SWAy From MTV!
what chu know about the hip hop scene in paris? I walked into the grand palace on friday night and was blown away by the venue. every aspect of hip hop culture could be found all in this space. graff exhibits, graff in progress, a dance arena, a huge performance stage, bball court, half pipe, and skate jumps. there were huge canvas's put up on scaffolding for the graff artists and a schedule full of performances and dance competitions. wow. it was so dope. i checked the scene out then found a spot in the arena to watch these two chics battling it out. they then invited all the people who want to get down onto the floor. with no inhibitions here in paris, i decided to go down and break it down, haha. i saw sway from mtv! on my way to take a picture with him, i met up with my girl Alyssa and she said that he had already asked for her number!
Next, i went up and introduced myself and said i was from LA. Hes like "aww gimme some love girl". he told us that he was really happy to meet ppl from home cuz he was in paris for a week already and no one spoke english. apparently he was in paris because he is making a documentary on the history of the hip hop culture in France. he said that the hiphop culutre in the US is lost today and the fundamentals and basics of the culture are never seen anymore or rarely. he said that in france it is still very much alive in the original sense, bboys battles graff all that. i was very impressed with how down to earth and intelligent he was. he used alyssa as a translator for one of the interviews and she got to be in his documentary AND on mtv news.
He then asked what we were doing that night and invited us to a club with him. had our names put on the guest list. dope! i was stoked. we had some beer and then he had to go and do more interviews. he said we were more than welcome to tag along, so we followed him up onto this platform to watch the performances and then backstage. it was tight. we got to meet some of the biggest producers and head honchos in the hiphop scene in paris. we met this one cat who had been in the scene for over 20 years and who knew biggy and mary j back in the day. he invited us to his radio show on thursday when the game was going to be interviewd. sway was going to pre record for him because apparently sway has a radio show here in paris.
after being backstage for a while he invited us out to dinner with them. hell ya. they had a van pulled up and me alyssa, sway, some hiphop producers in paris, his potographer, editor, assistant and producer all went down into le marais and had dinner at this african restaurant. it was so bomb. he goes everytime he is in paris. there were pics of other famous ppl there too. snoop dog, rihanna. i sat next to him and we chatted all throughout dinner. topics such as interracial relationships, the history of hiphop, differences in french/american culture were all hot. i told him about myself because he asked how i ended up here. told him i sing and suggested i hook up with this producer who's email i got. sway was tight. nice to meet another smart man. he was funny when we were talking about interracial relationsips. his first gf was named kim and filipino. LOL. he is a great person to converse with. very intelligent and humble. when i asked how he stayed grounded he said that he just lives his life and doesnt dwell on all that. hes come a long way from growing up on welfare in oakland. also breeds dogs and sells them to celebs like 50 etc, but trains them in swahili so that they cannot easily be stolen. interesting.
we said our goodbyes cuz they had to cut out to do another interview that night. i told him that it was cool to meet him and that he was really down to earth and it was refreshing. he was like u actlike we arent gonna see eachother ever again! and agreed to see us on sunday back at the festival.
sunday comes along and i had some other events going on and i didnt get out of the house till 4pm and by the time i got to the event, they werent letting anyone else in! wack. but as i was eating i got a missed call from alyssa. checked my message and it was SWAY! he just said i was wack for not coming out and good luck and it was dope kicken in. he also threw in a few french words that we were trying to teach him haha. i called back and got to say peace to him. he was like like where u at youre wack! alyssa was with them again on the champs elysees. exchanged info and told him id keep in touch. DOPE!!
check out the pics!
by
kimmyduEw
La Nuit Blanche
So after I came back from Bruxelles it was La Nuit Blanche (the white night). It is kind of like a city wide festival where there are art exhibitions open everywhere and monuments, museums, cafes, and metros stay open from 7pm to 7am. I was so stoked about it. The first place I went was Centre Pompidou where they were playing short films in a film festival outside on a projector. There were GANGS of people in the streets. Apparently this night is known all around europe and was adopted by a bunch of other cities like bruxelles. I went to Notre Dame and they erected a huge screen and showed a documentry on the history of the cathedral over the alter. It was surreal. Watching a movie INSIDE Notre Dame. Anywho. To make a long story short, my feet started to hurt, I was tired, and it was cold so i headed home. Right as I was about to turn onto my street, my night drastically changed.
