Last Thursday, before our city looked and felt like a post-apocalyptic war zone due to the stifling wildfire smoke wreaking havoc all over the west coast, there was a certain buzz and liveliness on 1st ave that was simply intoxicating. Just across the street from the world-famous Pike Place Market, a line of excited teenagers and people in their early to mid twenties lined up outside an equally historic venue, Showbox at the Market. Performing that night was one of hottest young acts in hip-hop, Smokepurpp, and opening for him was local rapper Keshawn, who has created quite the buzz for himself in 2018 by signing to Empire, getting hundreds of thousand of views on Worldstar for his banger “Wait a Minute“, and gearing up to release his first project since coming under new management, titled Black Heart Gang.
After much talk has been made from Seattle artists on social media about not getting the support they need from their own communities and fellow artists, a subject which RMR has tackled and has tried to do their part in being part of the solution, it was immensely refreshing to see the energy that was exuded by the crowd at Showbox that night. Smokepurpp absolutely did his thing. The crowd moshed relentlessly and didn’t miss a single lyric while Purpp went through his catalogue of hits such as “Audi”, “Nephew”, and “1,2,3”.
However, what was really uplifting, and spoke to the importance of Showbox at the Market as a premiere venue in Seattle, was seeing a fairly-packed crowd show so much love to an opening artist from their own city. Keshawn’s set opened up with an introduction by fellow Seattle artist Truly Adub, who acted as Keshawn’s hypeman for the tour with Smokepurrp, and a plea to the crowd to sign the petition to save Showbox. The crowd responded with a resounding roar of support and you could hear just how much these people appreciated the intimate, yet historic venue. That energy lasted throughout Keshawn’s set, showcasing what the Market can mean to Seattle; a platform to help propel their own artists into a bigger spotlight. Just check out the footage captured and edited by local Seattle videographer Jon Bui (@Jaldoh) to see what an electric night it was in Seattle’s hip-hop scene.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmuDpRRlNCE/?taken-by=jaldoh
While its quite obvious how beneficial Showbox is to the city, if Canadian developing group Onni had it their way, this promising scene of young people enjoying Seattle hip-hop culture would be replaced with a 44-story luxury apartment complex. As most Seattleites have already heard, plans have been made to tear down Showbox at the Market in favor of upscale apartment towers, furthering the rapid gentrification of Seattle to accommodate the booming tech industry. While Seattle City Council recently voted to grant temporary historical landmark status to the venue, the legal battle is far from over. Whether you attended the show or just peeped the recap video, its clear that this venue means a lot to the culture and art scene in Seattle. So read this excellent piece by our own Jon Olsen-Koziol to get fully up to speed regarding the situation and figure out how you can do your part to make sure this Seattle landmark isn’t destroyed by those who could care less about Seattle’s history and culture. While we might be able to wait out this unbearable smoke currently casting a cloud over our city, allowing such an integral venue to our music scene to go up in flames will be cause a smog in our culture with much worse and lasting effects.
How the city feels about y’all tryna take down one it's best venues #SaveTheShowbox pic.twitter.com/TkBMb8QmHy
— Sea ☔️ (@TrulyAdub) August 24, 2018
