I'm not sure how to start this story so I'll just try to do the best I can while not babbling too much and sticking to the highlights. I won't do the experience justice but I'll give it a shot. My friend, Carol, asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to interview Ja Rule. He is touring Brazil and had a show in Floripa. She was asked by a local magazine to interview him, and she in turn asked me because of my English. Without having any idea of what to expect, I agreed. After obtaining our "journalist credentials" (I'm using that term very loosely here), we were scheduled to interview him on Thursday with the other journalists. We headed over to the hotel on Thursday and waited for two hours. Since I have never interviewed a single person in my life, I had no idea what to expect. I was thinking, "What in the hell am I doing here?" But we had prepared some good questions, and I was confident that I knew a lot more about Ja Rule than most of the Brazilians. Anyway, he never showed up. Apparently, there was a scheduling conflict and he went to a radio station instead of the interview (I actually was not surprised even remotely). The rest of the journalists were pissed and headed home. The PR group invited Carol and I to dinner at the hotel and we agreed with the hope that he would eventually show up. During dinner a few of his entourage sat down and joined us. I was chatting with them for awhile about Floripa, and we seemed to hit it off. They were impressed that I just packed up my life and moved to Brazil. They had been to a few cities in Brazil already and were loving it. The DJ was scheduled to play at one of our favorite clubs, Confraria, that night while Ja Rule was scheduled to make an appearance. One thing led to another and two of his entourage said, "Screw it. We don't want to wait for the tour bus. Let's go out with you and we can go the club together." Therefore, they hopped in my car and we were on our way. We had a very short amount of time but I suggested that we hit one other club that was having a hip hop party very quickly before heading to Confraria. They wanted to see what Floripa was all about so they were psyched. We called the club ahead and told them that we were coming so they waited for us outside. We cruised right in and I introduced D-Life, Ja Rule's DJ, to the DJ at El Divino, who is my friend and neighbor. D-Life hopped on stage and tour the roof off the place for about 15 minutes. The place went nuts. We then cruised to Confraria where the whole club was waiting for us (this was around 1:30AM). It was so wild. Since we were with the crew, we were treated like celebrities. We were escorted to the DJ booth and they brought us champagne, vodka, (girls - haha, just joking) etc. They place went nuts as D-Life started doing his thing. I'm sure the people that I knew there were wondering what in the hell I was doing with these guys. After awhile, the place started getting anxious for Ja Rule to show up. I thought for sure that he wasn't going to show but his guys kept saying that he would come. Sure enough, at around 4:30AM he cruises in with the rest of his entourage and proceeded to bring the house down. We partied with him the rest of the night. Words can't really explain how crazy it was. They even almost brought the tour bus to my house after but for better and for worse, it didn't happen. I really wish I had videotaped the whole thing. It would be incredible to watch the night over again.
After two nights of partying (we went to a great Pagode party on Wednesday night), I wanted to take it easy on Friday night. However, one of Ja Rule's entourage stayed back (the rest went to Porto Alegre for a show) because he had a flight to LA the next day. He called me and wanted to go out. He was a super nice guy so we went out and got it done again....I was hurting to say the least but there was more to come.
And so the story continues. Saturday everyone was pumped up to go to this day party at P12 in Jurere. We took off around two and there was a line down the street when we arrived. Only in Floripa can there be a line down the street for a day party in the middle of winter. It ended up being a crazy, crazy party. Nobody has school for the month of July so the parties tend to be a little more packed. All the big hitters ending up coming to this party for some reason. There were multiple people that were dropped off at the party via helicopter (that is NOT something you see every day - there are some VERY rich people in Brazil), and we even saw Alessandra Ambrosio there. At some point during the night, we all decided that we should go the Ja Rule concert, which was not an easy decision since it was about an hour and a half away. I had backstage passes so I thought it would be fun. The crew rallied and we were on our way....
During the drive to the concert, I was convinced that it was going to be either one of the best nights of all-time or one of the worst (the venue was in the ghetto to say the least and the drive was not fun). I had no idea which it was going to be. We all arrived and got in without many problems. It was early so we hung out in the VIP area for awhile. Carol and I went backstage before he arrived, and she told me that we were going to interview him before the show (this is the kind of information I would have liked to know beforehand). He arrived around 12:30AM and us "journalists" went into a room to interview him. It was too funny for words. The Brazilian reporters were for some reason afraid to ask him questions. Carol and I were the only ones asking him questions. One of the Brazilian reporters actually turned around and asked ME what I think he should ask him. I was laughing inside. After the interview, we hung backstage with D-Life and the rest of the gang before they started to perform. I have a buddy from SF who is in town this week who was backstage with me. He was with a famous Brazilian singer so he managed to get backstage also. We were talking about how this stuff could only happen in Brazil. In the U.S., we would never have been able to do what we were doing. The show started and Ja Rule proceeded to blow the place up. We were so close that we were basically on stage with him. It was unbelievable. This was also my first glimpse into the power of being a celebrity. During the show, the bodyguard was picking girls out of the crowd and bringing them onstage. As soon as he was done playing, he told the girls to follow him to the backstage room. We got down there before him and they all walked into another room for God knows what with no questions asked. I would have done anything to be a fly on that wall. I can't even imagine. All in all, it was a crazy, crazy night and there is no question that this stuff would not happen back home. This is a land of opportunity and I'm having one hell of a time.....
During this whole week of craziness, I was playing in a tennis tournament. I was out until about 7AM every night and then playing tennis at 9AM, 10AM every morning. It became a running joke with the other guys regarding what time I would get home. The guy I was playing in the finals even joked that we should start at 8AM so he would have the advantage. It was nuts. I was on the verge of dying, but somehow I managed to win the tournament. Only God knows how....
As always, here are some pictures from the craziness of this week. I also took two videos. One is a short video of us at Confraria and one is of Ja Rule coming on stage for his concert. Here are the links:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x5anS0-5X4w
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQiFFVzy30o
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