Saturday, April 5, 2008

The "Golden age of Hip Hop"


I was invited to a party sponsored by Red Bull, you know the energy drink. Honestly, I'm not a big fan the those type of drinks, I've got all the energy one needs, you know what I'm sayn'. Anyway, one thing good I can say for the brand is they have hooks into the underground Hip Hop scene & a real supporter of the art. This was my first time to the Red Bull space in tha city on thompson st. I was expecting to hear this band "The Cool Kids" perform and also check in on a friend that invited me to the event. I did my homework the night before. Searched the net for the group and to my surprise, yeah, I had seen the video sometime last year. Reminiscing about this "hot chick" that sent it to me swearin, that it was the next ish, wondering why she's got pissed at me 'bout some stupid comment I made in a joking manner. I guess that why they have smiley faces, huh :-P. Anyway, lo and behold the kids are all up on youtube with vids and interviews. Now months later, I guess there's a real buzz out on them and rightly so. They have re-fresh Hip Hop with honest, raw, and intelligent lyrics, re-fresh the beats from the so called "golden age of Hip Hop." Yo, The Bomb Squad ish never get's old. So, where am I going with this...oh yeah, so come to find, the kids are not performing, just one kid, DJ Chuck Inglish is djing the party, and i'm not a hater but you just have to love djs that are using the back button on Serato to blend and scratch. Damn, i need to have another convo with GrandMaster Flash. But, dude wasn't scare, played Roc a fella all-stars and jade's one hit "Don't walk away" in the same set, very cool.

Let me get to the meat, no kidz, but Blestenation from Mbugout City, wherever tha fuck that is, although they shot a video on the boardwalk on Coney Island, they get props for that...opened the set with a lot of energy and with one if the MC's claiming the be the 'ugliest guy to look good in pictures.' It's too bad the mics were horrible, but i could tell tha fellas had skillz. Next up was Mickey Factz, who? Was introduced to him earlier in the evening. I actually bump into to him as i was negotiating my entry into the spot. You would have thought Jay Z, or better Jay & Beyonce was in the building the way the door man was scrutinizing(some) folks. Dude straight lied and said I wasn't on the list. Had to get my boys to come down and expose his silly ass. Anyway, Mickey(and crew) straight murdered the stage, beat, lyrics, perfomance, XL my man! His crew, just showed their ass on stage, to the point where Mickey got mad, threw them all of the stage, told the DJ, Melo X to bring his shit back "cause that not the way he does it." Then proceeded to do a routine that had all of us in his palm.

I was happy to see some young bucks doing it well. Kinda reminded me of the old days, that "golden age" everyone is talking about.

Shout to Wes, Ran, Rich and 247hh.com, good looking! Oh shout to all the hot chickz in the venue. Nice to see you in the building!!

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of a great human in our planets history. Dr. King's message still lives on in the hearts and minds of all of us, young and old.