A guy approached me in saying that he saw that i was alone and proposed, if i wasnt too tired, to walk with him along the Seine River. I ended up staying out with him until 4am. We walked all the way from my house past Notre Dame which is a good distance. We talked about everything from what we are studying to what we want in our lives. It was so refreshing to meet a guy who wasnt trying to come with wack ass lines. He had respect and was intelligent. Who woulda thought though? Just before I went back home someone just approached me. Like the Jamie Cullum song says, what a difference a day makes. We walked along the seine and he taught me stuff about french culture and i taught him english words. Nothing like that has ever happened to me and i have never felt so comfortable meeting guys as i am here. theyre different in the sense that they dont approach me trying to spit game. all the guys ive met have been that way. i love it. i feel so at ease. The whole situation with this guy felt very movie-esque from how he approached me to how we ended up talking for hours walking along the seine and sitting in front of notre dame. He was really cool and i dont see it turning into more but i definetely slept that night with a smile on my face knowing that i finally am happy. im finally surrounded by an environment that i love and the relations between sexes works so much better here. its not so full of games. if you like someone you go and talk to them. thats how it is here. no games or gray.
...im just really happy. :)
Bruxelles
So my roomate, Chelsea, and I spontaneously decideded to take a trip to Brussels, Belgium since we had a week of vacances. We took the THALYS train there and it only took 1hr 20mins. I love that I can just up and go to a completely other country. We left Thursday afternoon and came back Saturday in time for La Nuit Blanche which litterally means the white night. It's an event in Paris where everything stays open from 7pm to 7am including museums, cafes, metros, and monuments.
So we got there thursday night and spent that night with Ashley's friends that she made when she was there last summer for an internship. Met this kid who was the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen. Basically melted when he walked in the door. That night we had Durum which is this turkish speality. It was the closest thing to a burrito that we are gonna find in Europe. We stayed with her friend Julie who truly is so nice. She gave us her place to stay while she stayed at her BFs. All of Ashley's friends came over and we drank wine. Found out that in Brussels they smoke bud mixed with tabacco. Figured that out the hard way. It was fun. Had the best wine Ive ever had..Argentinien. Had a tunisien guy tell me he loved me haha.
Friday we went downtown to Ashley's old work and met somemore of her old coweorkers. Then we had an infamous "gauffre belge" which is a REAL belgian waffle. It really is all its cracked up to be. I'm gonna miss the food man. Of course we shopped down this famous street called Rue Neuve. We also the famous fountain "Mannekin Pis" which is of a little boy peeing and on holidays they dress him up and he pees beer. Hilarious. We saw the grand square which was pretty amazing. The architecture was incredible. It went along with a story about the man who killed himslef from the top of the city hall because he realized at the end of construction that the building was lopsided.I spent a lot of time immitating the flemish language there. You guys know me I cant help immitating stuff! After shopping we went back to Julies and got ready to go out that night. Hung out with that hot ass guy later too. He told me i looked like this gorgeous singer on tv and I was SO flattered haha. We spent that night wandering around downtown till the wee hours with Ashley's good guy friends. Went to a venue where it was amateur night with a exhibition of rockabilly photos in one room. Pretty dope.
Saturday we had a short tour of some more touristy sites as well as go to a chocolaterie because of course I couldnt go to belgium without buying some chocolate. We also the friend of Mannekin Pis which was a fountain of a girl peeing which is pretty vulgar. We ate one last gauffre belge and durum and headed to the station. stopped to have a drink then headed back to Paris. The ppl there drink beer no matter what time of time. I had a blast there and am definetely going back. Ashley's friends are awesome.
The photo album that goes along with this should follow the blog.
by
kimmyduEw
