This and That That

Mister - That that from TONY KATAI on Vimeo.


The year does not begin until Blowout - I feel like so many more lights seem to turn on in the aftermath - the anecdotes of who really hit it start getting around and these hyperbolic blogs (guilty) start chiming and echoing and hyping...

Mister grabbed our (or at least my) attention back at Blowout 2010... Months after that show, before 2011 happened, before he formed Passalacqua, he told me about an EP he was working on titled Cookin' With Que-C (a recipe-cookbook themed collection of the raps he'd been developing (with the producer-named-in-the-title) in his seminal years back on the Detroit scene, 05-06, when he returned home from his time in Maryland).

Well, two years later, after the fierce local flair of Passalacqua (they've gotten to the point where they're solid candidates to open for Lupe Fiasco in April, and maybe even Shabazz Palaces, sheesh), now, Lacker's found some time to get back to that work desk, to finish the slowly-assembled jigsaw tracks of his solo-endeavors and, over the weekend, filmed a video for the the single "That That" (from a previous production with Dr. B).  -Viewable above, dir. Tony Katai).

After a whirlwind two years toeing the shores of both Detroit's hip-hop and indie crowds, (somehow succeeding to charm that batch that rapper Ben Miles dubbed "the hipster-crowd...") he's come to a sobering perspective, he's...potentially, calming down.


"With rap, it's always this thing: like, I gotta put out more stuff. There's this bloggy kinda, not-a-competition, but kinda-competition - if you see Sheefy on Pitchfork, it's like - how'd he get on Pitchfork? Now I wanna get on Pitchfork....that thing where you have to one-up somebody, somehow!"


But he's come to realize that the crowd finds the sounds they want, in the end...that, at the end of the day, all one can do, is get back to the work, to the writing, to the raps.


"People who like (Mister) aren't going to be the one who like Sheefy's stuff, necessarily, and then vice versa... A lot of rappers and rock bands, even, are vying for the same fans, but you've got to find who you appeal to, and I'm finally getting to that..."


Right... just because Blaksmith's in Cold Men Young, that doesn't guarantee that CMY fans are gonna be into Passalacqua...

But if Miles is looking for a varied crowd, (with some hipsters, likely) to come out for the album release show headlined by the funk/indie-rock/rap-hybrid septet Of Mice and Musicians - (of which he is one member) then it's likely he'll be pleased if he invites -Passalacqua, along with House Phone and Detroit CYDI... (look for that in early April).


"But, from a rapper's perspective? Like, how do you get on those blogs? Is it luck or just sheer amount of content... You really just gotta grin and bear it and work on the next thing...For us, word of mouth seems to be working so far."


And it's great that now, through Passalacqua, that Lackner's got some attention - he can unload all his solo-stuff now, with fortunate reserves of momentum. Sort of an, oh-by-the-way...since-you-haven't-heard-this-yet...be it 2, 3 or 4 years old, what-have-you, it's still yet-to-be-released...

Until now.


"I've got five years of work that has to all come out and people will think that's crazy, but, no, it's crazy that I haven't released it yet. It just happened to work out this way.

Mister has two more EPs coming together, one more substantially/assuredly than the other... We'll have to stay tuned.