We were in Vegas getting our Tranny on with Project Runway winner, Christian Siriano, so our friend, Connecticut’s very own Meridith Valiando, covered a hiphop show for us over the weekend. It was for producer D/R Period’s new project MV4

Video blogs (vlogs) of our adventures the the snow-globe they call Sin City will appear on here later today, but for now, check out Meridith’s humorous adventures in hip hop:

I had mild (ok, severe) culture shock lastnight at the Bowery Poetry Club for producer, D/R Period’s showcase (did someone say - M.O.P, Public Enemy, Jay Z, and a little tune that makes me do my white girl shake, Cam’ron’s “Hey Ma?). “You drink? I drink. you smoke?” No! But I’m pretty sure some chick was smokin’ a few thangs in the bathroom — that or she fell asleep while in the stall facing the wrong direction. Which I innocently discovered while peeking under the stall to check the occupancy and was a little concerned a tranny or dude in heels was in the girls room.

Moving on. I love hip hop. I know I don’t fit in but when you are told to arrive two hours before anyone shows up and your only choice is to drink mad beers — you don’t care! So I was reppin’ and doing my thing and getting drunk I realized white people are so high- strung. While, they don’t choregraph dance routines (save most bands circa 1995) while shaking and lip synching to baby- making music, they do rigidly seem so overcalculated. And, what I realized is the mind blowing passion was so different from any indie-rock, emo, or singer songwriter gig I have seen recently. The crowd mattered as much as the act and there was an intensity that moved the room to another level. It was a result of utter love of music. I felt like I was in church and everyone was yelping hallaulleh. .

MV4, the youngings who brought to mind Boyz 2 Men stand out as the highlight of the hip hoppin’ showcase. They were in matching kaki army -like jackets and did tons of slinky “Mr Roboto” moves. The boys, all under 20 did the arm-out-i-love-you-girl moves that I, an unconvinced gal who, even drunk, is way judgemental, went gaa gaa over! They are dreamy! It was wonderful, so not my usual evening, I was in the middle of some vocal-sex and I was charmed and raising the roof.

MV4 are badass sexy boys. These guys have a way to make everyone, even your most unexpected person want to rip off her/his clothes and engage the song in a naughty way. I’m very impressed even though I waited for the 10pm show to start until midnight.

I joked with D/R Period’s very dutiful manager that I was gonna get on stage and do a lil’ Vanessa Carlton ….he freaked out and told me “No!!! Take a seat, Meridith!” and basically put an eye-seat belt on me and never took his eye off me in fear of “1,000 Miles.” Come on, I’m not that white [Ed Note: Yes you are]! I also did another very awkward thing: I Approached two pretty and styled performers and asked in a Seinfeld-like inquiry, how do you work the sunglasses-at-night-look and the see-through-red-raincoat-look — how do you make that work? As I asked about their non-sensical fashion statements I was laughed at, but I deserved it, there are no tips avaliable to make me a convincing raincoat-sunglass fashion statement on a rain-less evening.

Tags: cam'ron, d/r period, jay z, m.o.p., meridith valiando is really white, mv4, public enemy

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 7:57 am and is filed under Bowery Poetry Club, Live Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.