Sometimes it’s difficult to be a hip hop head in Eastern Oregon.

The internet is a great resource for anyone who doesn’t live in an urban environment and loves hip hop or who wants to further educate themselves on the genre—that’s undeniable. Sites like Rap Genius and WhoSampled provide a mass of information on the meanings of lyrics and where that beat you recognize is originally from. Forum websites like reddit’s r/hiphopheads, KayneToThe and BX allow users to connect with one another, share recommendations and discuss the freshest tracks. Blog sites like the Nas co-owned Mass Appeal, Pigeons and Planes and even World Star Hip Hop offer up exclusive reports, interviews and video content updated hourly.

But we all know the personal trumps the digital.

If you want to see a show and talk hip hop, you’re probably going to have to drive to Portland. Take that $20 concert ticket and tack on another $60 for gas getting there. Hope you got a place to stay in Portland, or are willing to drive back in the middle of the night, because a hotel is going to more than triple the cost of that concert ticket. Then there’s going to be parking, or MAX fare, food, drinks, and if you want that tour shirt you’re going to be dropping another $25. By the time it’s all said and done, what started as a $20 show is going to set you back $100—that’s the cost of four more tickets, four more shows.

In my years in La Grande, there’s only been one hip hop show roll through town that I can remember. While I was in undergrad, Mistah FAB and the Bayliens played a small show on the second floor of Hoke with Opio (of Souls of Mischief) and Eligh. The show was advertised poorly and there were no more than a couple dozen people there.

It’s no surprise La Grande doesn’t have a regular hip hop circuit pass through. The demographic of hip hop heads in the valley is simply not large enough to bring in any sort of shows. Don’t get me wrong, I get it, I understand.

This doesn’t mean we ain’t out here though.

Here I am, a resident of Eastern Oregon, and I am a hip hop head, so there has to be others, right? There has to be.

So this is an open invitation.

SkyHigh & the Midnight Mixtape airs live every Monday night from 10pm-Midnight. I want to open the station up to any hip hop heads out there. Come and listen to the show in station. Talk hip hop. Make requests. Share your love of hip hop. It doesn’t matter what style of hip hop you’re into, be it gangsta rap, conscious hip hop, cloud rap—doesn’t matter.

All hip hop heads welcome.