TRIBUTE TO FRIEND
Rapper’s memorial show to be held at Rivet
POTTSTOWN » Leon Budrow still remembers the time he and Anthony Walters spent together on bus No. 71 on their way home from Pine Forge Elementary School.
The two were a few years apart but became friends through their mutual love of music and their fondness for the bus’ driver, Tedd Peters. And after Budrow graduated from Boyertown High School in 2009, he sought out his friend who was now making a living making music as Skitz Tha Rippa.
“Music was something that I always had an interest in, having lightly dabbled in it over the years without much success. Anthony was well known in the area and had already done so much with his own career, and without hesitation, he invited me over to take me under his wing,” Budrow wrote in an email to MediaNews Group
“I remember he and I would spend time at his family’s house working on lyrics and listening to beats, and it was just so incredibly natural for him to write and rap so effortlessly to any track. Meanwhile, I was still pretty reserved and learning how to become comfortable with writing lyrics, melodies and finding my voice. Anthony gave me nothing but positive encouragement and guidance,” Budrow wrote.
“In 2018, Anthony and I began doing shows together in which we would each do our own set, and perform a song we recorded together as part of the performance. We did quite a few shows together, opening for artists such as Chris Webby, Mac Lethal, and Ghost Face Killah,” he wrote.
Walters recently put out two albums — “Roller Coaster” and
“Scrupulosity” — and he and Budrow had even recorded their song, “Seen It,” although it was never released.
It will be next month on Friday, April 8 — posthumously.
Walters was killed in a motorcycle accident in Lancaster county on Sept. 12, 2021. He was 34.
Budrow wants to make sure his friend, to whom he feels a debt of gratitude as well as friendship, is not forgotten, and so has organized the April 8 concert in his honor.
The show will consist of eight performers, all of whom are close friends of Walters. Each performer will do their own individual performance throughout the night
as part of the lineup. The lineup, put together by Walters’ girlfriend Alexandra Buechner, is as follows: Budrow, DJ Stradegy, Lyric Love, Dycey OTB, Legacy, J.S., G Willsz B.N.F. and Kris Kash.
Throughout the night, raffles will be available. Those attending can purchase tickets to win Skitz Tha Rippa merchandise, according to Budrow.
The program will also be showing videos of Walters throughout the night on the Rivet’s projectors and TVs. That is how the show will begin and end, with tribute videos that will showcase footage of Walters with a track overlaying the video, over which the artists may perform a live verse dedicated to Anthony. All of the ticket sales and raffle sales will go towards Walters’ family.
Tickets will be available on the night of the show, as well as in advance.
The venue Budrow has chosen for the show is a unique and increasingly popular part of downtown Pottstown’s growing dining and entertainment scene — Rivet Canteen and Assembly, housed in the old New York Store building at 238 High St.
Harry Dean, the operating director, said Rivet has been open for nine months and its popularity continues to increase. The name and the decor, heavy slabs of wood bars, steel and brass fittings and pipes used both to house wires for the lights and hold up shelves — are a shout-out to Pottstown’s industrial past.
“‘Rivet,’ because that’s what they use to hold things together at the steel plant, ‘Canteen’ because it’s not a bar, it’s not open every day, and ‘Assembly’ because its where people assemble in small groups or large,” Dean explained.
The site, last known as Connections on High, has hosted small gatherings, large events like funerals and weddings and even “an elopement party. That was a first for me,” Dean said with a grin.
Despite the fact that Rivet is only open when it has an event or performance certainly does not mean that they’re not busy. A quick look at the schedule of the month’s events shows nine shows open to the public, usually on Thursdays through Sundays and an April line-up that is filling up fast.
The first floor has a large event room, with a main stage and bar, that can also be divided into smaller rooms. Industrial-style steel doors from Prince’s Bakery separate a smaller room that opens to a patio overlooking the rear of the building.
Photos of old factories, both in Pottstown and surrounding environs, set the tone for the location.
A graduate of Spring-Ford High School, Dean moved to Pottstown in the 1990s and said “I was so nostalgic about The New York Store because I came here as a kid and I wanted to spotlight Pottstown’s industrial heritage. So far we’ve been getting a lot of love from the borough and I love being part of the revitalization that’s happening downtown.”
Downstairs is a lounge area complete with a smaller bar, a big-screen TV, pingpong table, hammock and couches that can be used as a green room for performers, or for more casual gatherings.
Dean partnered with Dan Glennon and Steve Everett who own the building, as well as the building across the street which houses JJ Rattigan’s Brewery and The Splitting Edge ax-throwing venue upstairs.
“They own the building and the liquor license and I did the décor,” said Dean. “The idea is to have a multifloor plan that has a lot of flexibility.”
Dean knows a lot about such venues because he has played for years in a band named The Bloodhound Gang and also owns his own production company.
“I wanted to put this tribute on at Rivet not just because it’s local to Anthony’s family, but also because it looks amazing. We have lots of people flying in for the show and I wanted them to see Pottstown’s revitalization,” said Budrow. “He would have liked that.”