the Catalyst using various movie titles to let you know he will merk you.

The Catalyst will be performing tonight at So What Wednesdays, which will be celebrating its 1 Year Anniversday tonight. J-rawls  and Lo-Zone will be guest dejays alongside resident DJ Detox.  Blueprint will host.

Even though Bo(the Catalyst) spits that fire. The night has been about dejays from day 1.

MP3:So What Wednesdays Podcast w/DJ Detox & Pos 2

In about September last year Bourbon Street’s  Adam Fleischer hit me up, and asked me if I wanted to take over Wednesday Night’s there. Now, I dick around and play records. I can make people dance. I can make people show-up. But I am not a dejay.

This was shortly after Daymon Dodson passed.

I don’t know if y’all recall Blueprint saying this on the front of Donewaiting, about Daymon “He wasn’t even technically a dj, but rode for all the hip-hop djs in the scene and even formed dj crews and help dudes get nights so they could make money.”

Well that was the truth.

Dame rolled dumb hard for Pos 2, Detox, and True Skills. Those doods are amazing dejays but they really aren’t really into self-promotion and networking. So Daymon would be out there hooking them up. Well it didn’t feel right for me to be out there taking up space, when the dejays had lost their champion.

So I turned down the night, I had sworn off playing records because I just felt wrong. So I asked Adam if he would talk to Blueprint about putting together a Hip Hop Night with some of the dejays Daymon rode for. We all knew it was right. Blueprint has been screaming about the importance of the tradition that made Columbus Hip Hop so respected on the national radar to have a home since the Fonosluts stopped doing Bernies.

And Print knew what Daymon’s importance to the DJ’s in the Hip Hop community.

So Adam and Print met. Detox and Pos were with it. Pos named it So What Wednesdays. So What was the name Dame hosted Bernies Hip Hop Night under for 6 years, where Pos, Przm, and Lo held Columbus Hip Hop down.

Mike Carney printed up these flyers, and it was on.

Blueprint has used his connections to set-up perfomances by National acts like One Be-Lo, Glue, Hangar 18, DJ Abilities, Top Speed and J-Sands, Weightless acts Envelope, and Zerostar, as well has opened up stage time for local groups like the  Bootleggers, Bottom Brick , and the Intricate Suns  at So What Wednesdays.

And the dejays have used their talent to keep crowds coming in every week. Which is difficult when you have 20 people that just want to hear Group Home, and Mobb Deep, and another 20 that want to hear Lil Wayne,Bmore Club and Dipset. Then you have another group that just want to hear High School Dance Music, like Naughty By Nature’s O.P.P. 

So all and all. Print, Pos, and Detox have worked really hard this year to keep some fascimile of Hip Hop going on a weekly basis, and are celebrating tonight.

DJ PRZM passed away. He had a lifelong heart problem that finally got the best of him. P moved to Cali last year in hopes of getting a heart transplant.

PRZM was a crucial force in Columbus Hip Hop. He produced several songs on Def Jux including Camu Tao’s hit song “Hold the Floor”. Przm rapped and made beats Hip Hop group Spitball. In Columbus many people’s memories of P prolly center around the Fonoslut Hip Hop Night.

P was one of the least judgemental, most exciting,hella talented, and wildly fun people I have ever met in my life. Anyone involved in Columbus Hip Hop definitely learned a lot about Hip Hop and just life in general from being around him.

Here is his myspace.

After the break is an article about the Fonosluts Hip Hop Night that was in the Alive a few years ago.

The Rap Pack

Hip-hop heads enjoy five years of residency in Bernie’s basement

by Wes Flexner

For five years now Bernie’s, the campus-area deli/dive bar and rock club, has played host to an ongoing hip-hop house party that at times has been as anarchistic as the music. A typical Sunday night includes rappers exhaling plumes of smoke as well as rhymes, graffiti writers using slight of hand to reface the scenery, breakdancers contorting in rhythm, displays of liquor-inflamed libidos and the occasional fist fight–all while hardcore boom-bap beats blast from the speakers.

RJD2, the former Columbus resident and producer/deejay extraordinaire who’s star has been on the rise, says he has “played in every shitty bar in the country, and Bernie’s is the shittiest…because it’s the grimiest.”

Copywrite, the Columbus rapper who’s being courted by several major labels including Roc-a-Fella, agrees. He jokes, “Bernie’s is rather unique because it’s the only venue that I know where you can use the bathroom without leaving the stage!”

