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| Ali, Quez and Strap coolin'. |
Well, it all started when we ran into Ali and Quez - the two step brothers - on the streets of Decatur, Georgia back in '07. Decatur is roughly 20 minutes outside of the ATL, and Sean and I were in town for an unofficial visit to Georgia Tech. We decided to check out the surrounding communities. We struck up a conversation with them and upon mentioning our reason for being in the Atlanta area, they challenged us to a game of 2v2.
Now keep in mind that this was 2007, Sean and I were in 7th grade. Drew Weatherford was throwing to De'Cody Fagg (we know you remember that name) for the football team and Toney Douglas was, well, scoring by himself as a junior for the basketball team. Sean and I were talented enough to be invited in by Georgia Tech's basketball program at the time but we were still 13-year-old kids. Point is, Ali and Quez liked their chances. So much, in fact, that they bet $20 on the game (that's how they do it in the hood).
We quickly learned that Ali went right every time and that Quez had NO SHOT whatsoever. We hit them with a dot-and-one defensive technique we had been working on and to our surprise, it worked flawlessly. We were up by double digits before Sean literally broke Quez' ankle. Literally the thing was broken.
We took Quez to the hospital and the four of us bonded over the course of several hours at the hospital. The two told us about their dream to one day become a rap trio with their good friend "Strap". I made a terrible dad joke, mentioning how he sounds like a "strapping young man", but they were nice enough to laugh anyways. We told them that the rap thing sounded like a great idea, and to keep their $20 to chase their dreams. We exchanged numbers before returning to Georgia Tech's campus. You can guess we never got offers from the Yellow Jackets but are NOT BITTER AT ALL.
About a year later, Quez texted Sean. He thanked us for our help that one day and the two caught up. He told Sean that their rap career had finally gotten off the ground and he wanted us to come up to take a listen to some of the sounds and beats they had come up with.
Well after we graduated the 8th grade, my mom drove us to visit our boys. At the time, they wanted to be known as "The Hard Hitters". We thought that was kind of lame but we kept our mouths quiet for the time being. They played us some demos and the five of us chilled over some root beers all until this one song came on and I yelled "Quez, turn this all the way up!" We loved the music and Sean randomly started doing the Soulja Boy. Our three brothers just stared at each other in amazement over what I had just said. "JK, boy, that's genius! I think we finally got the name for this track." I couldn't really hear what they were saying so I just smiled and nodded my head from across the room. The rest was history. It eventually would turned into a hit track that peaked at #48 on the Billboard 100.
Later in the night, Sean and I spoke up about our opinion on their stage name, "The Hard Hitters". We told them that might be a little too violent and send the wrong message to kids that could be inspired by their music. "There's no way my mom would let me listen to music by the 'Hard Hitters'", Sean told them. We decided their music was greatly influenced by both the country legend Randy Travis and soul artist and grammy-nominated Gregory Porter, just with a lot of sick beats, sexual innuendos, and bad words. We decided on the name Travis Porter.
Sean and I have helped Quez, Strap and Ali name a number of their tracks in a similar way. Actually, their hit song "Waffle House Rap" was inspired by a late night food trip after we were poppin' root beer bottles on a Friday night back in early 2010. Its funny that they ask what comes on a sausage biscuit in the track, not because the answer is obvious, but because they were actually going through a vegetarian stage at that point and never actually ordered one.
My favorite song-inspiring story is likely the one that produced their hit track with Bryan J, "Let Me Take You Out". Strap had just met this new girl in his class and he didn't know how to ask her out. He kept telling us that if he got this girl, he'd be the man. I told him just tell her straight up how you feel, be yourself. Sean insisted he not do that while giving me a "come on man", Stephen A. Smith look. He proposed Strap write a song for her. Chicks love songs. We helped them write the song but it was missing something. The five of us went to Chuckie Cheese's that night for games and cheese pizza where a man by the name of Bryan J was performing (the creepy robots had broken down). His voice was amazing - a weird mix between Fergie and Jesus. We put him on the track.. Oh, and Strap got the date and recently got married in the Bahamas this past summer (when I ran into Steph Curry).
If for some reason you're still reading this story, here is how we convinced the boys to perform tonight:
We didn't. We literally had no hand in the transaction and honestly feel kind of blindsided. Sean and I have still not even received even a courtesy text from them letting us know that they are performing tonight.
So you can thank root beer for all of their inspiration OR you could thank us. If we see them drinking said beverage on stage tonight, we will know which direction they have chosen. Between this and the fact that Bacon and Beasley still will not play us, we are not sure how we feel about the event as a whole. If you hear two white boys booing throughout the entire "Jam with coach Ham" event, you will know where it's coming from. We will still be attending as fans of the team but we aren't really sure how it will go. Keep an eye out for a follow up article about how the night goes for us.
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| SMH, think you know someone. |
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