Double Dipping

Ripping the microphone till I'm .......60

If I was in front of Shakespeare I''d battle the punk and take his ish

Come to me as the rap god of lyrical syllable

What can I say KRS-one rocked the house! Yea the Rakim show was hyped but I was a little troubled by the fact that his dj for the night, the legendary Kid Capri, wasn't scratching vinyl. The real hip hop is over where? I guess I'm just like that Michell n Ness gear i.e I'm a throwback.... back to where DJ's actually rocked vinyl. Vinyl man I've never been able to master the skill myself but I've always had that awe for the cut and the scratch where a dj can create something amazing with the wax.

Not that I'm dissing the Kid Capri cause he represented lovely no doubt. I'm just saying I was a little disappointed that he was using the Serato scratch and mixing mp3 and not vinyl. Its nitpicking really cause you still need the skills to rock that stuff and the overall show was tight. I mean Rakim even did one of his tracks while actually sitting down on a chair in the middle of the stage. I've never seen that at a hip hop show before and the ability to do that and still rock, maintain the audience attention and captivate the crowd was pretty amazing. But then again Rakim is a living legend with those classics, that repertoire, that the crowd can just sing along with word for word syllable for syllable. "I kick a hole in the speaker pull the mic and then jet!"" I take 7 mcs put em in a line.... " That real Boom Bap!

Actually interesting thing about that show. Don't think I've ever seen so many camera phones and video cameras at a concert like that before. In fact the whole show is available on youtube. I may actually post a bit of it over at the other site where I talk to myself.

Toronto the old school Mecca that it has recently become has seen KRS, Rakim, Chubb Rock, Mc Lyte, Schooly D, Tribe called Quest and BCC in the space of a few weeks. Its crazy!

Anyway back to the KRS-one show. Despite the fact that the sound system sucked big time Kris really ripped it. If I had to nitpick I'd say that whole "the real hip hop is over here" call and response bit gets a bit overdone and a little tired but other than that no complaints the show was nice.

Krs did his range of hits from Criminal Minded all the way through the BDP era into his solo era dropping little bits of freestyle along the way as his dj, DJ Cocheze represented on the ones and twos complete with vinyl. Kris even rocked a couple of his classics over straight classical music instrumentals; some Mozart tune and Pachobel's canon I believe. How's that for originality? Not only that but at one point he actually came from off stage and did a segment of his show in the midst of the crowd moving from spot to spot. How many hip hop artists can do that? Yep imagine standing there in the crowd and Kris is right next to you rhyming. That's crazy son!

The crowd was pretty hyped too. I got closer to the stage than a guy my age should but I held my own. Yo kids was straight wilding up front.

Anyway it a great concert although according to my boy not as good as the Hamilton show last Monday because there KRS did a two hour set, got some of the crowd to come up and freestyle and also had more screaming girls than a Nick Lachey concert.

Now you're probably wondering what my double dipping title is all about. Well the concert venue for the show double dipped. I kid you not. It was the strangest thing. Got to the spot at 9 when doors were supposed to open and got in without spending any real time in line. That never happens at a hip hop show.

The show pretty much started at 10 when it was supposed to start. That pretty much never ever happens at a hip hop show.

But at 1130 the show was ending. That never happens at a hip hop show. At 1130 the dj is usually warming up the crowd with Sound Bwoy Bureill, Passing me by, T.R.O.Y and How high and saying that the act is in the building and will be out in 15 minutes. And that's when the show was supposed to start at 9.

Well as it turns out when we were leaving we saw a lineup outside and found out it was rnb night at the venue as well so they held the concert early and then kicked out the hip hop crowd for their usual Friday night rnb jam. Now I don't know what you think but I call that double dipping and I think that's foul.