Many notable hip-hop acts–from local talent MHz, Lip the Early Riser, Illogic, Blueprint and Spitball to out-of-state acts like Cannibal Ox, Swollen Members, Breeze Evahflowin’, C-Rayz Walls, Thirsten Howl, Akrobatik and Josh Martinez–have enjoyed the debauchery at Bernie’s.

It is that griminess as well as a laissez faire attitude that’s made Bernie’s a mainstay on the punk rock circuit, and those same qualities have made it the ideal venue for hardcore hip-hop.

The weekly event started in the spring of 1999 when DJ Self talked club owner Tony Painter into letting him alternate Sundays with Bob Sfero, a house deejay. Eventually Bob quit and Self turned the night into a weekly hip-hop event. Self soon met DJ Przm at a party and invited him to start spinning with him on Sundays. When Self left town himself a few months later, Przm took over the night.

A Detroit native, Przm claims to have moved to Columbus because he heard, “They had girls here.” He stuck around once he saw that Columbus also had a burgeoning hip-hop scene and he clicked with several artists. He’s gone on to work as a producer for Columbus’ notorious misfits Spitball and assisted Camu Tao on his hip-hop mosh-pit anthem “Hold the Floor” as well as SA Smash’s debut album for the Def Jux label.

Upon taking over the night, Przm contacted DJ Lozone. Lozone claims it was because he was “the only person in Columbus that [Self] knew with turntables and a mixer.” Besides owning equipment, Lozone also was a respected deejay who had been in Columbus turntablist crew the Vibration Society and had competed several times at the notable hip-hop fest Scribble Jam and Columbus’ Hip-Hop Expo. In early 2000, Przm and Lozone added DJ Pos 2 and host So What?! and dubbed themselves the Fonosluts.

Those initial Sundays were sparsely attended, but over time the Fonosluts’ event became one of Bernie’s staples. It even helped raise $800 in one night when the club fell on hard times in 2001.

As hip-hop has exploded in popularity nationwide, the music and culture have been embraced by a wide array of people. Sunday nights at Bernie’s are no different.

“It is a mix of everything,” So What?! says. “Punk rockers, indie-rock scenesters, breakers, Asian girls, frat boys and sorority chicks, rappers, weird graffiti kids, dreads–every different type of sub-genre of society has walked through those doors on a Sunday. I love it.”

The social traffic jam sometimes results in conflict. But though the reckless energy has gotten out of hand on occasion in the past, there are fewer fights these days.

“There have been very few incidents that have involved law enforcement,” Painter says. “Two or two and a half years ago, when things had flared up, we started prepping our doormen and having a few people undercover watching things, and that helped.”

The night has also been marred by vandalism at times, mostly as a result of attracting graffiti writers. The Fonosluts had to pay $80 a week to clean up graffiti in the club for two months in early 2002. Przm eventually took matters into his own hands. “We threatened to beat up the graffiti writers by name. I would get on the mic and tell people that I was gonna whoop their ass,” he reveals.

For awhile the discord dampened attendance. Eventually, though, the chaotic magnetism brought people back into the fold. And more often these days conflict is resolved with rap battles instead of physical fights.

Unlike more organized battles, those at Bernie’s tend to be loose and spontaneous, or “street.” Metro (of SA Smash) says he enjoys the Bernie’s style because they “are more real, no time limits on the flow, just pure unadulterated wit battles. No judges. No crowd noise meters. The traditional battle is to claim the title ‘the illest.’”

Such battles are a point of pride–even more so when outsiders don’t show proper respect to the locals. When Bruce Wayne, a member of a Los Angeles crew called Gotham Asylum, dissed Columbus from Bernie’s stage, Blueprint (of Soul Position) quickly rose to the challenge. The bar was closing so the crowd of 100-plus filtered onto the sidewalk outside. Blueprint, Metro and Spitball member Bru Lei came out victorious, and the matter was settled without violence.

“They came to ‘Cowtown’ and got served,” So What?! recollects.

“Print came off,” Pos 2 adds. “But that’s just hip-hop, man. No beefs after that.”

Over the years, Sunday nights at Bernie’s have become so popular that other events can’t compete. Phife Dawg (of a Tribe Called Quest) once scheduled a show at Club 504 on a Sunday, but few showed up.

