Tonight: Fat Tony & B L A C K I E Tour Kickoff

Sorry I neglected to post about yesterday’s shows, folks — ended up spending the weekend down in Surfside, digging in the sand for little clams and crashing through the waves, and the wi-fi was less than reliable, sadly; I was able to get the new interview with Anthony Vallejo of {Omotai} up online, and that was about it. Apologies, everybody…

But hey, you’re not totally out of luck for the weekend — tonight, Sunday, Sept. 11th (which is a strange, sad date to me for several mostly-obvious reasons), local hip-hop heroes {Fat Tony} and B L A C K I E will be having their tour kickoff party up at Mango’s, and with both of ’em on the bill, it promises to be really damn good.

People can grumble all they want about B L A C K I E, but even the haters have to hand it to the man: he honestly does not give a fuck what you think, and he proves it every time he gets on a stage/parking lot/square of floor. The first time I saw him, he didn’t even seem to know there was an audience; nowadays I’m pretty sure he does, but it matters not a bit, even still.

As for Tony, he’s flat-out one the best MCs in this city, big-name or not — I’ll gladly put on RABDARGAB or The Creation of Fat Tony rather than bother with most hip-hop being made these days, no lie. The guy’s incredible, one of H-town’s brightest lights.

And hell, you don’t have to take my word for it; check these out, instead (fair warning: the B L A C K I E video is, um, NSFW):

Fat Tony — “Nigga U Ain’t Fat”

B L A C K I E — “Girls In The Front/Cut Him Up”

Like I said above, this is the tour kickoff, for the duo’s Black AmeriKKKa Tour; after this, they’re headed east through Louisiana, Mississippi, & Georgia, then on up the east coast to Canada for the Pop Montreal festival, after which they’ll make a midwestern beeline back down this direction. Full dates are here.

Be up there tonight, raise a bottle to the fallen, all that. $8 to get in — oh, and they’re also playing with two Baltimore groups, who I’m afraid I’ve yet to hear: Witch Hat and Beyond Say (and a virtual high-five to those guys for the name, btw). Check it out, y’all.