Oct 7, 202211 min read

608 Tune Up | Turned Out

What may seem to have snuck up on Madison's nightlife culture, has been attempted previously to no avail until now. In such a limited area for BLACK entertainment called Madison, Wisconsin. A group of independent BLACK business owners have figured it out, says 1neofmani in a recent interview with Corey "Dash Dub" Whitmore on Radio 22. 1neofmani adds, "I expect people to doubt that this is going to work - on the outside looking in, you can say whatever you want. When you show up and support it, you've earned your opinion. So, imma listen to your expectations after the event." LessWork Local Lifestyle, Bang Too Real, Dude Da Def, 1 Motion OutReach Enterprise, Marcus Porter, and The Hitterz Collective decided to come together for the greater good of the demand in BLACK fashion, music, dance, art, and entertainment to form what we titled: CEOs (Collective Entertainment Organization). Like a boss, custom made trophies were personally handed out to the best-looking women during Bang & Dude Da Def's finale performance.

Trophies were given to women in complement of Bang and Dude Da Def's song.

No big I's or little U's. WE are all CEOs and owners of our own businesses, but we all agreed something was missing in our isolated attempts. The goal behind and in-front of CEOs is to generate undeniable demand for our collective offerings and partner with business in the form of sponsorships to expand and highlight our influence to increase the flow of trust, BLACK dollars, and sustainability in music and entertainment. Predominantly, hip-hop music and the culture within it.

Antoine McNeail became the newest member of THC at The 608 Tune Up

With only 17,000+ BLACK people living in Madison, Wisconsin it is safe to say our BLACK owned resources are limited. We have BLACK owned businesses thriving in buildings and spaces WE rent without ownership or equity. This is partly due to education and the willingness to mentor each other when we figure shit out. This is our out loud attempt to give those who failed before us and those who look to us individually or collectively a blueprint to UNITY without egos. Pride is the devil, and it has had a hold on BLACK progression in Madison for far too long. There isn't one person or organization tied to CEOs that anyone could distinguish as the weakest link. WE all offer something that the others can't and that just encouraged us to see why WE needed each other to grow. Whether it's Antoine McNeail controlling the room with comedic humor or penetrating passion as the nightly MC.

LessWork provides environmental activities such as raffles, photography, music, and humbling energy.

Dude Da Def social skills and ability to put on his bartender hat is a complement to our culture as a preview of what owning our own spaces and service our own people could look like.

Bang Too Real grassroot approach to locking in venues and setting up meetings with venue owners as the voice of reason for the CEOs to continue expressing our discoveries in the void WE plan to fill.

Marcus Porter crowd grabbing chants in the form of his musical expressions are as if he's channeling our ancestors before him, will always get the attention of his audience.

The Hitterz Collective bringing straight expressions through their multi-facets of dance movements, serves as not only a break from the microphones but their allowing supporters of rap, r&b, and comedy to reminisce on what it was like for us all as youth to want to just dance without trying to look cool. You're talking about all eyes on the stage! Nobody leaves the space when THC touches the stage. It's like watching You Got Served in real life.

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The 608 Tune Up was the first time Madison, Wisconsin has seen this caliber of BLACK unity and artistry under 1-roof. Will E. Banks had kept the vibes right musically with the assistance of his relative backup DJ, DJ Willie. Will E. Banks is the pillar of our cultural gatherings for many reasons. Partly because he's a very well-known DJ who the city trusts to curate opportunities to put audiences around good music and great times. More than that though, Will is from Madison and experienced local music success under the group CME in the early 2000s. It was no accident we booked Banks to spin at The 608 Tune Up. WE knew it would bring a crowd with expectations that WE would exceed beyond spinning the culture's latest top ten hit records. Be sure to contact Will for his upcoming Black Royalty Ball, hosted by his company NeLanks Productions and LessWork Local Lifestyle.

Our theme for The 608 Tune Up was "Broadway Meets HipHop in Madison." Meaning, we wanted to host an organized hip-hop show featuring a host, skits between the artists' sets, curated drinks specials, choreographed dance, and live rap performances to represent the BLACK plight in this city (Madison WI). At this point, the blog can only serve as to highlight every reason you should've been there. It was one of them nights. The goal is to grow and add more elements of BLACK artistry. WE are not seeking more musical talent as far as artists, but the collective is open to doing features with other recording artists to perform in a professional setting together. Supporters of CEOs will appreciate a diverse presentation and it's our responsibility to present them with that at every event. Imagine a live painter on-stage painting the vibrations of the moments before, during, and after each act exits the stage, the painter shares their visual art with the audience? That would be dope right? This is the type of addition WE are interested in adding to our events. I recall my first-time hearing @SaxyWizard ad-lib artists performances with his saxophone at an Artists Collective show at Quality CBD from the audience and everyone in the building went crazy in support of his skillset! That is the kind of addition WE plan to elevate our supporters and sponsors' experience. When preparation meets opportunity, the impact must be that of the big bang theory or it won't receive its peak recognition. The last thing this city needs is an overly hyped event that doesn't live up to its templated anticipation.

The 608 Tune Up will be a hard act to follow and that was us being as intentional as possible. Our template challenge is for hip-hop event planners to go above the norm of just playing a beat and allowing artists to tap dance and sing locally made songs that majority of the crowd don't know the words to. Artists and supporters deserve to see a live show and WE set the tone with The 608 Tune Up. Honestly speaking, WE have plenty of room for improvement and WE will improve every time. To assist the audience not knowing local artists' lyrics WE will add visual elements and song lyrics displayed via projector screens (depending on the capabilities of the venue). We've created an itemized sponsorship package to allow local businesses the opportunity to support and take credit for our cultural successes. WE have a dedicated group of planners and performers set out to make it easy to believe in a healthy future in supporting hip-hop collaborative events.

