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When a Hip-Hop show goes on for seven hours and is not billed as a festival, it can become an exhausting exercise. However, the May 13th musical triathlon at the Vault 350 in Long Beach California provided a rare platform for some of Hip-Hop’s rarest treasures. The show can be neatly broken into two categories: Turntable exhibitions and rare MC performances. From Beat Junkie Icy Ice to “Sorato Killer” Mark Luv, the audience witnessed some of the most talented technicians behind the ones and twos. However, it was a DJ using Sorato that would provide the show stopping set of the night.
DJ Revolution from the Wake Up Show manipulated Sorato at such a high level that would humble even the harshest critic of the technology. Sequencing his set around similar breaks, artist catalogues, and party heavy, but real Hip-Hop flavored cuts, Rev carved out a Hip-Hop history 101. From blending together a series of Wu, Dre, and then Gangstarr cuts, in roughly an hour Rev was able to provide a brilliant artist history of some of the genre’s most significant artists. While the DJs ruled the first half of the night, the MCs closed the night strong. With large projection screens periodically displaying a 911 conspiracy video, it seemed only fitting that highly outspoken and political minded MCs would take the stage. Thankfully the foreshadowing from the videos came true as Brother J from the X Clan, reclusive Rass Class, and Dead Prez took the stage. Brother J’s glorious performance was as much in memory of fallen X-Clan leader Professor X as a glimpse into the future of the clan. With a new album on the horizon and more appearances being scheduled, fans can be assured that Brother J and the rest of the X Clan are making their presence felt once again by first making surprise apearances and then touring as a billed act. Even though Brother J surprised the audience at the Vault, fans waited with bated breath to see Rass Kass. Since Rass dropped Soul on Ice in 1996, he has been regarded as one of the best lyricists of all time. Opening with what has been deemed his “Game Diss”, Rass Kass kicked off his set with one of his most recent efforts, “Caution”. Mixing up his set with classic material (“Golden Chyld”, “Soul On Ice”, “Ghetto Fabulous” “3 Card Molly”) and unreleased/ alternate renditions, Rass made clearly proved that he is still a “West Coast legend with East Coast love”. Not only is Rass bringing the gaps between the coasts, he is connecting with a legend from Hip-Hop’s past. Coming in after Tupac’s first verse, the bandana fitted Golden State Warrior bridged the timelessness of Pac with such a reminiscent flair that fans couldn’t help but wonder what this union of West Coast legends would have been like. This theme of reflecting on the past to better understand the future was carried on by the headliners of the night, Dead Prez. The highly volatile political group came to do more than simply perform some of their classic material (“Hell Yeah (Pimp the System)”, “It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop”, “Turn Off The Radio”, “That’s War”, “They Schools”, “Mind Sex”). They came to deliver a message. Cutting off the music, Sticman and M-1 addressed the unsolved mystery of the 1985 Philadelphia bombing. Two decades ago, the lives of the residents of Osage Avenue were changed forever. The city police, following the orders of the city’s first black mayor (Wilson Goode), flying overhead in a helicopter dropped a bomb and let it burn. Aiming at a small radical group known as “MOVE”, the city soon became known as “the city that bombed its own people”. While the negligence of the police and mayor have been determined ( the unjustified homicide could have been avoided when the police had the chance, but instead they choose not only fire 10,000 rounds into the building but allow it to burn until it became impossible to control), justice has yet to be granted for the families involved in this terrorist act that caused five children to lose their lives. With Sticman and M-1 not only shedding light on the history of this event, they stressed to be conscious and vocal of what the government is doing at all times. A group uses history to fuel their message both in music and speech, they urged the audience not to take for granted what they are being told but to dig deeper to see the truth in the moves that the government is making. On a night where the music seemed to last forever, Dead Prez’s message of action over passivity was compelling to the point of intimidation. Demanding that the music be cut and only the White people chant reparations may have made some feel slightly uncomfortable. By stressing that if you see someone not chanting it, then you know that they are not down with us, they turned the focus away from their message toward a few members of the audience. Despite this minuet moment of uneasiness, their message of equality through political change made the audience acknowledge that music has become one of the primary outlets for such a movement. Hopefully, everyone in attendance came with the understanding that all the messages are bigger than Hip-Hop and require the focused action of the fans to make these changes a plausible reality rather than an utopian never to be. Related Links: www.deadprez.com
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