On hearing Mr Kweli was in LDN I can honestly say I haven't been that excited since I went surfing.....in Jamaica. True stories.
Not only was he rolling through my neck of the woods, but he was to leave his natural habitat behind the mic and set up shop behind the wheels of steel ready to snipe unwitting ravers with scything cuts and killer classics from his mammoth selection.
The venue of choice, Yo Yo's. Slap bang in the middle of Notting Hill, this place has seen more stars than Hubble telescope but pretentious and stuck up it is not. On entering the place I clocked the ever so swaggalicious Kay Young posted up in a corner and the stencils projected all over the walls were a very original touch. I can't remember exactly what they said but it was something about LDN being the Pit's Bits, which I AIN'T gonna argue with.
On stage was some chick warbling away shouting out her myspace in between tracks. She was alright, but the next time I see an artist on stage seriously expecting a half drunk, half uninterested audience to remember that ish I'm gonna get in touch with Zippos to give them an invitation to clown school. I'll have a flyer or a free CD thanks.
Once she'd cleared off, the DJ started throwin down and I hit the bar to get my juice game in motion. "Uprock" the B-boy/bar man was blatantly high on his own supply but I felt his pain. I've done bar work before, and a little "sippy sippy" definitely makes the nights more bearable.
My cohorts for the night, Lauren(Hill) and (Amazing)Tahirah had found a spot next to the drunkest people in the place.
Within two minutes, two seperate groups of crunkheads managed to throw their drinks on the floor. One dude even collapsed. (For once it wasn't me contributing to the nights spill count.) During an animated conversation in the middle of a club, I once back handed a chick who then crash landed onto a table tipping drinks all over the gaff. She FREAKED the f**k out. I thought I was gonna get a heel in the face. After her little tantrum, I bought her a drink to compensate for her bloodshot eye and then she asked me for my number. True stories.
With the Crunkquake over we bounced to the dance floor and after half an hour of jammin to a bit of Funky and some Old Skool Garage our boy finally showed up.
The MC grabbed the mic and as he was introducing TK, everyone squeeeeezed towards the booth to check the gwaanins. I had NO intention of getting my kicks stepped on so I jumped on the stage to get a better view.
There was no overhyped intro, dude just pressed play and went to work.
It was clear he knew his way arojund the decks and the selection was on point.
3 tracks in and we were sweating HARD, even the ceiling was perspiring.
As (Amazing)Tahirah said, he hurt it with D.O.A but when he dropped T.R.O.Y (Pete Rock&CL Smooth) my inner Hip Hop fiend emerged and the nights intention was well and truly validated.
To make matters even MORE rampageous, Maceo from De La Soul decided to pass through and jump on the decks as well.
Overwhelmed by both MC's display of extra curricular skills, we skipped, leaving the remaining revellers to contend with the fat droplets of sweat/condensation falling from the ceiling and the sight of two microphone champions acknowledging Hip-Hop's original element.
"Death Stare" - Usually seen when a DJ is asked to play something they don't wanna play
EVERY DJ has one. Here's mine.
Till next time Blockers....
Pie-Ce!
P.S - MY BAD for taking so damn long to upload all this ish but the server wouldn't let me upload the pics.... Had to send em to Tahirah first to do it for me. Long. Anyway, from now on I promise I'll step up my blog game and all interesting interactions, occurrences and "OH SH*T!!!!" moments will be appropriately covered. A-MEN!
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