Club Rebel - NYC

Address: 251 W30th Street, New York, NY (b/t 7th & 8th)
Website: www.RebelNYC.com
Date Visited: June 11, 2011

Liquid Lounge  & the Bartender (female) was hot, btw. 

   This place is fucking MASSIVE. Im not exactly sure exactly which way the dark corridors lead, but they all seem to lead somewhere new. When you first come up the rickety stairway, say your password to the door girl so you can get in free (Ill find out how you get this lol) and go through the usual lesbian pat-down you come by the Liquid Lounge. When I first tried to get in this room, security tried to play me like it was VIP, but there's another way in if you go through the Disco Room. This room seemed to have a more laid back vibe and the DJ played more R&B than Rap. I'd say this is the room for the ladies. Probably because of the size. In a smaller room/venue like this, you can get in closer with those in VIP and it makes the whole room feel VIP-ish. If that's the vibe you want, this is the room for you. 

Disco Room 

     The Disco Room plays your standard Hip-Hop and R&B --the room I walked through most --but it gets pretty packed and it's hard to make your way through without spilling drinks. The VIP areas are sectioned off with red velvet ropes (my fav). If you're interested in buying bottles, this is the room to be in. Everyone sees you here --and that's the point of VIP --let's be honest. This room is, by far, the livest and the wildest. If you want to dance your pain away with someone... anyone... the Disco Room is for you. 

        The stairway between the Disco Room and the Liquid Lounge leads to The Mezzanine. I'm sure that if the place got super-packed, this would be full, but it was pretty empty the night I went --as was The Gallery . When I saw that these rooms were empty though, all I could think was who you need to be to fill a spot like this. With multiple chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of every room, the place has a classy vibe (if you want it to). Granted, there is a lot of hood roaming around the place, but if you wanted to take a seat on the couches in The Mezzanine or The Gallery, you could actually sit and have a conversation if you wanted. I sure did. It's where I met wait... I forgot his name. oh well. *shrugs*

The Mezzanine Cool little section between  and The Gallery

The Gallery --was pretty empty. If I had a boo, I'd sit here with him :)

      There's a room missing from the website's layout (Oh... & all pics courtesy of www.RebelNYC.com)-- something that separates NYC clubs from all others: The Reggae Room. I mean, the play the shit all night. Some people spend their entire night in there and, frankly, that's a beautiful thing. There's nothing like being able to go somewhere and hear exactly what you came for --or being surprised with it! Still, it was more beautiful that I didn't  have to stay in there. Not that there's anything wrong with Reggae, but I'm pretty all set after 3 or 4 songs. And I can't wind like those girls so... better left to the professionals. 

   So... Here's the thing. From my understanding, Rebel is one of those hood places people pretend their too good for but end up there anyway --My favorite type of place. If you're with a good group of people and have a couple dollars for a couple drinks (cuz the niggas here ain't really ballers but they might pretend to be) then you should give it a try. It's a fun time. Not the place where you should go in search of those 5 karats you've been dreaming of, but if you simply need a night out with the girls to let loose? Yep. Rebel might be where it's at (every once in a while). I mean, the line is short, admission is free (with the password), there's a coat check, and there's room to breathe and places to sit. What else do you need? 

The Green Room - NYC

Address: 286 Spring Street, New York, NY (bt Hudson & Varick)

Website: N/A

Date Visited: June 23, 2011

    I knew, before I got there, that this was going to be a bitch. Not consciously, but I'd googled The Green Room before and read through the reviews. I half-heartedly digested the comments and brushed them aside so that I could, one day, experience the ridiculousness on my own.

    The Green Room is any other club in any other city. It's Love in DC. It's Roxy in Providence. It's the place people stress to get into just because other people stress to go there. It's where men go to flash cash they'll regret spending the next day and women wear the best pieces they own. I'm not saying this is a bad thing --it simply is what it is. The labels walking through the front door is appalling. The male -to-female ratio is impressive (pro for the guys). 

       Long story short: We didn't get in. Actually... we did. But somehow, our tickets were different from the people in front of and behind us and we were asked to pay admission at the door. My friends took it as an example of racism and, combined with the bouncer telling us that they switch tickets up to "keep the riff-raff out," they're right. It's a pretty mixed crowd, but the black men get more leeway than Black women do, I noticed. The white girls have it easy but... that wasn't the case with us. (Frankly, I think I was wearing too much clothing.) They're selective, to say the least. In my opinion, they want to bring in as much money, cash, hoes as possible. My friends and I didn't fit the part. We weren't there to buy tables --we were there to enjoy a drink and scenery, but that's not what Greenhouse is about. It's about the men who are spending cash and the women they're buying. My assumption is this: They knew we weren't going to be bought -we'd probably stand around looking stuck up --so it was decided that we would have to pay to be there. 

    I'm not mad at it. The Green Room is the type of place you go to make other people look bad --at least that's why Id go there. I've decided I'll never fight my way through that line again --I have no patience and I hate waiting. The only way I'll approach the doors of the Green Room is with a parade full of bad bitches complimented with stacks on stacks on stacks. I think they wanted to make us pay at the door to ensure that we'd spend some sort of money there. If I were a club owner, I'd do that same --whether it's racist or not. There are people (especially women) who go to the club and spend no money. I'd want to either get what they have or get the out. After that fiasco, we left. (Although we did try to pay but the worthless bouncer at the front was being all authoritative in proving to us that they don't value his bitch ass either since he couldn't get us back to the front.) To me, it felt like they won.

