This weekend on Saturday February 21st, one of the only hip-hop gaming events out in existence will take place in Downtown Miami – Community Vibes IV, presented by GamerTagRadio.Com. Its going to be held at Club Ecco, a brand new venue located in the heart of the Magic City (click here to view the flyer) and its FREE – plus, they will have tons and tons of free giveaways. We got a chance to talk with Godfree and Pete, the hosts of GamerTag Radio to talk about the upcoming event and a couple other things. Read below…
The305: So, summarize the history of GamerTagRadio…
Godfree: We’ve been doing the show since 2005. It’s the first hip-hop gaming website and radio show. People can download our radio show through iTunes, Zune marketplace and listen through their cell phones or simply listen through our website.
What kind of things do you cover on the show?
Godfree: We interview lots of hip-hop artists – mainstream and up-and-coming. We also interview a lot of developers from the gaming industry – from EA Sports, Microsoft, Konami, Atari – pretty much any company you can think of has been on our show promoting their games and new releases. We do a lot of reviews and previews of games before they come out. And we pretty much cover all the consoles: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and etc.
As far as the upcoming event, Community Vibes IV, what the meaning behind it?
Pete: Community Vibes IV is pretty much our birthday party and it marks four years of hard work, especially from Godfree, and…from everyone who’s ever been a member of the staff. Its just a big thank you to our community. Its also an opportunity for those that come to the website and/or play together online – to finally meet face-to-face. We spend a lot time with these people online and talk to them everyday, but we never get to see them. So this is a chance to do so. We’ve got people coming from around the country and even Canada, just to come down and get together. And it gives a perfect excuse to come to Miami in February to enjoy the warm Miami weather while the rest of the country is freezing.
How was last year’s event?
Godfree: Last year we had 600 people show up to our Community Vibes III at PS14. And that was strictly via online promotion.
And with this year, how’s it looking?
Godfree: We’ve been going everywhere to promote this beyond online promotion. I recently went to New York to promote this on a couple stations over there and get interviewed for a couple sites. We’ve been promoting it everywhere. I mean, the event has always been for the gamers, but we also want to get non-gamers that don’t know much about gaming to come check out something different. We also definitely want the hip-hop community to come support as well.
What can people expect at the event?
Godfree: We’re gonna have Mayday and Garcia performing. And we’re going to have tons of giveaways. I want people to experience what it is to have a hip-hop gaming party. Its never been done before in Miami. Last year, the people that weren’t necessarily gamers, had a great time. And we’re going to have a section with the old school consoles like Nintendo, Dreamcast, SNES and things that we’ve been playing since the 80′s and 90′s,
And you guys are doing it at a new venue this year, correct?
Pete: Last year we did it at PS14, which is a very small club and very intimate. Its got a laid back vibe. But this year, Brian and Aramis, the owners of PS14, opened up a new location called Club Ecco in Downtown – 168 SE 1 Street, Unit 1A in Miami. It’s a two story 4,500 square-foot venue with a 24 hour pizza lounge downstairs run by an award winning pizza chef straight from Italy. Upstairs you have multiple rooms and a whole sound stage with a 2 million-dollar sound system. That, coupled with Mayday and Garcia, and its going to be a crazy night.
Allright, so besides Community Vibes, what else is coming up for you guys?
Godfree: We’re getting ready for E3, which should be in a couple months over in L.A. For those that don’t know, E3 is basically a gaming convention where you get to see previews of games that are coming out this upcoming holiday season. And as far as interviews, hopefully we’ll have the RZA and Chamillionaire pretty soon. A lot of things coming up…
You guys announced that you have a partnership going on with MTV…what’s going on with that?
Godfree: Let me explain the MTV stuff. A couple months ago MTV contacted us. They’ve been checking out the site for a while now and they just launched their “Ad Network”. So what they’re doing is getting a lot of video game blogs and music blogs to be a part of that network. With this, it helps us pay the bills for hosting and MP3 hosting. And the really cool thing is that in early 2009, they’re going to post our articles on MTV.Com – so I know our hits will go even further once MTV republishes our content on their site. And that’s on top of our most recent point of recently hitting 1.5 Million Downloads on our website. We’ve just been able to get a lot of support, from advertisers like the US Army, Coca-Cola, Universal Studios with Horror Nights, Netflix and so many other. Slowly, we’re growing.
I know this may sound a bit random, but what are some of your favorite moments on the show over the past couple years. Let’s start with you, Godfree.
Godfree: I have a top three list of favorite moments:
1) DMC from Run DMC, I just randomly bumped into him at E3 and interviewed him.
2) Meeting Marianne from Gilligan’s Island at a gaming convention and interviewing her.
3) Interviewing Peter Moore – he is the VP of EA Sports. He used to actually run Sega back when they first released Dreamcast. He was also one of the top guys at Microsoft, but he left the company and went to work for EA Sports. He’s a humble and cool guy…
What about you, Pete. Favorite moment on the show?
Pete: Mine definitely has to be meeting and interviewing Little Brother’s Big Pooh. We interviewed him chillin’ with a couple other guys at Churchill’s. I was us, Big Pooh, Sean Dunn, Kidz In The Hall – all sitting in the back clowning and talking about video games
Definitely, thank you for the time fellas, so any last words?
Godfree: Shout out to the whole hip-hop scene in Miami. I’m still listening to all the local stuff like Garcia, ArtOfficial, Mayday and even cats like Flow Official, UB, P-DOE and all them.
Pete: Shout out to all the local hip hop cats. Especially to Parable, he showed up last year and had a great time. And shout out to all the companies who are helping us make this event bigger and better every time. Shout out to Tritton Technologies (www.trittonusa.com), our title sponsor.
Community Vibes IV
Saturday February 21, 2009
3PM – 10PM
Ecco Lounge
168 SE 1st Street,
Unit 1A
Miami, FL 33132