“Some cat that was at the event and was talking to Phife Dawg’s manager told him the spot to be at was Bernie’s,” Pos 2 recalls. “Well, the pack all came down to Bernie’s ’cause no one was at his show. Bernie’s was packed, and he did a couple of tracks and an a cappella. He was very impressed.”

This anything-can-happen spirit has remained at the heart of the night. “Music is secondary at Bernie’s,” RJD2 says. “People getting cracked over the heads with pool sticks, Copywrite rapping from the perspective of an Eve poster–these things make Bernie’s so great. Hip-hop is a big moneymaker, but only a club with a punk rock background that is used to lawlessness would be patient enough in order to earn a buck.”

That may be overstating it a bit. “We give them freedom to do what they want to do,” Painter says. “But the police can come down whenever they want–and we want them to–and will check in on them. It’s not a free-for-all.”

Still, Przm feels at home. “It’s like a big-ass house party,” he says. “People like to go where they can wh’all out.”

The Fonoslut crew will throw an anniversary party, on April 11 at Bernie’s, where Spitball will perform with J.U.I.C.E, a Chicago emcee who’s famous for defeating Eminem at Scribble Jam ’97.

1:50 AM – 4 Comments – 6 Kudos – Add Comment – Edit -

Wes Flexner-What are a few Hip Hop Weeklies that stick out in your mind?
Blueprint-Ohio would be Bernies(Fonosluts) Columbus #1, and Topcats #2. They were the best hiphop nights I’ve ever been to for different reasons…Bernies was rowdy on some youth angst clash of cultures type shit, and the music was really diverse. Topcats was dope only because it was the only outlet in a city with no outlets, and because people used to get regulated on so quickly. A lot more beatdowns at Topcats, but a lot more classic hiphop moments at Bernies. Topcats also had that straight edge, grafitti writer, hip hop head, meets g rapper element to it. That was the last place I battled at with regularity because you could guarantee it would be against somebody who hadn’t heard of me.Bernies was a place you had to earn respect before you got the mic at, and Topcats wasn’t really.

WF-How long did Top Cats go on for? I know Bernies went on for like 6 years.
Blueprint-Top cats was about 5 years.

WF-Girls Girls Girls. Why do most Hip Hop nights struggle on the girl tip?
Blueprint-Because dudes who aren’t around enough women put hiphop nights together. Most dudes don’t even acknowledge the fun factor, and the fun factor runs hand in hand with the female factor. If the women come to your event then you’re doing something right. Not that it has to be girly music but its gotta be something normal people ie Women can relate to. Dudes just wanna rap and get glory. Girls just wanna have fun. You have to meet somewhere in the middle to get girls out.

After the jump, Print gives hip hop dorks lessons on meeting women. He discusses future music and touring plans, and tells me how Envelope earned the nickname “the white ODB”.

WF-Do you have any advice for the gameless but well intentioned Hip Hop man at a weekly to meet women without creeping them out?
BP-Play the bar and let the girls talk first.

WF-So say the girl decides to talk to you..and she asks you to dance and you don’t know how to dance…How should I..I mean one approach that situation. Whats an easy dance move for the motor skilled impaired?
BP-Then I would dance but I would play the wall. Never get out in plain sight where everybody can see you if you can’t dance. If its packed then get in the middle of the dancefloor where nobody can see you and stay hugged up on her so she doesn’t notice you’ve got no rhythm Either the wall or hidden in the middle. When you play the wall u can front like you’re not tryin. That’s crucial if you can’t dance.

WF-i have found that the best moment to bust free is during “The Humpty Dance” cause dood explains how the dance to you and its supposed to look funny anyway so I am glad its get so much spin.
BP-Oh yeah. If you hear a joint with song that has a dance move associated with it then do that immediately. That will save you.

WF-So last show you headlined in Columbus was New Years at Skullys.
BP-Yeah that was it for me. I’ve been tryin to lay low and do other things.

WF-Place was stacked.
BP-Yeah shit was oversold. That was a great night. I was so amazed that Lif was actually there. Especially after his bus accident.

