BACKSTAGE BUZZ: HIP HOP LEGENDS CONCERT SERIES
So…my girl and me trooped to B.B. Kings in Times Square for Funk Flex’s Hip Hop Legends Concert Series. This time around it was Diamond D, Sadat X, Inspectah Deck, Black Moon, Smif + Wesson and Slick Rick hitting the stage after 12, but before 6 (AM) last Wednesday night.
After a quick survey of the crowd it was clear that this was totally a 35 and older event…A little something for those fans that are long in the tooth…And I cannot forget about America’s Best Dance Crew by the bar who jumped in front of me just to start pop locking as we made our way to the other side of the venue…Classic…One looked about 42 years old, but I digress. We even peeped a few in the crowd with thick gold rope chains…Basically, it was all about remembering the time, the culture and the Old School movement…LOL.
Backstage we saw a few oldies but goodies, including Buckshot (Shorty) and the light-skinned dude from Smif+ Wesson (Lefleur Leflah Eshkoshka)!!! But I was really hyped when I saw Ralph McDaniels from the public access show, Video Music Box (before BET) Among other things, we talked about Long Island, where I’m from, and why they never mention us in the roll call/shout outs even though Parrish Smith from EMPD came through later that night (representing Brentwood).
But my little chat with Uncle Ralph was more like a trip down memory lane for me…And the scene backstage got me thinking about myself at 16 who loved to go to the 21 and over clubs in Manhattan like Bentley’s. I LOVED raw Hip hop back then and yeah, I drank Peach Cisco (liquid crack), Mad Dog 20/20 and two 22’s of Old English 800 Malt Liquor (because the 40’s would get warm too quick) and walked around Washington Square Park!!…I was one of those girls that looked everywhere (before the internet) for a yellow, black and white official hockey jersey that nobody else had to wear with my black leggings and tall lace-up combat boots!! And I was so angry when my parents wouldn’t let me get a Shearling or even a Starter jacket because people were getting shot for them.
[pagebreak]
So as the show went on, I started to reminisce about when rappers were accessible and how you might see them walking around a local spot like the Cue Club, Trafalgar Square or Krystals in Queens. Back then Black Moon and the Boot Camp Click were definitely my favorites along with NAS (aka Nasty Nas) and the Wu-Tang Clan. We would play our cassette tapes on auto-reverse over and over till we knew all the words. And that was back when guys would walk up to you and ask, “What’s the Science Physical?” or maybe they’d tell you the Mathematics of the Day or call you their “Wiz” if they really liked you. Or maybe they’d tell you that you were part of the 95 percent that was still sleeping because you didn’t give them your number…All of that five percent nation-way-of-life-game…Way back when culture, versatility and substance was still connected to the rap game.
To me the Golden Era is more than a period in time, it’s an example of why, 15 years later, people like Sadat X (even without Grand Puba and Lord Jamar) can still get up on a stage to a room full of people after 12pm on a weeknight and only say one line from the songs, Punks Jump Up or Slow Down and get an instant reaction from the crowd. Unlike many today, these artists are still relevant, however grimy they were, because they WANTED to express themselves, represent their click and BE DIFFERENT from the next man. Nobody on that stage sounded the same. Those artists were all a part of something special…And Wednesday night made me feel like I was a part of it all too.
C
