You’ve seen crowd surfing at it’s finest, and not so finest. The first time I’d ever stage-dove was the last time I celebrated my birthday at The Depot in SLC. My homies The Far East Movement came through. I jokingly mentioned to Proh that I’d never done it. First off, if you’ve ever been to a FEM show you’d know Proh dabbles in the art of the stage dive. A connoisseur if you will. He then told me, “We’re doing it tonight for your birthday.”
A majority of a bottle of vodka later and next thing I know he pulls me on stage and mid-song announces “Erock is breaking his crowd surf cherry tonight everyone.” My whole staff went wide-eyed. My girl pretty much passed out…
I fell back with EVERYTHING on (including my wallet, phone, magnum.. ok not the last thing) and let it happen. Lucky for me everyone there showed love to celebrate and I made it out and back unscathed (minus a few poor little asian girls in the front who barely hauled up my heavy Filipino %$$) but it could have been DISASTER. So next time you find yourself ready to take the dive, heed the following advice from myself and crowd surf LEGEND Proh!
P: Make sure u make eye contact and yell out what ur gonna do to everyone in the immediate vicinity so they know its coming. Last thing u want is to jump into a bunch of people that don’t know whats gonna happen. u might snap a neck or two.
E: He’s right. Those poor petite ladies in the front row braced for dear life.
P: Jump in back-first. I know that’s a problem with people who have trust issues. Unless u like random people touching ur junk right away.
E: I don’t know about you but if it’s been a while a need a loving touch… I’m kidding. Maybe.
P: Take ur shoes off. Cuz that’s the first thing people go for and u might never get them back. Especially if u have boots on. U might accidentally knock someone on the head.
E: Unless your feet are rancid. Say no to stank feet.
P: Look at who ur jumping into. They gotta have enough upper arm strength to hold u up!
E: In the wise words of Trinidad James, “She’s just a lil thick!”
P: Tell the crowd to come forward and bunch together. The more people the easier it is to hold u up.
E: Unless they’re your buddies who just wanna see you fall. I have those friends.
Shout out to Proh for taking time out of his days running their record label Bred N Butter and killin’ shows on the daily with FEM. And for letting The iLLapino (btw they bestowed that name upon me) live out a childhood dream one stage-dive at a time.
DISCLAIMER: Crowd surf at your own risk. We do NOT take responsibility for injury, death, relationship break-ups, items lost or junk touched by following our guidance.
