Brockway Biggs Tour Blog

Day 21: London Weekly Open Mic at The Wick

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:21:00 +0000

Location: London, ON

First off, tonight was THE most fun show of the tour so far. London folks showed a ton of love... just a great vibe at The Wick!!

The day started off in Toronto, where I checked out a seminar put on by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC). I ran into Andrew Vincent for the 2nd day in a row... I just can't escape Kelp Records!! Anyway, I don't quite qualify for funding cause my sales aren't at $50,000 yet.. haha.

From there, I endured rush hour traffic in Toronto to finally put a face to the name of B Mellow of the "Wax Jungle" show on CKMS in Waterloo. Over the years we bonded over hip-hop music, but also on fact we were both working on masters in Computer Science. Oh yeah, can you believe Waterloo students voted to cancel funding for their campus station!? Boo to those nerds!!

While I was putting up a sticker in the station, I realized there is just no escaping Kelp Records.

From there I drove to London, Ontario where I met up again with long-time friend Lise. She had so much fun at the show at The Wick, that she stayed right until the end, and she's usually in bed by 11 pm - that's how fun the show was! There were tons of emcees in the house.

Mat Labatt:

Chief Chills:

Joshua:

Sireal:

Dy Allo:

Moore, DJ Over and crew:

Waffle:

Ngawana:

Dr. Frank Cameron:

Finally, here's me kicking up a storm standing on the bar for 'Super Dude' and rocking the Shake Ya Caboose glasses!

Day 20: Handsolo Mixtape Release Party

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:39:00 +0000

Location: Toronto, ON

Tonight was the most fun show yet. If you don't know Hand'Solo Records by now, you should. They put out the infamous 'Basements of Badman' and 'Cock Dynamics' compilations back in the 90s which featured current superstars in their early days. Thomas Quinlan runs the label, but you might know him as the infamous reviewer of CanCon for Exclaim, Peace Mag, HipHopCanada.com and on & on. His wife, Yoko, also runs Momiji Clothing. Here they are manning the merch table:

There were lots of celebrities in the house. Some that I didn't get pics with include Darryl R and Kyle L of Urbnet Records - the biggest indie hip-hop label in Canada. Paul Gagnon of Yo Jamz and VideoFACT - I accidentally poked his contact lens out of his eye with my hat - sorry again Paul! And D.O. was kicking around too!

My cousin Susan Pape and her boyfriend Eric Warner of MySpace Canada, the Over The Top Festival and the best band ever: Dollarama

Comedian Tanya Wilson, who you might remember from her act with Wordburglar called I hope it's potatoes. She was sporting the 'Pimp Juice' ladies tee I gave away.

Ottawa Kelp Records fam were in the house with Andrew Vincent and Andy Swan (fresh off his Atlantic Canada tour)

I finally met Ewan Mill aka JE of the Maple Mothership / Ghettoblaster / Fameless! We've known each other via email for a long long minute!

Then there were the performers, all of whom were top notch and appear on the Handsolo mixtape!
There was Royce Birth:

There was Noah23:

There was Modulok of Red Ants:

There was Fresh Kils of Mr Quibble and The Extremities backing up More or Les:

And of course, Mr. Wordburglar dazzled us with his wordplay:

Finally the night ended with Yoko lookin' superb rocking her Super Dude shirt:

Day 19: CHRW, CKLN & gluten free brownies!

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:51:00 +0000

Location: Toronto, ON

So I started my day in London:

I hit up CHRW again for a sit down with Dy Allo aka John Blaze on his Backpack Chronicles show:

I also found out that you can download DJ Chedo's radio show from Monday with my interview here: http://www.thecomeupshow.com/podcasts/bbedition.zip.

Then I headed back to Toronto. I took a pit stop in Brampton on the Wayne Gretzky Parkway.

When I hit downtown Toronto, I got stuck behind the "Happy Hippo" bus.

Finally I made it to CKLN, where hung out on the "Statik" radio show and met Niles, DJ Channel 9 (Tona's brother) and Shimmie N Shyne.

Theo3 and Jody Laraya from Universal were in the house. Jody laced me with the new Roots album, which is bonkers! Also, I met Mic Boogie for the first time. You might have seen one of his videos on MuchMusic recently. Anyway, his new album just dropped, so keep an eye out!

