Afroman & Buku One

This was the show to see and if you weren't there I can't even give the craziness justice. First off, the joint was packed. I don't know if I've ever seen that many people at a show in Chico. The vibe was fun; it was like a show you'd go to in the Bay Area. The interesting thing about the atmosphere was all the different types of people there. It was really strange - you had your mullet-wearing head-banger next to a sorority girl, next to a tattoo artist, next to a backwards-hat-wearing frat boy. I was wondering why all these people were here, when my roommate said, "You know what? All these people get high. That's why they're all here." Which made perfect sense, because Afroman's hit single, "Because I Got High," was the main reason the show sold out.
The second reason was Buku One and his partner, Malik from The Real World. Honestly, after catching a few episodes of the latest installment of The Real World, I was interested in seeing what Malik could do. Then the show started and Buku One came on stage and there was a guy on the turntables who definitely was not Malik. Buku One announced that Malik's car broke down, thus he wasn't going to join us for the evening. A resounding "Boo" erupted from the audience, showing that the main draw was definitely MTV-related.
So, Buku One started his set speaking of postivity and kindness, instructing men to be good to their women, etc. And then he started rapping, and although I'm not connoisseur of rap, I think he was really good. His tone and emphasis sounded more like he was coming from the early '90s, definitely old school, which he, himself, admitted.
He opened with his classic song, "Cheese and Butter" and went on through his catalogue of songs, taking time to freestyle about Chico and women. Then he ventured into a dancehall reggae song and then, it was over.
Afroman got on stage with a full band, including the most impressive thing, a player on both the keyboards and Chapman Stick (a bass-like instrument with no body), and the energy was high, as was the crowd. Okay, I've never seen a scene like this-it was something off of MTV's Spring Break shows. Girls were flashing, people were puking, and it was a mess.
The impressive thing about the band was it was a band; the instruments gave a very rich, intense feeling to his lyrics and the crowd loved it. They, of course, went wild when he played the song everyone was there to see, "Because I Got High."
After the show, the party was going strong and Buku One decided that he didn't want to go home yet, so he got in the sound booth and started spinning for the people.

-Laney Erokan
-photo by Alyssa Starkey

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