My last trip to Texas was my third. The first year I went down there I was completely overloaded by all the shows, people to meet, artists to interview and spent a lot of time scrambling from venue to venue thinking about what I was missing almost moreso than what I was watching. My second trip to Texas was more relaxed. If the first time we went we were more or less scrubs hustling content, the sophomore effort we were being reached out to, hosting s**t, and much more in control. We made our choice in what shows to go to, and calmly did our thing.
This trip to Texas was waaaay different. Instead of covering any events, we went to Texas without any connection to any performances and focused strictly on recording. From our mansion/studio everything happening on 6th street and beyond was a world away transmitted to us through various stories retold by artists visiting the house. Our direction has spurred a lot of thoughts and conversations about how to make the most of your time in Texas. A recurring theme in those conversations is that maximizing your time is not the same as seeing/doing as much as you can. I can’t speak on this from an emerging or established artists perspective, but the artists I’ve talked to have said the same thing. It seems to me that unless you have a stellar performance, impress the right writer, and just blow the socks off people, performing in Austin lasts a few weeks and then it’s on to the next one.
The connections made have the possibility to pay off big time if you hit the nail on the head, and even in my seclusion in the mansion, a few names continued to circulate as performers that did just that. Wiz Khalifa, Freddie Gibbs, Yelawolf, Donnis, and a few other Hip Hop artists were continually mentioned as artists that popped off during the week (more on the dude I think had the most impact coming later). In addition, Pac Div (a group I have been championing for more than two years now) demonstrated the act of popping off during their performance at The Nahright x TSS Knuckle Rumbler party (big props to my little brother Aaron Berkowitz). This is exactly what you need to do to make a statement, and have people buzzing. I compared their video to other videos taken from that very party, and it ranks at the top as far as views and excitement. For those unfamiliar with Pac Div it provides an ‘oh s**t! who are these guys?!?!” For their fans, Pac Div provides even more evidence of their skills and reason for people to support them.
Take this opportunity to hit the jump and see what I’m talking about… go ahead…