By Justin Juul
Like perhaps everyone in the world for the past two years, I can’t stop watching certain YouTube clips. And blogging about them. There’s the Danzig vs. Shakira mideo, the Mike Tyson montage, The Mini-Mall Rapper Guy , Trapped in The Closet (duh), and now there’s Ashkon, a Bay Area rapper whose latest song/video “Hot Tubbin’”, was released to YouTube on March 24.
It unexpectedly got placed on the site’s front page the very next day, propelling the relatively unknown artist into the weird world of Interstardom. The Guardian caught up with Ashkon recently (by calling the phone number he forgot to edit out of the final cut for Hot Tubbin’) to see how it feels to be Internet-famous.
SFBG: Hello, is this Ashkon?
Ashkon: Yeah man. It’s me. Who’s this?
SFBG: It’s Justin Juul from The SF Bay Guardian. I just wanted to find out if the rumors were true, that the number you show in your Hot Tubbin’ video really connects to you.
Ashkon: Ha! Yeah. It’s me. Definitely.
SFBG: That’s pretty brave dude. Has your life changed at all since your video hit the front page on YouTube?
Ashkon:Ha ha. Yeah it has. Now I get thousands of phone calls a week from random people like you.
SFBG: Have you gotten any weird ones?
Ashkon: Oh hell yeah. I had this one stalker, some guy, who was calling me like every day. That was kind of creepy. Also, a lot of people have taken it as an opportunity to just call up and mess with me, as you could probably imagine.
SFBG: Yeah, you’re kind of asking for it I guess.
Ashkon: Yeah, so last week, fucking Ringo Starr left me a voicemail. And the accent was perfect. He was like “Hey Ashkon, this is Ringo Starr from the Beatles. I came across your video on uh, the YouTube thing, and I have to say, you know, it’s quite clever. I was thinking. You see, I’m actually going to be in California this weekend and, you know, maybe we could meet up. And, well, I’m thinking I’d really like to help you promote your new record.”
SFBG: Damn!
Ashkon: Yeah dude, I was like Oh shit yeah! I’m gonna be able to fucking retire now. I mean, it caught me off guard and it seemed within the realm of possibility that this actually was Ringo Starr. I was in the bar, you know, and I totally fucking believed it for like the first 20 seconds, but then I came back down to earth and looked at my caller ID and it was a 510 number, so, you know, it probably wasn’t him.
SFBG: That’s fucking hilarious dude. Now let’s get down to some real business here. Where’s the best hot tub in Oakland?
Ashkon: Let’s see. I’d have to go back to my old days when we would just hop the fence at hotels after hours.
SFBG: You mean like Motel 6?
Ashkon: Motel 6 will get the job done, but there’s some pretty nice tubbin’ up in the hills, you know, out in the Montclair area. Also out in the Berkeley Hills. I got some people with some nice tubs out there.
SFBG: What about San Francisco?
Ashkon: Oh man. I really haven’t had the opportunity to go hot tubbin’ in San Francisco yet. I’ve done some nice tubbin’ in the suburbs out there though. I’ve been to tubs out in Marin and Half Moon Bay. I’ve hit up Petaluma and Stockton and even San Luis Obispo, which is pretty far out. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever been hot tubbin’ in the heart of the city, so maybe that’s something we need to organize.
SFBG: Well when’s your next show? Maybe you could just bring a kiddie pool and some hot water.
Ashkon: That’s what I’m talking about! My next show is at the Red Devil Lounge on May 15. Let’s do it.
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Comments (1)
Honestly, where are the Hot Tubs in San Francisco? That would be perfect on a foggy evening, but I don't know where to find it!
Posted by Joe | April 25, 2008 06:50 PM