Nightlife / Stephanie Depasquale

Wanted: hip-hop venues for the Q-C

By Stephanie De Pasquale | Saturday, September 06, 2008 | () comments

“Welcome to the Quad-Cities Vol. II” is coming out on Friday, Aug. 22. It’s the second installment in a rap and hip-hop mix tape series featuring area artists.

T-Styles from Muscatine, Iowa, started the series earlier this summer when he realized the amount of talent we have here in the Quad-Cities. I have a copy of the first volume and it is filled with several different types of rap and hip-hop to fit every taste, and the quality of music and recording rivals what is playing on the radio.

Yet despite the level of talent, our Go&Do nightlife calendars almost never contain listings for rap or hip-hop performances in the Quad-City area, and that’s because the venues don’t schedule that genre of music.

“Venues around here really don’t want us and it’s sad to say, but we caused it,” said J. Wright, a rapper from Davenport who has been on a BET tour and opened for Soulja Boy, Neo-Yo and Chris Brown. “Every time we do have a show, there’s either a fight or some drama, so the things we get really aren’t mainstream.”

Unfortunately, Wright’s statements ring true in regards to the only Q-C hip-hop show I’ve heard about during my brief tenure as an entertainment reporter. The show was held during a birthday party at a Davenport motel and ended with the oft-arrested Pachino Hill of Davenport being found guilty of disorderly conduct for hitting someone over the head with a pipe when a fight broke out.

J. Sterling, a rapper from East Moline who opened for T-Pain and Soulja Boy at the i wireless Center, said that besides working parties, area rappers often perform at the Chorus Line, a strip club in Davenport. While Sterling has attended the shows to support the local rap scene, he said he won’t perform there.

Both rappers said they have to travel outside the Quad-Cities to perform at legitimate venues, which doesn’t seem right considering their level of talent and the fact that there are plenty of less-talented bands who just play covers and fill area bars weekend after weekend.

Wright thinks that with the right security, legitimate local venues can successfully host rap and hip-hop shows on a regular basis, which would help give the genre and its talented artists a boost in the Quad-Cities.

“Hopefully, we’ll finally start getting some events around here. All the big festivals and the fairs are all centered toward country music. There’s nothing really for hip-hop around here,” he said. “We need to start having some street fests or something at the fair for hip-hop artists.”

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.