It only took 20 years for this Hip Hop homecoming marathon to come together, and on December 4th 2015, I am pleased to say we were there with bells on. My friend Judy Blum and I were geared up for 7 hours of non-stop Hip Hop. To clarify, the Rhymesayers 20th tour included 29 acts crammed into 7 hours of play-time, all whilst surrounded by where ya from Hip Hop fans packed into the Target Center Arena in downtown Minneapolis.
The Players: (Alphabetically listed)
Abstract Rude, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Battlecats, BK One, Blueprint, Boom Bap Project, Brother Ali, deM atlaS, Dilated Peoples, DJ Abilities, Evidence, Felt, Freeway, Grayskul, Grieves, Hail Mary Mallon, I Self Devine, Jake One, K-Salaam, Los Nativos, Micranots, Mr. Dibbs, Musab, P.O.S, Prof, Soul Position, The Uncluded, and Toki Wright
Unlike the last time we met to hit this town, the stars were somehow aligned perfectly. The aura was right, spirits were high, there was no curve balls, no drama, nothing but a diverse selection of Hip Hop acts and 8 dollar beers, and other than that insane expense denting the wallet, nothing could go wrong in this situation.
This time we were there to work, and having fun would only be the unavoidable byproduct of our “job” of documenting and recording this once in a lifetime event.
So that’s what we did; we worked. Photo after photo, with beer breaks only when we got thirsty. We took it all in, soaked it up like a sponge and now it’s time to wring it out.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and we somehow got a thousand pictures, so it’s apparent this post is better without a thousand words. For the universal love of eye candy and in the interest of keeping it short and sweet, this topic will be limited to the money shots (no porno) and verbiage will be nothing more than the essential need-to-know captions.
Highlights:
The surprising and invigorating entrance of Los Nativos
The crowd hushing poetic acapella opening of deM atlaS prior to his first beat drop.
Grieves owning the crowd.
I Self Devine’s shine time…
Prof blowing up the spot rockin his ugly Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer socks.
A calm yet commanding Aesop Rock as 1/2 of the Uncluded
After a brief Rock\Hip Hop hybrid set, Mr. Dibbs reaches out to connect with his people.
DJ Abilities blistering fast cuts and his touching tribute to the legendary spitter Eyedea.
Blueprint’s short solo before being joined by RJD2…
when Soul Position formed like Voltron…
Finally, Dilated Peoples rears up, announcing that they “are back!” What could this mean? New album coming?
DJ Babu tearing up the ones and twos through the haze…
…in perfect form, seemingly undaunted by the lack of any kind of cable management system.
Murs and Ant for Felt… Like all of the good acts it seemed way too short.
Towering master of ceremonies Brother Ali blew away the audience with a little help from his B-Boys and B-Girls.
^Here’s a short gif of that in action.
Judy Blum was as giddy as a schoolgirl to see Slug of Atmosphere…
Apparently the feeling was mutual. Slug was thrilled to see Judy in the press pit.
“I own the Camaro and the mobile home, so where the fuck you gonna go?”
At midnight, Slug was still at the top of his game, rousing the once fatigued crowd into a second-wind frenzy.
End of the night: rchecka (L) and Judy Blum (R) in the press pit.
7 hours in, still professional as ever, still working hard to get the shots, but admittedly we were hammering the beers at this point. I maintain that since we worked so hard we deserved it. And hey, when it’s hammer time, it’s selfie time…
On a personal tip, I gotta say this is the hard part of the story… Picking out pics for this was difficult, and a lot of deserving artists never got photographed or mentioned, but it’s hardest of all to sum up a night with this many unforgettable highlights. Needless to say I am truly honored to have the opportunity to do so.
My only complaint about the entire homecoming is some well deserving incredible sets were cut short due to justifiable but regrettable time constraints. Well, there’s that complaint and the fact that a epic event like this will never happen again in my lifetime. Which brings me to my obligatory recommendation; if you get the opportunity to catch any of the artists that graced this tour, you need to find a way to make it happen.
…As luck has it, TONIGHT is your chance to do just that… The Dilated Peoples along with other special guests are playing tonight at The House Of Blues in Anahiem, CA. For more information check out our recent blog post.
