THE ART OF RAP FESTIVAL GOES DOWN WITH PEACE, UNITY AND A WHOLE LOTTA FRESH HIP HOP
Promoting peace and togetherness, The Art of Rap Festival streamed through the Hollywood Palladium for a night fresh beats, rhymes and unity.
Promoting peace and togetherness, The Art of Rap Festival streamed through the Hollywood Palladium for a night fresh beats, rhymes and unity.
Old school hip hop’s artist, Busy Bee came out and got the crowd fired up. He had a simple obbessage that rang throughout the night: “peace love and unity is the culture of hip hop.” He even went on to share that “there are no bitches and hos in hip hop, there are only women— single mothers, nurses, wives, girlfriends, etc.” His warm words received a hearty applause, especially when he laid down the all-time truth: “rap is something we do, hip hop is something we live”. Throughout the night Busy Bee kept things light and positive and told some stories about the old school days of hip hop. It was quite inspiring.
Headlining The Art of Rap Festival was none other than Public Enemy. The influential rap group started their set with a sweet tribute to prince by guitarist Khari Wynn playing a piece of “Purple Rain” then Chuck D came out and got the show going.
Flavor Flav busted out all decked in red, with his shirt sporting a Warner Brothers logo that read: “If you see da police, warn a brotha.” It was a clever and very fitting statement considering all the injustices that have been plaguing African Americans of the late.
Whipping out that extra Flavor Flav flavor, the eccentric rapper also slapped the bass a bit and he was actually quite good. I have never seen Flavor Flav play an instrument, so that was pretty refreshing to see. Flavor Flav tore it up with style and flair. He even shared a new song that he performed on his own with DJ Lord backing him up on the ones and twos. It was fresh!
They played everything that you would have wanted to hear which was awesome, “911 is a Joke,” “Welcome to the Terrordome,” “Brothas Gonna Work it out,” and of course, Public Enemy ended the night with the iconic rap song, “Fight the Power.” And like clockwork, Ice-T showed up on stage while they performed the classic Public Enemy number.
Towards the end of their set, Flavor Fav closed with a very positive message. He said there was only two things that he hated and that was racism and separatism.
“All this shit has gotta stop, no matter what race we come from, no matter what religion we study, no matter what part of the world we live in, at the end of the day we are all god’s children and we should all stick together and build a wall of unity.”
Then he asked for everyone to raise their fists in the air and yell; “Fuck Racism, fuck Separatism!” Flavor Flav then asked the crowd to put this sign up in the air (peace sign) as he shared, “I want this for everyone.” The crowd yelled back, “Peace! Peace and togetherness!”
Other notable performance included EPMD, who rocked the Palladium just before Public Enemy took the stage. It seemed as though this was an act that the fans were waiting for. The crowd just lit up as EPMD took to stage. They gave a pretty remarkable performance, and their DJ was straight off the hook.
Ice-T’s performance started off rocky. His DJ was having a hard time supplying the beat, but eventually got the sounds going. Ice-T came out and Coco was standing side stage mouthing all the lyrics. At one point, Ice said to the crowd, “you are all my niggaz, it doesn’t matter who you are, black, white, brown, everyone is a nigga to a nigga.” The famed rapper-turned-actor was laying down a powerful set that unfortunately lost its thunder once the audio cut out during “Colors.” At this point, Ice-T was over it and threw the mic down and walked off stage. I could not blame him for that considering the sound issues throughout the night.
Also laying down the fierce performances was Mobb Deep and classic old school rapper Kurtis Blow. Blow put on a show that came right off the streets of New York. With breakdancers and all, it was quite the thrilling set.
The Art of Rap Festival was a great night that expressed unity in a time where racial divisions are on the rise. However, this show brought out black, white, brown and Asian fans. They all came together to listen to the music they love, all with fists in the air to “fight the powers that be.”
Words & Photography: Wes Marsala
Written for Grimy Goods, July 25, 2016
FUTURE GETS PARTY STARTED AT HARRY HOUDINI’S MANSION FOR EXCLUSIVE BACARDÍ’S UNTAMEABLE ARTIST SERIES
The traffic this past Friday night did not help BACARDÍ’s Untameable Artist Series, where there was going to be a special performance by hip hop artist, Future. The 101 was closed off and the streets were jammed, it took me nearly an hour to get to the shuttle stop where I would be then taken to the famed Harry Houdini mansion. The moment I found out that I would be shooting this show I was wondering just what it would be like to go into the estate of Harry Houdini.
The traffic this past Friday night did not help BACARDÍ’s Untameable Artist Series, where there was going to be a special performance by hip hop artist, Future. The 101 was closed off and the streets were jammed, it took me nearly an hour to get to the shuttle stop where I would be then taken to the famed Harry Houdini mansion. The moment I found out that I would be shooting this show I was wondering just what it would be like to go into the estate of Harry Houdini. It was kind of how you’d expect it to be. We pulled up in the party bus and they dropped you off at the bottom of the hill, you look up the hill and see a beautifully landscaped garden with fountains, statues and Ivy going all the way up the walls. Then you see a staircase that you had to climb to get to the top where the mansion resided. The house was very nice, fairly large and nicely decorated. The Noisey team did a fantastic job of decorating the place and Bacardi set up two bars, one near the stage where Future would be performing and one on the outdoor patio upstairs, free drinks were served all night long. My Favorite drink being the “Back to Black”.
People anxiously went down to the front lawn where the stage was setup staking their perfect spot for when Future would take the stage. He went on a couple minutes late, but gave a tight performance. Playing songs from his latest release, What a Time to be Alive, a collaborative mixtape between him and Drake, Future had the crowd hyped on Bacardi and has slick rhymes. Unfortunately, the performance lasted about thirty minutes, and of course when it ended the people wanted more. Fans thought maybe there would have been an encore of some sort, but that was it. Considering this was a VIP, invite-only industry event, I wasn’t too surprised by the short set. That’s the way the cookie crumbles at these types of events … The crowd then went back upstairs to get more free drinks and listen to the DJ’s that were scheduled to play, Them Jeans and Rodney Hazard. The drinks were flowing and people began to dance to the music, all of sudden they forgot that Future only played 30 minutes. In the end, it didn’t matter. After all, partying at Houdini’s mansion alone, is enough to give anyone a thrilling experience. And if you think that is tight, you should see where Bacardi flew our editor our to last year. Now, how about Bacardi brings that back?!
Recap & Photos: Wes Marsala
Written for GrimyGoods.com, Oct 20, 2015
