SoundNexx

RAHEEM DEVAUGHN HITS DETROIT!
If you didn’t know already, your boy SoundNexx tries to stay active when it comes to supporting local concerts and music driven events whenever possible. Just this past Saturday I went to show some support for my dude Raheem DeVaughn a.k.a The R&B Hippie by attending his concert at a spot called the Asian Village in downtown Detroit. This event was put together by Drake and the folks over at Urban Organic who has been blessing Detroit with independent soul events for almost a decade now. The concert was supposed to start at 9 p.m., which normally means around 10 p.m. in most cases. I rolled up into the spot just before 9 o’clock and to my astonishment I quickly noticed that there were only 6 tables and 15 chairs available for patrons to sit down. Of course by the time I got arrived those seats were long gone. I was slightly pissed off at the poorly planned seating arrangements, but I decided to make the best of it. I figured the concert would be starting shortly, so I made sure that I was strategically located near the front of the stage prior to the concert starting. Nice??

There’s a deejay in the place spinning records while the crowd starts to get larger. At about 9:45 p.m. the host for the evening finally makes his way to the stage for the first time. The crowd quickly became aroused and began to jockey for their viewing positions. I can’t remember the host’s real name, so let’s just call him Chuck. Chuck gets on stage and makes the typical ice breaking type comments like “the ladies are sure looking fine tonight” and “ya’ll ready to have a good time.” By this time most of us had been standing on our feet for over an hour, so all we were thinking was get on with the damn show man! After about 10 minutes of his chit-chat about nothing, Chuck promised the crowd that things would be starting real soon and to keep enjoying the deejay sounds while mingling amongst each other. At this point the crowd started to get a little irritable. At approximately 10:20 p.m., Chuck (the host) returned to the stage making excuses for the delay, but promised the show was getting ready to start. He opened his mouth and began announcing the arrival of the first act, so he yells out “welcome to the stage…K’Jon?” The crowd was like, who the hell is K’Jon??

K’Jon (shown on the left) is a local Detroit soul artist on the come up right now. He must have been a last minute addition because K’Jon was not listed on the flyer at all. Anyway, K’Jon sang a few tracks from his latest release “Ballroom Xplosion” that nobody really seemed to know but a few folks. Outside of the obvious missing second button on K’Jon’s sports jacket, the guy did his thing! It’s hard to please a disgruntled crowd, so I applaud him for keeping his composure during this awkward moment. All I kept thinking during his performance is where the hell is Raheem! After performing about 4 songs with no crowd involvement, K’Jon finally exited the stage. Here comes ole’ Chuck again with some more of his stale jokes and unadvised adlibs, which was upsetting the crowd more so than helping the situation. It wasn't what he was saying so much, but his lack of sympathy and compasion for folks in attendence. Now, it’s about 10:50 p.m. and still no R&B Hippie dammit! My dawgs (feet) were starting to bark now! Timberlands are made for walking, not for standing still on concrete for 2 hours and some change. The females that had worn those pointy-toed boots and high heeled stilettos were almost in tears at this point. The pain in their feet was kicking…their…asses literally!

Finally, Chuck mentions that Raheem’s airplane was late due to a snow storm that was in the local Detroit area. Then he suddenly announces that another local soul artist by the name of Doc Holiday (shown on the left)was about to hit the stage next. Mr. Holiday is fan favorite here in Motown, but he knew the crowd was not too happy, so he only did a couple of tracks and then bounced. It’s about 11:15 p.m. at this point, so Mr. Adlibs (Chuck) gets back on stage and starts asking musical trivia questions for some crowd participation to win t-shirts. Now, folks in the crowd are beginning to get vocally belligerent with Chuck, and he’s not taking it too well. I actually thought that a riot was going to break out if Raheem didn’t hit the stage soon? All of a sudden Chuck yells on the microphone that Raheem DeVaughn is finally in the building, and there was a sigh of relief in the building. Out of the blue the artist known as Demont Peekaso starts lacing the stage with his signature paintings, so you know the party was about to start. Peekaso normally performs at all Raheem DeVaughn’s events. Peekaso paints several canvases on stage while Raheem sings. It’s a pretty interesting concept actually.

At about 11:45 p.m. Raheem finally hits the stage! He made a quick apology for being so damn late and immediately started singing several new tracks from his upcoming album “Music Behind The Melody.” He dropped 6 unheard new joints on us first and then he went back and sang some of his classic joints off of the “Love Experience” album. Raheem had the crowd rocking and soon I had forgotten about how long I had been waiting? About an hour into the concert Raheem started to hand out single stemmed roses to the ladies and stuff, getting them all excited and aroused. Then all of sudden he did costume change right on stage? He put on a plastic head crown, purple cape and a pair of those ugly white Kanye West window shade sunglasses. Unfortunately, I was so close to the stage that Raheem actually saw me laughing really hard when he turned around dressed like a pimped out Burger King asking who wants to be his queen! Nevertheless, he was unfazed by my antics and kept it moving along, plus the ladies were all in by this time. Now, the drunk broad pushing and shoving contest started ensue throughout the crowd, and needless to say that I lost that battle big time. Fellas, don’t ever get in the way of a bunch of horny and drunk women because you could get hurt literally. It was about 1:30 a.m. at this point, so to avoid any further harm I exited the building right after Raheem finished singing his new single “Woman!” Unfortunately, the same snow storm that had delayed Raheem’s airplane was waiting outside to put some snowflakes in my ass as well during my long drive home! Thanks Raheem DeVaughn, it was a helluva night!

When I get a minute I plan on posting some live concert footage that I recorded and more photos that I took during the event. Until that time, enjoy the pics that I have already posted…