WF-Yeah that was his first show back. So after something like that..why Bourbon Street on a Wednesday?
BP- Well, besides trying to bring shows to the weekly event that wouldn’t normally be there, for me its about trying out some new material in a room and for a crowd that might not come see me at a spot like Skullys. Bourbon St. is an indy rock room primarily. And it definitely isn’t associated with hiphop at all to this point. For me that’s good. When I tour solo try to fit in a couple weekly events, where people who go there might not even believe I would play that kinda room, but when it works it means more to everybody. Plus I like small rooms anyway

WF-You are about to go on the road again right?
BP-I start the Blowfly tour on june 12th. That’s about 2 weeks but its mostly East coast and Midwest.Then after that I got the Paid Dues tour starting in mid july and early august. Its Felt (Atmosphere & Murs), Mr Lif, Brother Ali, Cage, Hangar 18, Me and Living Legends, and maybe some other cats. That will be the majority of my summer spent on the road.

WF- What musical projects are you currently working on?
BP- My next solo album and producing Envelopes next album are my number one priorities right now. I’m also working on a new Greenhouse album, but since me and Fess don’t really give a shit about release dates so its gonna come out whenever.

WF-You just took Envelope on his first tour. He is a favorite among Donewaiting.com visitors. So tell us an embarrassing story about Tony. on the road.How did Lope get the name “The White Odb”?
BP-Envelope managed to have a lot of good stories in a short amount of time…let me think of that shit. He got called (the White ODB) that by one of his own fans in Carbondale, Illinois. He played there last year with me and some kids dug him, so one of them came back and was saw Envelope at the merch table and said “I love you man, you’re even more dirty and grimey than the last time I saw you! You’re like the white old dirty bastard!!!” shit was hilarious…. Envelope would get drunk and talk shit to the crowd during my set and as fucked up as what he said would be it would be right and funny as fuck. In Tulsa, instead of calling the nonresponsive crowd wack he told them that he couldn’t believe they had the nerve to resent Mexicans for coming here when Mexicans worked harder than them. He called them lazy and the shit was so fucking funny. That was the worst night of the tour though. Not in turnout, because we had about 60 heads there, but in terms of response because it was like rapping to a room of statues.Tony was a big trooper though, but he did really well on his first tour.

Disclaimer. I am not the promoter of this show. I am down with Weightless. So What Wednesdays was named after Daymon Dodson. And I do work for his legacy. But I don’t have any financial stake in the night.The deed on the night is DJ Detox and friends. I have dejayed at So What Wednesdays as part of 3cb. And sometimes Adam Elliot gives me a free shot. But thats just because Adam Elliot is a pretty good dood. So even though I am down with Weightless. No money here….much like I have also resisted all urges to write on the bathroom stall even though I down with PBJ.

DJ Pos 2 and DJ Lo Zone of legendary dejay crew, the Fonosluts, are joining forces with DJ Detox for a Booty House party at Cafe Bourbon Street’s Hip Hop Night So What Wednesdays. That’s tomorrow.

Booty house is the ultimate evolution of Hip Hop. The Detroit sound strips Hip Hop of its frivolous elements like self-absorbed technical rhyme schemes… and having to rhyme words in general.
It gives you exactly what you want from rap: bass and cusswords.

Pos 2 and Detox just sent me a Fonosluts Booty House mix by Przm from a Febuary 11th, 2001 Hip Hop Night. 6 freaking years ago.

The mix stands up these days, now that Bmore club, Miami Bass, Detroit Booty House, New Orleans Bounce are all the rage do to Diplo’s influence.

This mix is extra special because it is hosted by the late Columbus Icon/ everyone’s best friend Daymon Dodson aka So What. (So What Wednesdays is named after Daymon, ya dig?)

Listening to Daymon is hilarous. He disses Jay-z. He demands the breakers to get off the the floor.
There was an ongoing war in Columbus Hip Hop community between the bboys and the rest of the Hip Hop scene. Columbus Hip Hoppers would rather look at women dance instead of a bunch a guys rolling around on the floor.

Daymon also chastizes the men of the crowd for staring at girls like a bunch of creeps. I’ts tight cause he keeps telling this girl Laura to dance. There were two Laura’s that hung out around that time. I think its the one that is built in a manner that would historically appeal to rap fans.. It would make sense cause Daymon keeps asking her to get out and dance.

I made out with her a few times so she would get me a ride to my job at Wild Oates in the morning. I wouldn’t sleep with her cause I was sweating this other girl. I didn’t want Laura to feel used. Now that I think about it, she was pretty attractive and I should have showed more initiative…

Nostalgia is a motherfucker.

Anyway, the mix is dope. Daymon is as always, lovable.

Download the mp3 of the mixtape here.

If you like it, go to Bourbon Street tomorrow. It’s free as an mp3.