1neofmani posing w/ winner of the 608 Tune Up raffle.

As great as this event was, it almost never happened. Due to the mental stigma of hosting and opening doors to hip-hop, the owner at Quality CBD almost cancelled our event before WE could prove to him the best and most professional event planners in the city could change his entire look on our culture. Let's just say this, after our event we set up a meeting to not only host monthly events at Quality CBD but to come on board as their talent booking agents to ensure all events at Quality CBD are managed as professionally as The 608 Tune Up. Not only that, but WE also uncovered Quality CBD has a need for high quality images/video of their products for social media engagements. This is what we mean when we say, turn your talents into services.

All photos were captured by: K.I.L.O aka SkitL'z of LessWork Lens

Lature "LoLo" Carter came through in a Queen's fashion with her very own Halal dish topped with her secret sauce in which can't share. Partly, because I don't what the fuck it was except the fact that it was fire! *Spoiler Alert: No pictures. Some things you must be in attendance to enjoy and obtain. There were multiple highlights and takeaways from this event. None greater than the talented individuals who made this night happen. Still, we cannot overlook the excitement generated from the raffle every hour on the hour. Supporters received copies of We The Way (CD) from 1neofmani, swag merch in the form of shirts and hats from Bang and Marcus Porter, and drink specials from Dude Da Def. WE also cannot forget about local businesses who stepped up and offered their products and services to be raffled off in exchange for awareness and traffic to their business. Earthly Temptation offered decorated trays and empowering paint kits. Karen Reece of UCAN (Urban Community Arts Network) donated two tickets to their 2022 Level Up Music Conference featuring local and international panelists such as Ted Park, 1neofmani, Chill, and Shah Evans. Corey "Dash Dub" Whitmore of Media 22 donated live slots for the organizers of the CEOs to come on his platform to promote the show and share our reasons for coming together. He also donated FREE studio time to make more connections with local creatives.

When I say the raffle was a big hit! I mean that without exaggeration. WE had supporters undivided attention whenever we would bring the wooden raffle spinner to the front of the stage. The goal behind the raffle segments was to offer our products and services in addition to our performances to ensure artists' recognition and engage our audience as WE all love FREE or valuable products/services for prices WE normally could not imagine. The greatest exchange for a fun time is a genuine smile on the faces WE aimed to satisfy.

Vernon of 21 Images attended the event and quickly became part of the festivities. He even added to the raffle by offering a FREE photo shoot valued at $200. Shout out to all the raffle winners and the businesses who offered their products and services to make it grand. Ta'Tiana of Build Your Brand Academy also attended as a guest and her vibe and energy positioned her as an additional asset, accepting the role of announcing the raffle winners. Antione McNeail coined her as the BLACK Vanna White. Watch the video below as Vernon expresses his excitement for the raffle segment. Was he feeling the Rozay vibes at the bottom of his Belaire bottle, or did WE do that much of an excellent job of creating a space for BLACK business owners and supporters to extend more than they received?

WE created an experience outside of any event we could've thrown individually or attended outside of our collaboration. How did we do it? That's a great question and to be honest, WE are still trying to perfect it. For this event we created a group on #Facebook to streamline our communication channel. *side note: I hate group chats. However, this was the most productive group chat I've ever engaged in. Bang and Dude Da Def took the initiative in recruiting all the artists and securing the venue. I (1neofmani) was tasked with creating awareness of the event on social media by creating an Eventbrite and Facebook event page. We boosted our event pages on both Eventbrite.com and Facebook for 30 days with a budget of $50 on both platforms.

Everyone was tasked with sending daily invites and sharing the event page to their social platforms. WE held meetings with potential sponsors and media resources. Bang reached out to the Isthmus publication and got our event featured on their site to increase local awareness. WE were intentional in our approaches due to knowing the negative side to freestyling our attempt to do something the City of Madison has never seen. WE planned meetings at LessWork HQ as a collective to capture content in the form of skits and back-stories on everyone involved.

Bang reached out to the Isthmus for more coverage on The 608 Tune Up

As far as planning and hosting hip-hop events, Bang had a lot of experience in that department, and he unselfishly put a lot on his shoulders to ensure this event happened smoothly. Dude Da Def already had a working relationship with the owners of Quality CBD with made it easier for the owner to trust that his space would be well cared for. Although he did have doubts, I would love to invite him to our live recap conversation to discuss his mixed emotions on second-guessing the success and safety of our event. We hired two security guards, a door lady to greet and collect the cash, and offered FREE spliffs to the first 25 supporters who bought tickets online and/or at the door. K.I.L.O aka SkitL'z, as my business partner showed up to capture the night of experiences so we could create recap content such as this blog. To contribute to the work and research of this literature, donate to our 1-Stop Solution campaign now.

In closing, if we're going to continue giving this city (Madison, Wisconsin) a preview of what BLACK culture has to offer, we must continue to challenge ourselves at being exceptional. Exceptional, in the fact that we must not become dormant in our offerings. We must continue introducing US to US. Meaning, researching more expressions of BLACK entertainment and highlighting it with our growing platform. If you attended and received any value from us or if you're reading this and want to see more of this type of content please make a donation. Your contributions matter.

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