We hit up Boston Market to get our gyts right prior to heading down to Government Center (City Hall Plaza) for the Hip-Hop Festival. I get a few calls from some folks that checked in to see if I was going to make it down there, so you know we had to rep. Anbd man....what a great scene. The FEstival was great. Sprinkled with a cast of a few so-so performances by some lame dudes, there was enough raw energy to keep it thoro. Kiki Breevelife did her thing, but I now realize that I never really had a visual to match the skills. Let's just say I'm a bigot, because I would've never have been able to put two and two together on that pop quiz. But she did rip it. Although I haven't been hearing much from her in about a year or two.
The two finalist crews from Friday night's United Style's breaking competition went toe-to-toe in a fly display of skillful body contortions. The Floorlords hosted the event and served as judges, but they did their thing later one. One crew was from Orlando and I belive they were called the LabRats - but they were kinda wack - and did not win. Seeing them perform brought me back to a place and time where I really felt the music and culture with an innate naivety that I'll never regain. Two of my older foster brothers, Jeff and Marvin, were regarded as the best DJs in town and used to do parties damn near every weekend. So of course, I was always around for all of those set-ups, mic checks, and 'let-outs. Yes, from an early age, I've been chilling at let-outs for longer than you can imagine. So anyways, the real point to this story is that I need to go do some research. There used to be a place called County Hall or something like that. 
It eventually became the King Street Palace, but back in maybe '85 or so, let's just say your boy was young, chubby breakdancer and I think I won either 2nd or 3rd in a breaking competition. I still don't know what ever happened to that trophy. Oh well.So back to Saturday's show. Project Move got on stage and delivered a lively set that definitely had the crowd feeling them. I think they just made a little buzz for themselves. Plus, one of the performers is Raheem, my man Con1's homey. So I'll defienitly have to show them some support because they laid it down how it should be done.
Medusa, a homegirl from LA, laid it down and got a lot of love for her tracks. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling her all that much. Chalk it up to the neck spams I caught from having you-know-who smacking me on the top of my head. Oh well.Anyways, in what I considered to be the main highlightof the night, Edo G got on the mic and tore shT down. Unfortunately, Jayshaun and some other dudes made the set highly unappealing because they were just yelling too fuqing much. It kinda took away from Edo's thunder, which is unfortunate because he IS the
de facto Boston hip-hop legend and I think it would have been best if bhe had been the finale. But he still laced it anyway and gave great rendintions of Boston, Sayin Something, and I Got To Have It. Great crowd participation.But if you wanna see extreme crowd participation on some x-games type steelo, the man himself, Supernatural, was bananas. Although he still remains a highly underground emcee, hi rep is still solidified as one of the greatest freestylists ever. Check the resume. Well, he got much love for his One Mic joint where we kept reincarnating himself as other rappers with their voice and breath control to match. But of course, the rhymes were all his. His Biggie impersonation was very on point. Then he jumped into 3 Words, where he randomly had the crowd drop 3 words for him to repeatedly insert into an off-the-dome verse.
They gave him kinetic, Africa, and subliminal to work with. That crowd was on cloud nine by then. But the real show-stopper of the night, and by far, the best performance of the entire festival was when he had the first few rows hold something, anyting in the air. i've seen this done plenty of time by tis one dude locally at Critical Breakdown and the IBLT open mic from back in the day, but Supernatural took it to another level. From fake watches, to baby bibs, to driver's licenses, B hats, mouthpieces, and Eternity perfume, everything that they could find, he found a rhyme. Hip-Hop at its finest. Impromptu, spontaneous, and energetic.And lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Special Ed, MC Lyte, and Big Daddy Kane. Lyte served as MC as well as emcee for the show and did a damn good good. I'm not sure who in the hell is Mayor Menino's right-hand person though. He got on stage for a little bit and as leaving says, 'Thank you, MC." MC? The look of bewilderment at everyone in the crowd was quite obvious. But anyways, she did her thing up there interspersed with some freestyles and plus for her UPN show, Half and Half. Special Ed did his thing, spitting I'm The Magnificent and I Got It Made, among others. And I damn near lost my mind when he kicked his contributions to the Crooklyn Dodgers classic. Kane capped the night off with Raw, Smooth Operator, Warn It Up, and Ain't No Half Steppin.
It was truly a beautiful event and brought back what hip-hop is all about. The Herald did a decent article to review the event, which was a little better than the lackluster preview article that the Globe did a few days earlier. All in all, I cannot complain. It actually was a great, positive event that exposed a lof of artistry and skills that don't normally get their shine. I even ran into a few folks that should have been up on that stage as well, like Big Brother Sadi and Big Shug. And I got a few free CD joints courtesy of my homegirl Nema at 97.7, my man Dj Jayceeoh, and the man himself, DJ Statick Selektah. I'll soon be popping those joints in the deck and blessing their eartubes. Word.
2 comments:
the phentermine success story
the package ski vacation vail
Post a Comment