Tuesday, January 31, 2006
No tricks in '06.
The attempt was to be "as awkwardly separate from the crowd as possible."If BB King's wasn't such a can of sardines, maybe I'd be able to take a decent picture once in a while. Of course I was also under the ripping tide of a stomach virus which gave me no desire to stand up, which is essentially all you can do in this overpriced bombshelter fuming with hot wings, mixed drinks, and secret stash blunts from the core of the crowd. Ah, the signs you're at a New York hip-hop show in Midtown. Gotta love it.
But thankfully I found a place to sit, and in fact sleep for about forty-five minutes, on a bench near the door while I waited for pretty much the most influential emcee to bless the mic live on stage for the first time in, well...who knows really how long. But mark it on your calender: January 30th, 2006. The concert that would go down in history....kind of. Rakim, the motherfuckin' legend. If you missed him this time around, you have another chance.
The openers sucked for the first hour, I won't lie. But then Grandmaster Caz and Raheem from the Furious Five showed up to rock a few joints. Immortal Technique made an appearance too. And Pete Rock hyped up the crowd with "The Creator." Daaaamn. The surprise guests made the listed guests pale in comparison.
Then Kid Capri took the stage to rock the ones and twos for Rakim, who finally showed up and played for about roughly under an hour, probably more like forty-five minutes without any noticeable mistakes. "No mistakes allowed"....but the sound guy actually fucked up his mic at the beginning. Easy to fix. Ra stormed through all of his hits. It was definitely nuts. He had the crowd danglin' off his gold chain, hanging on his every verse, rapping along like it was an Evangelist telethon.
Man I wish I had more energy, to be healthy enough to move with the crowd's hype. I suppose this is a blessing in a way because it's nice to not have to feel so claustrophobic every now and then when seeing a show you actually want to enjoy.
Also, BB King's is notorious for awful overpricings on even the simplest of drinks. Three dollar sodas, seven dollar draft beers, and four dollar bottles of water. Get the shit outta here, c'mon. Who that is sober will actually drop that much money there? Fuck Times Square.
Done with venting. Good show overall, worth the money indeed. Now here's a song for you.
Eric B. and Rakim - "In The Ghetto" (Drums and Rakim mix)
This was on the flip to the original "In The Ghetto" single released back when Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em was fresh for 1990. Hate to say it, but even after seeing the song's video, this here mix completely obliterates the original. All you need are simple and hard hitting drums like these to back a vocal dominance like Rakim, and the track will be completely obliterated in correct fashion. Props to the Godfather for coming out of the woodwork. It's been a long time.
Cheers,
~*E*~
