Ok listen.

I always thought that SXSW was overhyped from the people that were attending it but considering who I was standing next to on the first night I was out and about? I was completely wrong.

After catching a flight from Phoenix to New Mexico to meet up with my girl Bianca from the hiphopchicz.net we trekked down to Las Cruces to meet up with Nina ( hiphopphotochic) where we talked about the week ahead of us. Once they showed me the 3 little digs ode to SXSW I was so hype to just get there that i think I went to bed kind of early and was the first one awake to hit the road to Austin.

That drive sucked balls, thank god for Bianca and Janina for driving majority of the way because I would have most definitely gotten antsy. Theres no other way to put it other than there was nothing but dirt, some hills, more dirt, and maybe a few road kill animals that made it through the dirt to get hit by semi’s and SXSW enthusiasts like ourselves. Once we got to Austin Texas we checked in with my Tio Ellie who was kind enough to open his home up to us to stay for the week, ate some bomb bbq that he fixed up, then headed to downtown Austin for night number 1 of SXSW.

As soon as I touched down at SXSW I made sure to swing by the Fader Fort and say whats up to Rob Stone, and see what they were working with there. Danny Brown had JUST hit the stage and considering I hadn’t watched him perform before I stuck around and watched what he brought to the mic with his adidas cowboy boots. No really he had Adidas cowboy boots ahaha…

The Fader Fort was THAT place to go to for a festival within its own festival, they had their own vendors with Beats By Dre, Converse, Djing, and much more for patrons to check out and enjoy. The VIP section was so necessary with couches, drinks and snacks for the appropriate occasion and a damn good side view of the stage. IF you head to SXSW in 2013, don’t be a dummy- make sure to RSVP for the Fader Fort to see some of your favorites perform. I think at one point we saw Mystikal playing ping pong in the Fort. True story.

From there I linked back up with the Hip-Hop Chicz, and happened to run into The Writers Guild who were performing at this years festivities which is a GREAT look.
The Belmont was the first landing spot where my boy Meka from 2dopeboyz was in the mix, and Lowkey from UHTN was on the mic. I had heard some things about his hosting skills, and I have to say I was VERY impressed by his sense of humor and skills on the mic. He kept the crowd engaged while Mek Dot dropped some heavy hitting tracks, occasionally coming out from behind the dj booth with his uncontrollable hype. (which was probably the most energetic I’ve seen homie in years haha) …

The first performer we saw on stage was none other than the lovely Elle Varner, who has won me over with her sense of humor and WTF single off of Conversational Lush. I did get to talk with her for a quick second, she’s a DOLL!

After she went on, there were a few honorable mentions who shared the stage but I think it was the performance from Miguel that had ALL the women in a moist state of mind with his VERY risqué lyrics. I believe it was a newer track so I’m hoping to hear that on his next album because it was definitely a panty dropper….

MGK was his usual self with ridiculoud Rage energy and this time I got to see him perform with a band in tow, who I have to say, are JUST as f*ckin hype as he is. Eventually during his performance he ended up on the balcony where i THOUGHT he might jump off but he didn’t. I was a little worried for a second lol.

2chainz then hit the stage with about 80 of his closest enterouge members as expected, and got the crowd to do their usual 2chaaaaaaainz rants throughout the show, but it was the excitement building up backstage that had a lot of people wondering who was really coming up next. I was literally about to leave the spot to head to see another group performing down the street, but I was told to stay put because of what was about to happened. After I shot a text message to the hiphopchicks that I was staying put, I see in the corner of my eye a bunch of flashes going off and people starting to migrate towards the back corner of the venue.

I first saw Big Sean but didn’t see Kanye until after his 3 security guards cleared out of the way and thats when I started to get a little excited knowing that I was probably going to witness one of the biggest surprise performances at SXSW to go down. After all Kanye wasn’t supposed to be scheduled to perform, but at the end of 2chainz set he brings out Big Sean who then brings out Kanye West who performs his verse from Marin Gaye & Chardonnay. It was pretty cool to see Kanye chillin in the cut just supporting Sean without trying to take the spotlight which is what he was doing when he was there at first.
I thought that was it, until Meka dropped Can’t Tell Me Nothin and thats when Kanye grabbed the mic for an impromptu performance.

Once I left from there, I tried to hurry to Six Lounge to see Just Blaze spin but I showed up right when they were closing up shop. Regardless I got to have a 4 block walk/convo with him (which included speed walking because after all, he is Just Blaze walking the streets of Austin texas and rappers were on the hunt hahahahaha) meeting up with the hiphopchicz, and back to the car.

The crowd went crazy when this happened, and it created quite the first night experience for myself. SXSW, night one? Epic.