Afterwards I headed back to my brother's where he treated me to a birthday steak supper and surprised me with amazingly delicious gluten free brownies. Soooo good!

I had planned to go out to DJ Fase's weekly "Footwork Tuesdays" at Andy Poolhall, but instead I decided to make a light evening hanging out with close friends. I'll make up for it next year :)

Day 18: London, ON

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:33:00 +0000

Location: London, ON

When I wake up in the morning, I'm not always sure where I am! :)

Today I visited University of Western where they advertise "Slush Puppie Mustang Alley" on their billboards... I didn't have time to investigate.

I dropped by CHRW where I met up with DJ Chedo of the Come Up Show. We had some pretty detailed discussions about the business side of hip-hop. It was fun, cause I don't get that many chances to go into details about that stuff.

Afterwards I met up with my longtime friend Lise, who treated me to a pre-birthday dinner. Unfortunately the spot she had planned for wasn't open on Mondays, so we asked around and ended up at "Wonder Sushi", conveniently located next to a Dental Office.

I'm always skeptical of anything with "Wonder" in the name... Anyway, the food was really good, but the service was subpar. In total they forgot to bring us 9 items, and we had to re-order:
- Miso Soup (never received)
- Chicken Teryaki (twice)
- Salmon and Avocado rolls
- Rainbow Rolls
- BBQ Eel Rolls
- Deep Fried Shrimp
- Shrimp & Veg Tempura
- Chicken Skewers. (they brought us extra beef skewers and tried to convince us they were chicken. They were not chicken!)

So I figured the "Wonder" is because when you order you "wonder what you'll get". :)

This year's birthday is low key due to the tour. Usually I throw a big party with all my close friends. Last year I was getting birthday spanks, wearin' the pimp cup and throwing my 20 dollar bills in the air yall.

Toronto to Waterloo to Guelph to London

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:17:00 +0000

Location: London, ON

I picked up some gluten free bread this afternoon, and I was excited until I just tried it... it's not very good. I've added honey in the hopes it will help..

So I swear I'm eating better on this tour than I normally do at home. Thanks to everyone who's hooked me up with a proper meal in exchange for a CD! My brother's roommate feasted me with BBQ'd steak, chicken and salad.

Today I visited some friends I hadn't seen in a year & a half who live in Waterloo. David & Lacey are credited on the traycard of my album on track #9 "So Many Purposes". Here's what I wrote "My friends David & Lacey invited me into their home for an alpha course. Their patience & understanding opened my heart to God." They fed me an amazing ham dinner and introduced me to the card game Guillotine.

Then after they headed to church, I scooted over to see my friends Jay & Kristina. We talked shop about Jay's business and source repositories. Then I got a couple bottles of wine for the road in exchange for a CD.

Then I scooted over to University of Guelph to do a little radio interview on the Vokal Kenetiks show on CFRU from 8-10 pm. I had some great discussions with host Patman.

And then after spending some time on the phone with Rogers to get my cellphone working again, I made it to London, ON. Tomorrow (Monday) I'm dropping by DJ Chedo's show on CHRW and getting treated to a birthday dinner curtesy of my friend Lise.

No DJ Flash, a quiet night in Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:16:00 +0000

Location: Toronto

My radio show appearence on DJ Flash's show on CJIQ was cancelled tonight due to some problems on their end of things. And I re-scheduled my interview with Daddy J of DopeFM on CFMU to be a phone interview so that I could spend the evening with my brother and his girlfriend in Toronto.

We watched the Johnny Cash movie, Walk The Line, which none of us had seen. Since I've been on the road for 2 weeks now, I could definitely relate to different aspects - like missing your close friends/family in your hometown...

Tomorrow I head to Kitchener/Waterloo to catch up with some friends, and then an 8 pm radio show on Guelph's CHRW.

Real Frequency Super Dude

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Location: Toronto, ON

Muziklee Inzane of Monday night's The Real Frequency just hit me up with some pics of their "Professionals" night this past Thursday. He had his Super Dude shirt in full effect and says folks were lovin it :) I kinda wish I hadn't been performing the same night so I could have been there!

Day 14: Hamilton - Spring Music Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:51:00 +0000

Location: Hamilton, ON

So I'm two weeks in and feeling a bit lonely. Yes, I'm crashing with my brother, which is great, but most all the free time is spent coordinating upcoming shows and/or publicity... This is the groundwork. The next one will be easier, shorter and with other people! :)

So tonight I played the Urban Hamilton showcase as part of the Spring Music Festival. On the way there, I stopped in Burlington to visit with James Orr, who produced a track on my first album. He hooked me up with a travel pillow! yay!

