Asheville-based hip-hop artist and producer Philo Reitzel kicked off the New Year early by celebrating his album release at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall on Friday. It was a music-filled night of local hip-hop and cross-genre artists with no shortage of special guests, socially conscious lyrics and good vibes. Opening acts included funk/soul/hip-hop collective Natural Born Leaders, hip-hop trio Sunset Go Trippers, solo hip-hop artist PR Heavy and DJ Ho-Tron Beatz. Philo took the stage with his eight-piece band and kept the party going into the early morning hours.
Special guests who joined Philo onstage throughout the night included members of Empire Strikes Brass, local Grammy-nominated vocalist Debrissa McKinney, MC Smidi and more. Philo also performed as a member of Sunset Go Trippers, another project of his, during their opening set. Throughout Philo’s headlining set, he invited members of all the opening acts up to join him and his band, keeping the lineup lively and ever-changing. The energetic and responsive crowd seemed to love it all, even cheering for an extended encore to close out the night.
Mike Martinez of Natural Born Leaders belting it out.
Philo (front) with his guitarist Dwayne Simpson (left rear) and bassist Jesse Gentry (right rear).
Mike Martinez (left) and Austin Haynes (right) of Natural Born Leaders
Philo with his full band.
Smidi
Natural Born Leaders MC Austin Haynes (Free Radio).
J Eazy and Ronny Mac of Sunset Go Trippers with DJ Ho-Tron.
Members of Empire Strikes Brass pictured here are Debrissa McKinney (left) and Paul Juhl (center) performing in Philo’s backing band.
Debrissa McKinney (left), Austin Haynes (middle) and Philo (right)
Philo’s band. From Left to Right: Guitarist Dwayne Simpson, bassist Jesse Gentry and drummer JC Mears.
The dance floor for most of the night. Here is Philo performing.
Austin Haynes (Natural Born Leaders, Free Radio), Philo, and his band feeling the love from the crowd.
Natural Born Leaders guitarist/vocalist Mike Martinez.
Philo (left) performing with special guest, hip hop artist Smidi (right)
PR Heavy
Sunset Go Trippers members J Eazy, Philo and Ronny Mac
Mike Martinez of Natural Born Leaders
Philo
Natural Born Leaders band. From right to Left: Bassist Jimmy James Jambers (left rear), guitarist/vocalist Mike Martinez, emcee Austin Haynes and drummer kevin Murtha.
Natural Born Leaders lead guitarist Rex Shaffer.
Philo (left) feeling the love from the crowd all night. Bassist Jesse Gentry (right)
PR Heavy
Debrissa McKinney (left) hugging at the end of his encore set.
Philo keyboardist Lenny Petinelli (left) and Debrissa McKinney (center) performing with Philo
Natural Born Leaders guitarist Mike Martinez (left) and drummer Kevin Murtha.
Philo
Philo
Debrissa McKinney (left), Austin Haynes (middle) and Philo (right)
At one point towards the end of the show, Ho-Tron Beatz (left) and Philo (middle) rap invite audience members (right) to join them onstage and perform their own verse.
Milli Vanilli earned a Grammy too.
And Obama, who destroyed Libya and helped destroy Syria, won the Nobel peace prize. So I catch your drift.
Didn’t Nobel invent dynamite?
Dy no Mite!
That’s still interesting how one POTUS could single handedly ‘destroy’ Libya which was never much of a country under that Gadaffi guy, but then gain I don’t suppose you paid attention to the news under Reagan where the Lockerbee flight was shot down and Reagan did jack s@#$.
POTUS is Commander in Chief. American planes would not have been able to murder thousands of civilians and destroy government power without his order. Now it is overrun with jihadists and it is a terrorist haven with constant warfare between something like 6 warring factions. It was a stable, peaceful, wealthy country before, but now it is a disaster. The Libyans actually had it pretty good under Gaddafi (free health-care, free education, free electricity, interest-free loans), and he kept the jihadists in check. So yes, in summary, Obama is responsible.
You seem to like those heavy handed despots, eh?
Libya, Russia, 1930’s Germany- I see a pattern.
Can you actually say “The Libyans had it pretty good under Gadaffi” with a straight face?
I suppose Iraq had it pretty good under Hussein too?
Dude, you’re in love with right wing dictatorships. Own it.
Go ask the Iraqis and Libyans. They preferred life under Gaddafi and Hussein compared to the jihadists.
Cuz you’ve talked to them in person, obviously.
Can you diss American Christian sharia law or does it only work that way for them ‘brownskins’ ‘over there’?