*THE BIG TREY NICKEL*
If you've being hangin' with the DJ's Wife for a while, you would know that my birthday is a time of self-reflection. I usually go deep and see what I have learned about myself, the things I want to change and where I am going and how I'm going to get there. So I did that! And then I partied hard at ROCK THE BELLS!
In case you've never heard of it before, Rock the Bells is an annual hip-hop concert. This year was at Merriweather, where it should be noted the last concert I saw there was, um, Whitney Houston back in the late 80's...
Anyhow, I had friends meeting me there, my sister and her friend were going to hang out...my expectations were to really just have a good time with some good music. ROCK THE BELLS exceeded those expectations.
I imagine that that's the closest I'll get to a hip hop woodstock. It was insane! Rakim, Mos Def, DeLaSoul, Raekwon/Ghostface & Meth/Redman, QTip, Tribe Called Quest and Nas among others just gave me what I wanted: old school hip hop jams. They never play out! You never forget the words! It was so much damn fun!
Imagine, like, 10,000 hip hop heads that covered the spectrum: black, white, tan, red, yellow. It was love. Chicks ain't show up with fresh hair do's - they knew! It might rain. The humidity is killer. Ponytails were the order of the day. I think everyone just wanted to go back in time to when hip hop was about something...something that it's not now. I read the term "ring tone rap" in the review by The Washington Post and be damned if I don't agree 100%. In my opinion, that shit ain't real hip hop. Thats that junk we feedin to our kids cuz half of them wasn't even embryos when BIG and Pac died. Real hip hop took the stage on Sunday and rocked it like it was '87 - '93!!!
My favorite performer was Nas. Hubby is a huge Nas fan (read: both from the boro of Queens)but truth be told he was looking more forward to seeing his current fav emcee, MF Doom. Metal Face was a no-show from what I can gather but the Mrs. was cold rockin to everything from "Hate Me Now" (one of my personal theme songs) to "Bravehearts" to "One Mic". I hadn't rocked like that in forever!
Now, here's the hum-dinger of it all: not a single scuffle or fight from what I witnessed. It was peace. And I can't help but wonder why it is that we can't have us some serious fun like that more often? Yes, the crowd definitely favored the 30 and older set, so maybe that was it. But imagine a rap concert with no brawlin, no shootin - just love and peace and appreciation. That was a birthday wish come true.
Somebody call Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Salt N Pepa N Spinderella, Heavy D, LL Cool J, Doug E. Fresh and DNice and set some shit up! I'M READY!!!!!!!
If you've being hangin' with the DJ's Wife for a while, you would know that my birthday is a time of self-reflection. I usually go deep and see what I have learned about myself, the things I want to change and where I am going and how I'm going to get there. So I did that! And then I partied hard at ROCK THE BELLS!
In case you've never heard of it before, Rock the Bells is an annual hip-hop concert. This year was at Merriweather, where it should be noted the last concert I saw there was, um, Whitney Houston back in the late 80's...
Anyhow, I had friends meeting me there, my sister and her friend were going to hang out...my expectations were to really just have a good time with some good music. ROCK THE BELLS exceeded those expectations.
I imagine that that's the closest I'll get to a hip hop woodstock. It was insane! Rakim, Mos Def, DeLaSoul, Raekwon/Ghostface & Meth/Redman, QTip, Tribe Called Quest and Nas among others just gave me what I wanted: old school hip hop jams. They never play out! You never forget the words! It was so much damn fun!
Imagine, like, 10,000 hip hop heads that covered the spectrum: black, white, tan, red, yellow. It was love. Chicks ain't show up with fresh hair do's - they knew! It might rain. The humidity is killer. Ponytails were the order of the day. I think everyone just wanted to go back in time to when hip hop was about something...something that it's not now. I read the term "ring tone rap" in the review by The Washington Post and be damned if I don't agree 100%. In my opinion, that shit ain't real hip hop. Thats that junk we feedin to our kids cuz half of them wasn't even embryos when BIG and Pac died. Real hip hop took the stage on Sunday and rocked it like it was '87 - '93!!!
My favorite performer was Nas. Hubby is a huge Nas fan (read: both from the boro of Queens)but truth be told he was looking more forward to seeing his current fav emcee, MF Doom. Metal Face was a no-show from what I can gather but the Mrs. was cold rockin to everything from "Hate Me Now" (one of my personal theme songs) to "Bravehearts" to "One Mic". I hadn't rocked like that in forever!
Now, here's the hum-dinger of it all: not a single scuffle or fight from what I witnessed. It was peace. And I can't help but wonder why it is that we can't have us some serious fun like that more often? Yes, the crowd definitely favored the 30 and older set, so maybe that was it. But imagine a rap concert with no brawlin, no shootin - just love and peace and appreciation. That was a birthday wish come true.
Somebody call Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Salt N Pepa N Spinderella, Heavy D, LL Cool J, Doug E. Fresh and DNice and set some shit up! I'M READY!!!!!!!
posted by The DJs WIFE at 1:19 PM
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