A staple in the New York Underground Hip-Hop Scene End Of The Weak (EOW) is celebrating their 10 year anniversary this friday night at Highline Ballroom. Last year's show at East River Park had performances from Immortal Technique, Breez Evahflowin, Poison Pen, Vast Aire, Mazzi Soul Purpose, Punchline and Fokis, J Arch, Swave, Kay M, Iron Solomon and Dujeous, just to name a few so I can't imagine who will take to the stage this year at the solid 10 anniversary.
Thus far it has been announced that they will debut a B-Boy Challenge with an open cypher, Beatboxer Entertainment will put on an exhibition as well as a DJ Challenge with DP One, Fat Fingahz and DJ Wonder and judged by Eclipse, Teddy Ted and Mr Len. Kay-M and Rabbi Darkside are a part of the MC Challenge and performances and special guests are Homeboy Sandman, Evil Dee and DMC with much more to be announced. Keep posted on updates to the show this friday by checking their blogas they continue to announce more additions to the show.
Show Info: EOW 10 Year Anniversary at Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th st Bet 9th and 10th ave.
Sometimes I feel like New York City is the music Mecca of the world, especially with Hip-Hop. I may potentially be a little bit biased considering I was born and bred in the big apple, however, music and music related events is a year round occurrence here, whether it is in-store signings and performances, indoor and outdoor concerts, some of which are free of charge, freestyle ciphers in the park and streets, and sometimes even backyard BBQ performances. While there are some places across the United States and even around the world that wait patiently or travel a good distance to see some of their favorite performers, New Yorkers are privileged with the opportunity to attend numerous amounts of events, so much so that at times we are faced with the dilemma of which show to choose in one night. August 13th 2009 was one of those nights. Many people would assume that it is only on weekends that so many different shows would occur in one night, but that is far from the truth, there are shows every night of the week. On that Thursday, De La Soul was performing at Nokia Theater, John Legend at Madison Square Garden, Rakim at Highline Ballroom and on the underground circuit there was 4 The Love of Hip-Hop at Voodoo Lounge featuring Final Outlaw, Kalil Kash, Wordspit, Niles to name just a few of the performers. I’m sure I could name a slew of other shows occurring at the same time, but the fact of the matter is it is impossible to be at 2,3 or even 4 places at the same time and thus we have to choose which show to go to and hear how the other performances were from friends who attended the other shows.
As I began writing notes for my review for the Rakim show, I was curious to know what other writers thought of the show and it actually amazed me with some of the fictitious things I read or how they boosts an artist’s performance or their body of work as though they are almost afraid to write the truth. I am not the type of person to ever go to a show and be disrespectful to an artist, I will never stand there and talk smack or boo them, I find that to be low class and tasteless. However, I wont pretend as though I like everyone’s music, I’ll listen and make the most of the situation, and not saying that their music or performance is horrible but it may so happen that it does not appeal to me. I think it is natural that there are some types of music or artist that you don’t care for, it’s a fact of life and it is all right to not always agree with someone else’s taste. I knew that U-God from Wu-Tang Clan was going to be opening up for Rakim, which I thought was abit of an oddity because I don’t see their styles meshing or relating at all. I will admit that he is my least favorite Wu member primarily because his solo music seems to have no real structure, substance or flow and his beats always seems to be all over the place. He seems to spend more time worrying lyrically about rhyming words than focusing on what he’s trying to say, which is the complete opposite of Rakim’s music. I had read on a site that “lines formed way before 7”… I had gotten there around 8pm and though I walked straight in without having to wait, I was surrounded by maybe 30 people, some of which included the wait staff. With so many shows happening on the same night I was hoping the turnout would change as the night went on.
Prior to U-God hitting the stage, DJ Souljah was on deck to spin tunes to keep the crowd engaged before the show. He played the basic tracks of old school with a mixture of new school hip-hop that you would expect to hear at any hip-hop show. There are certain songs that I kind of expect to hear whenever there is a DJ spinning on stage before a show, such as Blacksheep’s “The Choice Is Yours”. In case you don’t recognize the title it goes a little something like “Engine Engine Number Nine on The New York Transit Line, If My Train Goes Off The Track, Pick It Up! Pick It Up! Pick It Up!”. That track gets me amped every single time and I am sure it will now be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. DJ Souljah was on stage for an hour playing classic tracks in sync with a screen behind him playing the videos, which helped the time past as well as brought back memories seeing old videos of a young Nas, Busta Rhymes, Tupac, N.W.A. and of course ODB’s video for Shimmy Shimmy Ya, what is a show without a little bit of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I had began to wonder about deceased rappers who were taken from us far too early in their life such as ODB, Tupac, Big L, Eazy-E and how much more they would have accomplished or done if they were still around. Most people don’t have a personal relationship with artists they admire and yet they still have a connection with them because they impacted their life in some way or another.
