Check The Rhime
First order of business, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to everyone who filled my birthday with love, life, light, hugs, fun etc (and my belly with good food and lots of sangria, makers & ginger, tequila and red stripe!) Birthdays always remind me of how blessed I am and how many wonderful, beautiful and inspiring people I am surrounded by (not geographically bound, obviously). I have to say, I especially missed my east coast family yesterday and I can’t wait to reunite with everyone in a month or so for the holidays, we’re about to get wild for new years! Anyway, last night was AMAZING!!! I had a lovely dinner (thanks to christine, ana, kendra, jessie, niko, jeremy, pat, nati, and evan for the company and jokes) @ Ramblas in the Mission and more drinks next door @ Casanova. THEN my wifey (ana) took me to Mezzanine for the 2k Bounce Tour around 10:30. Unfortunately, we missed Pac Div but they fly:
…Yummy but yeah, don’t sleep on these dudes they have a lot to offer the game and they represent Cali well. Buk buk. Two drinks later, we made our way to the front to secure a spot for The Cool Kids set. I have to say, they did the damn thing. I’ve only seen them once before @ Wesleyan and that doesn’t count because Spring Fling debauchery takes away from the music. I was impressed with their performance and I’m actually thoroughly diggin’ their new ish off of The Bake Sale EP and I have a serious soft spot for DJ Pj because like Jackie Chain, he represents for Asian Americans in Hip Hop and he’s always looking fresh to death. Take a look @ the fun:
The second to last flicks are from when Mikey invited Pac Div to finish out their set with ’88. It was pretty adorable, y’all!!! I clearly have a weakness for fly rappers and their public displays of affection and love for one another. Also, Pac Div rocked pieces from the new ill 10 Deep Spring collection “Blue Collar, Blue Bloods” (check it out) and I approved. On the flip side, I felt luke warm about Mikey’s polo shirt but y’know he pulled it off. Moving right along, we were feeling hype after their set and relocated to the left side of the stage where all the shorter Filipino fools were at to maximize visibility (for some reason all the awkward tall white boys in dress shirts were posted up on the right side of the stage). Shout out to my shorties for allowing me to see Q-Tip in all his glory for the entire show. Tall dudes are my nemesis at shows, GO TO THE BACK! cot damn…have some respect. Anyway, Q-Tip came on after DJ Scratch warmed up the crowd with his charm and well, the rest is history, meng. It was the best birfday.
I can’t pinpoint any specific highlight, it was all so dope. Tip set things off with new STRAIGHT HOT FIRE from “The Renaissance” with excerpts of Obama speeches thrown in the mix by DJ Scratch. After 30 minutes, Tip and the band cleared the stage at which point DJ Scratch changed into a Superman t-shirt and did his own mini-set showing off his skills and yeah, I had one of those painfully cliche “this is REAL hip hop” moments in my head. 10 minutes later, Tip re-appeared for an unexpected 30 minute Tribe set that got shit poppin’ in a serious way. It was obvious that Oakland heads were in the building (Tip has many a first cousin from East Oakland so family was present) and I even peeped a couple Tribe tattoos. My favorite part of the Tribe set was right before Tip brought out Phife (surprise guest #1), he challenged the audience to finish Phife’s verses in “Check The Rhime”. This girl right in the front stepped up to the challenge and MURDERED it yo. It started off with a call and response between Tip and her but by the second verse, he just handed her the mic– homegirls flow and lyricism was ON POINT. I think he was quite obviously floored. I also loved how her friends were wildin’ out the whole time. I’ve heard about how a female was recently dissed @ a Tip show in NYC for attempting the same feat and THAT’S WHACK dudes act like they can actually rap and it’s a lie. Tip was lookin’ for a fella to kill it after the girl ripped and NO DUDE stepped up. IN FACT, it was another female that finally had a second go at it. The beautiful thing was, all the dudes were so into it and SO supportive and hype. Shit y’all, I LOVE the bay area, the truth is there’s just not this kind of energy at New York shows…it’s significantly more macho back east and that shit ALWAYS ruins shows for me. Not here. HOLLA! Peep more pics:
Oh and that last pic is of Too Short who was the other surprise guest. I don’t know, Too Short makes me laugh, I have a hard time taking him seriously but EVERYBODY knew the words to his shit which made it live. I don’t know what else to say, hopefully people will post youtube videos of the show but PLEASE do yourselves a favor and come out for the 2k Bounce Tour in a city near you! It’s seriously worth every penny and Mikey and Chuck thanked everyone (sincerely) for spending $$$ on their show during a recession *true enough* All I have to say is: BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!!!
BUGGIN' OUT 