Locke Out

by Luke Baumgarten & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & L & lt;/span & ocke (real name Andrew Walters; looks good in red shirts by own admission) is leaving for Seattle, and there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing except show love. He's not only been incredibly influential in our area, he's been an ambassador for our town and scene elsewhere. There's been a tremendous outpouring of support since he announced his departure, and we thought it'd be nice to sop some of that up here. Farewell words and recollections, now, of Locke.





"My fondest memories of Locke are him and I freaking out on stage together. He always spits on me, tackles me, draws blood, throws shoes and breaks bottles. Once when we were in Babb, Montana, he tackled me off the stage in the middle of one of my verses. We fell three feet to the ground and my microphone split my top lip. I had to rap the rest of my set with a bloody mouth. He also tackled me once in Spokane and I almost smashed my head into the monitor. I could have been hurt real bad but I dodged danger again. All in the name of hip-hop." & r & -- James Two, friend, collaborator





"Andrew is a great collaborator, anyone who's worked with him can attest to this. When we started [the Chris Wilson 5], I always sat in the back with Matt Coleman. Once got more comfortable on stage, he wanted me to come forward and get involved in hyping up the crowd. He has confidence in the people he surrounds himself with, and is willing to let them share in the glory. He makes you a better performer." & r & -- Chris Wilson, collaborator


"Locke turned me onto the Crown City Rockers, the Procussions, Typical Cats and Lightheaded. Underground hip-hop gets exposure because of fiends like Locke. Locke has had much to do with the fact that Spokane can now, all of sudden, pick and choose which hip-hop show to attend." & r & -- Ben Cater, former owner of the B-Side, Inlander contributor





& lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & W & lt;/span & e tried to do all this on the sly without really telling anyone, as kind of a surprise, and it backfired like a bastard. We told Locke we didn't have room for a story, word got out and, by Monday, our box was clogged with angry voicemails. (Call off your dogs, Andrew!) Highlights:





"Locke is an infamous MC and has done a lot for hip-hop and for Spokane's scene. If you have some reason for not writing about him, I'd seriously love to hear it." & br & -- Clint Burgess, Side Project guitarist


"I heard there wasn't going to be any coverage on Locke's farewell show and that was frankly a little disappointing ... the decision is yours, but I, uh, seriously hope ..." [trails off angrily] & r & -- Joe Varela, producer





Locke at Fat Tuesday's with DJ Parafyn, Dragon Fli Empire, Coz McDust, Sintax, Temper T and DJ Poons78 on Friday, April 28, at 7 pm. Tickets: $7. Call 489-3969.