On The Road with A Fly Guy #4
Daily News > – Aug 12, 2008 – by SCHEME MAG 
What the f*ck is really good with Beantown (Boston, MA)??? The Outfit hits the road again, driving from NY to Boston late Friday night, and for the whole ride up one CD stays on repeat being critically broken down song by song; lyric by lyric. NIGGER (Untitled – for the Politically Correct). There’s something inspirational about being on this Rock The Bells tour with Nas being one of the headliners and dropping this type of album at this moment in time. Once again, there seems to be a beacon of light shining for the preservation of that hip hop sound that most of us grew up loving. The content of the album creates heated discussions in the van between myself and the rest of The Outfit. We start to break down the “war” that’s goin’ on. The lines have been drawn. But this isn’t the war where soldiers are dying in a dessert on the other side of this fu*ked up planet. This is the war between the wack rappers & the dope emcees. And with the shit that Nas is spittin’, he’s showing us that you can still be successful and connect with your audience using lyrical substance and socially relevant content.
Amidst telling stories of baby mamas and bar fights, between shots of tequila in the hotel room, my mind wonders about the next day’s performance. The next morning we get up, get fresh and head to breakfast before we hit the venue. You ever saw that movie, THE DEPARTED? Walking into this restaurant felt just like the movie; not a black person’s face in sight, and of course we walked with pure New York City swag and dialect. We just looked like we didn’t belong in there, but that wasn’t gonna stop me from eating a stack of pancakes, lol. All the waitresses wore Red Sox tshirts to pay homage, and as I sat with knife & fork in one hand, and the syrup bottle in the other, precisely dividing the amount poured on the top flapjack, I wonder to myself, what would happen if I screamed out “GO YANKEES”).
Fast forward a couple of hours, we’re at the Comcast center waiting….and waiting…..and more waiting for the day to kick in high gear. During the wait session we found ourselves being courted over to the Truth.com area where they were doing giveaways and playing games, etc. But once the host (shout out to Tahir) said something about ‘can anyone freestyle’ that’s all Dyverse and myself needed to hear. We took a seat under their tent and watched and listened to all those who “thought” they could rap; and just to have a little fun we decided to grab a mic and get a lil’ bizzy (shout out to Deepa for making sure we knew not to ‘rap about crack’). Politics aside, we did what we do best and got a lot of love from the crowd that gathered… This could be the beginning of a beautiful union between us & them. Who knows? That was a great connect but the highlight of my day came when NAS took the stage. I don’t know if its because he knows he got a monster album, or because we’re about to get a black president, or what exactly is driving him, but I’ve never seen him perform with so much intensity (He reminded me of me, lol). But for real, with such an extensive catalogue, his song selection was in a word, PERFECT. Each song, set up the next joint, and the 30,000 in attendance were losing themselves [in the moment], myself included. The climax of the performance came when he performed “One Mic” to an amphitheater full of lighters and cell phone backlights. From center stage, on one knee, he went thru the expected energy transition from calm to amped, dedicating the song to all the aspiring rappers in the crowd, and future CEO’s and I can’t even front, to hear him say that and reflecting on the struggles I’ve been making these passed couple of years, and that we’ve been making as The OUTFIT, and looking back at the crowd, and hearing them cheer for a dude who’s not talking about negativity, the shit almost made me tear up a bit. Because that means there’s still hope for artists like myself, Phil Anastasia, Dyverse, & The Last American B-Boy to do great things in this industry. Word.
- All I Need Is One Mic -
Comments
16 Comments so far
Damn swagger, sexy, rhymes for days, socially conscious, a lil’ writing skill and a dash of sensitivity… Fly Guy is my hip hop superhero !
DOPE!!!
Congrats on a successful tour. Respect and much success to THE OUTFIT. Its quite refreshing to hear good RAP music again…
Can I get my tickets to the Garden in advance?
Chill people are entertaning too.LOL.
Keep being the dude you are cuz its all a test my dude.
go yanks! haha
shoulda said that when you was leaving
when you did the freestyle
I was like yo this dude is nice
I need his contact info for a track
I hope the show got you some more shows and I hope those shows get you more shows and they are all going to be dope and long as they have a crowed a system and a mic.
GOOD SHIT.
WE’RE SUPPORT YOU, HOMIE !!
YO PEACE…IM ELATED FOR U…I ALWAYS THOUGHT U WAS A VERY DOPE MC..AND SEEIN UR PLAYIN ALONGSIDE ONE OF MY INSPIRATIONS ONLY MAKES ME SMILE FOR U…YO U MENTIONED IN YA PIECE (PAUSE) HOW NAS WAS MAKES AN ARTIST SEE ITS OK TO BE LYRICAL AND SPIT WIT SUBSTANCE AND STILL B ABLE TO CONNECT WIT YA AUDIENCE…WELL I WANNA COMMEND U FOR THAT PART THERE…YO WE R FIGHTING DAILY TO KEEP THIS EXIT OPEN..AND THE MORE WE PROMOTE THE NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF OUR LIFES THE MORE THEY SEE FIT TO CLOSE THE EXIT OFF….WE GOTTA KEEP GRINDIN…ROCK THE BELLS MY FELLOW MC..AND MAKE SURE NEXT TIME U HIT BOSTON …U LET THEM KNOW…ITS YANKEES ALLDAY..WE STARTED THIS HIP HOP SHIT…..PEACE.
CONGRATS on your tour. I enjoy your music. I know your Killing the audience with the best so Keep It UP!
You guys just keep doing what you’re doing. You have more support than you think.
Living your dreams & seeing them unfold leaves you breathless…inspired & motivated to keep doin more…Much love & respect…..T
I was surprised to see his performance in Columbia (NAS) much respect to artist who use truth and substance to make music….shout out to The Outfit…your time is now….
Peace and Love
Carrie L.
I will tell you time and time again you are the greatest hands down!!!! Much success to you and The Outfit. We the people need real hip-hop. Hip-hop with substance and you give us that . The bubble gum shit has lost its flavor long ago…
Continue to do what you do best!
No lie, all You need is 1 Mic!
The youth is the future and for you and The Outfit to reach people the way you do is amazing. To let people realize you gotta look beyond what you see and dig deep to find the truth, love and respect within yourselves! Hip hop is alive and breathing through The Outfit, into the mic and out the speakers into our souls! Much respect to yall for tearin down the tour…MUCH LOVE!!
we need dat positive shit g, we needa start puttin out dat inspirational shit dat made nigz wanna get to rappin in the 1st place nah mean!
“The Cure for LIFE is NOW” Ms. Lyles-Williams 2008
One word: OFFICIAL