The Corner will be missed.

Necessity always seems to birth some of the most genius creations. The combination of filling a void we were or weren’t aware of mixed with the buzz and excitement of it’s becoming available to all who wish to take part in it and that quiet sub-conscious knowing of the inevitable end to come of it, one day, sparks the flames that burn new chapters of history.

The Corner, a monthly live and local hip hop showcase dreamed up out of frustration by my big homey Candidt was one such thing.  No, it’s not something that is going to be talked about it by hip hop historians 50 years from now the same way we talk about the historic Apollo theatre in New York, but aesthetically and in speaking on level of importance to a community, they’re quite the same. In a recent interview Candidt spoke of the sentiment that most true blue hip hop heads in the Northwest had been thinking for some time: For every show in town the same handful of groups were getting booked. It’s a statement that still to some degree holds true but thanks to The Corner, over 100 acts on the Puget Sound I-5 corridor have gotten the chance to showcase their skills in front of true hip hop fans. This Friday, at the grand finale of The Corner, I’ll be fortunate enough to do just that.

Candidt had been asking me to get on The Corner for the better part of the last 4 or 5 months after bumping into each other at KEXP but it almost seems like fate, that for every show he asked me to get on I had already had lined up a gig somewhere else…until this last one. I didn’t even know this show would be the last of The Corner series but I’m excited for the chance to be a part of something bigger than just what I do. This showcase represents the freshcoast as a whole, ironically, in the small cramped room with maximum capacity under 100 called Rendezvous. It took someone within the community who like so many was on the outside looking at all of these shows getting booked and only a handful of guys getting a chance to perform to get something like this going. Candidt is a veteran, the right type of guy to show everyone who claims to support and represent the local scene that if you’re not here at The Corner, you’re nowhere.  As for the guys on the inside looking out? They didn’t have anything to worry about, if someone big was coming through town on tour, I’d imagine they were assured their visibility would remain intact by the venues who had their small rolodex of Seattle artists to book. Not that those guys weren’t worthy of being on those shows – they most certainly were and STILL are but it’s a testament to the fact that in a town where rock music is still the bread and butter, hip hop has to continue to unite and create opportunities such as this. If one was to go down the roster of venues in Seattle and look at their calendars and their booking agents, 9 times out of 10 they’re booking rock shows and the booking agents come from a rock background. It’s not their fault, those folks I’d imagine get their dose of local hip hop from what’s being talked about in The Weekly and The Stranger and no where else and half of them don’t even come to the hip hop shows they book.  No big thing to me, that’s how I get my dose of local rock music.

I’ll admit I was one of those guys in 2008 when The Corner started who was on the outside looking in. It seemed every show generally had one of six or seven acts on it. All of that is great and good for them but when you factor that Candidt has managed to throw 100 different acts on stage in two years it makes you go hmmmm…I wonder why it’s been like this. The Corner will be sorely missed but thanks goes to Candidt for getting this going!