London Foreign Exchange Show by Grace Kang

On 26 October, 2011, I was presented with the opportunity to go to the London Foreign Exchange Show hosted by PlayKrown. This event was held in an upscale club called Scala located near King’s Cross station with general admission tickets sold for £15 and VIP for £20. It was advertised as a one-time event featuring the hottest Youtube stars from America: D-Pryde, Timothy DeLaGhetto aka Traphik, and Lil Crazed. This entire night for me was a very last minute decision. At first, I was hesitant to go because I was tired and I wanted to catch up on my television programs but when I was offered free tickets I pulled it together and dragged myself out of bed. Through my magical charming abilities, I successfully convinced my fellow classmate and good friend Maurissa to get ready in a record time of 25 minutes and come along with me.

Traphik is a rapper and comedian from Long Beach, California and Lil Crazed is a musician from Rochester, Minnesota. It really amazes me to know that there are people who legitimately gain fame and recognition by using Youtube as a platform for forms of various artistic expressions whether it is cinema, music, or comedy. After all, that is how Usher discovered Justin Bieber… Anyway, the internet is an intensely powerful medium used to connect people worldwide, and my amazement was further substantiated when we arrived at the club. The stage, the walls, and the doors, were all unabashedly plastered in the host PlayKrown’s logo and there were around 400 people in attendance at a club that was not particularly spacious. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and remarkably responsive, especially for an ordinary Wednesday school night.

The DJ played the usual Top 40 and some songs that I was unable to recognize due to the fact that they were really popular U.K. songs. Traphik came onto the stage and dived into his fans before he came back to do his full show. He rapped a few of his more famous songs and also did a little number with his friend RickyShucks. Afterwards, Lil Crazed came onto the stage and performed his set list. The reason why I cannot talk about D-Pryde’s performance is because he failed to appear. Had I paid money to see this guy, I would have been even more upset, as I do not appreciate false advertising. Afterwards, somehow, we ended up getting in the area where Traphik and Lil Crazed were doing their meet and greet. I was surprised to be greeted by their sweet smiles and friendly attitudes with zero detection of any pretentiousness.

 It was interesting to think of how these two basically random American guys who use Youtube were flown halfway across the world to perform at a sold-out show. For them to be so well received by the people here proved that London has a strong fan base for underground, Asian-American hip hop music. It was definitely less of a concert than what I had expected. I would break down the time I spent there as 30% random DJ, 20% actual performances, and 50% meet & greet and dancing. But who can blame these young men for wanting to just have fun and party in London with the locals? Although their actual performance time felt short, and it was a great overall experience.