I played right after an amazing 9-piece gospel band, Retali8... They truly were a hard act to follow. Watch out for them.

The crowd was diverse... Some were on the more harder side of rap (thug/gangsta) like fans of Menace, others were more on the gospel side, but overall it was a pretty good vibe. I was blinded by the lights, and had fun!

I finally met DeShaun Jones of Bandwagon Marketing who's going to be releasing a 12" vinyl single from DJ/Rapper/Graffitier, Relic. Daddy J of CFMU's DOPE FM was in the house.

I also got a chance to see performance and chat with real good folks like Jamila B, Chris Jackson and Christopher Charles, who's "Smile" song had me texting smiles to some good friends.

But the night didn't end there... I scooted over to Corktown Pub to catch the end of Grady's set. I caught up with Mr. Gordie Johnson who was sporting his Super Dude shirt. Chatted with their drummer, Nina, for awhile. I met the infamous Cameron Carpenter of Cool Planet in flesh for the first time. And I chatted with Jay from Murder City Sparrows about how amazing Arlo Maverick is (of Politic Live and of CJSR's Urban Hang Suite

K, need sleep yet again. Kitchener tomorrow...

Total kms & gas $$

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:39:00 +0000

Day 14
here's an update on kms & gas $$$

Total Kms driven: 2755
Total $$ on gas: $431

And no, I'm not proud of spending that much on gas... I take the bus in Ottawa. My dog bowl accepts change... :)

Thursday night in Toronto - Mitzi's Sister

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:06:00 +0000

Location: Toronto, ON

This isn't a vacation... it's a 100-day grind. no breaks for me:

The show tonight was amped at Mitzi's Sister. Macro Fiesta opened up with a great, fun jam-band type of vibe. With Charles on the saxophone and/or harmonica, I was lovin tracks like "High, Healthy and Happy" and when they dispersed shakers to the whole crowd! I used my shaker during my set! :)

I pumped out a live show (or so I think). It was fun! My DJ (doPi) messed up once, but there were lots of thumbs up for 'Super Dude'. At the end of my set, there was silence, no background music... I was put on the spot and had to freestyle... I was mediocre at best. Some night's I'm on, others I'm off.

A midnight performance on a Thursday meant most of my friends/fans couldn't make it out, but I was glad to see a handful of familiar faces. I chatted with Thomas Quinlan of Handsolo Records and his wife Yoko of Momiji Clothing. And I finally met Warren Campbell of Rubber Road Records in the flesh. We'd been in touch ever since 2004 via Fatkat Animations owner Gene Fowler. Fatkat worked on some rejected FACTOR/VideoFACT video proposals with me.

So I'm pretty exhausted to the point that I forgot my tour banner & jacket at the venue tonight. No worries, I'll pick it up tomorrow on my way to Hamilton... Anyone have a neck or back cushion they want to donate? The van seat support isn't cutting it! To sleepy bed time!

Point Pelee National Park Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Point Pelee National Park is the southern most point of Canada. It's right next to Leamington, the tomato capital of canada!

Pics - Windsor, CJAM & Scores Bar/Grill

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Chillin at CJAM with host DJ Needle and Kayyce of Academy & TRP.

Pics - Chatham

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:25:00 +0000

Mom, this ones for you... I'm eating healthy! Only had fast food twice and it'll be two weeks as of tomorrow!

Pics from my stay with my cousin's family in Chatham... I've converted his kids into super dudes! And Max the cat highly suggested I check out Niagara Falls. I'm still hoping I fit a side trip in to check 'em out!

Windsor, Point Pelee & Chatham

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:12:00 +0000

DISCLAIMER: Sorry no pics yet. Sooon!

Location: Chatham, ON
Pet Count: #6 - Max

It's been a crazy few days... I'm completely exhausted.

Tuesday I drove to Chatham to BBQ with my cousin and his family. His 11-year old twins are newfound Super Dudes! I had a great catch with Scotty... and 5-month old Max the cat & I have become best friends.

