P.D.A.

When walking down 6th Street at 4 p.m. on a Friday during SxSW, pedestrians hear all sorts of music spilling out of the clubs. Sometimes they peek inside, sometimes they stop for a brief moment, and oftentimes, they just keep walking. Today, there was a performer at the Chuggin’ Monkey that not only filled an empty club, but drew a crowd of dozens outside the window that continued to grow and stuck around for his whole set, staring through the windows while bobbing their heads and smiling.

The show – a day party for Oklahoma radio station iROK – wasn’t listed in the SxSW brochure, and the performer – an Oklahoma-based hip-hop mashup artist named P.D.A. – wasn’t someone I’d ever seen live before, though I’d heard his name and checked out the songs on his MySpace page in the past.

I had no idea what I was walking into when I wandered into the Chuggin’ Monkey halfway through P.D.A.’s set and pushed my way to the front of the stage. The 23-year-old was brimming with energy and attitude, bouncing and dancing around the stage like he owned the club.


And for 30 minutes, he did, spewing clever and insightful rhymes over incredibly infectious grooves, beats, and hooks. There was no way people could avoid dancing, or at the very least, tapping their feet. P.D.A. utilizes samples from a wide array of artists in some of his songs (including White Zombie, Madonna, and Diana Ross and the Supremes), and he also does all his own production, which sounds as clean as anything a big budget studio could churn out. He only had a drummer onstage with him, but what was coming out of the speakers sounded like a full band.

When P.D.A.’s set ended, he was approached by several people (myself included) who wanted to get a copy of his CD, Act II: A Different Victim. Someone in the club said the place had been empty before he started performing, but after his performance, I had to push through the crowd to get back out onto the sidewalk, which was still teeming with enthralled spectators.


Catching gigs like that is one of the best parts about SxSW, and proves that it’s still worth it to just wander into some random club to see whoever’s performing. You never know who or what you may find, and I would be very surprised if P.D.A. isn’t playing a more high-profile show at SxSW next year. - Phoenix New Times - Niki D’Andrea

The event, often described as the Grammys of northeastern Oklahoma, celebrated current music as spectators rubbed shoulders with artists of all genres, from hip-hop to country.

The masters of ceremonies were Greg Kosack and Chuck Stikl of KMYZ, 104.5 FM. Stikl started the show by reminding the crowd that "just being nominated is an honor in itself. . . . It's amazing how much music has grown in this town."

And that started 3-1/2 hours of high-energy celebration.

A local hip-hop artist, P.D.A., was the year's biggest winner, taking awards for both Best Hip-Hop Act and Album of the Year.

His Prince-inspired, multigenre-influenced album, "Act II: A Different Victim," beat out works by the Red Dirt Rangers -- a Spot Awards Hall of Fame member -- as well as the country band South 40, the Stillwater pop act Kunek and the Tulsa
pop sensation Malan Darras.

P.D.A. was the only multiple winner of the evening. After thanking his mother, brother and other nominees, the pigtailed rapper shook with excitement as he thanked his cheering fans.

The trio Admiral Twin won the honor of Best Pop Group, which was its fifth Spot Music Award victory, clinching the band a niche in the 2008 Spotniks Hall of Fame.

With grace and humility, the band's bass player, Mark Carr, leaned into the mike and uttered one word: "Thanks."

Performances by the Rising Star winner, Callupsie; the Best None of the Above winner, Citizen Mundi; P.D.A.; the Best R&B/Blues winner, Dustin Pittsley; South 40; the country singer Thomas Martinez; the gospel group One Generation of Praise; the melodic metal rockers Down for Five; and the folky popstress Susan Herndon brought crowds to their feet frequently during the evening.

One G.O.P. received a standing ovation after practically tearing the roof off Cain's.

Darras, a former frontman for Rewake, performed the encore of the evening with his Malan Darras Orchestra as a tribute to Rewake's induction into the Spot Music Awards Hall of Fame, an honor presented by a local music aficionado, Davit Souders. The band has won five times in the Best None of the Above category.

