Part two of my year end ('06) clean-up covers some of the performances I never got around to publishing when I should have...
End of Year ('06) Clean Up Part 1
Lord Jamar & Sadat X @ Webster Hall 8/18/06
I can’t say I’m familiar with Lord Jamar’s solo material. The same could be said for a lot of the crowd at Webster Hall. Even so, the crowd gave Lord Jamar tremendous respect for being a veteran in the game. He ran through songs from his solo album and for the most part kept the crowd engaged. Some of the youngins in the audience started to get restless towards the tail end of his performance. The restlessness had more to do with their unfamiliarity with Jamar's new songs and not their ignorance of his status. A quick look around the venue made it clear that everyone was hoping for a Brand Nubian reunion. Where's Sadat? Puba? Towards the end of Lord Jamar’s set, much to everyone's gratification, Sadat-X hit the stage, sans Puba, and both men ripped into Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down. Needless to say the crowd went nuts. It was a great moment and one of the perks of attending a hip-hop show in NY; You never know who's lurking backstage.
On a sad note, Sadat is going away for a year. See ya soon.MP3 - Brand Nubian - 'Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down' (remix)MP3 - Grand Puba - '360 Degrees' (What Goes Around)
Lord Jamar
Sadat-X
Jeru The Damaja @ Nokia Theatre 4/22/06
Call this part two of you-never-know-who's-lurking-backstage. Nobody was expecting Jeru to pop out. No buzz in the crowd, no Jeru scuttlebutt. Premiere announced he had a special guest and that got the crowd hot under the collar. Everyone was screaming Guru. The idea of Guru hitting the stage cluttered my mind and left no room for a Jeru thought. Before I could even get my stuff together, out walked Jeru to perform Come Clean. The crowd went ape-shit. It was a quick, but amazing hit, and Jeru was gone before we even knew what happened. I would have loved a few more songs. Some You Can't Stop The Prophet action would have been nice. I'm tracking you Jeru, you better play some more shows. 
MP3 Jeru The Damaja - 'The Frustrated -----'
DJ Premiere @ Nokia Theatre 4/22/06
If you frequent hip-hop shows in New York, more likely then not the artist or DJ screams at you to respect “real-hip-hop” or “real-New-York-hip-hop” or something along those lines. They’re preaching to the choir which makes it extremely annoying and energy draining. At Webster Hall, some guy walked on stage before the Roots and yelled at the crowd for not being “old-school-enough.” He then proceeded do the running-man, while rapping along to Scenario as it played in the background. Everyone looked at each other, laughed, and felt a little sad for the guy. When did Scenario become old-school?
In August, before Wu-Tang hit the stage, Ed Lover came out and blasted the crowd with the same respect-the-old-school-message. He delivered his plea in a comedic way but it still came off bitter and annoying. The one thing he did do was get the crowd all charged up and ready to rumble. But the energy dissipated over the next fifty-minutes while we waited for Wu-Tang.
This leads me to DJ Premiere. At Nokia Theatre Premiere received a reception that made you think he was the headliner. He engaged in the same "real-hip-hop” speech but it carried more weight coming from Premiere. Nokia Theatre was the classroom, Premo was the professor, and hip-hop was on the lesson plan. He took the audience on a tour of his greatest hits which pretty much tracks NY hip-hop in the '90's. Out of everything he played, N.Y. State of Mind received the biggest crowd reaction. So basically what I'm trying to say is, shut-up about nobody respecting NY hip-hop, play some damn records, have fun, and produce some good music. Oh, and only Premo is allowed to yell at you. Speaking of yelling, someone needs to yell at Premo to leave Aguilera alone and get Gang Starr back together. And to get Nas out Kelis’ ass and record an album. (Sorry for the poor Jeru and Premo photos.)
MP3 Group Home - Livin' Proof
MP3 Group Home - Supa Star
That Jeru moment must have been awesome, even for a brief moment. Much love to Premo and all, but it seems like dude can't show his face in public now without launching into a bitter diatribe on respecting "da real hip hop" or some such...
Posted by: floodwatch | January 11, 2007 at 02:19 PM
that Jeru moment was indescribable because I'm such a big fan. it kind of made the rest of the show anti-climactic.
Posted by: angrycitizen | January 25, 2007 at 04:33 PM
Give The world full of loves! The Great Loves will be giving back to Human!
Posted by: MBT | April 06, 2011 at 04:31 AM
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration.
Posted by: Cosplay Wigs | April 06, 2011 at 10:40 PM