Tuesday night I drove to Windsor to meet up with DJ Needle on his radio show on CJAM. Kayyce of Academy was in the house and I met TRP too. We laughed a lot and played a ton of CANCON. The show ran late and it was a tiring drive back to Chatham, but there was lightning to keep me awake. Oh, and I ate 7 hamburgers during the day (without buns due to my gluten problems). In bed at 5 am.

Wednesday up at noon. BBQ'd chickent curtesy of my cousin... mmm. I drove to Point Pelee National Park where it poured rain, but it looks absolutely beautiful! To get there I had to travel through Leamington, the tomato capital of canada! I eat a lot of tomatoes so I was lovin it!

I met up with my other Detroit cousin in Windsor and we went to Detroit to see my beloved Red Sox play the Tigers. It was an amazing game of ups & downs, rowdy hecklers and beach balls. Unfortunately Papelbon the invincible actually blew a save... but I'm blaming Lugo's crappy fielding!!

On the drive back we got pulled over at customs. They threated criminal charges after they dug through my backpack and found an old baggie with a immodium in it. I haven't used them in years... they'll be thrown out soon. Take that ex-diarrhea!

So, yeah, I finally made it to the weekly open mic night in Windsor at Scores Bar & Grill for a little performance. DJ Needle and Kayyce had me cracking up... real fun night! I met Trilla and Chad Martin of Academy. Saw open mic stylings from Mason (ex-Embassy fam) and a dude from First Class (or Class First?).

Now I'm back in Chatham and ready for sleep!

Toronto Radio 3 - FLOW

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:12:00 +0000

Current Location: Toronto.

So my 3rd radio stop in one day was at FLOW 93.5 FM ... It's the only major market dedicated urban station in Canada that seems to be showing a lot of love to local artists! The show is called Real Frequency and has found a home in nearly every campus radio station over the years. Co-host Muziklee Inzane has been a long time contact, so it was great to meet in person... he was rockin' the Super Dude shirt and lovin the marshmellow squares from rapid snack. Shouts to co-hosts Arcee and Alex, along with DJ P Plus

Toronto Radio II - CKLN

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:09:00 +0000

I've been in touch with Mel Boogie for a long long while... back when she compiled the national urban charts. So it was great to finally meet her and JJ Rock at her weekly Droppin Dimez show at CKLN on Ryerson campus. It's the only all female hosted rap show in Canada!

Mr. Knia of CMP Studios dropped by with some compilation cds for me to distribute during my trek.

Also, I finally met the infamous Theo 3 http://www.myspace.com/theology3 and DJ Manifest of CHRY's "Toronto Morning Live" on Monday mornings...

Toronto Radio - CHRY!!

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:01:00 +0000

Current Location: Toronto

I made my way for my first radio show appearance of the tour. I'd previously visited a friend on campus at York University, but never been to the main student center area. They have a nice park in the middle with geese!

The CHRY station itself had an over population of empty jewel cases. It was great to finally meet Bozack Morris, host of Backroad Radio every Monday from 6-8 pm. DJ Big Jacks was in NY unfortunately... And co-host Melizia had me cracking up. I also picked up some new slang: "tatas" = breasts and "fronts" = grills.

www.black-rap.com

Super Dude Gordie Johnson!!

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:57:00 +0000

So last week Gordie Johnson was in town with his band Grady . You might remember him from his Big Sugar days: http://www.bigsugar.com Anyway, he's a big fan of mine (i'm flattered), so I made sure he got hooked up with a Super Dude shirt. I was busy with tour stuff, so my delivery person passed on his awe of the shirt, and he wore it live at the show... crazy!

Thousand Islands National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:57:00 +0000

Current Location: Toronto
Gas $$: $112 highest at 1.219 in Oshawa

I'm sitting on a back deck in the beautiful weather as I type this... a
great start to my south western part of my 100-day tour.

The drive to Toronto was pretty uneventful. I took a detour along the 1000 island parkway... beautiful... but watch out for turtle crossings!

Other than an exploded package of facial lotion, a lost pen and a shredded sneaker shoelace, all is great! Thanks to Rapid Snack I've been restocked with my beloved Apple & Cranberry Flakes N Fruit Bars... mmm... so good.

My first night in Toronto, I caught up with my brother and finally met his girlfriend Michelle. She cooked an amazing roast... I'm actually eating leftovers right now :) And my brother's resident dog, Joey, shows off his ability to lick his nose :)

Street Team day...