It’s been a hot minute since I posted up on the Beat Junkies Blog….
just recently found this live recording audio of when I participated in the Beat Society LA Showcase in 2004…listening to this recording had me buggin out and brought back memories. This featured beats by Jake One, Marco Polo, Kev Brown, & yours truly.
Let me backtrack a little…..Some of you might be familar with the Beat Society Producer Showcase, some of you might not. For me personally, this is the one that started it all with the producer showcase genre, in terms of having established & upcoming producers at that time. This showcase was the brainchild from Philly producer extraordinaire Hezekiah along with the help from the indy label Soulspazm. Beat Fanatic head honcho Slopfunkdust was also instrumental in connecting the dots. The event was always hosted by Stef Tataz & Sao. And almost every producer that had a name or just getting a buzz has graced the stage: Kanye West, Nottz, Illmind, Exile, 9th Wonder, B!nk, Oddisee, & many more.
The showcase event would always feature 4 producers playing their beats live off their respected machines, as well as having well known MCs rock over their production, plus a sample challenge round where each producer would have to flip a sample that the committee from the Beat Society has chosen…The event was mostly based in the East Coast, primarily Philidelphia.
In 2003, it was the first time that the Beat Society Showcase ventures out West, specificially Los Angeles at the Knitting Factory. There, they had Dj Khalil, Illmind, Hezekiah, & the Dilated Junkie himself, Dj Babu. I had the honor of spinning music in between. What was also monumental, Dilla & Madlib were in the house chillin in the background peepin out the event.
In 2004, they had another Beat Society LA showcase (again at the Knitting factory), but this time, they asked me to participate as a producer. I was very honored, and to tell you the truth, I was hella nervous. “Why?” you ask? Well, I had to share the stage with some of my favorite producers who happen to be also my friends: Jake One, Marco Polo, & Kev Brown. To be on the same stage as these heavyweights had me shook….haha! I had alot of pressure, (1) because I was repping the hometown and didn’t want to let Los Angeles down and (2) the general public didn’t really know me as a producer; I was known more for being a DJ/Turntablist and I wanted to showcase my production to the public.
When you listen to the audio, you can hear each producer’s individual style and what equipment they were using: Jake had the ASR-10, Marco Polo & Kev Brown had the MPC 2000XL, & me…I had the MPC2000 & the Technics 1200 (yeah, I brought my set up at that time…lol). You can tell I was really nervous…haha. Also, when you listen to the audio, you might be familiar with some of the production that we played that night, especially Jake’s production of De La Soul‘s “Rock KoKane Flow” & WWE’s John Cena‘s wrestling intro song “The Time Is Now”. I played beats that would eventually make onto the Visionaries‘ 4th album “We Are The Ones”.
All in all, I had a great time sharing the stages with these guys, bonding & cracking jokes, & showcasing my beats. And it was a great feeling when my peers who I am a fan of their work gave me my props as a producer that night….that meant alot to me. I am honored to be featured & be part of this historic moment of the Beat Society history.
Bigups to Hezekiah, Jim at Soulspazm, Slopfunkdust, Sao, Stef, Jake, Marco, Kev,Casual, Akrobatik, Mr. Lif, Thearapy aka Paten Locke, Prince Po (Organized Konfusion), Black Silver, OhNo, Dj Romes, Dj Khalil, Chace Infinite, SA-RA, & to the listeners…..enjoy this time capsule moment.
If you have been following what we’ve been doing, you know that we started our very own Radio Station channel at Dash Radio….Beat Junkie Radio! We also have our very own show called Soundcheck, that we do live every 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of each month from 7-10PM. We launched our first show on February 10th with special guests Dilated Peoples, MED, & LMNO.
This past Tuesday, March 10th, we did our 2nd show with special guests Elzhi & Tuxedo aka Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One. We posted up this week’s show on our soundcloud page. Now you’re wondering “What about the 1st episode?”. We’ll post that up soon but we wanted to flip it & post up the 2nd episode first. Enjoy the show & make sure you tune in to Beat Junkie Radio, exclusively on Dash.