"We have a trunkful of these things," Darras laughed as he hoisted his trophy. Stikl grabbed him and planted a wet kiss on his lips.

A surprise inductee, the blues guitarist D.C. Minner, was also welcomed into the Hall of Fame. He has been a longtime organizer of the Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville. As a bassist, he toured with Freddie King and O.V. Wright before switching to guitar in the 1970s.

Last year's Rising Star winner, the teenage hard-rock act Crooked X, was named the Artist of the Year. The band spent a whirlwind summer of touring with acts ranging from Alice Cooper to Ted Nugent and playing on stage with their heroes Skid Row at the Rocklahoma festival.

"Thank all of you guys for making all of our dreams come true," said the band's frontman, Forrest French.

Crooked X has signed a multimedia management deal with McGhee-Proffer Media, LLC, which has managed acts from Bon Jovi to Kiss.

But the band lost the award for Best Hard Rock Group to a local hard-rock juggernaut, Congress of a Crow, which took the Best Rock Group honor last year.

"Fans make the band," said Congress of a Crow's singer Danelle Phillips. "Thanks for being there for us."

AfterEight took home the prize for Best Christian Group, beating Pillar, Anna Dilemma, One G.O.P. and Fedel, the first rapper nominated in the category.

Tulsa's mad scientists of jazz, Harmonious Monk, cast a spell of success in the Best Jazz Act category, overcoming the smooth jazz cat Grady Nichols, the blues great and basketball legend Wayman Tisdale, the Latin jazz act Mezclave and the effervescent duo of Rebecca Ungerman and John Sawyer.

A country rocker, Travis Kidd, won his second Best Country Group award in a talented category that included the Red Dirt Rangers, South 40, John Moreland & the Black and Gold Band and Thomas Martinez.

The Best Singer-Songwriter award went to Jesse Aycock, who beat Susan Herndon, T.J. McFarland, Phillip Zoellner and Wade Burrow.

"I didn't expect this," Aycock said. "There are a lot of good bands in town . . . and this is a great time to be living in Tulsa."



The winners


Best Rock Group: The Red Alert

Best Pop Group: Admiral Twin

Best Hard Rock Group: Congress of a Crow

Best Hip-Hop Group: P.D.A.

Best R&B/Blues Group: Dustin Pittsley

Best Jazz Group: Harmonious Monk

Best Country Group: Travis Kidd

Best Christian Group: AfterEight

Best None of the Above: Citizen Mundi

Best Singer-Songwriter: Jesse Aycock

Rising Star: Callupsie

Artist of the Year: Crooked X

Album of the Year: P.D.A, “Act II: A Different Victim” - Jennifer Chancellor - Tulsa World

P.D.A. has been a busy man lately. Between playing Guitar Hero II and the release of his new album in February, he made it to South By Southwest in Austin and found cheaper lodgings with the guys from Optimistic to a Fault.

Oh and by the way, he's got a break Saturday opening for Senegalese R&B singer Akon, whose platinum-selling style has it popping like R. Kelly before he succumbed to the "eww . . ." factor. Akon's track, "Don't Matter," from his November album "Konvicted," is at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. The sold-out show at the Pavilion means P.D.A. could face his largest crowd yet.

"I'm nervous so far," said the rapper, also known as Tulsan Anthony Jenkins. "I'm just hoping the crowd will like me."

The rapper will get some hype help on stage from local emcee Trauma and a drummer. He'll be armed with material from his album "Act II: A Different Victim," on which he uses a musical de livery and an emotional rap style to drop his bombs about growing up a nerd with an absentee father.

Lately, Jenkins said he's been doing mostly local shows, content to not stretch his legs too much. But he made it to South By Southwest in Austin last month, where he ran into the manager of the rock-rap
Tulsa World Sports Extra
group Kottonmouth Kings, he said.

