Converse presented PBW's 999, Peanut Butter Wolf spinning videos at 9 clubs in the L.A. area, 9 days in a row in 9 area codes.
PBW's 999 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Days 4-6 | Days 7-9
Well, one down and 8 to go. The hardest thing about yesterday for me was that my brother and his wife had a baby girl yesterday in San Jose where they live and I wasn’t able to be there for the birth. The good news is that she was born healthy, without complication, and they are now happy first time parents! I can’t wait to fly back home to San Jose when this is all over and see my new niece.
Last night was hilarious on so many levels. There was a lot of traveling and coordinating with Prince Paul who got into Fullerton the night before. When there’s 2 people involved, I find myself spending more time coordinating than getting my personal set together. I’ve been kinda running on adrenaline because I ended up producing the event for the first night, which means stage managing, paying the other talent out, etc. Even “to do” lists only help so much. And Tim is working around the clock too. Without him, this couldn’t have happened any of the 3 years. Without my wife Violet, none of this could have happened either. She’s been my behind the scenes foundation that I lean on for help with EVERYTHING. Doesn’t hurt that she’s a stylist either. Much props to Nic and Lisa AKA Stacy who have been doing a lot of help with the merch, screen, projector, etc.
Last year I decided to wear a white tee and Dodger hat every night since that’s the LA uniform, but this year, I casually thought about dressing “90’s” every night. I found out over these past several weeks that it’s harder than I thought to find the gear. I spent a lot of time at thrift stores and some on ebay. Also learned that ebay doesn’t work well for clothes. I bought a green cross colours denim “suit” where I later found out that the bottom was way too small for me and the top was way too big. They basically took 2 different pieces and put them together as a “set.” Oops.
As far as the opening show with Paul, I wanted to do something special as far as outfits go. Just seeing BBD performing “Poison” in 1990 at the MTV music awards with the matching airbrushed overalls made me wanna go that route and Paul agreed that it was the move. I told him that Converse was helping us with the shoes and he said, “let’s each wear 2 different colors” which excited me even more. Even made me regret not doing that for the 999 shoes we made. Tammy, who works with me at Stones Throw hooked up the overalls with our names on them and we were in the house!
The best thing about the opening night for me was seeing so many DJs I admire there for me to come and support. And they all spun 90’s. My wife saw Rhett for the first time as we watched him from the snack bar (they don’t have a bar at the venue). She said to me, “wow, Rhett is really good. I had no idea he was that good. I just thought he was a sweet guy” and we laughed. Next came Mayer, who wowed me with the Notorious B.I.G. style cable knit sweater. He told me planned out a grunge set, which I was happy to hear because before that night, I had only heard him tell me he’s a 90’s rock fan, so finally I got to see it. Then, Dam came to bat and repped some of the more west coast side of the 90’s. I couldn’t believe he did a keytar solo at the end of “Aint No Fun” by Snoop. Prince Paul made me promise him to send a copy of Dam’s album. Pase Rock did a mixture of everything 90’s, which is kind of what my plan has been for the 9 nights too. It was tough because we had so many DJs on the bill that everyone’s set was so quick, but they all made the most of it. And I don’t think I’ve done a gig with Muggs since Charizma and I opened for Cypress Hill back in 1992. He was killing it (I hate saying that about DJs, but he really was) on the routines and did a good combo of rock and rap. He got there super early to make sure the turntables were the right height, which reminded me that he’s a professional!!!
Then was our moment of truth. The worst thing was the 10 minutes of chaos at the beginning of our set. During sound check, the videos were working fine, but when we went on for the actual show, no video. We wanted to make a grand entrance in our matching outfits, but after the first song kept playing with no video, we waited back stage and finally decided to just go on stage and help fix the problem. It was definitely a bummer, mainly because I didn’t know if we’d be able to fix it, but after plugging and unplugging chords, I found out that Paul’s turntables were at least working, so I went over to his and started the set there. It was so NERVEWRACKING because I didn’t know the order of his songs, but I had to just play it off like I knew what I was doing, while at the same time, trying to fix my 2 turntables. I eventually fixed the other side and we got all 4 turntables working with video, but by then, our set time was almost over. Show was supposed to end by midnight, but the crowd kept doing the “one more song” bit. I wanted to keep going longer too and that’s what we did for around a half hour longer.
It was definitely an interesting start to the So Cal 9 night “tour”. One thing I really was impressed with was how much the crowd wanted to hear underground stuff. At the end we opened it up to “requests” and all the requests were for songs that I felt were even better than the ones I played! “Peachfuzz” impressed me the most and I was so happy to play that one. There were lots of requests in the audience for Charizma, so I ended the night with a live TV performance of “Ice Cream Truck”. It was fitting and ironic because it was my last song and at the end of that TV performance, credits for the TV show start rolling so it made it feel like the end of a movie.
Wolf & Prince Paul photo by V
