Wolf's Head Presents: House Shoes' First Ever Santa Barbara Appearance

This is a big fucking deal, y'all. In the world of Hip Hop, there is no word to more accurately describe House Shoes other than "Veteran." In fact, this article has been quite difficult to write due to the tireless and impressive body of work Uncle Shoes has produced, distributed, or been involved with in some way, shape, or form. "Expansive" would be an understatement. "Legendary" would probably be a little more apt (DISCLAIMER: You'll probably see that "L" word pop up a lot in this write-up). I mean, you have to be pretty fucking deep in the game to wake up on March 9th (The anniversary of Biggie's tragic death) with an idea of doing a remix tribute album to the "Black Frank White", and return just two and a half weeks later with "Dreams: B.I.G. Reimagined," a FREE release featuring production credits from the like of Nottz, 14kt, Khrysis, Quelle Chris, and others?! Only a true Veteran with a very large reserve of respect in the ol' bank of life could pull that off. And that was two and a half years ago. Walk with me, y'all. Hailing from Detroit, Shoes was a resident DJ at the now legendary (there's that word again) St. Andrews Hall from 1994-2004. That's a decade for the less numerically-inclined. During that period, he won the award for "Best Hip Hop DJ" in Detroit. Four times. Sidenote: St. Andrews Hall is also the site of The Shelter, the (literally) underground basement best known for being one of the first stages an emcee known as Eminem performed on. Maybe you heard of him. It's safe to say he's pretty L________ by now (See what i did there?). Shoes used this platform to bring light to the best and brightest talent his beloved city had to offer, and has become widely known throughout the hip-hop community as "Detroit Hip-Hop’s Ambassador to the World," a title bestowed upon him by none other than Big Proof (RIP). As far as production goes, Shoes' contributions are, it's safe to say, "unfuckwitable." He has worked with everyone from the late greats J Dilla and Big Proof to present-day Detroit heavy hitters Black Milk, Danny Brown, Guilty Simpson, & Elzhi, to NY's seminal hero Roc Marciano, as well as Chino XL, Invincible, Finale, MED, Nottz, Alchemist, Big Tone, Oh No, El Da Sensai(Artifacts), and many, many more. He released his criminally slept-on official debut album "Let It Go" in 2012 on Tres Records, and followed it up with "The Gift:Volume Seven," which was released earlier this year on his own imprint, Street Corner Music, named after his favorite record store that he worked at over 20 years ago. As a curator of this thing called hip-hop, his résumé is equally unfuckwitable. He is responsible for the release of one of the Holy Grails for Dilla heads worldwide, The Jay Dee Unreleased EP, which was originally released on vinyl in 1997 on House Shoes Records. His current venture, the aforementioned Street Corner Music, has released a steady stream of limited-pressing releases by artists such as 14kt, recent "Compton" co-production credit-holder D.R.U.G.S Beats (Darkside/Gone feat. King MEZ, Marsha Ambrosius, & Kendrick Lamar), EXT, Illingsworth, and a score of others (When I smoked one with Shoes last week, I believe he was on schedule for 17 releases this year alone). He drops a new DJ set on DubLab.com every Third Tuesday of the month in his "Magic" series, the most recent of which can be heard HERE. Every Tuesday is "ShoesDay" at Escala in Koreatown. And somehow, in between all of the above-mentioned, he finds the time to be a dedicated father to his son and daughter, and work a couple of days a week at his local record store. If that's not staying true to one's roots, I don't know what the fuck is. The first time I met Shoes, Fat Beats LA was still open. He had told me to "come through with some weed and a hard drive." We smoked, built, and he put the fuck ON for his city, filling said hard drive with gigabytes of Detroit hip hop gems. Were it not for that day, I wouldn't have known about a kid named Danny Brown for another year or so, I would not have heard the uncensored version of OhNo's GENIUS remix of Guilty Simpson's "Piglets," shit, I probably still wouldn't know who the Fat Killahz are. And in spite of my ignorance of so many of his hometown's brightest jewels, there wasn't a hint of the Fat Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, no staring down his nose, just a real dude who was eager to make others aware of the abundance of dope music from his city, and build in his new home of Los Angeles. We have remained homies since that day, and it is with great pride and excitement that we here at Wolf's Head are able to present House Shoes' first appearance in Santa Barbara. The event will be a day party on Saturday, October 24th, beginning at 3PM, and ending when Shoes is done, with local artists opening. The event will be held on the Indochine back patio, which means that this will be a 21+ Event, and that refreshments will be available at the bar. There will be no cover charge, and the entrance will be through the front of our shop. We will remain open for regular business during the event as well. Those in attendance will no be treated to a legendary set from a true Hip-Hop Veteran, and curator of Hip-Hop culture. A while back, we told you that we here at Wolf's Head Santa Barbara would do our best to bring you the best in quality Menswear and Men's Accessories, but we have also wanted to bring you the best in culture that doesn't often (if ever) come through Santa Barbara. We brought you the Freddie Gibbs Meet & Greet back in February. For Free. We're bringing you Amigo The Devil performing live for the first time in Santa Barbara this coming Sunday, October 11th. For Free. And now, We're bringing you the one and only Detroit Ambassador, Uncle Shoes on Saturday, October 24th. For Free. We haven't even been open for a year yet. Tell a friend to tell a friend. 

-Josh

josh@shopwolfshead.com