On ENTER THE CYPHER. . . by Sketch tha cataclysm

[Sketch Tha Cataclysm]

Forgive me if this has an enormous amount of grammatical errors. I free-wrote this and didn't go back to edit.

One of my real strong turning points for approaching my music came in the summer of 2006. It had been just under a year that my band did our last show and I was struggling with the idea of rocking shows and the concept of entertaining the audience with myself alone. But, I knew this is what I wanted to do and what I wanted to take seriously, so I had the idea of pushing forward with a small string of shows to pressure myself into just figuring it out.

I had been building things up in Bridgeport, CT, so I hit up my hometown people in Waterbury (Phenetiks) to put together a show and D_Cyphernauts that, I heard, had been rocking heavy in Danbury, CT to put together a show. And along with the miraculous return to performing of the Rising Sun Quest (who hosted), we had the Rise Of The Nomads mini-tour. This built a small bond that lead me to checking out the monthly the Nauts hosted in Danbury called Enter The Cypher just before their one year anniversary.

I remember stepping on that small raised flooring (lol) at Cousin Larry's and going into "Looseleaf" and seeing a whole set of people that were on their way outside to smoke slowly come back in as I hit the third verse. I then performed the first 5 tracks of Party Music For Pissed Off People in a row and got a really solid reaction from the small crowd. If I am not mistaken, this is also the night I met Expertiz, who had me enthused with an incredibly raw set of his own. I HAD to go back the following month.

The following month was the first anniversary evening. Among the 30 performers ( lol ) of the evening paying homage to the monthly was Workforce, who had one of the most engaging hip-hop sets I had seen locally yet. I met Matikhan, Al Babblez, The Henchmen, etc. etc. etc. The Nauts themselves did an incredible set and all of the proceeds went to charity. This night meant a lot to me, helped me pushed forward with more and more bookings, and made me an ETC regular. From that point on, I used Enter The Cypher as a means for building my stagecraft as a solo MC in the same way that I used my open mic appearances with my former band at the Acoustic Cafe. I learned a lot in a short amount of months about not being afraid to just do whatever I feel like doing at any given moment and experimenting in front of the large or small crowd.

One night in particular, I was a feature amongst a slew of thuggish gun-busting MCs. To stand out I decided mid-set to fall out on the floor and mock cry at the audience which then prompted Nemesis of The Nauts to throw my hoodie over my shoulders James Brown style until the crowd made enough noise. When they did, I threw off the hoodie and immediately dropped "The Revolution Will Not Be. . . " on the MPC 1000 and finished my set.

Another night, I worked the door to help out Nem and O when the doorman was a no show and rocked the closing set of the night to the four people in front of me. Months later, the whole crew made a trip down to Baltimore to do a show and I got pulled aside by Shelby of Brown Monkey Music, who then showed me my set from that night on his cellphone. That confirmed for me: no matter the size of the crowd, you always have to PERFORM.

There's been so many incredible experiences I have had at Enter The Cypher that I felt I needed to share with everybody on the day of the 4th anniversary. Before I moved, I went to every one of them except two since I first started going. Its been a great showcase for all types of independent hip-hop artists: thug types, spoken word oriented, bands, experimental cats, producers, djs, etc. Its allowed me the opportunity to build with the many independent touring acts that have come through. Its allowed me to work on my stagecraft and watch some of my colleagues grow.

I want to congratulate Othello and Nemesis, Mo Niklz (who holds it down every month on the turntables and sometimes runs sound), the whole AFA, and everybody that continues to come out and makes the longest running hip-hop event in CT possible. Have a great time tonight. . . its going to be an excellent evening.

Peace and blessings folks. . .

Sketch tha cataclysm.
http://www.sketchtc.com
http://www.antfarmaffiliates.com

Links on Enter The Cypher:

http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/article.cfm?aid=9832
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13034

Become A Fan on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Enter-the-Cypher/39576416551?ref=ts

[Othello repping the Nauts]

Great post! We started this 4 years ago to give MCs a place to perform, to celebrate live hip hop and hip hop culture and to present to audiences the live hip hop experience. It has been a lot of fun and we have had some incredible (and some pretty weak) performances over that time. It's been eclectic and we have always given people the opportunity to do their thing. Sketch is an essential part of the fabric of this event, and while he is out blazing new ground in Minnesota, we miss his presence at the event and we are doing our best to elevate the event, even in his absence. One love, Sketch, and to anyone who hasn't been to ETC, you are missing out on an essential hip hop experience. We hope to see you soon.