You Scream? Who Screams? Little Girls Scream for the Stand4rd

St. Paul, Minnesota's The Stand4rd (Allan Kingdom, Bobby Raps, Psymun and Spooky Raps) right after their sold out show Saturday night at the Amsterdam Bar.

It's starting to get closer to winter's song in the Twin Cities, with the fall temperatures dropping more each day into the lower 30s, but that didn't stop an all-ages crowd on Saturday night from lining up outside of downtown St. Paul's Amsterdam Bar to see the first show from the highly anticipated St. Paul boy group The Stand4rd.

The group is made up of 4 members including the homie Bobby Raps (Rapper, Producer), Allan Kingdom (Rapper, Singer) Psymun (Producer) and the biggest internet teen sensation of 2014: Spooky Black.

Spooky Black's famous introduction video "Without You," was released in February and struck a lightning bolt on Twitter feeds collectively inspiring the members of the Stard4rd to unify their individual sounds and join forces with a full length album released today.

Last Thursday evening, after attending the Fine Line Music Cafe's sold-out show for Australian singer Kimbra (which was awesome by the way), I was invited down to the Shock and Audio studio with a few friends for a late-night private listening party by The Stand4rd's manager world-known producer Doc Mckinney. After hearing a few tracks, I took a look at Psymun and Bobby Raps who proudly sat in front of the mixing board, nodding their heads and shifting around in their rolling chairs to the beats they produced as if they were in agreement that "this is it!"

Both guys in their early 20s, were humbly interested in knowing everyone in the room's honest opinion. Especially with all of the hype lately built around the criticism of Spooky Black's name (some feel it's racially offensive) along with his FUBU apparel, gold chain and durags; many have blocked their ears and eyes due to whether the 16 year old kid and his group members should be taken serious as artists or not. They had me and my homegirl singing and dancing as soon as we heard the catchy hook of one of their songs "Pretty."

I was able to chat with manager Doc Mckinney who has a connection with the group of young guys not only through music, but is also an alumni of St. Paul's Central High School, the same school Bobby, Psymun and Allan graduated from and where Spooky currently attends. I have worked with Mckinney and consider him one of the most talented people I know (not being biased), but honestly in my opinion Doc has created two of the best R&B albums of the past five years House of Balloons and Thursday; introducing the world to the Toronto based artist The Weeknd. Mckinney has had an amazing year with receiving two Grammys for his work on both Drake's and John Legend's most recent albums. When I asked Doc (who wears the hat of not only management, but serves as an influential mentor to the group) about how he feels regarding the critics and local comments expressed in recent articles regarding the Stand4rd's talent he answered, "Look, people are always going to have something to say. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes negative, and you know that...especially in this business, but these kids are working at an industry level and are good at what they do! They're a young collective with a new sound with a member who's already a star before his first show."

Spooky was the first one out of the group to take the stage on Saturday night. His voice highlighted smiles and cheers from the packed crowd of under aged kids with X-marked hands and their cell phones recording every note while they recited every lyric he sang. I must say that as the set climaxed, the impacting sultry voices by Spooky, Allan and the well-put flows from Bobby Raps turnt up the Amsterdam making kids jumping around like they were inside the Mall of America's old Snoopy Jumping Bounce House.

Just last week CEO of We The Best Music Group, Dj Khaled posted a video online endorsing The Stand4d individually and gave props to their upcoming album with his famous shot out "We The Best!" Khaled didn't attend the Saturday night show, but during the song Dj Khaled Is My Father, he was visually there in spirit as a video backdrop showed the label executive jumping off a boat fully clothed.

After I was finally able to hear the song "Pretty," the singing from Alan Kingdom and Bobby Raps got a little too pitchy. I guess when you have kids screaming out your name like crazy, one may tend to get distracted of the artistic importance of vocal technique in a live performance. It was apparent that by the end of the set breath control and vocal lessons for their live presentation would be helpful. I do want to state both Bobby and Allan's energy bounced off making all the crazy little kids in the crowd look like Muppets singing Pharrel's Happy on an episode of Sesame Street.

I also felt the sound man needed to put Spooky's mic up at the times where the other 2 vocalist were feeling themselves playing with the crowd as if they were singing to Dru Hill in the mirror. But, hey I had a kick of that! It brought me back to my own St. Agnes/Frogtown Jr. high school days, when both black and white boys from midway would sing 112 and Jagged Edge as the girls walked down the highways in between classes.

After grabbing a much needed drink, I took a look at the merchandise table distributing sweats and tee-shirts. It was fitting for the casual St. Paul teen hoping on the light rail to school after waking up late. In my world the gear fits for a red-eye flight or tour bus ride across the country, and most definitely fitting for a Zummies store front mannequin. I loved hearing the teeny-bopper fans enthusiasm. One teenaged girl right next to me grabbed her friend and said, "Hey do you think Bobby Raps will sign my sweat pants and Spooky my hoodie? I think Christy knows him!"

Another girl shouted, "Oh my God! It's like the new Beatles! They're like our Beatles!" I had to say...well I don't know about them being the Beatles, but their appearance and sound did encounter an effective young girl invasion. It was a mix of a New Kids on the Block praising the molly popin' generation. With their sexual lyrics, I am hoping that condoms and safe sex will be a priority during the rest of the fall tour hitting Toronto, NYC, Oakland, Los Angeles and Chicago.

First Avenue's main booker Sonia Grover was in attendance along with the hundreds of fans made up of mostly young teenagers chaperoned by their parents. When I asked Sonia what she thought about the Standa4d her response was simple:

"Did you hear the little girls screaming?" she expressed, "when you have little girls screaming at the top of their lungs it's a hit and it really doesn't matter what music loving adults think anymore. "

I left the show excited to see where this journey of boy band stardom and creativity will lead to. As the MTV Diary slogan goes, "You think you know, but you have no idea."

Follow the Stand4rd on twitter: @allankingdom @bobbyraps @spookyblack @psymun

Stream their music on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thestand4rd