In our continued coverage of DJ A-Trak's "Sunglasses Is A Must" tour with The Rub (y'know, the one we're sponsoring and whatnot), we present another epic tour diary from the crew, this time penned by Cosmo Baker, pictured above. Not the guy with the wires in his nose, but the rugged gent on the left with the largeish hair. Get on Cosmo's level after the jump.

Wa-wa-wee-wa, this tour is going a so great. Jagshemash! We all had a fun time at the Clique show in Covington Kentucky (the "Brooklyn" of Cincinnati). Mr. Dibbs said he was impressed that “there were actually people dancing at a hip-hop show,” but you know how we do, player.









We all ended up spending another day in Cincinnati, camping out at the house of Dibbs. A gracious host, he treated us to his couches, wireless internet (BLOG!!!) and a gander at his serial killer memorabilia and art collection. Then, after slugging some vodka shots with Noah of Scribble Jam, we all went out to a Mexican restaurant for the offical Quatro De Mayo celebratory dinner.



The next day we were off to Cleveland, the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to rock at the infamous Grog Shop. We were all pretty excited about the show but unconfirmed reports say that a rumor was circulating in the town and ON THE RADIO that our show had been cancelled. With that, and the fact that King James and crew were murdering the first round of the playoffs, the show ended up being a little skinny – but fun nonetheless. So much fun was had that at one point I addressed the sparse Cleveland crowd with a big “Cincinnati, how you living?” No worries though, we recovered like the limber cats that we are, landing on all feet. Plus it doesn’t hurt that we have an unbelievably good-looking stage show… we’re so handsome. But it sure was a lot of fun and folks really enjoyed themselves. Big shout out to Chris at Grog Shop for the unparalleled hospitality.





Ohio is a big ass state. It’s like you can drive from Texas to Oregon and you’re going to pass through Ohio. Needless to say, we had to find some ways to work that stress off, dunnington.









We then showed up in The Windy C, feeling good and ready to go. A-Trak and I went and got our heads cut while Ayres and Scooter checked into the hotel. After getting FRESH we all went to The Empty Bottle for soundcheck and the show. We were 2 Damn Hyped for the show, since it was a Saturday in the Chi and all, and we weren’t disappointed. The city came out in full force to show its love, with everybody from Major Taylor to Dante Carfagna in the house. We did our thug-thizzle in a major way (according to Ayres, I had the eye of the tiger that night.)







Of course one of the highlights of the show, and possible the entire tour so far, was the unscheduled surprise performance by Chicago’s own G.O.O.D. Music representative GLC. Mr. Drive Slow came out on stage a ripped a set of some of his better known songs as well as brand new material like the monsterous “Haterzville,” “Chi State of Mind” and a freestyle over Ice-T’s “New Jack Huster” which is pretty much the entire fucking banana tree. Dude is the TRUTH, and on the strength is such a super dude in general.



One of the things about being on tour is that you get to stay at really nice hotels, but you end up only staying in them for like 4 hours or so. Shit ain’t sweet, holmes. So at like 9 in the morning we loaded up the van and started the trek to The Land of A Thousand Lakes and the home of the Great Purple One, Minneapolis. After a quick set-up, grub and Yahtzee tournament (don’t test Abilities skills in this game, son) we commenced to rock the spizot.







We were lucky enough to be joined by Mr. DJ Abilities who set it off with a mindbending set made up of obscure Memphis Bleek bangers, Radiohead album cuts and Dead Prez “Hip-Hop” played backwards, all the while subjecting the crowd to lightning-fast cuts and the craziest use of the echo effects processor I have ever heard. His hometown crowd loved him, and by the end of his set they were ready for the star of the show, A-Trak (or as he’s been erroneously refered to on this tour, DJ Tracks, Trax, A.T. and Trizzle.)



It’s amazing to me that, even though I’ve heard all the routines that he does on this tour for his solos, he always finds some sort of way to flip it, going into full improvisation mode. And in turn, Young Mack makes us ALL step our game up – which is the way it’s supposed to be.



Okay, so today is one of our few off days and we’ve got out to-do list priorities all laid out (Blog, Laundry, Bank, and Miniature Golf with Mike 2600.) I like the way things are looking so far. Tomorrow we travel up to the Great White North that is Winnipeg Canada. Considering my history with crossing the border I’m a little nervous, but I know we’re in good hands, and once we get up there, A-Train’s native land, we’re going to take it to the next level.

Talk to you in a minute, folks. Jagshemash.