REVIEW WRITTEN BY MICHAEL GRANT-HARVEY, UK AMBASSADOR FOR WU-WORLDWIDE DJ COALITION
If you were to ask a regular Hip Hop head, what was the greatest year in Hip Hop, chances are they would say either 1988, or 1994… the odd few may say 1998, but ask me that same question. I would tell you… 2019. Now I know what you’re thinking….who-what-where-why-how?
Think about 2019 for a minute. Think of the albums that came out at that time. Let me refresh your memory because I can still see your confusion. Smif N Wessun – The All, Black Moon – Rise Of Da Moon, Gangstarr – One Of The Best Yet, WWCD by Griselda, Ghostface Killah came with a banger, Erick Sermon – Vernia, Rapsody – Eve, Apollo Brown with Sincerely Detroit, Inspectah Deck – Chamber No.9, Pete Rock & Skyzoo with Retropolitan, MED & Guilty Simpson brought you – Child Of the Jungle, Nas released the second volume of his Lost Tapes…this may not even be the full list, but the one album which stood out was Little Brother’s May the Lord Watch, because out of nowhere, Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh suddenly reunited and gave the listener that classic 9th Wonderful sound without including 9th Wonder himself, and successfully pulled it off without breaking a sweat. Then they announced the tour but along came a jezebel named Corona and shut the world down.
Fast forward to 2022 and the hip hop gates have opened again. Gutted that the Little Brother show was forcibly cancelled in 2020 (among other shows) so imagine my reaction when I opened my email from The Jazz Cafe announcing that Apollo Brown, Guilty Simpson, Rapper Big Pooh and Skyzoo were touring together. It was a no brainer! This was ‘cannot miss territory’. Then the three emcees rhyming over Apollo Brown beats dominated my head for the last few months leading up to this night.
Major props goes out to the promoters ‘The Doctor’s Orders’, who knew with regret NOT to bring on an opening act and just have their resident DJ play those boom bap beats of yesteryear, so it would have been a sad night for fans of say…Lil Uzi Vert. As the clock struck 9, Apollo Brown steps up on stage and ‘warms up the set’ with his biggest beats over the last decade. At this point Apollo has realised that ‘How To Kill God’ he produced with Ras Kass is a crowd pleaser and was the adrenaline shot needed before the three emcees graced the stage. It also appeared that going by the crowd, the order of emcees to step up on stage was correct too.
Consider Guilty Simpson as a ‘glorified’ opening act who could do no wrong (see what I did there)… performing several tracks from the 2012 heater ‘Dice Game’ and from this performance alone, it became quickly apparent that everyone’s favourite tracks from the three emcees were not going to be performed due to time constraints and also the incredible catalogue between the three of them, but Simpson had an ace up his sleeve, bringing the Jazz Café back to February 10 when he performed ‘Jungle Love’ in honour of J Dilla.
Timing could never be better for Rapper Big Pooh. His new project ‘To Dream In Color’ just hit the streaming sites (August 22, 2022) so the one half of Little Brother took the opportunity to perform a couple of tracks from it to get the crowd familiar if they were not already. With Changing Again already doing the rounds and he complimented that with ‘God’s Grace’ which going by the way it was presented to the crowd could well be the next single/video from that project. the North Carolina emcee came with an ace of his own… Welcome to the Heart Of the City from the Hall Of Justus mixtape singles files released back in 2004.
The vibe I got in the Jazz Café were pretty much identical to mine… not taking away from the others, people came to see the Brooklyn Born MC. The First Generation Rich Superstar showed his humbleness from the get go, stating he always wanted to perform at the Jazz Café and taking his hand, rubbing the stage of the venue. It was a beautiful thing to have him perform tracks from The Easy Truth and Retropolitan which would have pleased the owner of the Unique Heat blogsite. The bad news was that if Jay-Z is one of Skyzoo’s influences, that holds true as fans see The Salvation album as Sky’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’, and just like when I saw Hova back in 2010, not one track was performed from that classic.
As stated earlier, all three emcees are easily forgiven for not performing all the big tunes they wanted. They were given a 90 minute window, so they had to split the time with each other, and with the venue closing at 11pm, the good news was it gave the fans 30 minutes to meet Apollo Brown and his friends, so imagine if the show featured one of them… nonetheless it was money well spent, and it shows that fans are guaranteed a different show every time unlike other artists who have to rely on their 90s hits to get a good show even though they have new music out…sometimes the crowd have a far away look in their eye when they try to perform anything new. That was not the case with the Jazz Café crowd, such a refreshing feeling to be among like-minded people.
The other gripe is I just wished somehow Phonte found himself on the plane to Europe and the UK, and until Little Brother come over…my thirst will never be quenched. Corona still owes us that much.
https://podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/10362822?autoplay=false
RePPiN 4U 