So, um, yeah. The
F.O.E. bra-throwing story is true, too. Thanks to the fabulous
Heather Hamill of
Jewell Tyme Music for the fabulous photos, which are going up on our
Local Music shelves if the higher ups are cool with bra-throwing incidents during
Westword Music Showcase Award shows, and I'm guessing they will let me slide on this one. Hopefully. ;)
So ... yeah. Finally got to catch
F.O.E. live and: That man is all they say he is
and more. (And he is very, very funny.)
Westword for some time has been into
F.O.E. Even before the
Big Award that garnered
F.O.E. all the tossed bras and panties, which was really only a number of weeks ago.
Says
Westword:
F.O.E. "kills every venue he's booked at. He's also been tapped by ... notables to appear on their projects, and he rips it every time."
Totally. He hit that Thursday night. Why isn't he bigger than he is
already?
Quibian Salazar-Moreno in
July wrote in
Backbeat Online -- that's
Westword's
music blog, if you're from
Neptune -- that
F.O.E. and
Whygee have been "hanging out in the studio together quite a bit lately. Although the two best rappers on either side of
Colorado Boulevard are keeping mum on what they're working on, we were able to get snag a collaboration track from them. Produced by
Puerto Rican producer
Yallzee, the track features
CharleyBrand on the hook and scathing verses from
Whygee and
F.O.E. Could we get a mixtape, EP, or even an album from these two sharing the mike?
Take a listen to the track after the jump."
(Do click on the link and give a listen.)
Nicole Cormier -- yes, that fabulous
hip-hop writer for
Colorado Music Buzz -- had this to say way back in
March:
"
F.O.E.'s comedic appeal crosses over to his extremely entertaining stage show. His presence is captivating, not only because of his
movie-star grin and humorous voice manipulations, but also because of the raw lyrical ability that he possesses. [During] my first introduction to his live performance ... his voice and charisma had the whole crowd hooked.
"Though he's beyond funny, don’t let that fool you. His name is
F.O.E. for a reason; he is upfront and lets people know how he feels. This is apparent in his hard, aggressive and honest flow. Many would classify his music style as
Gangsta Rap, but he is conscious of what he speaks on, and tells a
valid story. His appealing voice and uninhibited cadence makes his tracks interesting and catchy. '
What’s Fear' from
King of the Mountain displays his lyrical and vocal range, and is my favorite track so far."
IMHO
The Fox 
is too small a venue for
F.O.E. Plus I want him to "
cross over" so I can say I purchased a drink for him there. And that I drove from
Parker to
Boulder to see him live and buy him said drink at said
Fox Theater.
(
Side note: My date said what
F.O.E. ordered was a "
gangster drink." What's a
gangster drink?
Crown and
Coke.
Yes, baby! You heard it here first. ;)
My date also noted that it was kewl how
F.O.E. handles
promoting himself. He has got the
talent, but he doesn't forget the
fans either. He
sends out notes via
Twitter thanking folks who came. That's just good
marketing.
Another not-so-side side note is that
The Diamond Boiz were on fire, too. (They opened. The whole lot of them were opening for someone else.) Check out
Dyalekt's myspace page and play the song "
Ven Aqui." Good stuff, huh?
Dyalekt -- such a nice young man!
Truly: You gotta catch these kats live to fully appreciate how young they are.
But that's not even the half of it. They are truly very talented. The dick-grabbing move that all rappers do, that's just lost on me. But otherwise, musically, let's just say well worth that long-ass drive. But then I
LOVE hip-hop just as much as the next guy over.
If you don't love
hip-hop, you might not be fully enamored of these dudes. But check them out anyway, because you never know what individual track, regardless of
genre, is gonna do it for you, yes? Just give "
Tic Toc" a try. And give "
Ven Aqui" a try.
I also love that song "
Tha Box," which I think could do it as far as a cross-over hit. All these beautiful
young Boulder girls were out there dancing, doing the best to answer the call to "put your box up." Which is to say they were making a little box shaped like Colorado with the fingers of each hand. (I forgot the video / camera at work, so I could not film it. Sorry. Sue me.)
Only a true
Denver-ite would come up with something like -- an homage to the box state
Colorado that has young, cute
CU-Boulder freshmen out on the dance floor holding up their hands to make a box the shape of
Colorado, flyover state extraordinaire. (But home-to-me-and-a-ton of-other-kewl-kats flyover, to be sure. ;)
Regarding being kewl: F.O.E. said a very funny thing -- note that he is
very, very funny on stage in between songs -- about nobody ever saying they want to be a
rap star. Everybody says they want to be a
rock star. No one says they want to be a
rap star.
That is so true. Even the
Notorious B.I.G. (aka
Biggie Smalls) thought to himself:
rock star.
So
F.O.E. was kind of rocking out, true to form. He's got a
mowhawk of sorts. And he smokes a lot of
pot on stage, which is an interesting twist because, you know, I'm a
40-year-old
librarian. In
Douglas County, to boot.
(Not that
librarians promote pot-smoking elsewhere, say in
Denver. Just that, well, you know:
Douglas County is
ultra-conservative. I have to wear my
ultra-conservative shoes to work just so they'll let me in the door. ;)
I'm not going to dwell on that here. Especially when the tix are free and
the art is high ;)
I'm just going to end by saying that part of his deal is to
promote the idea of legalized marijuana, I'm guessing. ;)
So ... check out
F.O.E. and let me know your thoughts. (Quite a few
Douglas County Libraries patrons were waiting for
King of the Mountain last time I checked, so you might have to wait a touch if you don't buy the CD -- and if you do trust me, just go ahead and buy it. You can check out his music on his
myspace page before you get the CD. Or watch the
vids. On and on.
So many good choices in life!!)
In general, we should be getting a bunch of
Local Music reviews to post here and
Twitter-up pretty soon -- what with half the staff at my home of
Parker Library listening to
Local Music these last few weeks!
Just wait until I post a review from
Joelle Hein -- she's
Douglas County's biggest
F.O.E. fan,
hands down. She's doing a short piece for us on his
King of the Mountain: Street Mix. I heard her talk about what she was going to put on what is known in library circles as a "shelf talker" -- a little writeup that tells you about something on the shelf, and I was like, um, can you write that down
for me please?
And then: Can I
Twitter that?
(BTW I hate the verb
tweet. I do not
tweet, I'm sorry. I post stuff on
Twitter or
Twitter about stuff or whatnot.
I waterboard folks who tweet. I myself would not be caught dead tweeting.)
Post-post notes: Check out
F.O.E. on the
Box State Music YouTube Channel, and find out where to catch him live via his website,
fatherofenemies.com -- you can also check out the video for "
Tic Toc" there. He did that with
Karma. Or just good ole myspace is great for these moments, too!
(I was having trouble getting the URL for the video to scale down for the size of this blog. Sorry. Will attempt more F.O.E. homages in the near fut.)
Last note, promise: Dyalekt -- his shirt says, in Spanish: Where's my money? Just in case you thought to ask. ;)
Great stuff from Bob Lefsetz today. Here's an especially astute passage ...
"An artist creates because he has to. Is willing to starve if his efforts don't engender commercial success. Historically, recording artists have been in bed with their record company, and radio and concert promoters, those left out of the loop were the audience, the paying customers.
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