O-Fresh! Live and in Concert!!

O-Fresh is going to take the world by storm, hurricane, typhoon, monsoon, tsunami, Chinook, cold front, earthquake, NUCLEAR DISASTER!!!

You have heard me mention the One and Only O-Fresh before, now I will mention him again, praising his rapping ability.
O-Fresh (not to be confused with the oral bubble bath tooth foam) is a rapper from Providence, Rhode Island. If that alone doesn't strike fear in your eardrums, then you haven't heard suburban rap before.O-Fresh, Live and in Concert

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007. Fontana's, New York City. The night was cool, like a temperate refrigerator, which required my wearing a hooded sweatshirt on top of my Original Gangster t-shirt, emblazoned with an original Nintendo gun centered in the middle of the old English typeface. I was ready to see the Original Fresh in concert.

Chantal and I made our way down the skinny lower-east-side streets, navigating our way around garbage bags and refuse on the street. The strange Chinese signs illuminated the cobbled street in a neon glow and rats were out in abundance.

Fontana's stood out from the run-down buildings and seedy restaurants like O-Fresh stands out amongst his rapper contemporaries - like a welcome sight and clean-cut alternative to all the garbage out there.

We arrived at the door to Fontana's basement and were greeted by a woman with a pen and a sheet of paper listing the names of the night's performers. Under each one of the three acts was a tally of who the guests were there to see. When she asked us, I responded with a definitive "O-Fresh", and gave her a scowl, curled my upper lip and squinted my eyes as if to say, "Who else? Please."
The door to the basement opened, and I immediately heard sounds of rap beats cascading up the uneven staircase. We rushed down to find O-Fresh already in the middle of his set!

We had missed the first 20 minutes, regrettably, and we were immediately sorry that we did.

Mr.Fresh sounded even better in person than he did on his MySpace page! He skipped around the stage with his two co-rappers, Sneaky Pete and John MackEnflow. Both of whom are incredible rappers and performers themselves.

There were two backup singers as well, and O-Fresh himself played his beats off his iPod situated at the back of the stage.

We heard about three songs, two of which we had never heard before. His newest song, 1st of a Kind was incredible performed live.

We were also fortunate enough to make it in time for Suburban Gangsta, which contains Chantal's favorite lyric: "Even if it says 'Don't Walk', I'ma stomp through/ I keep the crossing guard paid so I cross when I wants to."

If he keeps up this kind of rapping, he'll be able to do whatever he wants. He is good. Really good. So good that I fully intend to go to his next show, and the show after that one. As long as O-Fresh is making music, I'll be listening.

Not only is he a great musician, but he's a really nice guy. I had the chance to meet him after the show and talk 80s pop culture. Nice guy, great music, incredible performance.

If things happen like they should, O-Fresh will be on everyone's MP3 player soon. You can buy his CD here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/ofresh I don't have one yet, so when you buy yours, why not one for me? You get 10% off if you buy more than one!

Visit his MySpace page here to hear four of his songs: www.myspace.com/ofresh

I know I encouraged you to listen to Joe Bendik in my last post, but if you listen to anyone, listen to O-Fresh. Watch the video, too (I've embedded it below for your viewing and listening pleasure). That way you can tell all your friends you knew of O-Fresh before he was a multi-platinum recording artist, and you will have added another great artist to your Facebook musical preferences.