Saturday Night Live from Halsted Street...
Non Traditional Venue and Good Music. It's been a while since I have seen The Roots Live. The Last time was prior Things Fall Apart's release and it was a $7 Jam Session on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Yahzarah, will be performing in Chicago Monday Sept 20th and of course we've seen her rock dope shows solo and with The Foreign Exchange. Q-Tip I saw a few times with A Tribe Called Quest (say the whole thing) and most recently at Rock the Bells a few years ago, and although I've seen Erykah a few times in the last few years her Mama's Gun tour always stands out in my mind.
While walking on the "Black Carpet" and looking confused and reluctant to take pictures I walk in and start sampling the customized Hennessy drinks. I bumped into a few friends and while making sure all of my guests were able to get in I continued to drink and wander about aimlessly until D-Nice's DJ set commenced as I waited for the live show to start.
To start the show Black Thought and Q-Tip hosted and MC'ed by performing Hip Hop classic songs that were done by other artists as well as projects they are affiliated with. Next they gradually moved into host mode and welcomed Yahzarah, Curren$y, and Kid Sister to the stage to rock along with them. All of the acts were good but since this was a real Hip Hop/Soul show some of the crowd looked confused when Kid Sister performed. However, there was one crew of girls behind me profusely screaming and cheering her on and kept saying "Oh my God I love Kid Sister", so there were fans that came to check her and she was better than I anticipated.
The show was standing room only which created a real dope atmosphere for people who love real music and would prefer to dance and jump around instead of sit down in their seat and appear to be cultured.
When Erykah came out the crowd went crazy because it was a surprise but some people knew she was the surprise guest. I enjoyed her show and may even suggest that she change her name to Erykah Badi (Body). All the fellas and women who like women saw that she was fitting her jeans quite well which added an extra entertainment value to the show. Her show would've been dope if she came out with baggy jeans but I'm just sayin...
Overall, this was a very well put together classy event for people who love to celebrate real good music and good beverages and appreciate the global art of mixing.
Big shouts out to Hennessy for allowing me to be part of such a dope event!
After the show I was welcomed into the press area and had the priviledge to interview Q-Tip and Questlove. The audio interviews will be on my podcast page within the next few weeks. Stay tuned....
Thanks for reading!
Peace and Blessings,
Sean
If you don't know you betta ask somebody...JLC
