414 Day Hip Hop Celebration At Cactus Club
The Milwaukee Day blizzard did not stop a great turnout at Cactus Club from happening as an exciting multitude of premiere hip hop artists took the stage. Miss Mocha Music curated the event in partnership with Lakefront Brewery, with SGOD Jayy hosting and DJ SnackDaddy spinning.
Performers included Spaidez, Nile, Camb, J-Lamo, $hun Million$ Mo’City, Sharrod Sloans, and Genesis Renji. Two surprise guests, Mudy and Tajh Virgil, also did a few numbers.
Spaidez is Oscar Walton. He went on first.
“The energy was phenomenal tonight, man,” Spaidez said post-show. “When I went up there I felt all the love and I want to give it back in the best way I could.”
He dropped two albums last year – “Strxwberry Eyez 2: 4ever” and “#Juice” along with a new single in January, “Baraboo.”
“I wrote Baraboo when all these lists of the worst and best rappers were coming out and I just thought it was kinda funny. I wanted to speak on it in my own way.”
Once Spaidez concluded work on one album he immediately began working on the next. He has collaborated with artists such as Genesis Renji, Lil Saucy, $killz, and Trap Junkies.
“I wanted to make Strxwberry Eyez 2 longer because the first Strxwberry Eyez only had five songs, so I put twelves songs on it. With #Juice I wanted to keep up with the same race so I put ten songs on it, and I put those together based on time period.”
Spaidez is working on Strxwberry Eyez 3, the final installment, which drops in June.
Nile reminded everyone what they are celebrating – 414 Day…and that the Bucks beat the Pistons.
“Bucks just won by like thirty, bro,” Nile said. “I definitely wanted to give that energy back since we all pride ourselves on the Bucks.”
In fact, he restarted one of his songs reminding everyone of that.
“Man, it’s just a reminder of being in the moment. A lot of people probably have a lot on their mind and might be spacing out. Some people are thinking about rent being due. You just gotta take all that away.”
Nile cites his uncle passing away last March as a reminder to give back the greatest energy possible.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s like two or ten or a hundred people in the crowd. I just gotta give it my best because people are gonna wanna come back due to what you give them.”
Nile dropped his debut album “Tomorrow” in May 2018, and just dropped a new single “Epitome” just a few weeks ago on March 14th. He is a member of the hip hop group Phat Nerdz, who heavily worked with him on Tomorrow.
“I released it and I’ve been getting nothing but love ever since. My career’s definitely been going straight up. Music took me out of town to places like Chicago and Madison and Oshkosh…all these places that I never would have thought that music would take me if I didn’t take myself seriously.”
Nile has another solo project coming out mid-year, as well as Phat Nerdz’ first team tape in their ten-year run coming out.
Camb is Tre’ Barrett-Bays. He is known for his fusion of soul and hip hop music backed by a full band and has been dropping a number of singles lately such as “For Nothing,” “Lil Petty,” “Stay Down,” and “Cambrulee.” Additionally, his latest EP “COOL!” dropped last month.
“I haven’t played here in two years,” Camb said about Cactus Club. “For my coming-back show, this has been crazy.”
He describes “COOL!” as a project about reassurance.
“My car got stolen last year. It was all about gaining my confidence back and embracing that everything will be cool, all from that experience.”
Camb hopes to drop plenty more music in 2019. He discusses what he thinks Milwaukee’s scene needs more than ever right now.
“Before it was unity, but everyone’s starting to come together. Now it’s really just finding the resources to get everyone to the next level. This new generation, everyone wants to be cool with and work with everybody.”
Mocha Harris is an event planner and digital marketer. She founded MKExpanded and manages Mo’City and $hun Million$. The turnout pleased her.
“Everybody came out to celebrate the city and culture of Milwaukee,” Harris said. “There was the snow and the Bucks game on, so as an event planner sometimes you gotta think about the cons of things. But it still turned out nice.”
Harris talks about the challenges that came with the event’s curation.
“I’m fully invested in myself so I’m using my 9 to 5 check to pay for everything. I had sponsors, but they only donated so much money so I had to work so many hours. Another downfall is that I’m pretty much promoting by myself so when I’m at my job I have to hurry up and go home and stuff like that.”
Cactus Club was ideal for what Harris wanted to accomplish.
“When I first met Kelsey, I came with the resume. She was like “you don’t need a resume, I trust your word.” So the vibes me and her have together…anytime I need help with something I can just call her. For example, my event at the beginning was not officially part of Milwaukee Day and I contacted her about it to find out information and she got me on it. She’s always there for me, so that’s why I will always do things here.”
The selection of artists had been tough to narrow down as well.
“We have so many talented artists in Milwaukee and everybody wanted to celebrate Milwaukee. I don’t know if there were any other hip hop shows going on today but when I was looking for people to perform for 414 Day, so many artists commented on my status. It was hard for me and my team to decide, but I think I chose a nice little group of men and they came and showed out.”
