The Roots go old school at Rams Head Live
From Sun dating blogger Maryann James:
The Roots VH1 Hip-Hop Honors Tour at Rams Head Live: Best concert I didn't sign up for.
I bought tickets to last night's concert expecting to hear classics from The Roots and songs off their more recent albums. Instead, I got an earful of hip-hop classics -- from jams that were slightly before my time to songs my middle-school and high-school selves used to listen to when my mom wasn't in the room. Add MC Lyte and Big Daddy Kane, and you've got an instant trip into a hip-hop memory lane. ...
- Any time MC Lyte was on the stage. She looks and sounds exactly as she did 15 years ago. She made me love "Roughneck" (which I hated when I was younger) and her free-style in the middle of the show proves that she still has it.
- Blackthought doing Kool G. Rap's "Men at Work." His hyper-speed, non-stop rap still has me reeling 12 hours later. With the crowd and Richmond, Va., rapper Skillz egging him on, he didn't miss a word, a beat, or his breath. Every time you thought it was over, he moved on to the next verse. At the end of the song, the crowd going wild, ?uestlove added, "Through this whole tour, he hasn't tripped up once. He's a true MC."
- All the Baltimore references, such as the Shake and Bake skating rink and a musical aside with KW Griff and DJ Booman's "Pick Em Up."
- Skillz's "It's a Crazy World." By the end of the song, he had the whole crowd singing the bluesy chorus (the MySpace version doesn't do it justice). I'm proud to say this man is from my hometown.
Last night, I got three shows in one: The Roots, MC Lyte and Big Daddy Kane, a musical tag-team that left you breathless, hoarse and hopeful about the future of hip-hop. Surely hip-hop isn't dead if there's still rocking shows like this.
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
Comments
This was the best hip-hop show Ive been to since the one at Afram two years ago, then before that the RUN DMC show at the Capitol Center back in 1984, sprinkle a few KRS-One shows here and there but this was the one. HIP-HOP is not DEAD!!
Posted by: Scootermonk | October 1, 2007 4:32 PM