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Today was the day to start packing & get caught up on emails... Neither of which got finished. I got through 75 of the 150 emails... My street team showed up and helped with a bunch of boring tasks. Big thanks to Steph A, Laura B, Carly D and Mike P for the help!

I'm a bit scared because the promotional materials for the tour take up half my living room. See below... and that's not all of it!

So a big highlight for today was a call from my old friend Gordie Johnson of Grady. He was in town playing with Nashville P***y and Reverand Horton Heat.

My roommate, Manic Mike, was helping with load in for the gig, so I sent a Super Dude t-shirt with him for Gordie. According to my roommate, he had the t-shirt on within 5 seconds and wore it for the gig. Then Nashville P***y saw the shirt and insisted they get ones too. If you were at the gig, no doubt you saw Super Dude shirts displayed proper! I wish I could have been there,.. but the grind, the grind.

Fredericton to Ottawa

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Current Location: Ottawa
Gas Dollars: $122 highest in St. Helene at 1.312

Today I drove back to Ottawa after my retreat to New Brunswick. Within 15 minutes the tour vehicle decided to show she still had some tricks and wanted to show off some lights. It stayed on for the whole drive. Nothing to worry about though :)

So the big story back home is the flooding. It's the worst I've ever seen... actually I heard the highway had to close not long after I drove through St. Leonard. Here's some water pics:
Near the NB-QC border:

Apparently, Moose eat Cars in Quebec.. for real:

When water levels rise, they encourage people to roll their cars into the water:

This poor house was already partially submerged:

Some day I'm going to take time to visit "Mon Copaine" bar and St Louis Du Ha Ha... not on this trek though:

Moulin Rouge has lots of crazy things like Dinosaurs:

National Parks

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:13:00 +0000

Pimp Juice - Let It Loose..

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:03:00 +0000

So for a long while now Nelly's Energy drink, Pimp Juice, has been a supporter of my music. They were down to support the tour and sent some fly prizes like those in the pics. - www.letitloose.com

Lots of people ask, how did you link up with Pimp Juice? The story goes something like this... In early 2006 my friend Stefan threw his annual "throbbing music dance party" and asked me to perform. For the party, he discovered Pimp Juice for sale in Quebec... I tried it and loved it...

Six months later I get an email from the president of Pimp Juice. They came across my video for "Shake Ya Caboose", loved the vibe and felt it fit perfectly with their product. At first I thought it was a joke... but no, it was the real deal. They requested a song, so Nevski came up with a fresh new beat creating the "Shake ya Caboose Remix", which featured Professir from Nelly's "Derrty Ent" record label in St. Louis. It's definitely fun... anyway, our relationship built from there and it's great to have them on board for the tour!!

TIN Sportswear...

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:40:00 +0000

thgp hooked me up proper with gear from TIN Sportswear. This clothing is fresh and I can't wait to rock it on tour!

Dinner with my #1 fan

noreply@blogger.com (Troy Neilson) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Location: Charters Settlement, NB

So I to kick off the tour, I took my #1 fan out to dinner. It was 11 pm, so our choices were limited, so it ended up being The Diplomat. We both decided that to new people in town, "The Dip" is considered a high-end restaurant. We laughed because as long-time Frederictonians, we knew better :)

So as we go in, a waitress knows my #1 fan and they converse. As we sit down, my #1 fan turns to me and says the line of the night "I'm kind of a big deal".

So how did I pick my #1 fan? First, it had to be someone who wasn't also a friend... and my fans are usually wonderful people, so we end up friends in the end.

So several years ago, my #1 fan managed to look up my old 454-PIMP number and call me. I was in the middle of moving so we weren't able to meet up.

Then later, as I was walking down Dundonald St, a car stopped at a light suddenly erupted into screams of "oh my god. Pimp Tea?". My #1 fan gave me a great big hug, while holding up traffic :) My #1 fan got a Super Dude shirt, a CD and some stickers and made it back in time for their apartment warming party.

After dropping off #1 fan back at home, I went dancing at The Phoenix to the sounds of DJ Chris Carson (who used to take the school bus with me back in the day). I also ran into James Boyle of Forward Music Group who wanted me to let you know to buy the new Grand Theft Bus CD and that his company has expanded into graphic design and merch making. I also ran into old tour mates circa 2004 of DJ Scout and Rory Borealis.