So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Tossed Salad and Rap Ballads

I debated with myself about writing this post for a long time. I thought the situation might change, or people just wouldn't care enough to read it. But the truth is if you've been paying any attention to BR and Timebomb, you may have noticed we haven't done anything together in almost a year. That's right, I had to do a little internet research to confirm it. Five of us played at the Five Spot last August for Shanelle's birthday show (BR was out of town for family stuff). Five of us played (with Frank Schaub subbing for Black Velvet ) at Mi Tierra Community Garden for Digital Duo Day, a digital empowerment event in June 2014. The last show with all 6 members was a memorial event for our friend and benefactor Chantal Legros at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in March '14.

So what happened? The whole story can be summed up in the words of Posdnous, aka Plug Won, of De La Soul: "Man, life can get all up in your ass. Baby, you better work it out."

Yeah, life gets in the way when you're in your mid-to-late 30s and you're in a local hip-hop band. Black Velvet's life got complicated in many ways and he took an extended leave after our gig opening for Patti Labelle, Tank, Ginuwine, Tyrese, etc. at Groovin' in the Park back in the summer of 2013. BR's life also got complicated last summer and he has effectively retired from music. My brother may be the only martial/graphic/visual/rap artist I know and he's focusing on the first of those four right now. He's started his own business in Brooklyn and is doing everything he can to take care of his kids.

As for the rest of us? Shanelle took her talents (and the Youngbloods Jazz Quartet) to Clinton Hill two years ago, and has kept it going through hard work and indomitable will. Olivia is teaching and playing classical music, as well as playing with YJQ and Devlin Miles' band Sweet Little Bloodhound sometimes. Karnage is the DJ at the YJQ series most Saturday nights, and plays bass with his hardcore band Rebelmatic. You should check them out. I'm playing with YJQ almost every Saturday and a few other bands here and there (Sweet Little Bloodhound, Sasha Anniyah/The Collective, Comandante Zero, etc.). And Black Velvet has come back around to jam with YJQ at the Five Spot quite a bit.

The truth is, it's hard to keep a band of six adults together for 12 years. It's hard to keep all of those disparate personalities and interests and needs and schedules clicking. It's even harder when you're not making a whole lot of money doing it. The average club in NYC or anywhere else is paying you based on who comes to see you, not on how many people you keep in the club because your music is dope. (Never mind the club promoter trying to build a regular clientele or help promote the show.) And our core fan base got older along with us, got jobs, got married, had kids...

So we got real DIY with it for a few years: started playing outside in the parks every summer, bought our own PA system, our own generator, tents. We played in hundred-degree weather, we played in the rain, we played in the snow. And people would come. But after the economy went south, the people stopped putting money in the bucket. I don't want to sound like that's the only reason anyone does this, BECAUSE IT'S NOT, but it makes a difference when you start having mouths to feed besides your own. And we had a lot of musical friends going through the same things around the same time. Some of them gave up, some of them downsized or reinvented themselves. I guess, in our own way, everyone in our band has chosen one or more of those three.

We did some pretty cool stuff in 12 years and some pretty silly stuff. Here's the stuff I remember:

• releasing three EPs and one full-length album, all self-financed
• putting on our own one-day festival in Forest Park, picking up sponsors, getting on NY1
• partnering with BoCoCa Arts Festival to move our festival under their umbrella in Brooklyn for the next three years
• Karnage falling off the stage in Coney Island AND FINISHING THE SONG
• opening up for Patti LaBelle, Tank, Ginuwine, Tyrese, etc. I know I said it already but it bears repeating
• driving to Oberlin, OH to play Shanelle's and my college reunion, partying, driving to Chicago the next night to do a show, driving back to Ohio, partying some more, Black Velvet getting 2 speeding tickets...
• playing outside in every borough but Staten Island (no disrespect, Staten Island)
• performing on Manhattan cable access twice and Brooklyn cable access once
• getting on Eyewitness news at a Parks & Recreation event up in Harlem
• that time on tour in NJ when Karnage said all brown people stockpile napkins and we realized we all did it!
• BR climbing the backstop fence in Carroll Park like Eddie Vedder while rapping
• our webcast at AM Studios that made it all the way to Germany and South Korea
• playing outside for people of all ages, races, sizes, nationalities and connecting with them

That last one is probably the deepest one for me and what I'll miss the most. Because when we were at our best, it didn't matter if you liked hip-hop music or not, we were connecting with you. And for me personally, I felt something with this group different from everyone else I play with. Because they're family. Maybe we'll get it back together, maybe not. Either way, we had a good run.