          It's the type of place Black people get no respect unless you throw money at bitches. Males and females.  It's not the place for me. Full of BMF men and women (blowing money fast and bowing men fast respectively). It's a hoe fest. But... somewhat undercover hoes. You can buy bitches there if you have enough change in your pocket. No one care about you or who you are...Actually... that's all  that matters. If you aren't making waves, if you aren't getting VIP treatment, you shouldn't be at The Greenroom. VIP or go home. Them men are there to show out and take something easy home. The women are there to look pretty and pretend they don't care about the money. You should have seen them react when anything above 6'2 entered the vicinity. Women smell money and, I'll admit, I caught the scent for a little bit until I realized that the extra F in those Fendi monograms stood for fake --like all the nails, eyelashes, hair and fame (if I don't automatically recognize you, you ain't shit. I don't care how many step-and-repeats you pose in front of). 

      It's a fake spot where local celebrities call the shots because they're on their 13th minute. I don't like that kind of self-labeled fame. It's like... fame acquired on a nightly basis. Everyone there is hot-shit after 11pm, but probably go back to working retail in the morning.  "I'm glad you decided on somewhere else," a co-worker told me the next day (as I tried to function on 3 hours of sleep)--although she's unaware of the circumstances of our leaving. But, shit... I am, too. "I feel sorry for the guys picking wifeys outta this bunch," I overheard a guy say as he stood looking at the sign. Now, he might have simply been mad that he was looking like a bum and getting no attention due to his style --he's the kind of guy who dresses in clothes by No Money Inc -- or he might have been right. Either way, glad I wasn't part of it. 

My advice: Don't hit Green Room unless you plan on spending change. If you do, you'll probably have a blast. Liquor does things.  

Our next stop: Falucka

Open Mic Mondays: Hosted by @TheRedEyeGroup

Address: Mirrors: 276 Grand Ave (B/T Lafayette & Clifton Pl.) Brooklyn, NY
Website: http://www.youtube.com/theredeyegroup
Twitter: @TheRedEyeGroup
Facebook: The Red Eye Group
Email: OpenMicNight11@gmail.com
Contacts: Arii, Candice or Tahyira
Date Visited: June 20, 2011

         It's everything you'd expect, times 10. I only say that because most open mic events are BS. But from the minute the mic was turned on, the makeshift stage was set ablaze. There was nothing but passion up there.

 You get on that stage, and for three to five minutes, you're fuckin famous. Now, I'm not sure if it was the performers themselves, the 2 Bailey's on the rocks (at $4 a piece) or the 2 glasses of Moscato, but I was a groupie for a split second when Spaz hit the stage. Off the top of my head, I don't remember what he sang. I just remember hi T.I. vibe and thinkin, I like that. He was a gangsta rapper, of course --my fav. As I flip back through my notes, I now realize why: The one line I wrote down for him (as I pretended  to take vicious notes since I am, indeed, a blogger but want to be known as a writer so I had to do something) was, "You could never make enough money." I fuckin like this guy. More than I did a sentence ago, even. "It's when people say simply shit like that, that is beautiful in it's perverse, unrelenting truth, " I wrote. You know who I like more now, too? My notebook. 

    It was the purity of the event that I noticed. Marcus Banks, the host & house comedian of the night --who I told to change his Twitter name because (he doesn't know this but) I know the best way to do everything and I always give my opinion without anyone asking --opened the night with a schpeel (#HowTheFuckDoYouSpellThat) about Brooklyn beig the birthplace of Hip-Hop. As a foreigner to the neighborhood I sat back and scoffed. Waiting to be impressed. Ready to judge. But he was right. There's something there. Something here. 

     Even more impressive was what was  happening in the audience. The passion on stage penetrated to each and every listener and we vibed. We sang along to music we had never heard by people we had never heard of. From this, I can only say that, no matter what you do, there's a place for you at The Red Eye Group's Open Mic Mondays. I'm pretty sure I could display my fantastic stick figure drawings and be received with love. 

     That's the thing, it was all love. & Arii is probably afraid of the ending of this piece due to a different fear -- I think she might have been afraid that a little Rhode Island girl like me might get scared or (worse) judge if a scuffle were to break out afterwards. But (perhaps, unfortunately) I felt right at home. "Want to go outside?" I asked Storm, writer of The Red Eye Group's official blog --we were all in the Koolaid, man. This is the type of place for real people. Not the type of place you might get shot, but the type of place you should probably watch your mouth. But that's how the real world is. It's not all picket fences --and that's why those people where up there on the stage. And that's why I was down there in the audience. No one in there was happy. I don't mean that in a bad way --I mean that everyone in there was there because of the possibilities of something better. I've never been at a more fantastic networking event. Everyone was willing to help someone else. It was a real, "I come from the same hood you come from, I mean, we share basically the same story," feeling. It felt like home. 

    So here it is: If you're ever looking for a random place to go on a Monday where you can get a cheap drink, a good seat and a look into the possible future of Hip-Hop, The Red Eye Group's Open Mic Monday's are for you. Sit back, relax (or wild out) & tip the bartender. 

Left to right: @Cakezzz, (myself) @MissThousand, @Storm_Tracer, @Arii_Mane, @TAsterisk

Additional Reviews Coming soon. I'm a regular person, gimme some time ;)

The Location: Mirrors on Grand.

The Performers: 

Knova

Jordan Rock

Coco Bella

Omar The Comedian

Fresh Air

Janea

Young Bosses

Poison Oak

Spaz

Mav