Dirty South parties — loud music, abundant dancing, call and response lyrics — are a staple for any state south of the Mason Dixon line. For two years, the company E.Z. Mo Breezy has brought the spirit of the “dirty south” party to New York City, finding steady success along the way. As they prepped for their first ever two-night “Grits & Biscuits” weekend, the founders of E.Z. Mo Breezy sat down with theGrio to talk about the origins of the company, and why they wanted to bring this unique style of partying up north.
TheGrio: Can you tell us who each of you are and what your roles are?
ALZO SLADE: My name is Alzo Slade and I’m one of three partners in E.Z. Mo Breezy. The E is for Erika Lewis, the Z is for Zo that what people call me, and the Mo is for Maurice, my brother. My role in the squad is pretty much the mouthpiece. I’m the one that writes all the copy for the fliers. I’m the one that’s emceeing the events, making sure the crowd is where they need to be and I’m up on stage with my brother as he deejays. I give him a break for about an hour and then I deejay for a bit, but my main role is like public relations, so I’m the voice of the squad. … Erica’s role started from the beginning, and she is like the brains behind the operation. She handles all the venue relations.
MAURICE SLADE: My role in the group [is] deejay. I [also] do a lot of the creative work as far as creating the fliers. … We kind of intertwine between each other‘s roles, but I would say that’s my main role.
How did the “dirty south” party concept get started?
AS: Basically, this is the party that the three of us always wanted to go to in New York. We live here … and all of us are from the south. The music that they would play [at New York parties] would be top 40 … and it’s just like, if they could just play a little something so we could shake: a little Weezy, Luke, Too Live Crew, UGK … but it would never happen. It was one of those things.
I have friends back home who deejay, and that would send me [songs] and every time I go home, I would come back with these mix CDs because I would be like, give me the latest and the greatest of the “dirty.” Erika and I were in the truck one day listening to one of the CDs and [we] were like, how many people out there are like [us]: in New York, from the south … and just want to be able to get loose and have fun? We were like, let’s see.
My brother deejays this crawfish boil every summer, and he was deejaying the spot and he turned it out. … I asked him if he wanted to get down and he was like, for sure, and … E.Z. Mo Breezy was made.
When did you realize that you had something profitable, and that this could actually work?
AS: It was never really about the profit. … We wanted to throw a party that we wanted to go attend, so the first party … we were just praying that we would break even. We didn’t know who was going to show up. We sent out to emails just to the friends that we had on our personal email blasts. We didn’t have a list serve, we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter… We didn’t have any of that. Just word of mouth. It was just a blessing that people showed up and they had a great time, and from there we just continued to keep the pace and giving the people what they asked for, and that’s how we grew.
Were you guys blown away at the response after the first party?
AS: Yeah, I didn’t expect that many people to show up for sure, and I know that everybody else didn’t expect that many people to show. As my brother said earlier, we were just hoping that we broke even and enjoyed ourselves. We just threw the party for us and our friends to come and enjoy themselves. It wasn’t supposed to be this big thing, so we were super surprised.
ERIKA: I think from the very first party it was just … I can’t even describe it. … Outside of putting our hearts and our souls into it, and being genuine to who we are, and being authentic, there was not a whole lot of strategy outside of that. … The people that showed up, I think there was just automatically something that clicked to them, that this is what it would be like to go back to college and that’s what we wanted. We always promote our events as a safe place to get loose, and we mean that.
Even with the imagery. We look at every photo that we post. Every photo that the photographer takes, we make sure that the photos we put up put people in a positive light. And with every album we post, we also post a disclaimer that if there is a photo up there that you don’t like, then we will take it down, and we do. ‘Cause it’s not really about that. It’s about having a safe place that you can come and get loose and kick it. We all went to black colleges and [from] that first party, in planning it, it was really about … remembering what it was like to pay $5 and … [to] wear your sneakers and your jeans and just have a good time.
MS: And its cool … the raw energy of the party. It seems … like organic. Everyone is being themselves and just being free and not worrying about what the next person is thinking. It’s about the music too. I don’t want to get to deep. Its almost like a tribal feeling. We’re all huddled up in this one area and we’re all vibing to the same music and feeding off each other’s energy and giving each other energy.
What’s been the biggest moment for you so far?
AS: The first party to me was the biggest moment because it was so much fun. It was so unexpected how raw it was. That moment was so new to me that it felt that it was the most exciting time for me because it was in its beginning stages and it very raw and organic how it popped off.
ERIKA: I agree. The first party was the biggest moment for me too. That was the first inkling that this is definitely something bigger than the three of us. And I remember … the next week and a half we were all kind of amazed by what had happened and really moved by it. .. After every party we debrief, and we said at that moment this is about “Grits & Biscuits.” It not about any individual, this is not about the unit. It’s about the event and it’s not about the money. I think that we kind of laid out our principals at that meeting and I think that has kind of guided us.
I’ve heard that Jay- Z and Beyoncé were at your last party. Can you tell me how that happened?
AS: Well we didn’t invite them. Someone texted us and said that they may be coming, but people do that all the time so we just put our phones back in our pockets, if we responded at all. Its not about celebrities you know. … We are kind of like, almost the antithesis of that . Jay Z and Beyoncé, they’re welcome come. Michelle Obama and Barack — they could come too. But they’re not going to get treated any better than anyone else. There is no VIP in our parties, which means everyone is VIP at our parties. Its fantastic that [celebrities] come. … [and] we give them the same opportunity to get loose without judgment just like everyone else.
What else can we be looking for form E.Z. Mo Breezy?
AS: Well understand that the two parties back to back [this weekend was] in honor of our two year anniversary. The plan is not necessarily to always have two parties back to back, but the point was to do something special for those who supported us, so … this is kind of a “one time, for at least today,” special event. … I think for the future — I said it before [that] this is a blessing in itself, so we just want to be open to receive. We definitely have a vision and we all have careers outside of this party [promotion], and we all have recognized that this has opened doors for us personally and professionally.
ERIKA: We are also looking to continue to take it on the road. We have already been in D.C. twice. We are planning to go back to D.C. We have other cities that have requested it and as we say, we don’t want to leave anyone hungry, so you know, [we] take the Grits & Biscuits to where the people need to be fed.
Your approach seems very simple. Why is that not working for many other promoters?
AS: They put themselves before the actual party or [the] people who come and want to enjoy them. I think they try to shine too much. I think that our ability to kind of step to the side and allow everyone to shine and have fun is part of the success that makes our party a good party.
Follow Kyle Harvey on Twitter at @Harveywins