On
our 1st visit to "Poji's Groove" @ the Paradox we had so many confusing
opinions that we had to break this story down into two parts. The 1st
part is all about the House music. The last part will be about the
crowd or patrons. To begin this is the Brothers in the Struggle
night to play, which is every 4th Saturday. This
includes DJ's Henry "Da Man", Oji, & Pope.
Hitting the decks in that order. This is some of the
best House around, probably due to the fact that this is a 3 headed attack
of top dj's. Sort of like going to a party to hear Little Louie Vega,
Frankie Knuckles, and Tony Humphries play at the same party. We heard
new and classic House being played. Poji's groove was a name picked by
the listeners of the now defunct "Underground Experience" radio show.
We want to let all of our website visitors know that it was hard for these
brothers to maintain the faith and keep playing in Baltimore but I can truly
say that they play their sets like "Even if no-one shows up we will play
some hot **it anyway." They play a lot in D.C. clubs to packed
houses and still play at the Paradox. They are dedicated and proud to
let the world know that their music is coming out of Baltimore. We
can't wait to hear DJ Pope if/when he gets to play for "the family" @ the
Good Vibrations party. We intended to stay for a little while taking
pictures and recording some of the live house mixes but, we put aside any
inhibitions and stayed until 4am feeling the music. Even though
it cost $2 for coat check(no coat check for me). Now we all know the Paradox will always
have excellent dj's and the best sound around but the crowd is a different
story. (see part 2--below)
The Crowd
Here it is.
We have stayed away from the Paradox for a long time because basically we
had no night to go. For the deep House heads in Baltimore, who are
basically 25-30 and over (some with families),
a no nonsense and convenient night of partying is desired. Although
there is always mad love for Wayne Davis and the Paradox management,
Saturday night has developed a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions over
the years which has kept a lot of House lovers away. This writer
recently made a trip to the Dox to support Poji's Groove and check out the
current scene for ourselves. I had all types of mis-conceptions,
feelings, and apprehensions about the atmosphere on Saturday nights. I
haven't been in a while. In fact, other than the Wayne Davis b-day/odell's
reunion party, the last time I went into the Paradox was 3 years ago and 6
years before that. Even though people say go to the club for the love
of the music, the right atmosphere is what keeps people going back.
Being outnumbered 9-1 by a majority of our gay sista's & brotha's makes some
very uncomfortable. On this night being gay was not the most
outstanding thing. The most profound statement I observed was how
young everyone was. There was a good amount of very young people in
the club and most was gravitating towards the Hip-Hop room as most of this
generation do. I really got the feeling that these young adults didn't
understand how much respect these DJ's have in the House community.
This was like another type of underground culture to me as I noticed more
young lesbians than I knew existed in Baltimore. I got even more
confused when I noticed very attractive, well built, nice looking, and
seemingly "straight" females. Go figure. As I observed what was
around me, I understood the club's decision not to alienate their gay
patrons by trying to make a move to oust them in favor of complaining and
non paying patrons. The risk might have been devastating to the club.
They support the club's Hip-Hop scene & the club in general. They like
House too but not in the numbers I am accustomed to seeing. I also
came to realize that the more traditional House heads in Baltimore could
easily take over the chamber and share Saturday nights at the Paradox.
But as a friend said to me recently "do we still want to." There is a
huge resurgence of House in Baltimore as people was fed up with waiting for
the return of the old Paradox. Plus the cancellation of WEAA's
"Underground Experience" led to many opportunities for House
promoters in
Baltimore. So I say to you that House is back. We just have more
places to go. One love to the Paradox and The Brothers in the
Struggle.
Due to our technical difficulties at the live recording you
may hear small skips in beats which is NOT any fault of these professional
dj's. We also had to break the mix down into 3 segments of 7 mins.
We will revisit Poji's Groove in the future but wanted to present something
to our visitors. Sorry.....Cafe Management.
2003