First Hour
Mix: Dj D-Styles
1. Grand Master Flash & The Furious 5 – The Message (Tall Black Guy remix)
2. Love Again Instrumental – Run The Jewels
3. Danny Brown- blunt after blunt
4. Eprom – Empires
5. Love Again inst. – unknown artist
6. E-40 – Art Of Storytellin
7. Captain Murphy feat Viktor Vaughn (DOOM) x Earl Sweatshirts x ThunderCat – Between villains
8. Royal Flush feat Sean Price – Beasting
9. Dizz1 – Frazzled
10. Jon Wayne – Mean Muggin
11. Stagga – The Motoskillz
12. Stagga – Stagga Sound Killer
13. Gas Lamp Killer – Flange Face
14. Adrian Younge – Turn Down The Sound
15. Rapsody – Godzilla
Guest Interview: Elzhi
16. Elzhi – February (prod by 14KT)
17. Jake One ft. Elzhi & Royce da 5’9 – Glow
18. Elzhi – Boomerang Slang (prod by Houseshoes)
19. Dabrye – Game Over feat Jay Dee (Instr)
20. Step Brothers – Step Masters
21. Freestyle Fellowship – This Write Here
22. Jay Dee – Hoard Inst.
Second Hour: Mix: J.Rocc – Notorious B.I.G. Tribute Mix
1. Notorious B.I.G. – Queen Bitch
2. Notorious B.I.G. – Players Anthem demo
3. Biggie Freestyle 2 (Bucktown beat)
4. Notorious B.I.G. feat Sadat X – Come On
5. Red Hot Lover Tone – 4 my peeps feat Notorious B.I.G. & Organized Konfusion
6. Pudge The Fat Bastard feat Notorious B.I.G. – Think Big
7. Notorious B.I.G. – Who Shot Ya
8. Heavy D & The Boys feat Notorious B.I.G. – A Buncha Niggas
9. Eddie F & The Untouchables – Let’s Get It on feat Heavy D, 2pac x Notorious B.I.G. x Grand Puba
10. Notorious B.I.G. – The Ugliest
11. Notorious B.I.G. – Real Niggaz Do Real Things
12. Notorious B.I.G. – Freestyle (Black Superman)
13. De La Soul – Rock Ko.Kane inst.
Guest Interview: Tuxedo (Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One)
14. Tuxedo – Do It
15. Tuxedo – Number One
16. Tuxedo – Watch The Dance
17. Tuxedo – R U Ready
18. Tuxedo – So Good Inst
19. Slum Village – slum village
20. PRHYME – U Looz
3rd Hour Mix: Dj Rhettmatic
1. Slum village – Scheming feat Jay dee x Posdnuos x Phife Dawg
2. Oddisee x Phonte – Requiem
3. eMC – Triple Threat
4. Frank Nitt – Slipping (prod. by J.Rocc)
5. Jay Electronica – Road To Perdition
6. yU & nottz – Homicide
7. Ab Soul – 47 Bars
8. Ras Kass x Apollo Brown – PNT
9. D.R.U.G.S – Dark jr (Inst)
10. Your Old Droog – Sonic Youth (prod. by Marco Polo)
11. Oddisee – Word To Wise
12. Kissing The Curb – Jake One ft. Busta Rhymes x Bishop Lamont
13. Now On – Catapults
14. 14KT – W.C.E.F feat MED x Kokane
15. 14KT – RockABye Baby
16. eMC – Charly Murphie
17. Joey Bada$$ – Paper Trail$ (prod. by Dj Premier)
18. Saga – City Streets feat Roc Marciano
19. Your Old Droog – Homicide
20. Gangrene feat. Earl Sweatshirts – Play it cool
21. Red Bills – The Black Opera
22. Snoop Dogg – Cadillacs (prod. by Madlib)
23. The Joint Chiefs (Frank Nitt & Rhettmatic) – The Nitty Show
24. Fashawn feat. Busta Rhymes – Out The Trunk
25. Crown Royale (Buff1 x Rhettmatic) – The Chosen Few ft. MED, Fashawn, & Tres Styles
26. Axel F – Superman
27. Talib Kweli x Madlib ft. Strong Arm Steady – The Function
28. The Visionaries feat. Rakaa & Brother J – Need To Learn
28. Gangrene – All Bad
29. Gangrene – Take Drugs
30. Gangrene – Vodka & Ayahuasca
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