Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival 2010

So the fun weekend continued after returning from Jones Beach as well as the Hip Hop. On Sunday, my new Spanish Ladyfare and I went out to Prospect Park for some fun. We started out at the Prospect Park Zoo, which I also had never been to and wanted to check out. I hadn’t realized how freaking huge this park was as I couldn’t find the Zoo and nobody could tell me the right way. We finally get there, and had a nice day. The zoo is small but unique and intimate and bit more interactive.

Then we walked over the Bandshell for a highly anticipated Hip-Hop show that kinda capped off this great week of celebrating Hip-Hop and Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – The J Dilla Seminar – July 6th

So I was excited that I had been hired by AOL to cover the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. As a life-long fan of hip hop and being hired to write about it, in the city of its birth was nothing but exhilarating for me. Today was the first day of the festival and the event that I chose to cover today was a seminar lead by Q-Tip about the life of J Dilla. Held in a library in Cobble Hill by my old apartment, The seminar started with a group called the J Dilla Ensemble, which was lead by a young-ish music teacher/superfan and his students from Boston, doing Dilla pieces via keys, drums, bass, guitar, and a few horns. And this hopelessly white girl would occasionaly sing, and she was good.

I think I benefited from the fact that it was advertised in two sections and the first was to feature a few lesser known panelists and then the later one with Q-Tip and Dilla’s mom, Ma Dukes, but when I got there they had switched it, so not alot of people were there for the first section, and then a ton of people showed up after realizing that they had missed Q-Tip. Since I got there early and wanted to cover the whole thing I sat in the front row about 3 feet from Tip. He was very intense, and spoke very carefully and thoughtfully. You could tell that the pain of the loss of Dilla was still very real and obvious to Q-Tip. He told alot of first-hand stories that I had never heard before, and as the enigma that is J Dilla, its so largely undocumented, so I was inspired and happy that this was being held. It was largely to promote the J Dilla Foundation that supplies inner-city kids with music education.

The second half was another panel after a short film. This time Ma Dukes again, but with a few guys from Slum Village and then the teacher from before. You could tell that the teacher, was like a Star Wars geek standing next to George Lucas. He held it together okay, but you could tell he wanted to break out haha.
The seminar was done well, with a great reception of food/beer and it was an incredibly inspirational day.Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – Salute the DJ w/ Rob Swift – Music Hall of Williamsburg – July 8th

Another event I was covering for the Festival, and one I was much anticipating. As a DJ myself, I was excited about the focus and loved the idea of a DJ-cenntric event, not to mention but one of my all time heroes, Rob Swift was gonna bless the 1s and 2s. I get there and I’m hanging out with the crew from Brooklyn Bodega who are producing the festival. Great group of people, a smarter, more ambitious and passionate lot your not likely to find, especially about Hip-Hop. They have been gracious to have me on their radio program a few times in the last couple of years. So I’m enjoying talking with them, but this is not only my least favorite venue in Brooklyn, its one of my least fave in the entire fucking world. Between their aggressive, asshole security out front, you have to deal with the smug, elitist that work the Will Call window. I usually feel sorry for the people that work that gig, but here they seem to enjoy telling people that shows are sold out, or that their tickets are not there etc. Its always a hassle here, and this time was no exception. Not only were they giving the freaking producers of the event, they were even blocking some performers from entering! – What is it with these fucks?
I finally get it settled and get in, and in time to see Rhettmatic from the Beat Junkies getting down.

The place is packed and their is such a good vibe here. Their is nothing like a good Hip-Hop show. You will see every race, gender, creed etc. all dancing together, laughing and having a great time. I’m not there 10 mins when two older black women are dragging me, a skinny white boy, out on the floor. Just the real deal in every way and such a good time.
And then here comes my man Rob Swift – This cat is one of my biggest influences and inspirations and really my introdcution into turntabilsim. If you see him rawk hardcore, you will know why. It’s mind-boggling and its happening right in front of you.

The show ends at 2am and I thank all of the staff at Brooklyn Bodega and got invited to after-hours but I had been in meetings all day and was exhausted so I called it a night.OkayAfrica w/ The Roots and Talib Kweli – Prospect Park – Brooklyn, NY – July 11th

The Roots headlined the OkayAfrica World Cup 2010 Finals party to celebrate the first time in its 80-year history the tournament will take place on African soil. With a kick-off by Sahr Ngaujah, the star of the hit Broadway musical Fela!, the show featured performances by artists from all corners of the Diaspora, including host Talib Kweli (Brooklyn), Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew (Sierra Leone) former Trickykid Alumni- Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana), and many others. Musically omnivorous hip-hop icons The Roots honor the fresh music of Africa by jamming throughout the whole day with surprise guests and capping it all off with a killer closing set.

We had a blast, and it was such a great environment, let alone the show. Their was a suggested donation but it was basically a free show and something like lover 10k showed up, just droves of people everywhere. Their was such a mix of diversity in performers and in the audience and a proud moment for the people of Africa. They had food tents set up everywhere, and instead of like hot dogs and pretzels, we ended up buying a whole roasted chicken, salad and dessert haha. Good meal and unforgettable music. After the show we walked around the park some more, and ended up just falling asleep in the grass under a tree. A wonderful day. Private Screening of Basquiat: The Radiant Child hosted by DJ Spooky – Salt Space – NYC – July 12th

So since our phones didn’t work, and because of the language barrier anyway, talking on the phone or texting wasn’t an option for me and the Spanish Armada.
Its so interesting to me that her and I for two weeks, never once communicated by phone, we just set everything up via email, the day before, and we never had one misstep, where as people that I communicate with all the time by means of phone and text, we miscommunicate all the time. So she actually finds in on the street this time, surprising me from behind. A few blocks from a private art gallery that I had received an invite to. Tonight’s event was a private, advance screening of a documentary that Mike D‘s wife, Tamra Davis had made about Basquiat called The Radiant Child, hosted by my friend and whom sent me the invite, DJ Spooky.
We get inside, and the Gallery is really small and only able to seat about 40 people. Now a quick disclaimer, I don’t claim to know really anything about art, art history or really anything about the business of art and its movers and shakers. I do know what I like however, and I’ve never been one to hold Basquiat in any higher esteem than anyone else. I’ve also never subscribed to the sexiness of his legend nor really understood its warrant. Having said that, it was a real trip to be in the same room with all of these people that were a part of that late 1970’s/early 1980’s downtown music/art scene of NYC. Since they were all interviewed or featured in the documentary, it was a reunion of sorts and suddenly the place was moving like a Studio 54 thirty-year reunion.
DJ Spooky did a brief set and introduced the film and moderated a Q&A after the film with Tamra and a few of the other cast members.

The film was done very well, and I enjoyed it, but it only confused me more as to the appeal of this guy and wonder if he were still alive if we would be talking about him at all. I know this sounds terribly dismissive, but based on the film, it really seemed like he was just this manipulative, druggie loser, that was able to dupe people that were so full of their own shit, that they wanted to be near what was happening so they enabled him. Ultimately his own demons caught up with him, so instead of his early death seen as this tragedy, it really seemed like the imminent result of that kind of lifestyle.
Afterwards we went and got some Chinese takeout and ate in that little park right off 23rd St. While walking to the subway, we saw all the kids in Iron Maiden shirts coming from their show at Madison Square Garden across town. Maybe one day I will actually see that band.

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