"This ain't no damn concert, but we're going to rock on," exclaimed M1 of dead prez.
Sunday night's Black August celebration at Times Square had all the characteristics of a jam session: political-minded emcees, a sold-out Nokia Theatre, legendary DJs rocking the ones and twos- but, in response to the problems plaguing inner-city neighborhoods, the prevalent theme was "Free Your Hood."
Organized by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, this year's Black August - its first year (400 attendees at New York's Tramp's in '97) is indicative of the success the campaign has seen- marked the 10th year of its existence and evolution.
When dead prez hit the stage, it was like the entire venue was injected with a dose of black nationalism from the Civil Rights era. M1 and stic.man stood before a valley of fists extended in the air, morphing Aaliyah's silky, "We Need A Resolution" into their own rebellious "We Need A Revolution."
Breezing through a string of hits, from "Mind Sex" to "Hell Yeah," dead prez kept the crowd pumped up for more than 30 minutes, but continued to keep the night's theme in mind. "I don't care how many concerts we have," said stic.man. "The system ain't going to change unless we make it change."
The anticipation for the night's surprise acts didn't build for long—the special guests were revealed about two hours into the show. The first was DJ Scratch, who dazzled with the ol' undress-while-scratching routine. But the sweetest treat of the night was evident once the melodic beat of "The People," dropped.
In an instant, Common skipped across the stage wearing a beige jacket with his signature tweed headwear. And the audience erupted. Performing "U, Black Maybe" from his latest album Finding Forever, the Chi-Town MC motioned his arms and hands like 15-year-old boy rapping his favorite song in the mirror.
Then, as he revisited hits from Be, the crowd sang along to the sped soul sample of "Testify" and Common bounced around like he was strapped with a bungee cord while performing "The Corner."
Mos followed Common's short set, stepping onstage with a blue and yellow "Fighters" baseball jersey, seemingly a nod to the freedom fighters that were being celebrated.
At first, Mos looked as if he was in his own world as he pranced around the stage, performing crowd favorites like "Close Edge" and "Ghetto Rock." But his charisma shined through. He kept the crowd hyped, kicked a cappella rhymes and joked with the audience between songs, at one point doing his best Dave Chappelle impression.
As Mos' set went on, the excitement mounted around the assured collaborative performance with fellow headliner and Black Star partner Talib Kweli. "I'm the boss, applesauce," Mos playfully responded to some front row audience members' premature chants of Black Star tracks. But when the pair finally reunited, it was kind of anticlimactic.
Talib strolled on stage in a white polo and matching fitted, jumping right into Black Star's "Definition." One song later, Common reemerged just as he had earlier, sans microphone, to the tune of his Black Star collaboration "Respiration." After slapping fives with his stagemates, he rapped half his verse without a mic, and the audience feasted on his energy.
Not to be outdone, Kweli launched his hit record "Move Something," rivaling dead prez's earlier performance of "Hip Hop" as the night's biggest crowd-pleaser. Mos Def supported Talib through most of his set, spitting his verse from the remix of "Get By" and playing hype man elsewhere.
While the spectators loved Kweli's older joints like "Africa Dream" and "The Blast," newer album cuts like "Hostile Gospel" and his current single "Hot Thing" generated a lukewarm response.
But there was no denying the energy of Eardrum's "Say Something," which transformed the venue into something like "The Shelter" from 8 Mile.
And the energy kept flowing when Saigon stepped on stage to the beat of Kanye West's "Get 'Em High," over which the two lyricists kicked off an impromptu freestyle session on stage.
"These are two of the mothafuckin' greatest emcees in the world," Saigon said of Mos and Talib. "I think I'm more excited than any of y'all in here."
Maybe. But after five hours of rhyme and reason, the attendees left around 1 am feeling inspired, entertained and exhausted. Not bad. Especially since it wasn't a concert.
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Comments
1.
WWW.OBSYD.COM says:
WE ALL STRUGGLING IN THE SAME BOAT!!! WE ARE KINGS AND QUEENS!!!
September 10, 2007 at 2:35 pm
2.
Yolanda says:
Thank God for real black men like this. We need more and more of us to come together especially the magazines (black) we really need to change our black world on our own. We have gotten lazy, we have always known that we dont need white peoples help..Lets do this for our ancestors and for our children. See these black men represent their black mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and sisters well. They dont have to have all white and Latinos in their video to get recongnized. Those rappers will not make it in the black culture, they are selling out. They will need us again. We things start going wrong for them they will run right back to the black women that they are disrespecting. Lets do this---if we all come together we can change the Jena 6 and other cases. Lets stick together instead of worring about worring about where they will stick their stick!
September 8, 2007 at 11:56 pm