl, im different. then she is like ok 100 us. IM like thats more than 200rs. SO then im like..ok ok ok, How bout you pay me to have sex with you. She starts dying laffing. Then im like ok i will work with you, how bout free? Check this out:::She goes..I like you, maybe if i wasnt workin tonite , i would.....Bullshit. So im like...wut r u doin tommorrow...lol.
My vodka and red bulls start kickin in. I had 4 but here a vodka and red bull isnt like one back home. Its not mixded. The waiter pours it at your table, but fills a tall glass up with the vodka and give you the can of red bull. SO its like 2 vodkas and red bull. WUT IM TRYING TO SAY IS....IM SAUWAUAUWAUAUWUAUWUAUCED...RAGU!! sO im gettin bored with this one. We have been in the club like 3 hours. The manager guy said a half hour. Where the hell is he. We start to panick. These hoes wont leave us alone either. SO im like fuck it. I will run out this bitch if i have to.lol. So i turn my attention back to this chick. So she starts her pimp game back up. Are you musica?? Im like yea girl. She is like i see you with Bourbon Street club manager. Im like yea girl. She goes..you rich then. Im like .....naw girl. LOL. SO then she is like cmon help a poor girl out. Im like damn...she is hurt. Im like ok 50 us. She thinks hard.........no.lol. Then im like come on girl. OK Head for 50. she is like huh. Im like Oral Sexo (i learned that reading the subtitles on HBO at the hotel) she is like huh. apparently nobody does that here. I mean they do it, but nobody just asks for that. She says same price as sex.lol im like damn girl. ok ok ok How bout 10 us for a back rub and u braid my hair.lol.
Im ready to roll. I see the club guy walk in. We are happy as hell to see him. So i give the chick imtalkin to the rest of my drink and tell her i am leaving... And she puts her hand down my pants. BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZIL.. GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
ehem....So me, Ronald, Carlos are at the lobby of the club. Apparently the cards they give us they charge evrything to and you pay when you turn them in on the way out. I hand my card to the owner. Then peak at the bill.......600rs. OOOOO SHIT. CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY. The club guy is acid!!!! IM like ooo oshit. Carlos is like yo. We gotta give up some dough. Im thinkin, aw shit this nigga ronald aint got no money. 600 im thinkin shit. HOw many drinks did we have? I rememebr two hoes gettin drinks on us...i couldnt do the math i was smashed. SO i said fuck it. I cant have bad karma, EVEN THOUGH HE SAID HE WOULD PAY. SO I give him 50 us. That is about 125 rs. ANd im like im out. Carlos gives him like 100rs. and Ronald nuthin!!! that leaves him with around 400rs. OUCH. So we start messing withsome hoes in the lobby while the guy pays for everything. I pull my camera out and start tapin,lol. WE are sauced out our Minds. >>>>PLAY VIDEO<<<<<
WE get outside and we cant find the club guy. We are stranded. WE are thinkin o shit we piled up a 600 dollar bill and he dipped on us. ITs like dark in a shady prart of town. This fool rides by on a motorcyle with this big ass wood whistle. Im thinkin o shit something is about to crack off. Niggas are running around panicking and drunk. its like 4am. about 10 minutes into it I pull the camera out and tape it so the policia will have evidence. VIDEO@(#@)#(#@)$(@)#()_
So we get back to the hotel and we are sauced. The ride was hilarious. WE are all drunk out of our minds. That may have been the funniest 5 minutes of my life. Ronald is totally out of pocket. HE is screaming and fallin all on the floor. I videotape it all. It was the funniest shit ever, but my drunk ass erased the video by mistake. So we stumble to my room and kick it. Ronald is cooked. He starts makin these videos on my camera. Its funny. I tell myself not to let this nigga drink again. Im trying to sleep but he wont let me its like 5am, breakfast is at like 6. Im not trying to go but i know he is gonna drag my ass down there.
