(Akron Beacon Journal)Hip Hop Showcase
by Malcolm X Abram
As far as I could tell, everyone who attended the first Hip Hop Showcase at Lock 3 Park last year had a darn good time partying with headliners Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick.
The 2009 edition of the Hip Hop Showcase will take place on Sept. 5 and will feature three more emcees from the ''true-school'' era with KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane. Also on the bill will be Buckshot.
''Blastmaster'' KRS-One, aka the Teacher, gained fame as half of Boogie Down Productions with the late Scott LaRock. He has been one of the more stridently ''conscious'' voices in hip-hop, always trying to keep the culture on the path of positivity, and produced at least two of the genre's classic albums in Criminal Minded and By All Means Necessary.
The B-I-G D-A-Double D-Y K-A-N-E was once considered one of hip-hop's top wordsmiths and, just as KRS-One, was a big influence on young rappers. His debut album, Long Live the Kane, went gold, which was still a pretty rare feat for hip-hop in 1989 and featured several classic joints such as Raw and the Heatwave sampling Ain't No Half Steppin'.
Buckshot was the rapper for the group Black Moon, which had hits with How Many Emcees and Who Got the Props. As a solo artist, he never found the same commercial success but is still producing. His most recent single is with KRS-One and is called Robot, a raging indictment of the dominance of autotune (released shortly before Jay-Z's Death of Autotune in case you're keeping score) in commercial hip-hop.
Also on the bill will be Cleveland's world traveling DJ Mick Boogie; Columbus rap trio Fly.Union; Cleveland-bred, Brooklyn-based hip-hop band Poetic Republic and local poet/rapper Ace Boogie.
For more information on the Hip Hop Showcase go HERE
1 comment:
Definately check out Poetic Republic. On any night, they can make the best sounds in the world.
I've seen them play twice at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland: they got heavy hip-hop and heavy jazz influences.
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