2:00am
We meet back up with Fran, Paul, and Wale’s cousin Cam. We decide to take a walk down Bourbon Street. It’s not the craziest I’ve seen Bourbon Street get, but people are certainly happy that Mardi Gras is back. Guap walks a little ahead of us, observing the crowds in silence.
I catch up with Guap and ask him what he’s looking for. “I’m just going where the night takes us.” He says. “I love looking at people. I love seeing what people do when they don’t think they’re being watched.” Men drenched in sweat and beer, falling over each other and calling out to women who couldn’t be bothered to look their way. Girls on balconies flashing their tits and throwing beads out into the streets. A man surrounded by a pack of paralyzed kittens and dogs who have clearly been drugged. One girl goes up to them attempting to pet one of the cats who immediately hisses at her.
We stop for a moment to decide which bar to head into. Out of nowhere, a horse runs into me and the cop who was riding it pushes me out of the way. I scream out at the cop. “Damn!” Guap says. “Why they gotta make the horse a fed?!”
“That horse didn’t wanna be a cop,” says Fran, “why they gotta take something beautiful and make it so evil?”
We all get some daiquiris and try to find a club to roll into. A few white guys who are beyond fucked up run up to Guap. “Are you a Jets fan?!” Guap looks confused and then realizes the letterman jacket he’s wearing which is from Curren$y’s merch line; it’s modeled after the New York Jets merchandise. The guy puts his hand on Guap’s shoulder and Guap subtly pushes him away. “Nah, I don’t really know anything about the Jets, just a jacket.”
The man looks as if Guap has insulted his mother and he starts poking Guap in the chest. “Oh, I’m sorry, I just assumed that if you’re wearing a Jets jacket you’re a fucking Jets fan for life!” Guap starts poking him back, harder, saying, “Just a fan of clothes, that’s all.” It gets tense for a moment, and I wonder if they’re about to start fighting. Then, Guap makes a couple of jokes to cool everything down and we walk away. Then, he falls over onto Six, laughing, saying, “I assumed you were a Jets fan for LIFE! What the fuck!” We all start laughing.
This moment is a tell, like many of the tells I’ve observed while following Guap around, that he has avoided the ego and the drama of the rap game all together. He could have bossed up and all of us together would have probably fucked these kids up that were getting in his face. But he isn’t interested in that. All day, I’ve noticed him, watching him, just like he is watching everyone else. He’s already a superstar, but he’s still the kid from West Oakland who used his wit and his smarts to get out, and he did it by being the type of person who notices things that other people don’t. He’s so present, beyond any ego or his fame. He’s really right here with you.
And he’s such a son of Oakland too, a product of the Hyphy era. Everywhere we went, no matter whether it was a fan or a store clerk or someone in the street, he was always kind and was always trying to make people laugh. It’s like he’s on this mission to bring positivity to those he comes into contact with in the same way that the late Mac Dre did, the patron saint of the Hyphy Era. It was an era of inclusivity, embracing the diversity of the Bay Area. Even Guap’s team is a testament to that, having all sorts of California folks around him, even himself being half Black and half Filipino, a true Bay kid. The Town's too small to be on some competition shit. Everyone wanted to put Oakland on the map and they did it by having fun and spreading it as far as they could through their music.
It’s why I found myself so confused by his genuine presence. He wants to give his performances his all while sober, so that he can do his best to make you feel present with his music. I may feel ready to rob a bank when I hear “Wells Fargo” because Guap is making me feel like he’s just as in it as I am. But it takes someone who has fought for and mastered a love of life and all its little moments to be able to get you to that place. It’s not through drugs or partying, that’s just the setting the music deserves because it gets you higher than you thought you could. It’s through being here, now, with yourself and your world, knowing you could still be in Oakland, reminiscing on a time that has come and gone. But it lives on in people like Guap who are intent on doing the superstar lifestyle differently: with intention, with love, with everyone.