The festival is canceled. We stay. And in the next 72 hours, we end up on stage with Onyx and Conway The Machine.
It’s absurd. I’ve been writing music for about twenty years and I feel weird having to write an article. But I’ll try.
This story, in reality, lasts just over 72 hours. Three days where we left to play at the Hip Hop Kemp, found out the festival was canceled when we were already in Prague, and instead of going home, we tried to build something to do ourselves. What happened next, we couldn’t have planned even if we wanted to.
Day 0 – Milan, departure
7:00 AM. Heading to Prague. Destination: Hip Hop Kemp. For those who don’t know, the Kemp has always been kind of a dream for us Italian underground heads. The older guys always told us about it as the ultimate jam: an almost mythological place where, for a few days, all the arts of this culture meet. Concerts, freestyle contests, breakdance, graffiti, workshops. Hip-hop, period.
While thinking about how hyped I am to be invited this year, I’m boarding the plane to Milan. There I have to meet the guys from my rap collective, the Santini Family, made up of Espo, R3dneck, Don Tonius, Stoma, Febbo, and Willy Zaghe.
The first night in Milan goes great. So well that we decide to expand the expedition: Carlo Flow, Secco, and MastaFive are coming with us. MastaFive, being the father of Tecniche Perfette, is practically invested with the role of chaperoning this unlikely crew of Italians to the Czech Republic. With him are also Nicola Braga, an amazing photographer and already a friend of Conway, and Casco aka Helmet, the latest Italian freestyle champion.
I leave one night before the festival with my best friend Fabrizio. Heading to Prague. The rest of the squad will join us the next morning, on what should have been the first official day of the Kemp.
Day 1 – Prague, the festival is no more
Arriving in Prague, spirits are sky-high. Fabri rents a Mercedes and we head downtown. We decided to treat ourselves to a first night in a hotel, comfortable, before hitting the festival the next day with everyone else.
We meet up with Sick Boy Simon, who at that moment is following Onyx on their European dates. Simo and I have been supporting each other for years, but incredibly we’ve never met in person. So we do the most logical thing possible: burgers and beer. The meat here is good and a pint of beer costs 2.50 euros.Flying.
It’s around 9:30 PM on our first night in Prague when a rumor starts circulating in the festival WhatsApp groups: “Maybe the festival isn’t happening.” After about half an hour of blasphemy, confirmation comes directly from Onyx. The festival is canceled.
So let’s recap: we are already in Prague. The rest of the guys are about to leave or are traveling from Italy. The Kemp was supposed to start the next morning. And the Kemp no longer exists.
At that moment, I know two things for sure:
- The festival is off.
- We are here and the others are arriving.
Simon and I look at each other. We’re already here. We have to do something. We lose the booking for the house we rented in the festival area and decide to stay in the Prague hotel. From that moment, the clock starts ticking.
Day 2 – From a canceled festival to the stage with Onyx
The next morning, the others arrive from Italy. That was supposed to be our first day of Hip Hop Kemp. Instead, we no longer have a festival, we no longer have the schedule we imagined, and most importantly, we still don’t know exactly what we’ll do that night.
But within about twelve hours of the cancellation, we manage to find an alternative: a pop-up with Onyx. If you ask me today exactly where it was, I probably couldn’t even tell you. I just know the vibe was dope: some kind of giant beer festival.
It’s raining in Prague. We all jump into an Uber. Actually, two Ubers. Because we look like the Wu-Tang: everyone with three affiliates behind them. We arrive at the pop-up. Onyx are setting up their meet & greet and we get ready to perform.
Think about the situation: less than 24 hours ago we found out the reason we came all the way to Prague didn’t exist anymore. Now we’re in front of a stage again.
And right while we’re performing, something happens that will completely change our weekend. Onyx decides to get on stage and do their show together with Sick Boy Simon — SIIIIIMOOON! — alternating it with ours.
From that moment my Instagram starts blowing up. Stories, tags, videos. I repost everything while Onyx are still on stage. And that’s when I get one of those messages that usually end up in Instagram requests and you might never read.
It’s Sosa aka BornBaked, manager of Conway The Machine. At first, he asks me for some “floral” advice. Then he sees from my stories that we are with Onyx and texts me: “STOP EVERYTHING BRO. IF YOU’RE THERE WITH ONYX, I’M COMING WITH CONWAY THE MACHINE AND E-MURDA. WE ARE HERE TOO WITH THE CANCELED FESTIVAL.”
Twenty minutes later we are toasting with tequila shots together with Onyx, Conway, and their whole team.
Think about it. The night before we were staring at a burger wondering what the fuck we were going to do. Now we’re there with Onyx and Conway The Machine. And it’s not over yet…
Conway invites us to go with him to The Alchemist’s pop-up, organized that same night on a cargo ship. We head out. We arrive at Alchemist’s pop-up, meet Marco Polo and Masta Ace, and spend a night made of alcohol, rap, beats, and above all, conversations with some of the artists who, in one way or another, brought us this far.
It’s about four in the morning. We have officially entered the third day of this story when Sosa comes up to me. He looks at me and says: “LET’S DO IT, BRO. TOMORROW YOU GUYS CAN PERFORM WITH US AND OPEN FOR CONWAY.”
My brain has never translated an English sentence so fast. I reply: “Yes bro, fo’ sure.” As if it were the most normal thing in the world. I go back to the guys: “GUYS. TOMORROW WE’RE OPENING FOR CONWAY AT THE ROCK CAFÉ IN PRAGUE.”
