Black Milk Tourblog

Black Milk at Hip Hop Kemp 2009

Black Milk on tour in Europe – Broadcast Episode 1

Black Milk on tour in Europe – Broadcast Episode 2

Black Milk on tour in Europe – Broadcast Episode 3

Black Milk live in Manchester

written by Massimo

Tuesday, March 24th
4:00 AM
Let´s get it started! 6 hour drive from Berlin-Neukölln to Frankfurt-Airport where I have to pick up three guys: Black Milk, Elzhi and Hexmurda.

11:50 AM
After waiting half an hour in front of the gate, a BIG black guy appeared who has to be Hexmurda as he was described to me.
But with him was only one other guy who introduced himself to me as Elzhi. But where is Black Milk? As I could read in Hex’ face, something went wrong. Hex told me that Black missed his flight.
WHAT???
“Uh-oh, that’s gonna be a veeeeery hard Europe tour…” I talked to myself. Hex interrupted my thoughts and handed me his Blackberry. There was an e-mail from Black which says that he has booked another flight which will arrive at 3:55 PM. Okay, so I will drive Hex and El to the hotel in Heidelberg and go back to pick up Black. But first of all, let´s ask on which gate Black will arrive. So we went to the information center and asked the woman. ”There is no flight arriving at this time. The next flight from London City Airport will arrive at 7:55 PM.” WHAT??? I told it Hex and he was like:” Fuck that shit, let´s go to the hotel, and he has to take the train when he arrives.” Well…okay! On our ride to Heidelberg Hex was the whole time on his blackberry twittering. That reminds me of my girlfriend who also twitters the whole day. And as if I talked of the devil, my phone rings.”Hey sweetie what happened? Where is Black Milk? Why did he miss his flight?” WHAT???
Ahh, I start to understand. Hex posted already everything on twitter and she read it.
That is supposed to be the running gag on the whole tour. But why does Black miss his flight? Hex? ”Because that stupid n**** left his chain in the hotel room and recognized it at the security check on the airport.” Hmm…

3:55 PM
My celly rings, unknown number. It was Black. He has arrived at the airport in Frankfurt. Huh?
I told him to take the train to Heidelberg Central station. I will pick him up when he is there.

6:00 PM
We met Black at the train station and went to the sound check. Finally I got all of them. But why did they tell us that there was no 3:55 flight from London? Black told us that he had to switch planes in Zurich. That should have somebody told me earlier. After a good show in front of an audience of 250 people we went back to the hotel, and made a stop at Mc Donald’s. That should not be the last time on the tour. So now my plan was bringing them to the hotel, park the car and go to bed. That should not be that easy. As I stopped in front of the hotel the police stepped on the scene. “Would you get out of the car?” They told me that I made a bad turn into a one-way. One of the officers scans the car with his flash lights and of course he found the beer bottles which the guys took with them from the venue. So the next question was if I was drunk. “No sir I´m not.” After I gave them a breath they believed me. They asked me what we are doing in Heidelberg and after I told them that we are musicians and played at the Karlstorbahnhof this night they let us pass. Wow, that was a close thing.
What a day!

Wednesday, March 25th
10:00 AM
On the road back to Berlin. I put on some music. Nobody is talking. El sleeps, Hex and Black are on their Blackberry. That will be the same picture for the rest of our trip.

1:00 PM
Our first traffic jam. The reason was a serious accident between a car and a truck. I recognize Hex taking pictures of it.

1:30 PM
My girlfriend is calling. “What happened on the highway? I saw it on twitter. Is everybody okay?”
Tsssssssss…

5:30 PM
We reach Berlin. I checked them into the hotel, told them that it is a nonsmoking hotel and met the promoter in the lobby. We were just in a small talk when suddenly an alert started. The girls from the reception can´t stop it and we were joking about it, until somebody said that the alert is a fire alert and comes from room 501. Fuck! That’s Elzhi´s room. I tried to ask the girls from the reception what happened when I hear sirens. Please, no! Two huge firefighter trucks and a police car were just arriving. I tried to get upstairs to Elzhi´s room but they won´t let me. So we have to wait. After half an hour the firefighters came down and told me that it was a wrong alert and El is not responsible for it.
That took a load off my mind. Half an hour later El came down too and told us the whole story from his point of view. “Man, I was in the bathroom having a shower, when somebody knocks at my door.
The next thing I know was 3 Firefighters and a reception girl staying in my bathroom.”
Everybody starts laughing!

7:00 PM
Sound check at the venue. There is a problem, Hex can´t get on stage because there are no stairs and he can´t move his leg properly but that is a different story which he told me the next day in Duisburg. So I’ve got to improvise something and grab a beer crate to get him on stage. And it works.
After a dope show and couple of interviews I brought them home to the hotel which was right across the street but Hex won´t go a hundred meter by feet. So I drove them. The funny thing about Hex is that he doesn´t move if he doesn´t have to. Every stairway he has to step up he asked the same question:”What the hell is wrong with you guys in Europe? You don´t know elevators up in here?”

