Urban Jacksonville

Jacksonville’s biggest hip hop event is taking place this Friday and Saturday around the urban core. If you want to know what’s happening, look no further than the Urban Jacksonville Summertime in the City page.

I’ve gathered schedules and artist profiles complete with videos and mp3s. I made this page a one stop shop for all STITC information. I hope this page will serve as a resource for people on the go, at least providing a schedule people can access online with their mobile.

This year’s Summertime in the City triples the number of venues from last year starting TSI on Friday the 31st:

Day 1: Friday, July 31st @ T.S.I.

Headliner: EDAN with Dahga

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan is known for his unique/unlikely take on hip hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60’s rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses, not to mention the off-beat humor and surrealist imagery incorporated via his lyrics.

Performing live with:

Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1’s and 2’s all night.

Day 2: B-boys, parties and final blowout

Day 2 of Summertime in the City kicks off with a B-Boy battle at the Riverside Arts Market stage. This is sure to be one of the highlights of the 2-day event.

After that head over to Springfield to continue Summertime in the City with a party at the BBB Complex at 1520 Main Street:

FREE KEG from Shantytown Pub (while it lasts)! Cheap pizza slices! Live mural painting by: THURSTO, KIDD YZER, KENSKI and crew. Rotating DJs including $The Big Bucks$, DJ Buttered Cup, Spacemikespace, and more. BICYCLES AND SKATE BOARDS! MAD RED BULL and HIP HOP! PRODUCT GIVEAWAYS!

The big blowout at Shantytown starts at 10pm. For $5 you can see performances by: Larry Otis (aka Blakhart), Mr. Al Pete, The Elevated Hip Hop Experience, Heavy Flow, The N Word, Dr. Sam Beckett, Dope Sandwich (Savannah Ga.), Steadfast (DC ) and more!

Become a fan of Summertime in the City on Facebook and listen to the Urban Jacksonville Weekly interview with Tough Junkie where we talk tons of Summertime in the City.

Edan is known for his unique/unlikely take on hip hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60’s rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses, not to mention the off-beat humor and surrealist imagery incorporated via his lyrics.

Edan use to like to wear a wig, but he’s grown his hair out since. From an interview with the Gossiping Bitches blog:

GB: You often wear a wig on stage. Did you run that by Kool Keith first?
EDAN: I deaded that wig shit a long time ago…I actually grew my shit out to accurately replace the wig…that was my scheme the whole time! Cats still think I’m rocking some bullshit wig…but thats part of the punchline.

Edan’s just a Rap Beautician:

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Edan cuttin and rhyming, at the same time!

Credit: Nathan Wind as Cochese

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1′s and 2′s all night.

Join the Dagha fan page on Facebook
Join the Edan fan page on Facebook

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

This show is May 25th at The Pearl in Springfield. Anybody have a link for Fruit Machine?

• Manatella
• Tuffy
• Heavy Flow
• Tough Junkie
• Helios Eye
• America Del Sur
• Wuden
• Fruit Machine
• Buffalo Tears
• LazerStar
• Airport Factory
• Sharing Needles with Jesus

More photos from last night

At the Springfield Area Merchants Business Association meeting last night Ian Ranne announced something I’ve been hinting at for a while: we are planning a music festival for Saturday August 2nd in Springfield called Summertime in the City 08. Before I write anymore here are the details as we know them:

When
Saturday August 2nd, 2008 from 2:00pm to 11:00pm

Where
Springfield Historic District between 1st and 9th streets on Main

What
Three music venues hosting national and local acts. We plan on having a community retail component, think Bizarre Market or Springfield Crap Fair. We will have an environmental awareness / sustainability component, much like last year’s Summertime in the City 07. There’s plenty more planned, I just don’t have any details on those items.

The Venues

• The Pearl (unconfirmed) for rock/metal
• Shantytown Pub for hip hop
• 9th and Main for ska/reggae/jazz/blues

I hope this announcement won’t overshadow the other Springfield Music festival announced yesterday. It’s pretty rad, I write a post a few weeks ago called Springfield Needs a Festival, and now it’s happening.

The Inspiration
Listening to Ian talk tonight at the SAMBA meeting I can see how we fell in to this together. We are both passionate about not waiting for Jacksonville to be a cool, fun place. It is to an extent, but it’s heavily dependent on taking an active role and doing it yourself.

I am living now and I want Jacksonville to be fun now. Not 2 or 3 years from now. I realized a few years ago of you want to make something of this city, it’s relatively easy. You just need to come up with an idea and make it happen.

The Players

• Joey Marchy – promotions and fundraising
• Ian Ranne – promotions and booking
• Daniel Blanchard – community interaction and booking
• Tony Allegretti – wise and sage advisor

Tony is playing the silent partner and will be helping with logistics and connections. He’s very busy adjusting to a new job and warned us he won’t be heavily involved.

Daniel convinced Petra Management to let us use their empty lots along Main Street. This is huge for the festival and for Petra. It will give us extra room to put bouncy tents, snow cone machines, soccer games, bike polo, etc.

It also shows an unprecedented degree of community involvement from Petra Management. We are very happy to be working with them. Daniel and I are meeting with their rep Richard Trendel tomorrow so I’ll have an update on this soon.

What can you do?
Send us ideas and let us know if you want to help and how you can help.

Capitol Hill Block Party, photo: Peter Kearns

This post first appeared as an editorial on The Urban Core blog. I am reprinting it here for archival purposes.

What do all these places have in common? Jacksonville Beach, Mandarin, St. John’s Town Center, San Marco, Southbank, Northbank, St. Augustine, Orange Park. They have a festival taking place in the coming months. I was looking at the festival issue of Entertaining You and I realized there is one glaring omission: Springfield.

I guess I can’t say there are no festivals in Springfield. There is Dog Days in the Park, Heritage Days, the Crap Fair and maybe one or two others I’m missing. But I’d like something different. What I’d like to see is more along the lines of a music festival, something like SXSW, but divided by 10. You know, much smaller.

Capitol Hill Block Party, photo: Peter Kearns

I’m thinking a one day thing. It doesn’t have to be big, and probably shouldn’t be to get started. We can close off a block of Laura Street (I know this is possible, it’s been done before), get a couple of port-o-potties, some kegs of beer, a few local bands, a stage and go from there. It can’t be that hard right?

Of course there are other things we’ll need like:

• Power
• Security
• Food and drink vendors
• Permits
• Sponsors

I’m sure there are quite a few logistics involved in doing this, but I know of two people who have organized something similar in Springfield and Riverside so it’s not impossbile. I’m using the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle as inspiration. I think something like this will bring the community together and inspire people to create similar events in their own neighborhoods.

Most of all I want more fun things to do in Jacksonville.

Reporting from Springfield, this is Joey Marchy and I blog at urbanjacksonville.info. You can contact me there if you want to get down and organize or have ideas/input.

Capitol Hill Block Party, photo: Peter Kearns

I’m happy to say I am the first (I think) editorial contributor to The Urban Core blog. That means I’m on the editorial board now. Whoop!

Head over there and read my post Springfield Needs a Festival. It’s got pictures and everything!

What I’d like to see is more along the lines of a music festival, something like SXSW, but divided by 10. You know, much smaller. I’m thinking a one day thing. It doesn’t have to be big, and probably shouldn’t be to get started.

Quoted from the post Springfield Needs a Festival.