MADEINTYO
I’ve been a fan of hip hop music for years, but I discovered MADEINTYO only a few months ago. I listened to his album non-stop for weeks. When I saw him posting about a show in Brussels I got really excited and texted my friend (who is also a big hip hop head) immediately. He hesitated in the beginning but after a few days of me nagging, he finally said: “Okay we’ll go if you pay the drinks for the pre-game”. I told him he had a deal and bought the tickets 10 minutes later.
Finally it was the 22nd of march, the day of the show. We took the train from Lokeren to Brussels, it’s an hour long train ride. Luckily we had some beers (that I paid for) to pass the time. We arrived around 9:30 in the central station and the show started at 11:00, so we went to a park close to Bloody Louis to finish the rest of our beers. We entered the club at 10:30 and it was already really crowded.
The performance was incredible and the whole club was on fire (not literally). Everyone was partying and you could feel the energy in the air. My friend thanked me that I convinced him to come to the show and insisted to buy me a beer. An hour long MADEINTYO gave everything he got and at around 12:00 a DJ took over and kept the party going.
4 AM AND NOWHERE TO GO
At 4:00 the DJ stopped playing and told everyone to go home. We were a bit disappointed that it stopped that early because our first train home was at 6:30. We didn’t know what to do for the remaining two and a half hours.
When we were standing outside of the club, some girls we spoke to earlier that night came to us and asked if we wanted to come with them to a home party.
Of course we said yes. The girls told us they didn’t know what to expect because they barely know the guy that invited them.
After a 15 minute taxi ride we arrived at the address.
We could tell in which building the party was happening by the coloured lights through the windows. At the beginning of the street we could hear the music softly. It got louder and louder the closer we got. The building was in between 2 other buildings that looked alike.
“Welcome to the best home party of your life”
When standing in front of the apartment we could hear people talking in the hallway. The front door was half open so we went inside. 3 visibly drunk guys looked at us and one of them said: “yo, you guys just arrived?”. We told him we just left Bloody Louis and had some time to kill before we can go home. The guys started smiling and said: “welcome to the best home party of your life”. Me and my friend laughed and thought they were over exaggerating because they were drunk.
One of them came to us and introduced himself, his name was Thomas. He told us that the building had 4 floors with each their own little party. He invited us to come with him to the first floor.
THE FIRST FLOOR
The first floor had a beer pong table in the middle and on the side some chairs against the wall. A speaker was playing some house music in the background. Thomas said the beer pong tournament finished a while ago, he was disappointed he got 3th place. Me and my friend played a game of beer pong against the 2 girls from Bloody Louis (we won). Meanwhile Thomas told us some crazy stories that happened earlier that night. After the game we went upstairs to the 2nd floor. When walking up the stairs we could hear the music, it was much louder than on the first floor.
THE RAVE CAVE
A sign on the door said ‘The Rave Cave’. Inside the room were around 30 people dancing in front of a small desk where a DJ was standing behind. 2 big speakers, at the side of the desk, were blasting loud techno music. The room was completely dark, the only lights inside were 3 lasers hanging in the top corners. Thomas said this was his favourite room and he was going to stay here but told us we should definitely check out the other 2 floors as well. We danced for a while and then decided to explore the rest of the party. We left Thomas in the techno room and went upstairs to the 3th floor.
While I was dancing in the techno room some questions came to my mind. The music was really loud and I started wondering how the party was still going at 5:00, did the neighbours not complain yet? Did nobody call the police? At the end of the night these questions were answered.
THE MASKED BALL
The 3th floor was definitely the weirdest of them all. 2 people were standing in the hallway with masks on. One was wearing a horse mask, the other person an anonymous mask. They noticed the strange looks on our faces. Without saying anything they pointed at a box next to the door. The box was full of different masks. A sign next to the door said: “Enter only with mask on”. We all took a random mask out of the box and went inside.
My friend was a clown, one girl a monkey and the other girl had a creepy Halloween mask on. I was wearing the famous scream mask. Inside were 15 masked people dancing to electronical music. I don’t know the right name for the genre. Because of the masks everyone was dancing shamelessly, in that room I saw some of the funniest dance moves I’ve seen.
Me and the girl with the monkey mask decided to go upstairs to the 4th and final floor. My friend with the other girl told us they would meet us there in a few minutes.
THE FINAL FLOOR
This room was filled with beanbags and pillows on the floor. It wasn’t really a party room but more of a chill out zone. A mix of hip hop and reggae music was playing in the background while everyone was sitting down and talking. It was also the only room were smoking was permitted. We both took a beanbag and sat down.
While sitting down, we were talking about how crazy this party was and how random it was that we ended up here. I said to her: “I don’t think the landlord knows about this party”. At that moment a guy sitting a few meters away from us interrupts me and says: “He does, I’m the landlord.” When I entered the room I already noticed him because he was older than most of the people at the party. He came to us and we started talking.
THE LANDLORD
He was a 37 year old guy who was born in Brussels. His dad was a businessman who had a couple of businesses in Belgium. Because money was no issue for them, his dad told him he could choose where he wanted to study. When he turned 19 he went to the United States and studied at a university in New York. There he fell in love with the American lifestyle, he lived in New York city for over 10 years. He made lots of friends and partied every week.
“So why did you come back to Brussels?” I asked him.
His dad became too old to run his business and wanted his only son to become the next boss of the company. So in 2012 he had to come back. Together with a close family friend he ran the company for a few years. Meanwhile he was looking for other ways to make money in Belgium. So he bought 3 buildings in Brussels and rented the rooms out to students. It was the building from the party and the 2 buildings next door. This explains why the neighbours didn’t complain.
When a friend from New York visited him, they started talking about their life as students and the crazy parties they experienced. When he told him he owned 3 student houses, they got the idea to throw a party for the students that rented rooms from him. They were inspired by an old party they went to when they were still studying. That’s where they got the 4 floors 4 different parties idea from. We talked for a long time. He told me his craziest party stories and gave me some advice about life in general.
RIP PHONE
I looked at my phone (the last time I saw my phone) and was surprised it was already 7:00. We said goodbye and thank you for the amazing party to the landlord and went downstairs to look for our friends. Apparently they lied and didn’t come to the 4th floor. We found them in the rave cave dancing together with Thomas and his friends. We decided to stay until 8:00 and then take a taxi to the station.
At around 8:30 (lost track of time) we said goodbye to the girls and Thomas and called a taxi. While driving to the station we both were half asleep looking out the window. We got out and walked into the station. When I wanted to look for a train home, I realized I forgot my phone in the taxi. We called the company and they told us they would call us if they found my phone.
It’s now 6 months later and I’m still waiting.
