Post-THOP Thoughts

THOP Fest came & went this past weekend. First things first: it was a DOPE event. Everyone involved behind-the-scenes was friendly af and made me feel welcome. Knowing that the Common Grounds stage and outdoor area were free made it feel less like a side area and more like a main event. Tons of great vendors (I actually bought a few vinyls) and a huge amount of people. I’m grateful for the friends that came out to support me, especially the ones who were seeing me for the first time. The overarching theme of the day was the HEAT. That thermometer broke 100 pretty early in the afternoon, which makes the audience turnout even more impressive. Everything said…

I botched my set. Just, completely. A comedy of errors.

The main problem was that I brought the WRONG SETLIST. Artists gotta bring their setlist on a USB drive for the DJ to play, totally normal. I had about five tracks planned, starting with two hiphop tracks before picking up my guitar and doing three guitar/singing/rapping songs. I had been practicing this setlist with the transitions for ages now. So imagine my shock when the DJ hits play and a beat starts playing for a song I haven’t practiced (or even listened to) in over a month; New Classic. Great song, btw! But not what I wanted to do that day… I literally stopped right away and asked her why that song was playing, as if she had anything to do with it smh (sorry Lesa J!) She showed me her laptop screen and I realized what happened:

Basically, I copied the wrong folder on my drive. I had one folder on my computer titled “THOP FEST” from the THOP Competition back in June and another folder titled “THOP FEST 2026”. Why did I do that? Because I’m an idiot, obviously. So now I was stuck performing the setlist I used to get my way into THOP Fest in the first place, meaning I had a 15 minute slot with only 10 minutes of music to perform.

But the show goes on! When I figured out what the setlist was, I just had to lock in and lean on my past rehearsing. New Classic and Come and Get It are rappity rappity rap songs, bars on bars on bars. The fact that I only forgot a few lines (still not okay) is a reflection of how many times I’ve performed those songs in the past. Thanks, PL (^_^’)

The third (and last) song is where things went even more left: Defeat Me. One of the best songs I have (in my opinion), but I specifically left it out of my original setlist for a reason. This is the song where I spend a few minutes rapping before grabbing my guitar off of the stand and doing the widdly widdly widdly stuff. When I was planning my set, I knew it would be hot as hell come performance time and I wanted as little to think about as possible aka I didn’t want to worry about picking up a guitar mid-song haha.

Let’s go back to the overarching theme of the day: HEAT. As I explained to someone after the fact, a guitar is essentially just a piece of wood. It’ll expand in the heat and contract in the cold. If the weather is cold and you pick up your guitar, the strings may be a little sharp; if it’s hot they’ll be a little flat.

So, I had a guitar sitting on a stand in broad hell-light (new word) while I did two rap songs. I go straight into the third song without stopping to tune (that’s on me) knowing it’ll take the entire song before I find out if I’m even in tune. For a solo I don’t quiiiite remember off top. I got to that solo, picked the guitar up and that thing sounded FOREIGN. My PRS was speaking Arabic and I couldn’t reign it in. I’m very much of the “you’re either a half step up or down from the right note” school of thought, so when every note sounded off I realized things were just not going right. It was like, C#.75 standard haha.

I fumbled my way through that solo section, trying to bend and pinch harmonic and simple phrase my way through it. I don’t know how it came off to the audience (frankly I don’t care), but on stage it felt like a nightmare. At that point I just wanted to finish things up and give my usual shoutouts before running off stage. I didn’t actually run, but you get it. I’m super hard on myself for all of my performances, so this was a reminder of what a really bad set actually looks like. Easily the worst one I’ve had in years. In front of some faces who haven’t been out to see me before. UGH. As embarrassed as I was, I did my best to just take any compliments I got afterward without telling them how much I struggled up there.

Obviously it wasn’t a good feeling, but in a weird way this whole thing showed me how far along I’ve come as a performer. If this were 4 years ago, I’d still be curled up in a ball. Once I was off stage I couldn’t help to laugh because of how wrong everything went. Even now, it feels more like a funny disaster story than something traumatizing. It was definitely a weak payoff after all the time spent spreading the word, practicing, and hyping myself up, but it beez like that sometimes. What still bugs me is that I think the crowd really would’ve loved the set I had planned. A set showing just what TMGE is: rapper, guitarist, singer, songwriter, with an eclectic taste. All of the Above and Out of My Mind would’ve brought some good dance-y energy. The rapping in Something’s Missing combined with its odd meter would’ve drawn the crowd into my lyrics.

Instead I gave them three raps and a janky guitar solo.

So, yup. That was THOP Fest. It was honestly an amazing event and I didn’t do it justice. Right now all I can do is keep on truckin’ and find my next performance opportunity. Now I have a 15 min setlist in my back pocket for future use. Guess there’s that.