The guy bought Jenkins some drinks and told him he wants to get him on dates with the rap group on the label Suburban Noize Records, Jenkins said.

Jenkins also has landed some opening spots with Tech N9ne.

Besides that, he's "still a struggling artist," he said. Now that he has moved in with the metal band Optimistic to a Fault, the bills are a bit easier to pay.

"It's pretty cool though . . . We work on music, like, constantly."

He's even patched things up with TripC over confusion about compensation for Jenkins' work on an album. He's back working with him again, and Jenkins has been working with other area rappers, too, selling his production skills that pay the bills.

But despite his best efforts, he still can't beat expert level on PS2's Guitar Hero II, he said. - Matt Elliot - Tulsa World

Tulsa rapper PDA -- Anthony Jenkins -- feted this album in a February release party at the Other Side that was attended by about 350 people, said Matt Stevens with Fat Lip Entertainment.

Almost everyone bought the album, which has become Jenkins' cry in the hip-hop wilderness, blasting the drudgery of modern rap and his relationship with his father.

Jenkins, originally from Cleveland, spends most of the album showing the listener the line he walks, trying to do the right thing even while he's beset by his weaknesses and strengths.

He's got his poisons -- conniving women and alcohol -- and his estranged relationship with his father, but in the end, he's trying to turn that into a career.

Jenkins has got some real skills as a rapper, boasting crisp, nimble and rapid rhymes on "Dollar Bill" while dropping rhymes with bombast on "Prologue."

His musical rap style and layered songs show his own background in other forms of music. He has sung in a stage musical and operas, and this album shows him alternating between bouncy club anthems and funky everyday-travails raps while covering Madonna's "Human Nature."

He veers between rap's usual braggadacio in such songs as "Prologue" to humility
on "The Beautiful People," when he raps about an awkward social life growing up. The powerful song, reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's number of the same name, details a kid enduring abuse from school bullies and ends with the song's subject shooting his aggressor before taking his own life.

"Addicted," featuring help from Philippian and Alex C, is another gem with an infectious chorus about a girl he can't quit, even though he knows the relationship is poisonous.

And while he says he's not a singer, he shows on "Epilogue" that he clearly is. It's evident when he sings softly over a piano and orchestration about protecting the song's sleeping subject from the world's ills.

The only down sides to "A Different Victim" are the tracks "Inside" and "Next." Both are about empty drunken relationships with women.

But that's fine. PDA has the skill to drop bombs when he needs to, showing urgency and emotion where it's appropriate. That savvy is what sets him apart from the pack. He's not all about the bass beats and treble. This album shows that he knows how to write songs with melody as well as hooks.

He rounds that off with a creativity that draws comparisons to the rap supergroup Outkast (see the mariachi-like song "Something Right").

If PDA wrote, recorded and produced all this himself, then imagine what he could do if he had a slick producer and big-label dollars backing him.

Also performing on the album are Coco Jones, Big Hank, JaQuay, Infamous, Trauma, Tristan and Kawnar.
- Matt Elliot - Tulsa World

Go to PDA's CD release concert Saturday, and you'll see a crowd that merges cultures, combining everything from opera lovers to rap fans.

That could be because his new album, "Act II: A Different Victim," blends elements of jazz, rock and hip hop, said the rapper, whose real name is Anthony Jenkins.

The hard thing for Jenkins will be deciding what to play during his a release concert in a town that's especially hard on hip-hop artists, he said.

The 22-year-old rapper, the best hip hop artist at the 2005 Spot Music Awards, had a lot to get off his chest on "A Different Victim," he said. Maybe that's why there are 17 songs, blasting everything from an abusive, absentee father to modern-day hip-hop artists who think a song hook is nothing more than a repeated phrase.

The Cleveland native eschews the misogyny of other rap artists and instead chooses to delve into relationships.

He drives the message with nimble raps showing he can sing as well as rhyme. He even throws little synthesizer bleeps and beeps into his music, adding to his sound.

