Tonight I had the pleasure to finally see a rapper I like and have yet to see perform at the Howard Theater…Mick Jenkins. Mick is the type of rapper where when I hear his voice on a song I know it’s him because his sound is so distinctive. Doors were at 7pm and of course in true “me fashion” I left the house around 7:15pm. Parking was a challenge as it’s a rainy night in January and DC parking is always an eye roll because it’s annoying. After circling the block a few times I found a spot I was determined to fit my SUV in but it took me a good ten minutes to park (the man in the car in front of me sat in there the whole time waiting for me to hit him trying to park (and I did not…ha)). 

Walking up to the Howard there was a line beginning to wrap around the outside as the on time people were beginnig to arrive (or technically late I guess because by the time I was inside the opener TOBi was already on stage). TOBi is an artist that I have recently been hip to and have blogged about. Many of the songs that he performed tonight I haven’t heard and were good so I’m going to have to go back and listen to them. His stage presence was great and the crowd was welcoming towards him. He did a good number of songs before he departed the stage (but he didn’t sing my song Someone I Knew-at least as far as I know).

Once it was time for Mick and he appeared on stage I thought, “Hmm, Mick is really good looking (he’s married so calm down).” I often like to wonder if I would see a celebrity randomly on the street if I’d recognize them and looking at him tonight I don’t think I I would (I feel as though this is neither a good nor bad thing). For me, you just have to have a very distinctive look for me to recognize you and I’d have to be paying attention. Anywho, Mick performs song after song talking to us the audience in between especially reminding us to, “Drink More Water.” I love how some songs he performed acapella moreso in the form of poetry (and the most recent song I blogged about “2011” he did this (I was listening to him reciting the lyrics thinking, “Wait I know this song” and then chimed in)). 

Now I know Mick has a vast catalog of material and I’ve been listening to him for years but I also realized tonight that there’s a lot of it that I don’t know. I might actually know more of his features than actual songs (and he’s one of those artists whose feature always makes the song better, always). I respect him a lot because he’s deep (his lyrics have so much depth) and he talks about a lot of real things and not the same thing (what the average rapper raps about all the time-sex, money, drugs and murder) . I was so glad standing there enjoying the show that I decided to get a ticket way back when I did (it was $22 are you kidding of course I got a ticket) and got out of the house to enjoy the moment. He performed some songs from years back that I remember featuring years ago (I can see the post in my head) and it brought back the nostalgia of when he was a new artist to me. 

His last song wasn’t his last song and he performed another good three after that before leaving the stage. Gracious enough he said he would sign records if people had them. Upon leaving I peaked over at the merch booth just to see what was there and there was TOBi standing behind it. I went up to him and said, “I just got hip to you but I love your music. You did a great job tonight and I just featured you on my blog.” He shook my hand and said, “Thank you very much I really appreciate that.” I walked back to my car to find myself wedged between 2 cars with hardly any space of getting out…agh! It took me a good 5 minutes to at least get out but the show ended around 10:10pm (something like that) so the night was still young but I went on home jamming to some TOBi on the way. Goodnight and until the next one.