Whitney Peyton – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the hip hop artist, Whitney Peyton, shares what she does before every show. You can check out her rituals, after the break.

Dude, I have such high anxiety it’s a wonder I’m not a hermit. It’s weird because I don’t have much trouble actually performing in front of crowds it’s just the anticipation beforehand and the one on one meeting fans afterwards. Being on stage feels natural… holding conversation does not!

In the green room, I generally drink some tea like Throat Coat or I use a vocal spray, like “Vocal Ease”. Doing a zillion shows back to back is no joke so while some rappers may not take their voice seriously I’ve started to really up my game. The first tour I was on I lost my voice and had to perform a show where I sounded like freakin’ Gilbert Godfrey. So now I take care of my shit!

I pace like a weirdo and jump up and down to get hype. I talk myself out of about 23.5 social anxiety attacks. I remember I used to have this intro in my set that would count down it would be like “10, 9, 8, 7….” and I would come out on “1” and start rapping. Well, I was in Kentucky this one time backstage and I was just anxious as usual and had no sleep and literally like 3 “5-hour energy shots” within 8 hours… which I really don’t recommend. Anyway, my intro was counting down and there was this balcony out back and I just remember the feeling in my stomach of too many energy drinks and being too hype and just hearing my thing countdown and just throwing up as I heard it counting down “5..4..3..2” I just hurled off the back balcony took some swigs of water then ran up on stage just in the nick of time to start my verse. No one knew any different. It’s the only time I’ve thrown up before a show (not attractive I know) but it ended up being one the best shows of my life!

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