The Real Reason Buffalo Won't Book Hip-Hop

The Buffalo hip-hop scene has never been more prominent, growing more and more each day. Still, there’s a good chance you may not even know about it.

The local hip-hop community is still fairly new, but most of the average young people here haven’t even heard about any hip-hop coming out of Buffalo.  Out of every single hip-hop artist interviewed since the creation of this blog, everyone has shared the exact same sentiment; the venues in Buffalo don’t want you or the genre to succeed.

“I don't think that the venues view what we do as genuine music,” says suskingbrad, one of the rappers from group, Freak the Mighty, one of Buffalo’s more popular up-and-coming groups, “I think it's just people man. Some people have these preconceived ideas about what rap is, what hip-hop is. They think it is all gangster music. If you actually listen to hip-hop, you know, it's not all gangster music.”

Quisi LaFlare, pictured above,
is one of Niagara Falls hottest
rappers out right now.

Hip-hop and rap has had to carry the stigma of gang violence, and drug use ever since coming to its popularity in the 1980s. “It’s definitely a prejudice thing,” says Niagara Falls rapper Quisi Laflare, “They try to associate the ‘trap’ and rap music with violence, when in reality we’re at these local shows, turnt up and having a good time.”

Multiple artists across Western New York have shared their frustrations about how the many people in the city won’t even acknowledge them as artists.

Tim Jackson, a black musician who is a part of local rock band, Mom Said No, agrees that the hip-hop acts face more obstacles, especially the stigma. “A lot of it has to do with owners of places trying to save their own necks,” says Jackson, “The thought process of it is like ‘let’s not invite a rap group because we know the crowd the rap brings’”.

Jackson recalls a time where he saw the discrimination towards the genre; “We were playing at the Western New York All-WNY award show and there was a rap group but when did they get scheduled? They got scheduled all the way at the end. How many people are going to go to a show on Sunday at night?”

The artists feel that the obstacles they face deal with both the genre and their race. “I think there is some passive aggressive racism,” says Short Moscato, a long-tenured local hip-hop artist who has played in most venues across Buffalo, “I think there is a value put on a certain type of human being walking in the door and hip-hop acts are not valued as highly as other shows.”

Not only do they face discrimination from the venues towards their music but they also face certain regulations that the venues will throw at them and only them. “They act as if they will go through with it and then at the last minute they ask stipulations and s---,” says suskingbrad, “Whether it be the dress code or you have to sell this many tickets, like don't tell me that two days before the show.”

The venues do everything in their power to make it harder on these hip-hop artists, whether it be a racially profiling dress code, shortening set times, ticket confusion or no re-entry. “A lot of things are setting them up to fail, ” says Jackson, “where if they don't pull enough people there or sell enough tickets, they're never going to be able to play there again. How do you expect us to pull a hundred people on a Tuesday night at 11:30?”

It seems like every rapper in Buffalo has at least one horror story dealing with this dress code that the venues impose onto the artists. Neftali, the other half of Freak the Mighty’s lyricists, knows too well how the venues get you with the dress code. “The second we walk up, he points out literally every single thing that we were wearing,” says Neftali, “I had track pants and a hoodie on. I'm performing, I’m not gonna perform in a button down and jeans, and of course there was a white kid in there, with a hoodie on.”

Neftali and suskingbrad aren’t alone in this dress code discrimination, “We were given no information on any type of dress code at all,” says Quisi Laflare, “ I pulled up to the show wearing a T-shirt and camo pants. As an artist, I was told I had to change my pants and all I had was swim trunks. Half of the fans couldn’t get into the show because of what they were wearing.”

A majority of the venues will also have no re-entry for their hip-hop shows. No re-entry is a common practice for larger concerts but you begin to question the reasoning when the rock shows they hold, allow free-roam in and out of the bar or venue.

Tim Jackson, pictured above,
performing with band Mom
Said No.

Many of the venues also make the hip-hop shows 18+ and 21+, which alienates a majority of the youth that listens to the genre. “The scene is getting really big. So it's as big as it is already, without the market of 14 to 17-year-old kids coming to shows,” says Neftali, “imagine if the door is open to younger kids coming to shows, everything would take off, but we're cut off from that.”

Jackson believes the discrimination goes a little deeper than just racism. “I feel like every group that starts off when it's young, it’s like ‘oh you’re just kids, you have no idea about any of this stuff,” says Jackson. “There's a stigma behind young kids trying to make themselves. There's a lack of respect there”

The Buffalo scene continues to grow, with more artists coming up and established artists gaining more listeners. “The culture in Buffalo is getting real big to the point where we need bigger venues.” says Neftali, “There’s a lot of rappers. So the music scene in Buffalo is pretty big but it could be even bigger if it gets the attention of people outside of it.”

Neftali and suskingbrad, pictured above,
two of the most talented rappers
in Buffalo, performing at a show.

Without love from their local venues, the community has taken it upon themselves to stick together and keep trying put on shows. The artists all feel that there is a great sense of unity within this local rap scene. “The Buffalo rap scene is dope because everybody generally works together. I consider these n---- friends,” says suskingbrad.

It’s not only the rappers who joined the scene in the past few years who feel the comradery, but also the artists who have been making music in it for a while. “Generally nowadays, there’s way more love, there’s way more comradery. way more togetherness,” says Short Moscato, “there’s way more of a movement of people who could be stylistically different. A movement of artists that care about each other and care about our culture. I think a lot of the times back in the day, a few years back, it was a lot of ‘all for me’.”

With the Buffalo hip-hop community working together, helping each other and putting on for aspiring artists, the venues need to get with the program and book hip-hop artists before they regret it.

“No matter what happens with venues, we're going to find ways to create our own thing, do our own festivals, do our own shows. Make them better than any show that would be at a venue.” says Short Moscato, “We’re kind of over it. F--- it then, we’re gonna do it ourselves. We’ll take all the money, we’ll take all the control.” It’s clear that the Buffalo Hip-hop scene has arrived, and whether or not the venues provide a platform; these artists are going to make noise.