fbpx

Head Bruises at The Granada

Comments: 5

The Granada

If I can remember correctly, it was October of 2016. I ended up going to my first concert ever. The concert was for Hopsin, and I ended up going with 2 of my greatest friends. I was still in college, seriously ready to graduate in December of that same year. At around this time, I was still only a church drummer. I had more ambitions of being a pro drummer for a church band (or even a rock band) back then. Being a rapper wasn’t exactly in my immediate intentions at the time (more on this in a future blog).

The Hopsin concert was placed in Lawrence, KS (home of Kansas University), and the college kids littered the streets. There were drunken guys were hitting up every bar in town, half-naked girls in groups strolling the sidewalks, and so much more. Honestly, this was a Friday night with very nice weather, we expected nothing less. The three of us were just trying to have a good time, so we mingled when we could. After hitting up a bar, we then proceeded to the Granada, where we would see the performance. And as expected, the line outside of the door was very long.

It had taken us a minute to get in. But once we were in, the stage was extraordinary. All props were set up, people were hanging out, the merchandisers were selling products in the handfuls, etc. They even had some Tech Nine bumping (my main inspiration) on the sound system. This was gonna be an epic show I thought. Fast forward about an hour, and the place was packed. There were at least 3000 people in the room, and every single one of them was amped. We all were ready.

So since I was originally going to the concert to see Hopsin, I had no idea of the lineup. At this show, the lineup was (at least that I can remember) Token, Joyner Lucas, and Hopsin, with at least 2 other artists. At this time, the world did not know of Token and Joyner Lucas as much as they do now. They were still “budding” as artists at this time, with serious rising followings. I personally never knew who Token was, but I heard Joyner Lucas at a point in time with Tech Nine in the track “Sriracha” with Logic. I was amazed to see him there, his live performance is just as dope as his music.

Finally, the first act came on. No one knew who he was (not meaning to sound mean, but he never told the crowd who he was). But the crowd loved him anyway. He ended up surfing all around the crowd, having plenty of fun with his experience. But once his act was done, the next act to come ended up causing me pain (literally).

And that act was Token. I honestly never heard of him before, but the people at the Granada loved him. Crazed fans all around my group were telling us about him. I thought to myself, “he must be good then”, and as sure as his fans told me, he was. People were chanting for him, he got on stage, and then he ripped the stage in half (metaphorically speaking lol) The dude had a crazy performance, almost even topped Joyner’s and Hopsin’s, the kid was insane. However, my amazement was briefly short-lived. As I was standing there in the crowd, among 3000 other people, something would happen to me that..honestly…got me a little irritated.

So as Token was performing, he ended up throwing an open bottle full of water into the crowd. And I mean literally, no sip was probably made out of it. And he threw it hard, right up into the air. Now, I was still amazed by this performance, but I was paying no attention to this bottle. The place was dark anyway, so the only light I could see was the stage itself. As the other 3000 plus people in the place were going crazy, I felt a hard hit right on my forehead. It was that same bottle, and to add insult to injury, I got hit on the head with the tip of the bottle itself. So not only that I was feeling pain, but I was also drenched. Some water had come out in the air, but most of it had gotten on me.

The fans around me were going crazy. All saying stuff like “Dammmm, you got hit by Token!” or “Broooo, you’re chosen!”. All of the comments were nice and all, but I was severely pissed. Instinct made me feel some type of way, and my friend on my side ended up calming me down. There was no point in causing a scene, and I was aiming for the stage to get payback in some way. But all of it was an accident, of course, it literally could’ve been anyone else in the crowd. I was just the one standing there by coincidence.

Now I’m a pretty dark black guy, so bruises don’t show up that easy on my skin. But when the next day came, I had a serious knot on my head. That bottle had gotten me good, I had no idea. Despite the night being fun, meeting tons of amazing college kids, etc, the bottle on the head was the most memorable.

Fast forward to today, I look back at that experience as a weird superstitious phenomenon. Maybe the fans were right, maybe I was chosen. Out of 3000 people, why did it hit me in particular? Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something, I don’t know. If you believe in that sort of thing, then you tell me. All I know is this; it was a great concert, and my friends had thought the same.

Today, I am an artist myself. I’ve had plenty of interviews, been featured on some major websites, had and am now releasing newer songs with some amazing major artists, etc. I couldn’t have asked any better time to become an artist  in this time of era. And I am still growing and learning every day.

But perhaps even more importantly than all of that, it’s YOU, the listener, that makes all of it matter.

I look forward to going to more concerts, I just hope I can be the one throwing the bottles next time. But most of all, I hope to see you there.

Let’s build worthwhile experiences along this musical journey. Here’s to hoping that you are part of that journey.

If you like to hear the most recent milestone of that journey, click here to listen to the Proelium Deluxe!

Thank you for being a listener and for making it all matter.

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *