Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Media Mixer. 6.23.08. NYC.
Events By TSSCrew on July 1, 2008 at 3:40 pmWords 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”.
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.”
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*).
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
Posted in Events, GENERAL — Tags: Brooklyn Bodega, Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, Buckshot, Events, Mickey Factz, Platinum Pied Pipers, Ralph McDaniels
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24 Comments
first
i’ve seen three more nas songs leak today wheres the album?
zshare.net/audio/14527852057da146/
^^^^^^
nas – you can’t stop us now
seems like the whole album is leaking track-by-track…
on another note i cant stand mickey factz…
http://www.zshare.net/audio/14529126fe894e63/
New nas
Can’t stop me me now
http://thefader.cachefly.net/queensgetthemoney.mp3
plus breathe is on nah right
Yeah, it’s upon us.
Jonathan Samuel June 30, 2008 @ 11:55 PM
Definantly copping on 7/15, but we need some Lost Tapes so we can hear “New York Stomp”, “White Man’s Paper”, “The Whole World is a Ghetto”, “Like Me”, “The Fear”, and all the rest of the tracks that are locked up in the vault. What’s the point of not releasing this music? Sony needs to unlock the vaults and release the rest of the music too.
what about these first three songs ? what about this comments on nasir site !!!
damn the album is leaked tomorow i think …
i hope nas will be Gold nevertheless! but I trust the buzz !
Do I hear dripping………..?
They still spell my name fucked up / It’s B-L-U/ and if you see the E, drop ‘em
Oh, there’s a Brooklyn brother on the TSS crew? Word. Seven One Eight, stand the fuck up!
I feel bad that I aint been back to BK in so long. It’s practically criminal. I defintely feel you on that Starbucks latte shit. Brooklyn created the stereotype for what “The bad part of town” should look like, I kinda miss that…
But I’m still Bedstuy till I die.
*pounds chest twice and throws up a deuce*
WIth this post & the Nas joints, TSS is feeling real NY today!!!
Yeah, I miss the old New York too. Back when 42nd used to be grimey, pre-Guliani & Walt Disney. Looks like an amusement park down there now I was born & raised in Queens, moved to Harlem when I was 14, moved to The Bronx when I was 22 & have lived in Brooklyn for the past 2 years, so even though Uptown is in my heart, I rep NY as a whole. It’s only right.
Good read, Strick. Eff Mtv, I was raised on Video Music Box. Uncle Ralph is a pioneer.
Wow…Uncle Ralph….wonder where Crazy Sam )(Nervous Thursdays) and Tuffy are???
Artist: Brooklyn Zu
Album Title: Chamber #9, Verse 32
01 we comin’ for ya 04:41
02 brooklyn zu 03:01
03 do it for (feat. odb) 04:19
04 blood is love 04:30
05 cold world 04:03
06 knock knock (feat. gza) 04:14
07 eat ya food (feat. killah priest & masta k 03:36
08 baby 04:07
09 pass the mic 04:02
10 party with the zu 03:48
11 get dirty some beers skit 00:12
12 pour my liquor 03:26
13 if i had a gun (feat. shavo of system of a 04:07
14 put yo’ peoples on 04:17
15 marvelous 04:46
16 get that cheese (feat. shyheim) 02:39
17 so much 2 say 05:28
18 shut ya trap (feat. prodigal sunn) 03:30
19 dirty outro 00:32
——–
69:18 min
84.4 MB
Rip Notes
———
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Brooklyn ZU album Chapter 9 Verse
32. This is a group composed of Ol’ Dirty Bastard and
his close associates 12 O’Clock, Shorty Shitstain,
Murdock, Zu Keeper, Silkski, Buddha Monk, and D the
dragon on the West Coast. First heard on Ol’ Dirty
Bastard’s “Return to the 36 Chambers”. The group
has made a number of Wu album appearances since,
and they have recorded a number of tracks which
later appeared on Popa Wu’s “Visions of the 10th
Chamber”. They were once collectively tied with the
“old” United Kingdom group. 12 O’Clock is ODB’s
younger brother. Dirty’s cousin is Zu Keeper.
http://uploaded.to/file/328w73/Ol_Dirty_Bastards_Brooklyn_Zu-Chamber_9_Verse_32-2008-XXL.rar
OR
http://rapidshare.com/files/126463727/Ol_Dirty_Bastards_Brooklyn_Zu-Chamber_9_Verse_32-2008-XXL.rar
‘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?’
- Wes Jackson
Good read, Strick. Eff Mtv, I was raised on Video Music Box. Uncle Ralph is a pioneer.
- AmpGeez a.k.a Dirty New Yorker Says:
Ditto all!!!!
…And let’s not forget the term Uncle Ralph coined the phrase “Shout Out!” which everyone is jocking!
NYC Swagger!
E-Hef
my apologies to Blu.
i know, it ain’t “blue”.
microsoft’s spell check fucked it up, my ninja.
-1.
The line up of artists is from last year. This year’s artists are KRS-One, Buckshot, Blu and Exile, Mickey Factz, Zaki Ibrahim, DJ Premier, Fresh Daily, J.Period, Homeboy Sandman, many special guests.
testing avatar
WHATS UP WIT ALL THESE BROKE NIGGAZ COMIN OUT THE CLOSET ?!?!! …. I SEE YOU BUCKSHOT !!!
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info