Tuscaloosa’s Talented Thursday at Crimson Bar

If anybody ever tells you that there's no talent to be found in Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas, that person is not truthful and is not to be trusted.

Thursday night, I had the honor of being a judge for Tuscaloosa's Talented Thursday, an open mic night at Crimson Bar. This event, hosted and founded by Carlos Vegas, is the perfect opportunity for those who want to showcase their talents and gives a stage for longtime musicians to hone their live performance skills.

From the very beginning, I knew I was going to be in trouble. I was honestly impressed with the very first act! The performer had great stage presence, and his production was tight. For some reason (especially with rappers), there is a belief that louder is better. However, this was not the case with the first performance.

The hardest part about judging was the fact that there was a category for crowd response.
I need to take a side bar right here. The competition was supposed to begin at 9:30. It didn't begin until after 10:30. Had the crowd been there earlier, things might have been different. Unfortunately, because the venue wasn't full and those that were there weren't very responsive, the first few performers did not score as well as others.

I had to leave after the final performance. I'd been up since 4am and had to be up at 4am Friday, and the last participant didn't perform until close to midnight.

HOWEVER.....

I am so happy I was there for the guest performance of Guy from Big Boy Entertainment. His song "Cookie" was one of my favorites. It made me wish I had it while traveling. Here's an encore performance. (It doesn't sound as great as it did live, but the hook is very catchy.)

The young lady in the denim jacket (I know you want to know about her) was also a judge.  Coco Williams runs Kingdom Boss, a Demopolis-based modeling, which specializes in curvy models.

The other judge for open mic was Kueen Nef. In addition to rapping and being featured in a number of urban magazines and websites, she's a model with Kurvy Girl Model Management and an ambassador for Profit1K Trap Rich Society.

The winner of the night was Nuke Cobb.  Apparently, this was his third time in a row winning. He had great stage presence, his production was good, and the crowd really enjoyed his music as most people were on their feet throughout the performance and made major noise when he ended.

All in all, it was a fun night.  A little different from what I'm used to, but it was nice to see all of the talent in our area as well as witness an upcoming generation of go-getters!