Review: Lil Wayne in Concert [Newark, NJ]

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This was my first published article online! Back in 2007, I used to post a lot on AllHipHop.com‘s message boards, the “Ill Community.” I befriended one of the mods, Odiesel, and in February 2008, he gave me an opportunity to review the Lil Wayne concert I was attending in NJ.

From there, I interviewed a lot of dope artists for the site, and forged friendships with the owner, Chuck Creekmur, as well as my now-mentor, Kathy Iandoli. Thanks, OD!

Read the review in full below, via AHH.
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(Photos) Me Doing Misc. Cool Shit – 2008

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Filming a segment with Lil Cease, interviewing Mack Maine and Jae Millz for Culture Shock Mag after Wayne‘s NJ show plus a few other Wayne shows, Salt N’ Pepa‘s book release, meeting Charli Baltimore at an AllHipHop.com event, hitting Shade 45, a Hanson meet-and-greet at my school and Tyga‘s show in NJ.
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(Photos) Launching KarenCivil.com

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As a junior in college at this time, I knew nothing about the blog world or industry events. My girl Karen called me up to tell me she was starting a blog, and asked if I wanted to help by using my digital cam to record some interviews. Sounded fun, so I was with it! These are a few shots from a few things we did – a Jay Rock interview, Charles Hamilton listening session, studio with Nipsey Hussle, getting Max B and Charles in the studio together, etc.

Fun fact: Karen chose KarenCivil.com at first just to quickly get a name, and we’d spend hours brainstorming trying to think of a different name because she wanted to make it more universal. Obviously, we never came up with anything, LOL!
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(Photos) Ozone Awards 2008 [Houston, TX]

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I attended the 2008 Ozone Awards in H-town on behalf of AllHipHop.com and my girl Tot’s Culture Shock Mag.

I was right there when the infamous Rick Ross x Vlad altercation went down…and the ONE photo of Vlad all bloodied up that circulated the web – that was mine! Knew nothing about tagging pics and all that stuff back then, LOL!
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(Photos) DJ Khaled “Out Here Grinding” Video Shoot [Brooklyn, NY]

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While walking into Summer Jam 2008 with my friend Navarre, a man randomly stopped him and and asked him to play Lil Wayne’s stunt double in DJ Khaled’s “Out Here Grinding” shoot the next day in Brooklyn. I linked with Mack Maine later that day and told him about it, and he was confused because the YM camp had already made it clear to the production team and to Khaled that they wouldn’t be attending the shoot because of a prior commitment, so there was no reason to have a Wayne stunt double if they weren’t going to have any Wayne scenes period. He asked me to keep him updated and I said I would.

We went the next day as planned, and as promised, I hit Mack and told him we were definitely shooting. Wayne would end up hitting Khaled and getting into a rift that lasted some time over this, but obviously, they eventually cleared the air and mended any issues. In the meantime, Var did end up shooting a few scenes, and it looked like it WOULD have been pretty cool, had it actually made the video!
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(Photos) Remy Ma Pool Party [Spa 88 – NYC]

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I’d been a huge fan of Remy Ma since 2004, and in June 2007, saw she was having a pool party with the Murda Mamis in NYC. Being cool with 1st Lady El, I hit her up to ask if I could go because I HAD to finally meet Remy. I linked with El and went, and – mission accomplished!

As we were there, I saw a girl walk in that looked SO familiar. I’m looking at her and looking at her, thinking to myself, “Was she on a reality show? Is she a model? Ugh, how do I know her?!” It wasn’t until she left the room that it dawned on me – that’s that Nicki Minaj girl that I like on MySpace!

She had nothing out at the time but her segment on the Come Up DVD and just one song with Wayne on his mixtape that came out the month before, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.” When I’d heard the song back in May, I had looked her up on MySpace and sent her a message that I thought she was dope and was looking forward to her mixtape, and she’d replied and told me was coming out in the summer.
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