QBoy - Arriving back in New York was a great feeling. I had spent 3 months living in Brooklyn at the end of 2008 and loved every minute of it. I love New York and the people and was looking forward to seeing all my friends again.

I stayed the week with one of my closest friends and someone who I consider to be part of my team, photographer Greg Frederick who couldn't wait to get me into another shoot ASAP! The first night in NYC I was due to attend and perform at a video launch party my great friend Peppermint had organized.

Peppermint is the backbone of the gay scene here in NYC, she is a hardworking girl and you can find her doing shows 7 days a week at various venues throughout Manhattan. She is also one of the nicest people I have ever met and just as talented.

The show went well and I performed a few numbers to the raucous crowd at Therapy before screening my video on a big projector to all - AWKWARD! I mean, I'm not going to pretend I don't have some sort of ego and that as a performer I don't enjoy attention, however, standing in a room full of people watching you on a big screen is so cringey and awkward, it's never an enjoyable experience. You just have to pretend that silly dancing faggot on the screen isn't you to get through it, heh heh!



At the weekend I went for lunch with Heather and Sharron, two kind young women who helped me last time I was in NYC by being extras in my music video. We checked out a lovely pizzeria near Times Square which is housed in an old theatre and did the obligatory shopping before we parted.

That evening I checked out club night The F Word, a night organised by NYC's hot shot promoter and friend Formika Jones, where I caught up with my mate DJ Buddy and the lovely Cazwell. Oddly enough on the way home at 3am as I was awaiting the next subway train I saw one of the barmen from the club with a friend and noticed his chain around his neck – "that's MY name!" – correct spelling and all! Yeah, I was a little drunk me thinks.

A few days later after a few other shows, Greg had arranged the aformentioned photoshoot and he had a little surprise for me. He has recently been shooting and building the new website for Grammy winning rapper Queen Pen who featured on the Blackstreet hit No Digity.

QBoy in NY

    QBoy and Buddy

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    Peppermint in action at Therapy

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    QBoy cringing at the video premiere at Therapy

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    QBoy and Cazwell

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    The lovely Peppermint

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    QBoy and Greg getting a cab home

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    QBoy, Heather and Sharron

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    Melvin and Queen Pen

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    New York from a cab

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    QBoy with Formika and the F Word crew

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She was one of the first female rappers at the time to publicly declare her bisexuality and is currently working on new material and a new reality show. Greg being Greg has been working his thing and playing my new album to Queen Pen who in turn asked me to produce some new tracks for her and wants to jump on a remix of my forthcoming single Ghetto.

As I was now in town it was a perfect time to do some of the press shots. Our friend and make up artist Melvin joined us and did some amazing make up on Queen Pen. As we got ready for the shoot Queen started telling us about the new video she has out soon with another one of my favourite rappers MC Lyte. The shoot went great and we got some excellent shots which we were all very pleased with.

Next stop was Vlada for another show. Most of my friends turned up for this set and once we had a few drinks and a little smoke afterwards, I ended up doing a dance off with DJ T-Boy (no relation) who was spinning that night. He was also playing and co-hosting Peppermint's show at Barracuda the following night where I also performed and did a giveaway on my new album. I got 5 fine men out of the audience and then told them they had to beatbox as I rapped a verse in order to get the CD. Some of the efforts were well cute and they all got what they wanted. Before I knew it, my week in NYC was up already and now I had to head over to the westcoast for some dates in Portland and Seattle where my lovely agents David & Kendall were awaiting my arrival....

QBoy's new album Moxie is out now!

Check out QBoy on MySpace here and follow him on Twitter here!