Get Hitched

One recent Wednesday night, Hitching Post owner Herman Fielder — an older gentleman with tired eyes — sat at the back of the bar, wearing a suit and smoking a cigarette. He watched politely as twentysomethings in dreadlocks and baggy pants danced and talked near the stage, waiting for the night’s live act — the Guild — to begin its set. Fielder, a Louisiana native, decorated the restaurant himself, giving it a New Orleans feel with a giant wooden spoon and fork hanging on the wall. When the restaurant was at 32nd and Prospect, it served only food: chitterlings, smothered steak, pork chops and yams. When he changed locations two years ago, Fielder added a lounge. Now he’s bringing in entertainment, offering a weekly hip-hop open-mic night.

Does Fielder like hip-hop? No, he does not. “I’m too old,” he says. “I’m not a hip-hop. It’s for the young guys.” Hip-hoppers back up this assertion, affectionately noting that Fielder — an R&B man — is “full of chitterlings.” They add that Fielder sometimes takes the mic himself to thank everyone for behaving themselves.

It was manager Doug Elliott — better known as DJ Live — who got the Hitching Post plugged into the local hip-hop scene. So far, hip-hop nights seem to draw performers ranging from hip-hop purists to street rappers. Poets and other spoken-word artists are encouraged to join in as well.

The Troost restaurant and lounge is “neutral territory, a place that plays no favorites,” says DJ Phil Shafer. “There’s no pompous feel.” Shafer attends the open-mic nights regularly to hear what hip-hop artists around town have been working on. “Some of the people I know, and some of them I don’t,” he says. “That’s cool. I mean, you want to figure there’s other people out there doing stuff.”