6am rolls around and he wakes me up. Im hurt. 30 minutes of sleep i got. Im like nigga i'll get up at 630. His drunk ass starts screamin and jumpin on my bed. If i wasnt tired and drunk, i swear i would have tried to throw his ass out the window. So im like fuck it and ignore him trying to sleep. Doesnt work. SO i try to out smart his dumbass. Im like yo....chill out breakfast is at 730 wake me up then. He is like naw its now. Im like naw man u wrong. SO he is like ok ima call the front desk. So he calls down there in this calm voice. "excuse me, maam, when does breakfast start this morning.?" Then I start yelling in the background:: HELP!!! THIS NIGGA IS TRYING TO KILL ME....CALL THE POLICE.....THIS NIGGA IS CRAZY.....LOL. ROnald busts out laffin and is tryin to convince the lady that nuthing is wrong. Then i keep yelling:: HELP CALL THE POLICE...RONALD BRUNER...THIS NIGGA IS CRAAAZY.....HEEEEEEEEELLLLP. HE hung up the phone. Our drunk asses sat there laffin at that shit for like 15 minutes. WE stumble down to breakfast and we are the only fools down there actin a fool. The food was cool. WE sat there and discussed music for about 3 hours. I know my body is toast.im out zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
JUne 1 Gig :Bouron Street in Sao Paulo============================
Hit sound check tired as hell. The bass s broken , i need another. This young kid shows up with a dope ass bass. :). The strings were kind of weird, but I have been on worse. I decide im gonna try to video tape the whole show. I figured out how to lower the quality of my camera to fit more video on it. Now I can do 12 hours..muhuhahahahahaha.
Im a little worn out from everything. Physically and mentally. SO excuse me if Im leaving out my usually insightful details. I would like to stop and give a shout out to all the people who hit my site up. I get major traffic. I never thought of this thing in the beginning. It was just something I started on a whim bored in LA, trying to get my website chops back together. ALl the people I have met after the shows and given you all my site addresses. And all the emails I have recieved from you otherwise total strangers.lol . Its been real. I dont knwo how long iwill be able to keep this up. But hopefully it wont be a problem. I think im up for a busy summer with the band, so we shall see. ANYHOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The show was pretty dope. I taped everything. DOnt think im a put it on here, cuz kenny probably will kill me. And most of you guys are kenny garrett fans and will download that shit and have some bootleg live kenny shows on the internet tracked back to me...NEGATIVE. SO no emails about me sending you the shows...ehem.
After the show its the usual autograph signing and meeting people, but im not really up to it. I start thinkin about my mom. The tour is over now and now I must deal with that. So i try to be cool to as many people as I can and just pace myself. This chick asks us if we wanna go to the club with her and her friends. We think...uh oh... more hoe clubs. Im thinkin naw, i have had enuff. Then she is like UH NO!!! NO hoes, a regular club.lol I think we offended her. Carlos is like oh you in the 5%.lol So she convinces us to go.
Its three chix and a guy. Carlos bails out. So six people cram into a toyota camry and hit macdonald's and the club. WE get in the car and this chick thinks me and Ronald are on drugs!!!It was strange, but anyways. I try to put my window down and it wont budge. The window is like thick and hard as hell. Im like wutDAHell...Turns out the guy driving is the son of the chief of the NArcotics division for the police in Sao Paulo and the camry is like bullet proof. Im thinkin..o shit somebody gonna spot me in this car and start dumpin on us.. WE GONNA DIE.LOL
We walk in the club and its WALL to FUCKIN WALL. Like I cant breath. This music is LOUD as hell. This shit was serious. It was cool. WOmen everywhere.I was so used to hookers walkin around, i didnt know wut to do in here.lol. So I spot the stage all the way in the back with the DJ, and these two BUILT chix dancing on stage. They were like the club dancers. These women were in shape. GOOD GOD. IM LIKE RONALD. IMuhh GOIN back THERE I WILL HOLLA. SO I dip through the chaos and we make it to the front row. these two women had like these dance routines and they were drenched in sweat. They were just dancin for like 2 hours straight it was crazy. The crowd is goin nuts. ME AND RONALD ARE GOIN BANANAS. I want to get my camera out but there are signs everywhere saying no cameras. The sign didnt keep me from pullin it out. IT was all these men in black security guys that kept me from pulling it out. Ronald blocks their view for me and i put the camera half way in my pocket and start taping. YOu gotta see this :::: >>>>PLAY VIDEO<<<<
SO after a REd Bull and Vodka and two beers, Im ready to roll. I felt like i was gonna pass out. IT was so damn hot in there. SO Ronald wants to get on stage and dance with the chix.lol He and the guy go talk to the owners and work everything out. Im thinkin damn all that just to dance with these chix?? IS it that deep? Apparently for Ronald...it is. So im like get up there and im a tape it. So i spot a nice hiding place run there and start taping....Then my battery dies.lol aw wellls. >>>PLAY VIDEO<<<
WE dip out with our new friends and head back to the hotel. I needed to stop by the drug store. I #$@#$%$#%$(*(*#@censored#@$)(#@)
()()(none of your goddamn@#$#$%$%#businesss#@%$#)()#()(. So we exchanged info and Ronald and I went to the room to watch the show that I taped. Then it was 6am. Breakfast. Life on the Road...Breakfast is always the last meal of the day.lol
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