"When I play shows, it's really hard to actually pick out a bunch of songs that people are going to listen to," he said, describing most
Gilcrease Museum
local music lovers as either rock or rap lovers, but never crossing over.

The CD features performances by such local luminaries as Coco Jones, Philippian, Big Hank, Alex C, JaQuay, Infamous, Trauma, Tristan and Kawnar. It's got club numbers, such as the stripper ode "Dollar Bill" to introspective life stories such as "Born and Raised," and to slow jams such as "Inside."

Jenkins lashes out at kids who made fun of him in school on "The Beautiful People," and "Dwell on the Past" features some quirky, rock/pop sounds reminiscent of Outkast.

But "Epilogue (Goodnight Sweet Girl)" shows Jenkins mourning dreams that won't ever be realized.

The diversity of Jenkins' material shouldn't surprise. He's always had diversity in his life. His mother is white and his father is black, a circumstance that exposed him to a lot of discrimination and made his relationship with his father strained.

He also hasn't always been devoted to hip hop. Jenkins sang in a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" as a kid and also participateed in opera and choir productions, he said.

Jenkins' album, which he produced himself, features samples from a host of other musicians, including Rob Zombie ("Lame").

"I'm probably not, like, solving anything by sampling, but you know people would just sample old stuff because new music ain't any better."

He covers Madonna's "Human Nature," despite the fact he has yet to get permission to use the song. He hopes it'll be approved by the time the CD is out, because it's already pressed and delivered.

If not, "They'll sue me. I'll probably get sued by a lot of people," he said, laughing.

At age 17, he recorded his first album, messing around with a computer microphone and some beats from MTV Music Generator. He rapped about shoplifting from convenience stores, hating the club scene and mixed it with some braggadacio.

His second album disappeared after some local rappers broke into his apartment, he said. He's never finished re-recording it, he said.

Jenkins pays his bills mostly through selling beats to other local rappers. He's also made guest appearances on their albums, including Philippian's new CD, "I Speak the Truth." He hasn't had to work a day job in about three years, he said.

PDA said he's gotten Starship Records & Tapes, Under the Mooch and iTunes to sell his new disc. Philippian, a local rapper originally from Louisiana, will help him get CDs sold in that state, Jenkins said.

He hopes his do-it-yourself effort will pay off one day.

"Tulsa, I hear from a lot of people, is the training ground," he said. - Matt Elliot - Tulsa World

Friday night's "best of" list also included Seis Pistos rocking a full house at The Loft (formerly Studio 310), country act True North as the most criminally overlooked treasure during the Flaming Lips' timeslot and Congress of a Crow's top flight set, which included a capacity crowd and a guest appearance by PDA that set off the crowd and nearly burst the building at its seams. - Gary Hizer - Urban Tulsa

1am Best Bets -- PDA at First Street Loft Lounge, Kunek at Blue Dome Diner. If you thought Oklahoma couldn't produce good Hip Hop, you haven't heard PDA. Not only does the kid have skills, he can also win over an audience of rock kids as easily as a club crowd. Check him out at 1am if you want to be impressed. - Gary Hizer - Urban Tulsa

Whose face is that on the cover?

Study it; memorize it now for you'll know it well by the end of the year. It belongs to PDA, the latest heir apparent to Tulsa's Hip Hop throne.

He is a study in contrasts: humble in person, yet boastful on stage; a bittersweet mix of youthful exuberance and world-weary caution; an artist who is quick to help others, but out to prove he needs no one else.

He has proven himself to the Hip Hop community while mesmerizing rock kids and has thrown out the rule book, only to write his own and step forward with the consummate Hip Hop opus.

Even his name tells a tale. PDA: Public Display of Afflection (He defines afflection as the struggle between love and hate). It's written all over his music, all over his lyrics: The classic battle between good and evil.