Thursday, March 26th
10:30 AM
On the road to Duisburg. No traffic jam, no conversation, no stress. Everything was cool. I played one of my CD´s with some German and American Hip Hop on it.

5:00 PM
We checked in at the hotel in Duisburg. We have two more hours until the sound check. I decided to make myself a twitter account to see what the guys are posting. Aha Hex posted nearly my whole playlist from today except of the German stuff:” The tm (tour manager) is playing some German HipHop. We have no idea whut the fuk the nigga is talking about.”

7:00 PM
Sound check. Nice venue with its own restaurant on the first floor. We decided to get our meal there. Well let´s see what we take…ah chicken nuggets with fries. What a surprise, the same meal the take at every Mc Donald´s we passed. The waitress was new, I think, she couldn´t tell us anything about the meal neither how many nuggets they´ve got nor which sauces they have. So we waited for a whole hour for 6 chicken nuggets and some fries and paid 8 € each. After that I brought Black and El back to the hotel. Hex decided to stay there. He wants to see the show of Big Shug and Termanology who perform before us. So I got back to the venue too to keep Hex company. But don´t think we saw anything from the show… Hex was sitting backstage sipping some vodka red bull and talking alternate to Big Shug or Termanology. After a while Elzhi suddenly appeared in the backstage.
Hex looked at him as if he saw a ghost: ”Man, how did you come here? By feet?”. “Hell yeah, the hotel is not far away.” That’s true. But I didn’t say a word, just started smiling. After I picked up Black the show started. It was cool, not packed but nice. After the show we all went backstage where Termanology and his people already killed the whole alcohol, except the vodka which was in Hex´s hand. The whole backstage was packed with rappers, promoters, interviewers, producers and one girl. That was funny. Everybody in the room tries to holla at her and and make her come to the hotel except Black. His voice was nearly not hearable and he already gave her his number the last time he was in Germany. Right after we left to go back to the hotel his phone rang. Yes, it was the girl from the backstage asking for his room number. Everybody starts laughing. When we reached the hotel, El, Hex and me decided to drink a beer before go to sleep.

Friday, March 27th
1:00 PM
On the road to the Netherlands. The trip should only take us 2 hours. El told us about his problems to fall asleep because: ”Black banged the shit out of that girls head.” That is a problem I will understand a few days later.

3:00 PM
The guys are in their rooms and sleep until sound check. Let´s see the location. Sweet!
This venue reminds me of a hall in a castle. Nice stage with something like an elevator coming up in front of it, were the whole technical stuff is in. What a backstage with a flat screen on which you can see the stage and boxes where you can hear the sound. I´ve never met nice Dutch people before, perhaps because this time I didn´t tell them that I’m German. Nice city, nice people. I love Arnhem!

7:00 PM
Sound check. The guys are cool. First wireless mic´s on the tour. First of all some local openers, then El and Black. Dope show. Big hall, but not so many peoples. The promoter said that he reached his breakeven, and wants me to tell the whole world about Arnhem because they need artists. I try my best.

12:00 PM
After the show the guys had to do some interviews and two ladies want to do the interview in the hotel rooms. But they want to straighten that they are no groupies. Okay?!
After the interview El wanted to go out. So El and I went to a so-called after show party where they only played techno. These parties were familiar to El (Detroit) and me (Berlin). But we hate techno so El was talking to a girl and I went out to smoke a cigarette. Suddenly a crazy black dude appeared and started to battle me in English. That was funny. I went inside to tell El about that. But he was already in a conversation with a girl. After one more hour we decided to go home. El, me and the girl from the techno club. When we left the club the crazy guy stepped back on the scene and wanted to battle El.
But the next thing that happened was that El´s girl started battling the guy in Dutch. That was funny. Nobody understood a word but we were sure she’s cut his head off.

Saturday, March 28th
9:00 AM
I went down to have breakfast. You won´t believe whom I met on the second floor coming straight from Black´s room. One of the “non groupie reporters” from yesterday. That was a funny start into the day.

10:00 AM
These guys are very straight with getting up only Black is always a bit late but ok compared to other artists I know. So within 20 minutes we were back on the highway. Now we have a 6 hours drive to Paris but the first time the weather was nice so I did 75 mph perhaps a bit more. In front of us was a Ferrari doing 90 mph when the driver suddenly made a full breaking. I stepped on the break and every one of us was scared to death except Black who starts laughing. That’s what they use to call fearless. 10 minutes later my phone rang. Guess who asked: ”What happened with that Ferrari? Are you good?”
Hex has already posted the whole story on twitter with a picture of the Ferrari and named it the Ferrari of Death. Thanks for that Hex!

2:00 PM
We are close to the border of France. Of course they took us out. Checking our passports and the trunk then let us pass.

4:00 PM
We reach Paris. Two more hours until we can see our hotel. Nice!