The show finally got under way and U-God came out for about a 25-minute set, despite the venue being only half full there was a mixed reaction from the crowd as half were a bit stoic and the other half applauded his performance. U-God primarily did snip-its of his solo music and performed 3 songs off his third solo album, The Dopium, which was released in June. As he boasted about who is on his album such as Gza, Ghostface, Raekwon, Method Man, Cappadonna and Jim Jones, he told the crowd “If you like raw raps, hard core raps again with real lyrics, pick up that Dopium..”. He really did say that…I have video of it! Although I must admit that the sound of the 3 new songs he performed, Stomp The Roach, Dopium, Train Trussle were an improvement from his earlier solo music, lyrically its still a miss for me and I’m not convinced to get the album. In my opinion the sound of Wu Tang Music and his solo work are polar opposites, which is not always a bad thing but in this case I prefer the sound of Wu. Whether you are a U-God fan or a Wu Tang Clan fan or neither, it is clearly evident when he is performing his own stuff and when he’s spitting his verse from the Wu tracks or from any of the other Wu members solo work. He played such tracks as Cherchez La Ghost, Gravel Pit, Da Mystery of Chessboxin’, Triumph, and Rumble. It was almost like a Wu-Tang concert without any of the other members.
As the venue began to fill up and everyone waited for “The God” Rakim to take the stage, I realized this became more of a night of the DJ’s as they seemed to monopolize most of the show. DJ Kid Kap came out to play some tracks followed by Kid Capri, who I must admit is entertaining and talented but for the most part he played the same stuff that was heard earlier in the night, it became a bit redundant. One of the highlights was Grandmaster Caz coming out, though the crowd seemed more amped to see Rick Ross in attendance after making an appearance at the John Legend show at MSG. He said he had to come down to Highline Ballroom to show respect to Rakim and went on to perform Hustlin’ and Magnificent. Kid Capri thanked the crowd for showing Rick Ross lots of love and respect. I don’t care about any beef he has with 50 cent or anyone else, but as far as surprise guests go The De La Soul show going on at the same time at Nokia Theater won, as I heard DMC surprised the crowd during a cover of Run DMC’sRock Box.
After an hour and a half of Kid Capri on stage and 2 annoying girls next to me constantly doing 30 second intervals of Britney Spears club dancing with limited space amongst us, Rakim came out and it was well worth the wait. Known as one of the greatest and influential MCs, he entered onto the stage as Kid Capri played his new single Holy Are You off his anticipated upcoming album The Seventh Seal. Before even dropping one verse the crowd was hyped as he gave pounds to those in reach of him in front of the stage. It is instantly evident why he is proclaimed as a pioneer in Hip-Hop, as lyrically he’s on point with great flow and significant substance rather than lyrics straight out of MTV Cribs rappers edition. Many rappers pay homage to Rakim whether it’s in their lyrics, interviews or shows. He remains one of the most respected and talented emcees.
Rakim’s presence alone causes a stir, but once he starts to perform there is not much that can calm the crowd till the show is officially over. He pulled his signature habit of flipping his fitted cap numerous times backwards and forwards on his head while performing classics such as I Ain’t No Joke, Follow The Leader, Know The Ledge from the Juice soundtrack, You Got Soul, Mahogany, My Melody, As The Rhyme Goes On, Paid In Full, Microphone Fiend and In The Ghetto. There is always that debate of what is the difference between rap and hip-hop and people may ask which show this was, but clearly this was just a Rakim show, because he is still on a completely different level than a lot of performers out there.
I remember seeing Rakim perform at Paid Dues last year and before his set was finished, they had cut the mic on him, which is the utter most form of disrespect to any artist whether they are legendary or unknown. He had just made a heartfelt speech about recently losing a family member but still brought himself to Nokia Theater to perform for his fans as he is loyal to them as they are to him. I stood there in utter shock as Rakim tried speaking into a shut off mic as the house lights went up surrounded by angry and annoyed fans. For the most part I think the crowd were more pissed by the level of disrespect to their admired emcee than having bought a ticket in which the headliner had one of the shortest sets. Clearly he was annoyed as well but in Rakim fashion he made the best of the situation and stuck around to greet fans. At Highline Ballroom he was able to perform his whole set, including a second new track called No Man Above. Rakim owned the night and stuck around to take pictures, sign autographs and give pounds to his fans. I wait in anticipation for the long awaited release of The Seventh Seal which is suppose to drop this fall, but in the meantime the classics stay on rotation.
“Competing, ‘cuz I just put your mind on pause
And I can beat you when you compare my rhyme wit yours
I wake you up and as I stare in your face you seem stun
Remember me, the one you got your idea from.
But soon you start to suffer but you only got rougher
When you start to stutter that’s when you had enough of
Biting it, I Make you choke, you cant provoke
You cant cope, you should have broke, ‘cuz I ain’t no joke”
-I Ain’t No Joke
Natty S. aka NattyNiGhT
- After posting all the videos on my youtube channel I had received a text from my brother telling me how I get 47 lame points for recording 13 videos of U-God and 4 more for Rick Ross…. SMHI know!
I'm a Music Documentarian... Going to concerts and underground shows taking pictures and videos of the artists performing and now writing about the experiences on "Still On Vinyl!"
