Accolades are nothing new for veteran rap crew Speach Impediments. They took home back-to-back OC Music Awards for “Best Hip Hop” the past two years. Drewid, Syntax Vernac, Deezie, and DJ Zole also made the Weekly's recent list of the Top 10 Hip-Hop Groups in OC. But a certificate of recognition from their hometown of Placentia? That's what was on the agenda for this Tuesday's city council meeting!
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“We were at the Orange County Music Awards and we happened to be sitting next to council member Chad Wanke,” Andrew “Drewid” Pasillas says. The politician mentioned to them after the group took top honors that he would approach Mayor Scott Nelson about city recognition. City staff rolled with the idea and although the scheduled meeting took place April 1, hip-hop in council chambers was no Fools Day joke!
Over the course of a decade, Speach Impediments rocked various stages and sizable crowds. City hall was a whole new venue for them. “I never get nervous, but walking in there, it's a completely different crowd,” Drewid says. “At first it was very intimidating but the Mayor was really cool.”
The City Administrator read a bit from their bio before council gave the group the certificate of recognition for winning OCMAs this year and last. All but Syntax Vernac, who lives in Vegas, were on hand. Drewid spoke from the wireless mic about how he met Dale “Deezie” Wood in junior high and grew up around the bend from city hall. When Drewid passed Deezie the mic, it wasn't on at first, so he mic checked “1,2,1,2!”
After that, Drewid spit some bars acapella! “I didn't expect them to ask us to do that at all,” he says. “My brain was racking.” Drewid settled on a verse he's been working on that's not on any recorded song and delivered it flawlessly.
Afterward, Speach Impediments celebrated the certificate of recognition at a local bar watching the Angels game before heading to DJ Zole's Turntable Tuesday's gig at the Commonwealth Lounge in Fullerton.
So what's next for Speach Impediments after conquering city council? “We're actually going on tour in Hawaii in a couple weeks,” Drewid adds. “I'm also actually releasing my debut solo EP in April before we leave.” The group plans to start working on a follow up to Cobwebs as well that they hope to have out by the year's end.
Maybe Placentia city council can arrange for a listening party to shake up the sheer boredom of Robert's Rules of Order that guides their meetings!
See also:
The Top 10 Rappers in OC
10 More of OC's Best Rappers
Top Five Female Emcees in OC
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!