7:00 PM
Sound check. “We are on a fucking boat! WOW!” The backstage is large… Four square meters! That’s going to be warm. We have an opener. It is Akil from J5! He and El are getting buddies while smoking a joint… Sometimes weed makes everything easier.
After the sound check we went back to the hotel to change clothes.

9:00 PM
We are back on the boat. It is packed. The backstage also and it is even hotter than I have expected.
10 people in the smallest backstage I´ve ever seen and El starts smoking a Joint. Good Idea! Fuck, no window!
Akil did a dope show but El and Black killed it. The whole crowd was jumping and you could feel the boat moving from side to side. Some girls in the first row took pictures of Black. That’s ok, but… they took only pictures from his shoes. I counted at least 20 pictures. That was kind of weird. After the show we went to an after party somewhere near to our hotel. Nice small club with an own table for us. We enjoyed it!

Sunday, March 29th
01:00 PM
Damn, I forgot the clock change. So the room service wakes me up. No problem, since we have no pressure – the next two days are off-days. So where do Rappers want to enjoy their off-days in Europe? Damn, right! So we went all the way back to Amsterdam. Hex arranged for us to go to the D12 show in the Melkweg this night.

5:00 PM
We arrive at the hotel. I had to park the car in a park house. 50€ for 24 hours! Unbelievable.

9:00 PM
After 3 hours sleep we went to the Melkweg. They gave us VIP tickets and we went backstage.
But the artist backstage was on the second floor and in front of us was a large corkscrew stairway.
While we were climbing the stairs I hear Hex swearing:”What the hell is wrong with you guys in Europe? You don´t know elevators up in here?” I had to bite on my tongue. Finely we reached their backstage. Everybody was talking and joking except me. I was tired as hell. After seeing the half of the show I left and went back to the hotel room. The last thing I heard from Black and El was: “Man, it feels strange seeing them on stage without Proof.” True!

Monday, March 30th
10:00 AM
I went down to have breakfast. There must have been a football game between the Netherlands and Scotland some days before, because Amsterdam was full of Scottish people. So when I came down to the breakfast room it was full with Scottish guys wearing skirts. Sweet, the first thing I see this morning are hairy, male legs. That was appetizingly.

1:00 PM
Some guys calling my room for an interview nobody knows a thing about. I wake El and Black up and bring them down. After the interview we want to check the city. Hex came down. He told us that the D12 guys invited us to the Hard Rock Café for lunch. So we went there. After a really good meal
El, Black and I walked through the city: changing money, buying some trees and cookies and drinking a beer. Later El, Black and Hex wanted to meet some old friends from the Netherlands. I didn´t asked about that and went back to the hotel to get some more sleep.

12:00 PM
I suddenly awake. Where is that noise coming from? Sounds like…ohhhhh! It comes from Blacks room. I think they finely met their old friends. Now I understand El´s problems with falling asleep. I turned the TV as loud as possible but no way out, seems like we have the same flue. So I had to listen to the whole thing for one more hour until I can sleep again.

Tuesday, March 31st
10:00 AM
Back on the road. This time we go to Bremen. It’s just a 3.5 hour drive. Yeah back in Germany… Not!
They take us out at the border again. Checking our passports and the trunk. Of course they found nothing suspicious, so we can pass. Before we leave the border Black asked them for the next Mc Donald´s. I can´t see it anymore. But of course there is one not far away.

2:00 PM
We arrive at the hotel in Bremen. The promoter is already there to welcome us.
We have 4 more hours until sound check. Everybody is up in his room.

6:00 PM
Sound check at the “venue”. It looks like an old warehouse. I feel reminded on the squats in Berlin. The PA was not good and the sound check was hard. When we arrived for SOUND CHECK nothing was plugged neither the speakers nor the DJ table. Black and Hex were pissed and I could understand that. El was cool he found a girl who took him outside to smoke a joint. After 1 hour and a half we left the venue and got back to the hotel.

10:00 PM
El gets on stage after three openers. The sound is too low during the whole show. I went a couple of times to the soundman and told him to put the volume up. But the show of Black and El was cool. Not so many people I would say a hundred but they had their fun.

Wednesday, April 1st
10:00 AM
We had to leave very early so we are already on the road for an hour. Today is my last day on tour with those guys.

1:00 PM
We check in a Ferry which takes us from Puttgarden to Brodby. Everybody is tired.

2:00 PM
Now we are in Denmark… Not. First they take our car out. And this time they did it very carefully.
They check everyone of us for several minutes. Especially El. He has to turn his head all the way round and things like that. They thought El is an illegal immigrant with a counterfeit passport.
But after half an hour they let us pass, too.

4:00 PM
We arrive at Copenhagen, time to say good bye. It has to be quick because I have to get my ferry back to Germany. So just some handshakes and hugs later I am back on the road to Germany.

Those guys are cool dudes hopefully we see us again perhaps on their next Europe tour?!