The Hip Hop Exchange Rate
(The proceeding blog entry was written by Grant Brydon, however it was titled by me — Tyler Hakes, the editor — partially because I remain jealous of the overwhelming love and embrace of true, original hip hop culture that seems to take place in the UK. Where we, as Americans, have let our culture become something commercial and common, it seems that the Brits have managed to re-embrace it as something glorious and beautiful. Congratulations to them.)
In my introduction to this blog, I mentioned that I would not only be providing cultural essays, but also describing lifestyle and experiences. This month (October as I write) has been very busy for me, and I have therefore decided to cover my hip-hop adventures this month.
Toward the beginning of the month I had the pleasure of seeing KRS One perform alongside MC Supernatural (at Leeds University Students Union). The show was fantastic and really demonstrated the potential of a hip-hop show, Kris involved b-boying, tagging and DJ-ing as well as freestyling and performing nothing but classic cuts all night. He also ensured that the sound in the venue was perfect in the venue, before continuing with the show, which really helped as sound guys usually lapse when mixing hip-hop gigs. Although the show was stolen by MC Supernatural, who spit some of the best freestyles I have ever witnessed (including impersonating Slick Rick, Busta Rhymes and Biggie), KRS still proved why he is known as ‘ the teacher” and how his contributions to the culture have affected how far it’s come.
The second thing that has taken up my time this month was the organisation of a local b-boy jam, in which I attempted to capture a piece of the old school, by having the DJ stick to “ Golden Era” hip-hop tracks and entrants sporting old school fancy dress in an attempt to promote the roots of the culture to the youth crowd that the venue attracted, as a result of my previous article on the parting of the four elements. The jam was pretty successful, and a good number of local heads turned up as well as dancers from other cities around the North of England and Scotland.
Soon after my jam was the event of the month that I’ d been most eagerly awaiting; the chance to see DOOM performing live. My friends actually spotted Daniel Dumile in a sneaker store whilst I was in transit, and tried to trick him into admitting his identity asking, “ are you playing at the Arches tonight?” however he simply informed them he wasn’t and left with his purchases. The Arches turned out to be the perfect venue, an underground lair complete with metal pipes protruding from the ceiling. DOOM didn’ t disappoint with his non-stop performance, busting out all of the fan favourites including “Rhymes Like Dimes”, “ALL CAPS” and “America’ s Most Blunted”.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the soundman transformed what could have been a brilliant live experience into a pretty average underground hip-hop gig, the vocals were too low in the mix, and at times it was difficult to hear anything but distortion.
This weekend, I will be attending “ Just Jam” a b-boy jam in my hometown, which draws in international competitors all battling hard for a £500 cash prize. It kicks off tonight, with a night of hip-hop theatre shows from people all over the UK who have submitted their pieces to the organisers of the event (the Bad Taste Cru), which is a good idea, as not enough emphasis seems to be on what can be achieved in b-boying outside of battling. Unfortunately as my deadline looms, I can’ t cover the event within this blog, however I’ ll most likely give it a mention in the future.
I’d like to end this month’ s blog by mentioning something that I know has been covered on this site, however I would like to say R.I.P to Eyedea. The news of Eyedea’ s death was shocking to me and my thoughts are with his family and friends, I know Eyedea was a great inspiration to a lot of people, and was a creative artist who worked on a number of projects, most notably his outstanding albums in collaboration with DJ Abilities, as well as being a brilliant battle rapper, who I understand was also a modest and good man, he will be missed.
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