You can try to get to know him, but understand you'll only see what he decides to reveal. You may very well learn more about him from his lyrics than anything he chooses to tell you; yet through it all, you know this kid is the real deal. He may be young, but he's got game like no other and will make a name, not only for himself, but perhaps for others in Tulsa's Hip Hop community as well.

To sit down with P.D.A. and talk about his background, it doesn't sound much different than that of many other kids growing up at the time. Born in Tulsa as Anthony Jenkins, he was uprooted and moved a lot during his early years, relocating to Shreveport, LA, and then bouncing around the California area before his Mom moved them back to Cleveland, OK at the age of 3.

Recalling his youth in Cleveland, the complexity of PDA's character begins to reveal itself, a balance of innocence and bitterness and a picture of a young kid coming to grips with the real world.

"Cleveland was awesome - racist as hell. Me and my brother were the only black kids -- well, half black kids -- that were there at all. Really the only ones of any other race in Cleveland - and it was just so awesome living there because everybody loved to tell us what we were" laughs PDA.

"But we, me and my brother, didn't even know what race was when we were little, you know? So when people would drive by and be like: 'Stupid Ni... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!' We didn't even know what it meant. My mom would get all pissed off, but we were all, like, 'Oh, Hey!' (waving). The kids were awesome, though. We never went without friends. It was just, like, parents and the older kids and stuff like that. ...But yeah, that place was awesome."

Growing up in a small town and learning about racism and unacceptance isn't uncommon. Nevertheless, you feel the effects as a child. Even if you don't fully understand, you know that somehow you're, well, different.

By the time he was 9, the family returned to Tulsa: again, nothing earth-shattering or unusual. In fact, to hear PDA tell it, his childhood was downright normal. What he fails to really mention, however, is his involvement in musical theater. The average teenager doesn't just take up with the local opera company. PDA, on the other hand, joined the Tulsa Youth Opera as a young teen and went on to perform in a number of off Broadway productions, including Aida and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.

That's where PDA's road diverged and he developed a love of performing. Appearing in front of an audience, especially one as large as 1,500, would intimidate some individuals. Not PDA -- he reveled in it and thus began his love affair with the stage.

PDA PDQ

PDA's name started popping up more frequently this year, leading many people to think that he's a newcomer to the local scene, but that's not the case. "I've been performing since I was 16 - I'm 22 now..." he responds, when asked how long he's been at it. Once he got into the game, he dove in headlong, putting out his first CD, the home recorded effort Prologue, nearly five years ago at age 17.

That first disc, as rudimentary as it was, showed a kid with initiative and promise. PDA readily admits "It was my first time ever to do anything and I didn't know much about -- well, anything. I didn't know much about how to record. I didn't know much about how to make beats. All I knew was that I found one system that worked. I got a computer and computer mic ... it was that simple."

Being uneducated in recording equipment and techniques as well as mixing and mastering, PDA readily admits that "it sounded like shit." He also concedes, however, that considering his lack of knowledge or experience at the time "...it was good for what it was. Even back then, when I would play shows when I was 16, 17, some of the people were actually: 'Man, this is really good. It's different'" says PDA.

There's that word again. Different. Sort of a back-handed compliment, but a validation nonetheless. It's also a term that PDA could identify with and began to wear as a badge of honor. "I always got 'different'" he says. "Which is always pretty much what I'm aiming for, s - Gary Hizer - Urban Tulsa

73. PDA, hip-hop artist. Smooth beyond smooth, cool beyond cool, and supportive of all of the other local acts around him, he's the real deal -- a player among players. - Urban Tulsa

Making sure not to miss an act I’ve heard so much about, I went to check out P.D.A. at the humid First Street Lofts Lounge — and I’m glad I did. P.D.A. has a great stage presence and knows how to work the crowd. It’s crazy to see anyone keep a crowd of 125+ constantly moving / bouncing / white boy dancing as he did. If you wanted to end DFest with an absolute party, P.D.A.’s show was the show to see. - Oklahoma Rock Newsblog