Words By Khalid Strickland

On the real, I’m from Brooklyn. Let me re-phrase that: “Um frum Brooklyn”. Pre-gentrification Brooklyn, that is. I didn’t move there once things got sweet like the aliens who claim it as their own now. When I did my tour of duty on the block, people weren’t in front of coffee shops, sippin’ lattes and eating cucumber sandwiches. Back then, niggas held down the corners puttin’ in work, and the drinks we sipped were in 40-ounce bottles, fuck a Starbucks “Grande” cup.

Being that I’m a pillar of the community, it’s only right that I attended the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival’s Media Mixer. For the uninitiated, the BK Hip Hop Festival is an annual concert sponsored by multi-media marketing firms, The Room Service Group and Brooklyn Bodega. The three-day event is held in parks & clubs throughout Downtown BK, of course; past performers include Ghostface Killah, Lupe Fiasco, Sean Price, Talib Kweli, and a slew of other notables. This year’s festival, which takes place on Saturday, July 12th, is also championship caliber and will feature a well-balanced line-up of seasoned veterans and hungry, talented rookies. KRS-ONE, DJ Premier and Buckshot anchor a concert which also boasts the likes of Mickey Factz, Blue & Exile, 88 Keys, Homeboy Sandman and J. Period. BK’s own music-video pioneer and Festival host, the legendary Uncle Ralph McDaniel’s, personifies the phrase coined by Pimpin’ Ken Ivey: “Internationally Known, Nationally Recognized and Locally Respected”.

Buckshot Ralph McDaniels

The good folks at Brooklyn Bodega and The Room Service Group put together the Media Mixer so that journalists could chop it up with the BHF’s performing artists. To sweeten the deal, the famous Brooklyn Brewery provided enough free lager to intoxicate a small army. Buckshot, another genuine Brooklynite, showed up to meet the press.

“It’s very important for people to recognize people like myself that’s leading the charge and bringing the new Brooklyn; bringing in what I call the eclectic energy of Brooklyn,” Buckshot imparted. “Because Brooklyn used to always be based strictly around the death of (people) and the negative of society. Brooklyn was always based around the grimy and the gutter. I’m leading the charge in what you’re seeing right now, and the new people that’s like, ‘We don’t really even rock like that’. There’s a group called The Cool Kids and I heard somebody try to put everybody in the generic area and say that this is the ‘Cool Kid vibe’ or the skateboard vibe. And I’ll just say it like this… if non-violence is (part of being) a Cool Kid, then I’m not only down, but I’ll big up a Cool Kid every day. I’m with the new generation, the non-violent generation, that’s what I call them. ‘Cause these little dudes right now, they’re not concerned with standing on the corner, selling a bag of trees or selling a bag of crack like how we used to do it back in the days. Now they want their own businesses… this one got his own shirt company, this one got his own publishing company, this one got his own music company. This one’s got his own graphics; he’s a designer. That’s what it’s about.”

Mickey Factz

Bronx-bred Mickey Factz, a skilled rapper whose star is on the rise, was stoked to finally crack the rotation of the Festival.

“I tried to get on last year and it didn’t happen,” said a freshly-dipped Mickey Factz. “This year is actually perfect timing. They’ve got the honorable, legend KRS-One at this concert. For him to be there, for me to be there, it’s just coming full circle. The same issues that I’m going through as an artist, he was going through those same things. So to be able to be on the same stage as KRS-One, a legend of this game, is phenomenal and it’s an honor to be on the same stage with him. So this festival means a whole lot to me right now ‘cause I embody Hip-Hop.”

Six bottles of brew later, I caught up with Wes Jackson, president of The Room Service Group and founder of BHF. Wes recalled the origins of the Fest:

“I was walking around and I was like, ‘Yo, why isn’t there a festival for Hip-Hop music like there is for Jazz and Funk and Rock and Soul; why can’t we have that?’ I had just recently come back from the New Orleans Jazz Festival, which was just one of the best times I ever had. Not only in the Festival and seeing Frankie Beverly and Maze; but then after the festival, going down to Bourbon Street with my wife and just having a good time, I was like, ‘Why can’t we do this at home?’ We got the parks, we got the artists, we got the food, and we got the clubs to go to. Basically, ‘Yo, I want one of my own’. It was out of admiration. It was just that, being in the business you see this dude getting arrested and the next getting arrested; and Remy Ma shoots people in the stomach and you’re like, ‘That’s not my world’. I’m a Hip-Hop dude, but that’s not the world that I live. I’m 35 years old with a mortgage and two kids; I don’t live that life no more. I just think the other side needs to get shouted out a little bit more.”

I wanted to commit hara-kiri after missing last year’s jump-off, which featured Ghostface and Sean Price; niggas told me that shit was fire. But the last one I went to, starring Lupe Fiasco and Big Daddy Kane in ’06 was bananas too. So I’m really looking forward to this year’s Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, and I’m not just saying that ‘cause Wes and his peoples got me drunk at the Mixer. I’m speaking from the heart (*burp*).

PPP

Mickey Factz

Buckshot Ralph McDaniels

To see more pics from the event, check the Flickr Photo Set. Pics credited to the invincible Sachiko Kato.

The 4th Annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival will kick off July 10th at the Masonic Temple in Fort Greene. For more info, the calendar of events & tickets, visit www.brooklynbodega.com/brooklynhiphopfestival

Performers:

Ghostface Killah
Consequence
Skillz
Tanya Morgan
Emily King
Dres
Large Professor
Sean Price
El Michels Affair
Pack FM
Blitz The Ambassador
Kidz In The Hall
Print

DJs:

Cap Cee
J.Period
Sucio Smash

Special Guest Appearances:

Fat Joe
Chubb Rock
PMD
Jeru Tha Damaja
Channel Live

Host:

Uncle Ralph McDaniels