THE DKA LIFE

“RHA Fall Welcome Concert featuring Mike Posner, Big Sean and Fly.Union, hosted by DJ Steph Floss and Cliff Skighwalker”

Props to Chad Powell for the dope poster design

The concert was sponsored by the MSU Residence Halls Association and it was free for all MSU students, however, there were a very limited number of tickets, 350 to be exact and they sold out in just under six hours.  I of course got my ticket to the show and then was also hooked up with a press pass, shout out to Melissa Hackett.

After a long morning of tailgating for the MSU/CMU game and after a depressing loss, I headed over to the Union Ballroom to have a meet n greet with the artists.  Big Sean and Mike Posner were both running late, so in the meantime I chilled with another MSU blogger, Trey, from  TheCoolestOut & The Black Sheep News and Cliff Skighwalker, who helps manage Burn Rubber (a sneaker shop in Royal Oak) and he also was going to be hosting the event.  Shout out to both of them, be sure to check em out.

Before Mike Posner arrived, Rodney James stopped by to answer several questions.  He is the RHA Director of Special Events and said they had started organizing the event in April, which is one of the reasons the concert was held at such a small venue, it was hard to know how popular the show would be (both Big Sean and Mike Posner have blown up in popularity over the summer).  Rodney is also affiliated with Fly.Union and is good friends with both Sean and Mike, but said business always has to come first.  Every time I saw him, he was working his ass off.  He put on one hell of a show.  Kid is gonna do big things with his life.

After Mike Posner finished his sound check, we had a chance to ask him a few questions.

I asked him about school and he said “I signed my deal in July, but my mom convinced me too go back and finish my senior year.”  Posner is currently attending Duke University studying Sociology and Business.  I then asked him how he manages his schoolwork and music career and keep his high GPA (I’d heard it was around a 3.8).

“Well, I’m really smart, haha I’m just kiddin’, I actually dropped to a 3.6, because I had a really busy finals week last year, the infamous last week, you guys know, the last week is when you do all the work.  I had booked shows at Wayne State and the University of Dayton, but I didn’t know that labels were going to like my mixtape and stuff.  A month after my mixtape drops, I had a performances at Wayne State University, then I had to go to New York Monday, go to school Tuesday and Wednesday, go to Detroit for shows Thursday and Friday, University of Dayton on saturday, come back to 3 finals on Tuesday, do my show at Duke Wednesday, recorded a song with 9th Wonder, Big Sean, & Wale Thursday, and then met Jay-Z on Friday.”

Mike Posner’s is planning on dropping another mixtape late October and his album is set to drop in the first or second quarter of 2010.  He stated that it is going to be “total crack monkiness, the album is going to be so nuts”.  I then asked who was going to be on the album.

“I really don’t want to have a lot of features on it, but you would probably expect to see Big Sean.  But I totally believe on my album being amazing without anybodies help so there’s no confusion as to where the amazing-ness is coming from.”

My buddy Chad then asked Mike what one of his most memorable experience he has had yet.  “Crowd surfing in Daytona Beach, its so fun, I might just do it tonight…..just don’t drop me (laughs)” Mike also said that he’d like to sometime work with one of his favorite artists Paul Simon or Andre 3000.

Mike Posner is a really really cool dude.  Very bright and humble and also appreciative of all his fans.  After the interview was over, Mike took time to visit the fans who were already in line an hour before the show started.  Around 8 the crowd started pouring in.  While the crowd was waiting, DJ Steph Floss kept the tracks spinnin’ for the crowd.

2000 National Champion, Mateen Cleaves made a special appearance to his alma mater to promote his new artist Jon Connor, who currently has a mixtape out “The Calling pt. 2: The Second Coming”, which you can DOWNLOAD HERE.

Jon Connor only had time for one song, but he definately brought a lot of energy and I look forward to listening to his mixtape more.  Here’s just a snippet of his performance.

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Next up was Fly Union, some of you on your hiphop game may have heard their song Poed Up ft. Big Sean which is pretty dope.  They had a pretty good set and brought in some drums and keyboard playing which was a very nice addition.  They also handed out free mixtapes to all of the fans (which you can D/L below). I personally enjoyed their performance of “Gold Chain”, that shit goes hard.

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Fly Union definately did their job and got the crowd hyped up, I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.  Download their mixtape HERE, you won’t be disappointed.  They are signed under LeBron’s marketing company and they do all of their own producing. Expect their full album to drop in the spring.  Until then, they plan to drop these lovely value packs every now n then for us.

Next up was Big Sean, probably the artist I was most hyped up to see.  He grew up in Detroit and had actually planned to goto Michigan State after college (before he was signed to Kanye’s label, G.O.O.D Music.)  I heard about Big Sean when he first made his appearance on Kanye’s 2007 summer mixtape “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” with his first single “Getchya Some” (youtube the video, directed by Hype Williams, its sick).  Big Sean’s voice and flow always sounded similar to Fabolous to me.  His lyrical wordplay is genious, all of his metaphors are on point.  If you don’t already have his mixtapes Finally Famous the Mixtape or UKNOWBIGSEAN, go download that shit immediately.  That is an order.

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Big Sean played his song “Desire, Want, and Need”, he also played his single “Getcha Some”  Here’s the video for that, my bad on the shakiness towards the end, I was backstage jammin’ out to it with Mikey P (peep him towards the end of the video).  During one of the songs they tossed out over 20 hard copies of UKNOWBIGSEAN to the crowd.  He also played his remix to “Rollin”, “Hollywood”, one of my personal favorites “Supa Dupa”.  The only disappointment for me was that he didn’t perform “Paper Chaser”.  But overall his performance was great and unforgettable.

Next up was Mike Posner.  I was suprised how big his following was, but like he was saying, most of his success has just been through word of mouth.  He definately brought out some of MSU’s best ladies. Make sure you download his album A Matter of Time.  Mikey P sang “First Date Sex” his remix to Jeremiah’s “Birthday Sex”, “Evil Woman”, “Still Not Over You”, and “Drug Dealer Girl”.  He was murderin’ the keyboard (once the sound guys got it runnin’, but it was all good).

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After that, Big Sean came back on stage and for their songs “Who Knows” & “Smoke n Drive”.  This was easily my favorite part of the night.  Both of their styles complement each other very well and make for some good music.

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“Who Knows”

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“Smoke n Drive”

The concert was a blast.  Both of the artists were smilin’ the whole time during the concert.  I had a chance to have a quick chat with Big Sean and he’s a really humble guy and appreciates all the love from his fans.  He had actually bought 350 Finally Famous T-shirts himself for all of the fans, but sadley they didn’t make it in on time.  The whole Finally Famous crew was all very friendly and hopefully we’ll be able to keep in touch.  After the show Big Sean, Mike Posner, and Fly Union all stuck around the venue to meet all of the lucky fans and take pictures and give autographs.  Its not that often that you hear of artists delaying their nightlife to meet and greet all the fans.  Big ups to them.

Here are some more pictures for you all to enjoy.

Shout out to Rodney and all of RHA for putting on this great show.

Shout out to TheCoolestOut, check their blog for more questions with Mike Posner

Shout out to Cliff Skighwalker, professional frisbee thrower and the whole Burn Rubber crew.

Shout out to Mateen Cleaves and Jon Connor, Chad, Eric @ hiphopzoo (for first tellin’ me about the show), Fly Union, DJ Steph Floss, Big Sean & the whole Finally Famous crew and lastly Mike Posner for the entertaining interview.  You all put on a great show.

DA out.