Exuberant hip-hop show ends on bizarre note
By Jeff Spevak
Staff music critic
(May 29, 2004) ? Friday night?s ?Hate Me Now? hip-hop show ended on the most bizarre of notes: As what appeared to be more than 100 people jammed the stage with D-Block to pump their fists in the air in anthemic joy, 50 yards away a circle cleared out around a man lying face-down on the floor, unconscious, blood pouring from his mouth, and what could have been either multicolored pills or candy scattered on the floor around him.
Some people were pointing and laughing at the man as the EMTs made their way through the crowd.
D-Block?s hardcore chants, Mobb Deep?s exuberance and a homecoming by Eminem cohort DJ Green Lantern, a Rochester native, drew to the Riverside Convention Center a crowd of maybe 3,000. And many of them got a little more drama than they had paid for.
Mobb Deep is Prodigy and Havoc, a pair of hard-core rap heavyweights from Queens. While the group became known for its gritty reporting from the ghetto, Jay-Z called them fakes in his rap ?Takeover,? his tour that year even featuring a photo of a very young Prodigy in his ballet outfit. Both graduates of the prestigious Graphic Arts High School in Manhattan, the men of Mobb Deep knew they were busted: Rather than shooting back, as is properly done in the rap world, the duo embraced a less-ghetto, more-mainstream, pop-rap sound. In fact, the 2001 release, Infamy, featured Mobb Deep?s biggest hit yet, ?Hey Luv (Anything).?
And it may be continuing on that path. Mobb Deep unveiled a new single, ?Got It Twisted,? from the upcoming album America?s Nightmare that heavily sampled Thomas Dolby?s ?She Blinded Me With Science.?
A handful of locals did quite well, particularly a duet between rapper J. Figs and R&B singer Therese. Green Lantern didn?t get behind the turntables, but he was hip-hop?s answer to Dean Martin as the night?s host, introducing the acts and trying to get a rise out of the crowd by pitting Rochester East Side vs. Rochester West Side.
And a surprise opening act, the Jamaican reggaeman Baby Cham, was fun. Fortunately, he found two enthusiastic female volunteers to come up onstage, otherwise he would have had to go it alone in his demonstration of the gymnastic Jamaican style of making love.
For a few anxious moments, the crowd began to suspect that D-Block wasn?t going to show, as the event dragged past midnight. But suddenly, the Yonkers-based outfit dashed through a side door and straight onto the stage.
A collective that serves as the rap-trio LOX?s crew, D-Block obviously didn?t have show face on, and stumbled lethargically through its set. Things didn?t pick up until the band invited the real fans to the front, leading to the stage suddenly becoming overstuffed.
The late start also meant only a 25-minute performance by D-Block. Organizers threw on the house lights, the band complained it was being shut down, the EMTs wheeled their patient away, his fate unknown, and a woman showed up with a mop and began cleaning up the blood.
By Jeff Spevak
Staff music critic
(May 29, 2004) ? Friday night?s ?Hate Me Now? hip-hop show ended on the most bizarre of notes: As what appeared to be more than 100 people jammed the stage with D-Block to pump their fists in the air in anthemic joy, 50 yards away a circle cleared out around a man lying face-down on the floor, unconscious, blood pouring from his mouth, and what could have been either multicolored pills or candy scattered on the floor around him.
Some people were pointing and laughing at the man as the EMTs made their way through the crowd.
D-Block?s hardcore chants, Mobb Deep?s exuberance and a homecoming by Eminem cohort DJ Green Lantern, a Rochester native, drew to the Riverside Convention Center a crowd of maybe 3,000. And many of them got a little more drama than they had paid for.
Mobb Deep is Prodigy and Havoc, a pair of hard-core rap heavyweights from Queens. While the group became known for its gritty reporting from the ghetto, Jay-Z called them fakes in his rap ?Takeover,? his tour that year even featuring a photo of a very young Prodigy in his ballet outfit. Both graduates of the prestigious Graphic Arts High School in Manhattan, the men of Mobb Deep knew they were busted: Rather than shooting back, as is properly done in the rap world, the duo embraced a less-ghetto, more-mainstream, pop-rap sound. In fact, the 2001 release, Infamy, featured Mobb Deep?s biggest hit yet, ?Hey Luv (Anything).?
And it may be continuing on that path. Mobb Deep unveiled a new single, ?Got It Twisted,? from the upcoming album America?s Nightmare that heavily sampled Thomas Dolby?s ?She Blinded Me With Science.?
A handful of locals did quite well, particularly a duet between rapper J. Figs and R&B singer Therese. Green Lantern didn?t get behind the turntables, but he was hip-hop?s answer to Dean Martin as the night?s host, introducing the acts and trying to get a rise out of the crowd by pitting Rochester East Side vs. Rochester West Side.
And a surprise opening act, the Jamaican reggaeman Baby Cham, was fun. Fortunately, he found two enthusiastic female volunteers to come up onstage, otherwise he would have had to go it alone in his demonstration of the gymnastic Jamaican style of making love.
For a few anxious moments, the crowd began to suspect that D-Block wasn?t going to show, as the event dragged past midnight. But suddenly, the Yonkers-based outfit dashed through a side door and straight onto the stage.
A collective that serves as the rap-trio LOX?s crew, D-Block obviously didn?t have show face on, and stumbled lethargically through its set. Things didn?t pick up until the band invited the real fans to the front, leading to the stage suddenly becoming overstuffed.
The late start also meant only a 25-minute performance by D-Block. Organizers threw on the house lights, the band complained it was being shut down, the EMTs wheeled their patient away, his fate unknown, and a woman showed up with a mop and began cleaning up the blood.
Facebook
Twitter