I Heart My Polo Lifestyle

Yes... I Am That Short & Yes... He Is That Tall.

This photo was taken on the very day Travie & I met (in person). We were virtually introduced thru a very good long time friend of mine who works at Atlantic Records: Emmannuelle. She’s friends with a lot of people in this music industry. She is well liked & well connected. Anyway, she made introduction because I had mentioned him & she thought that we’d get along. The introduction was made by cc’ing us both on the same email. I replied yet didn’t hear from him for a few weeks. I didn’t take it as any form or disrespect or being blown off; I know that artist (or people in general) this high up on the ‘food chain’ usually are über busy so it may take a while to get back be it a hectic schedule or email getting buried in tons of emails they maybe receiving. Either way he eventually got back to me & invited me to his video shoot during his brief visit to The Rotten Apple. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it because my wife had to work & I couldn’t find a babysitter in time. Any other reason I may have been slightly piss’d that I had to sit something like that out but when it comes to my girls… They make everything feel a-okay.

Our second chance ‘meeting’ was when we jumped on video iChat while Travie was gigging Down Under. I knew he was good peoples when my daughters seemed to take a liking to him… & they don’t like anybody straight off the bat. Well, it’s not really like they don’t like anybody but they get into super shy mode when meeting people they’re not familiar with. Even with people they are familiar with they just drop the “super”¹ but with Travie they were playing Peek-A-Boo with each other, making all sorts of crazy faces with each other & just carrying on like long-time buddies. It was so bug’d out to me that I had to call my wife into the room to show her our girls’ interaction with Trav’. She was pretty surprised as well.

Trav’ & I spoke about a lot of things that early morning. He played me music from his upcoming mixtape (which was dope by the way) & I played some songs by my boys The Morning Benders. Travie likey. He cop’d the album². After hearing his new material it made me realize how dope he was just on some straight spittin’ sh*t. This is when I asked him if he could be on my song “Ross & Chandler”. I had not yet come up with my second verse at the time. I sent him a rough so he could get the idea of where the song was going, it’s meaning & intentions. Again… Travie likey; He’s in! He even suggested flying me down to FL to record the song at his new studio set up at his crib. I’d have love to take him up on that offer but again, trying to find a babysitter on short notice can prove to be a difficult task at times. I’ll make it down there one of these days though for sure.

Ha Ha Ladies... You Can't See His Screen name.

Fast forward a few months & we’re both gigging in SXSW. I didn’t know he was there ’til my last show date. So we eventually get up & meet in person for the first time. He is TALL; I am short. We are cool. We sat down at his hotel room & talked for hours. Conversation went from light to deep & back. We shared a lot of good laughs & enlightenment with each other. He’s a good dude. I actually knew this way beforehand because my daughters warmed up to him instantly.

So, to bring my wordy WordPress blog to a close… Trav agreed to come thru & performing during my set at Aces Lounge. It was a full house in the middle of the afternoon. Judging by the crowd reaction, I was already killin’ it but then Trav’ came out & completely tore the roof off with his explosive freestyle (…off the top of the head by the way). Gave me a whole new admiration for that dude. My salute to him was real people!

Notes:

1. This includes my daughters’ godfathers: Daniel C. Glogower & Kanye2Tha
2. Here’s my Twitter hashtag for those who actually support artist they dig: #iTunesLove

This song inaccurately entitled friends is accurately actually called “Ross & Chandler”. It will either be on my next mixtape or album & will feature Travie McCoy for a guest verse. I wonder whom people would think is Ross & whom people would think is Chandler… BING!

Travie shocked the Hell out of me by completely going off the top of his head & killin’ it… w/o missing a beat. Uh… Yeah… He’s that dope!

Shouts:

• Travie for being a cool brother & coming thru to my show to ‘tear the roof off the mother sucker’. I’m looking forward to putting the finishing touches on “Ross & Chandler” m’man. Word! Oh yeah… “AMBER LAMPS”!!!
• Emmanuelle thanks for linking us up. By the way, for all these years I’ve known you, I had no idea there was more to your first name & that it is actually hyphenated… Chandra.
• Report2Detention for capturing these moment, & many more, during my SXSW performances this year. Please add the hyphen to my name.

Post Script: I introduced Travie McCoy to The Morning Benders after my set. Meeting of the (creative) minds.

~ by 88-Keys on May 22, 2010.

Posted in Kodak Moments (Photos), Moving Pictures (Video)
Tags: 88-keys, aces lounge, austin, friends, ross & chandler, sxsw, texas, travie, travis mccoy, tx