"This Scene" by 080

o8o corresponding here from outer space. I mean really, the web is the closest tangible equivalence of outer space that I've ever experienced. Think about it, It's limitless, dark, and looks bad ass in movies.

Well back to the reason I decided to digress from my usual activities of world domination, THIS SCENE. The reason I entitled this blog "This Scene" is to shed some light on the buzz that's been circulating around about Atlanta's Hip-Hop Hipster scene.

From the beginning as I know it, I moved to Atlanta almost 2 years ago in hopes to help re-invent the ThunderKatz while making our mark on an up and coming city. Soon after moving two a city I virtually new nothing about, I started navigating myself to areas of the city that felt right. Little 5 Points known as LP5, Ponce Deleon, and Castleberry are three places that beginning the breeding ground for a budding alternative scene for Atlanta.

LP5 is that spot where you could buy some new fly shit at "Wish Boutique", grab some pizza/pbrs, and find new music on the streets/stores. I noticed after hanging out in LP5 all day I would head to MJQ any given Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday night and run into the same kids. So after a while a head nod became a dap became a myspace request became math swap. Next thing you know your homies.

A great transition from LP5 is to "Ponce" (The main street going from Midtown Atlanta, to Downtown Decatur, also part of the Street address to MJQ) as I mention before where everyone terminates from a hard day of doing what they do to kick back to some 80's, rock/dance shit, or old/new hiphop shit. MJQ, imagine a hut like garage door in the middle of a parking lot with a kat with a missing tooth named "Papi" asking for your ID. After brandashing your government tag walking past "Papi" down a insuffciently lit tunnel leading down into another insufficiently lit room with futuristic decals on the walls, a hard hitting sound system, and about 300 drunk mofos threw out the club and hanging off the stage. I hope that paints a small picture of MJQ.

On a special monthly meeting you made your way over to Castleberry where every 2nd Saturday you got fresh for Sloppy Seconds at the Royal. Soon following every 3rd Friday you made sure you had something equally fresh for Broke n Bougee. Sloppy Seconds started by Caleb Gauge, Ree "Bang Bang Girls", and Ian Ford was definitely the start for me of the melting pot what now is called the hiphophipster scene. DJ Klever the resident DJ would faithfully kill it every month exposing his listeners to Atlanta Crunk mixed with Bmore/Miamibass/UK other shit. Soon following Fadia Kader's Broke n Bougee is where a community started to evolve out of the scene. This is where we felt comfortable to sit back and network with each other. Fadia would feature artist, producers, and just social ass people monthly. Unifying a following for groups such as Proton, Grip, and birthing artist such as Hollyweerd and Muffy.

RIP the ROYAL!

After the Royal closed it's doors, by no means did the scene die. Actually it got stronger it found it's way out side of a small lounge on Trinity St. in Atlanta, and made it's way to youtube, myspace, and countless blogs such as concreteloop, sohh, okplayer, and even the monster blog Allhiphop.com. Watching the scene grow and additions being made by already existing artist Wil May, Janelle Monae, Jazzspecs, and Scar I knew something was about to blow. With the growth of the movement it got more ,organized and unified through performances all around Atlanta, through Sloppy Seconds move to MJQ, and more recently huge exposure through a music issue dedicated to it in Atlanta's Creative Loafing.

Now with that being said, since this is a ThunderKatz blog, you might ask are the ThunderKatz apart of the movement? Yes and No! I consider myself apart of the Movement as an individual "o8o" so therefore ThunderKatz has ties into it, but ThunderKatz is it's own separate movement in itself. You might find fans of that hiphophipster scene at a ThunderKatz show, a Wil May show, or a Hollyweerd show and you might find all of the mentioned on the same bill from time to time. But in order for this thing to grow and be bigger I believe we shouldn't all assimilate too much because we become just as monotonous as the mainstream music we are trying to replace. With that being said I propose not being different for the sake of being different, but truthfully contributing a culmination of your experiences and expressing them in this medium some take way too serious and others don't take seriously enough... music.-o8o