Naledge checks back in with RubyHornet during a rest stop at Mount Rushmore.  Check out his new blog in which he gives us an update of his tour with Murs, talks unknown territory, and passing time on the tour bus.

We did a show last night Montana.  We’ve been driving all day.  We’ve been on the bus all day, I’ve seen the snow for the last 6 hours.  We stopped in Mt. Rushmore, and we’re going to South Dakota tomorrow.  We’ve been knocking out these shows, the shows have been great.  Murs has a lot of great fans.  It’s funny, he’s toured so much that he knows these places by heart, it’s weird.  He talks about a strip in club in Montana he always goes to, he’s like, ‘I eat lunch there before the sound check, then I do…’  He has routines, and he knows all these places.  We’ve learned a lot from him as far as vibing out and really being on the road.  He’s somebody who is constantly touring.  He’ll be home for a month, then on the road for three.  He’s controlled his own destiny, that’s one thing I can say.  He’s put out album, after album, after album, and he’s finally figured it out.  He has a definite formula for success and it works for him.  Now he’s got a major label situation, but he still operates independently.  We’ve just been learning a lot from him.

The Zune people have been following us.  They’ve been getting a lot of behind the scenes footage of the tour.  The shows have been sold out for the most part.  We’re doing 200-300 person venues, so they’re intimate, but we can still rock out and do our thing.  It’s been a lot of fun.  Seattle was real dope.  The Seattle show was sold out two weeks in advance, so it was great to see people in droves just to see you.  Beyond the fact that it’s Murs, I think that we’re finally a main draw.  I think that a lot of people literally came to see us just as much as they came to see Murs, which is a great thing too. 

I’ve been under the weather, and I think part of it is that we’ve been in so many different climates and time zones.  To go from Chicago where it’s like 70 degrees, then go to San Francisco where it’s 50 degrees, then Montana where it’s like 20 degrees, it kind of messes with your equilibrium.  It’s 26 degrees right now in Montana.  We just drove through snow to get here.  It’s absurd, we’re about to be in South Dakota, and in South Dakota we’re kind of getting back to the warmer stuff.  Being on a tour bus, anybody catches any kind of germs it’s all getting passed.  It’s good that we have a day off to rest.  We traveled most of the day, but we got here pretty early, and have been pretty relaxed.  Everybody’s at the pool right now, and is like, ‘come to the pool…’  But I’m like, ‘I need something to eat, and then I’ll go to the pool.’  

It’s a really fun tour.   One of the other opening performers is Murs’ boy, Isaiah, and he has his hypeman, Verbs who is out here with him from L.A.  Isaiah is from Phoenix.  It’s a tour, but it feels more organic cause we actually get to chill with each other and hangout.  The cameraman, the photographers that Murs travels with, we’re all one crew at this point.  It’s cool and we’re starting to get into a groove as far as routines and passing the time.  The worst thing is to feel like you’re an outsider on a tour bus...If you got to sit and look at somebody all day on a bus, you at least want to get along with them.  This is just the beginning.  Big Pooh from Little Brother is going to join us once we get to Boston.  I’m wondering how that’s going to be.  The bus is going to get very crowded, cause we already have a lot of people on the bus.

We went on DJ Hyphen’s show on KUBE.  We always go to Hyphen.  Hyphen was the first person to play a KITH record on clear channel, so we always remember that.  He was our first interview on a clear channel station.  We’ve always maintained a relationship.  We never even sent him the record, he pulled it off of iTunes and just rocked it that way.  That’s amazing to us.  He’s always rocked with us, so anytime we’re in Seattle we always hang with him.  We got a lot of love in Seattle, it’s one of our better markets and it’s always a great time when we go out here.  We know the lay of the land.  We went out there with Blue Scholars and did three shows in a row at the Showbox that were sold out, then we went back out there with Redman, and we went back there on our own and did a show.  We’ve been to Seattle enough times now that we kind of know the lay of the land out there.  But Hyphen is really good peoples.  He mentioned the website and the blog and he said he reads the blog and all of that stuff.  We had a nice long discussion.  He’s a music person too.  He really keeps up with what’s going on.  He knew about RubyHornet and Fakeshore.  He actually mentioned it during the interview.  He’s a big supporter.  He plays pretty much anything we do.  We send him a new record, he’s always playing it.  It could be a freestyle. That’s one thing about his show and the way he does things.  He plays what he wants, and just so happens to be a supporter of ours and has always been there as an outlet for us to get our music heard.  He’s always reached out to us, and we always do an interview when we’re in town.  We’ve done call-ins, about four interviews.  It’s almost like checking in, he’s a homie so we always get down with him.  Big Von in San Francisco is another one of those DJ’s who has always been cool with us.  He plays what he wants to play and breaks what he wants to break.  KMEL is another one of our biggest radio markets.  

This is where it’s getting interesting because we’re getting to the Des Moines, Iowa’s and we just did Montana, and we’re doing Sioux Falls tomorrow, these are the places we’ve never been.  We’ve been to Omaha one time, so that’s not unfamiliar territory, but we’re starting to hit no man’s land.  We’re starting to hit these places we’ve never been.  It’s cool cause we’re getting to see another side of the culture, another side of America and interact with people we’d never interact with otherwise, and people that actually love our music.  We always run into people that watched MTV, and they never would think in a million years we would be in their town.  It’s a good feeling, cause in places like that, the only way their connected to mainstream America is through media.  Being on the internet and watching MTV and BET, that’s how they become connected.  So, it’s good to get to those markets and connect with those people.  At the end of the day, they’re fans and they’re just as legitimate as people in New York, Chicago, L.A., and any of the bigger markets.  They buy albums, and they’re just as strong of fans.  

Other than that I’ve just been trying to organize everything, bring along the Brainiac thing.  I’m developing ideas, and really bring along that venture.  I’ve been working really diligently trying to sow up the little odds and ends of this new project I’m doing with Mick Boogie.  I’m just trying to really shape it.  We're coming back to Chicago at the Abbey on the 21st.  I think it’s going to be one of the dopest shows.  We’ve added new things to the set.  Even the people that came to see us at Rock The Bells, we’ve added newer things to the show, so it should be fun.  And we’re doing the after party at Angels and Kings.

Other than that, I’m still looking for submissions for the Brainiac Vol. 2.  I’ve been listening to a lot of beats since I’ve had more time when I’m sitting on the bus, watching a lot more DVDs.  I have a lot more time to myself to focus on things, and I’m kind of blocked off from the real world. Sometimes I don’t know what time it is, what day it is. But we’ve been keeping up with the election.  We watch a lot of CNN, a lot of Sportscenter.  Murs is a really big football fan, so we bet on football games.  He’s a big gamer so you always see the Xbox on.  I don’t get into that much.  When they really get into the gaming that’s not sports related games, I usually fall back and get to doing something else.  

We’re going to do some sight seeing in the morning since we’re by Mt. Rushmore.  That’s pretty much it.  I just wanted to check in with everybody at RubyHornet before we get too far along.  We’re doing a show almost everyday.  I have to get used to taking care of my voice cause I’m really using it everyday.  I’m learning a lot from Murs as far as that goes.  He does a lot of shows and always seems to have his voice intact.  That’s really all that’s popping right now, and I’m about to get into this buffalo chicken wrap.