Screams. Tearing eyes. Celebration. We keep going until five in the morning.
I think we were also the most annoying ones during Alchemist’s set, who in the meantime pulls off two hours of incredible live performance.
Day 3 – Opening for Conway
A few hours of sleep and we’re back on our feet. This time we have a specific mission: tonight we open for Conway The Machine at the Rock Café in Prague. We get properly organized. We prep the setlist, we rehearse. Everything seems perfect. Seems.
Because something happens that, to me, as “James Bong”, theoretically should never happen. Someone buys synthetic flowers and they end up in my bong. Me, Carlo Flow, and Secco smoke and start feeling terrible. I pass out. I end up on the floor. Sweating. Tachycardia, bad trips, anxiety, total discomfort. It’s 4:00 PM. At 5:00 PM we have soundcheck. Fortunately, after about forty minutes the situation settles down and we rush to the venue.
We’re all there. In the meantime, we also linked up with MastaFive, Nicola Braga, and Casco with his girlfriend, who joined us. Soundcheck. Dinner. A few beers. And it’s showtime.
Espo opens with a two-minute routine on his Akai. I introduce all the guys from the Santini Family and we start performing.The crowd is hyped. Clapping. Screaming. And all I think is: rap is so dope. Secco and Carlo absolutely kill it.
We finish our live set and run backstage. Conway is getting ready for his show, but we still have too much adrenaline in us. So we turn Espo’s Akai back on and start freestyling in the back. And that’s when another thing happens: Conway pulls out his phone and starts filming us.
He stays there with us until they call him on stage. “THIS IS MY BROTHER”. At that point, I basically lose everyone. I stay on the side of the stage with MastaFive and Braga watching Conway’s live set. Emotions, tears, smiles. All at once.
At a certain point Conway turns around. Sees me. Points at me. And calls me on stage. “THIS IS MY BROTHER! BIG SHOUT OUT TO HIM AND HIS CREW!”
Then he calls Espo. Except Espo… is outside on the phone. I’m on stage with Conway The Machine while Conway and the whole crowd scream: “ESPO! ESPO! ESPO!” And Espo is outside.
The live show continues. After a couple of minutes Espo finally comes back inside and I tell him: “Grab the Akai and get on stage with Conway.” Espo believes it. And he does it. Three minutes later he is playing a live beat for Conway The Machine.
At that point we all get on stage while our brother is killing it and Conway blows the roof off the place. I look at the guys’ eyes. Goosebumps. And a final cypher starts. One after the other we all spit bars on stage. Everyone. We got MastaFive to rap. We even managed to get Casco to rap. Other people we had met just before the show came up too. Because in that moment we wanted to share that dream. Especially with the Italians who were there.
72 hours later: we brought the Kemp home
After the concert, we head back to the backstage with the guys from Drumwork Music. Toasts. Bottles. Photos. Videos. Speeches. Paolo from the Kemp comes to congratulate us. MastaFive too. We are all happy. And I, in that moment, feel strong. Full of energy. Protected by my music and my people.
During the live set Tonius even managed to injure a knee, but kept jumping for half an hour anyway. So at four in the morning we finally drop him off at the hotel.
We, on the other hand, end the night in a steampunk club dancing to drum’n’bass. Because apparently we still hadn’t had enough.
The lat day that doesn’t feel like the last
When it’s time to go home, more or less 72 hours have passed since that evening when, over a burger and a beer, we found out Hip Hop Kemp was canceled. In between, everything happened. A canceled festival. A pop-up organized practically out of nowhere. Sharing the stage with Onyx. The meeting with Conway. A night at Alchemist’s pop-up. And then the Rock Café, opening for Conway, Espo producing for him live and that final cypher all together on stage. Three days earlier we didn’t even know if we would perform.
Now we’re heading back to Italy with an agenda full of booking requests, contacts, and red-hot collaborations. But above all, we return full of energy. With the feeling of having represented Italian rap in Prague. Our rap. The one done the way we like it.
I don’t feel like, at least here, talking about why the festival was canceled. About why it wasn’t communicated earlier. About who was wrong and who is right.
This article wanted to tell another story. The story of those who do. Of those who, when it seemed there was nothing left to do, decided to do something anyway. Of those who found themselves far from home, in a foreign country, rapping in a language almost no one understood, and still managed to blow the roof off three venues. Of those who, in those 72 hours, went from a canceled festival to sharing stages, backstages, beats, bottles, and entire days with artists who helped shape our mindset. Artists who, talking to us up close, also confirmed a lot of the things we already thought.
Maybe this is exactly the most hip-hop thing that could happen. Not having a stage anymore. And building one.
A personal Thank You
Before wrapping up this story I want to personally thank HASHY, my official sponsor. Without their support I couldn’t have experienced all this. When someone decides to truly support an artist and believe in their journey, they aren’t just putting a logo next to a name: they are giving them the chance to keep moving, creating, traveling, making connections, and turning experiences like this into something worth telling.
So thank you HASHY for believing in me, in my music, and in what I’m building.
Because in the end, this trip was supposed to be the story of a festival. The festival didn’t happen. The story, however, did.
I am Fatt MC aka James Bong. And this is what the Santini Family did in Prague.
P.S.: This incredible story doesn’t stop in the Czech Republic. When the attitude is real, authentic connections carry on. On September 18th, Bella Espo will be backing Conway The Machine as his official DJ during the Buffalo rapper’s scheduled show at Casilino SkyPark in Rome, organized by Soulfood Promotion and Clockwork Music.
