Saturday afternoon I finally graduated from NC State University after seven long years. What better place to celebrate on Saturday night than taking in the wisdom of the Teacher?For the show, I wore my new "NC State Graduate 2007" t-shirt that my sister gave me for graduation. I wore it mostly out of irony (although I don't really know what's ironic about it) and partly because I like wearing the red NCSU colors into the Chapel Hill area. And the people there were into the shirt, I'm happy to report. One girl even took my picture (which has me worried about how much of my soul she stole with the device).
The first opening act was a South Carolina MC named Dan Johns. You have to imagine that opening for an act as legendary as KRS-One is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it offers up more exposure than you are likely to get otherwise, and being on the same bill as an icon offers up a sort of affirmation of your work in and of itself. On the other hand, you're perfectly aware that the crowd is only vaguely interested you at best, and would probably rather use the time you're on stage to drink, smoke on the back patio, and wait for the act they are actually there to see. Dan Johns rose to the occasion. His songs were fine, (he's the first MC I know of to name-check Antwaan Randle El) but his freestyling was the real attraction. It was the first time in the admitedly limited number of live hip hop shows I've been to that I had witnessed the time-tested technique of having the crowd hold up items to freestyle about, and it worked. My favorite rhyme was "hearse" with "Why are you holding up a purse?" but that might be just me.
The second act, local icons The Away Team, was less successful in negotiating the thin line of opening for someone like KRS. The Away Team is part of the local stable of rappers the Hall of Justus/Justus League, which also features Little Brother and Cesar Comanche. Unfortunately, the crowd simply wasn't into the Away Team, and their set was surpsingly short. (Full disclosure: after Dan John's set, I snuck out back to smoke a cigarette, and missed the very begining of their set. Who schedules acts that closely together? Part of it might have been how late the show actually began- nearly an hour after the scheduled onset. Also, during their set I had a chance to briefly speak to Dan John and buy his album, so I might not be the best source on their show, but Keith agreed that it was disappointing.)
The third performer was unnanounced before the show, the poet Amir Sulaiman. Sulaiman is a spoken word/slam style poet, reminiscent of Saul Williams, the Watts Prophets and the Last Poets. He recited three or four poems, which were damn good, if not groundbreaking. His new album, Like A Thief In The Night, comes out tomorrow. I will say that in addition to being a fine poet, Sulaiman is also a canny businessman. At the merch table after the show, I went to buy his new album and he somehow talked me into buying one of his older albums at the same time. I mentioned to him that I wrote poetry as well, and next thing I knew, he was giving me a copy of his Dead Man Walking album instead of change. Not that I mind, I just think it's kind of funny.
Then came the main attraction. One of the single most influential MCs to ever rock a mic, the Blastmaster himself, the Teacher. KRS-One. I don't think I've ever seen a crowd so into a performer, and KRS-One worked the crowd as hard as he could. His set was based around the classic BDP and KRS-One solo tracks the crowd was there to see and hear- The Bridge Is Over, Black Cop, Sound of Da Police, a version of You Must Learn rapped over a classical music track. This is fine- when you see the Stones, you want to hear the tracks that made them the biggest rock band in the world, and when you see KRS-One, you want to hear why he's routinely mentioned in the same breath as Rakim as the greatest to ever rhyme over a beat.
KRS was also pushing his new album, Hip Hop Lives, a collaboration withe Marley Marl, as hard as he could. His crew blanketed the crowd with posters for the new album, which drops May 22, and played up the history he had with Marley Marl and the Juice Crew, the role they played in the rise of Boogie Down Productions. The highlight of the evening, besides the sheer visceral pleasure in being part of a crowd so enthusiastic that it verged on becoming a mosh pit near the stage, came when KRS pulled out a sharpie. He signed a copy of his book, Ruminations, he signed posters, and he signed the front of my notebook. As he left the stage early Sunday morning, he made a pointedly reminded the crowd that it was now Mother's day, and spoke out forcefully on the neccessity for respect for women, particularily within the hip hop community. He labeled himself a feminist, and I couldn't help but wonder just how many MCs would have done the same thing.
KRS-One is an icon, one of the greatest ever, and among the three or four most influential ever. He certainly has the perogative to go out and give a lackluster show, to play only the recent tracks, to give the crowd what he wants more than what it wants. But he knows better than that. He knows that he got where he is now by rocking the crowds, and that to continue to accomplish the things he still wants done, he should continue. I doubt his new album, (the tracks he played off of it sounded pretty good) will be as revolutionary as Criminal Minded, or as landmark as By Any Means Neccessary, but I'll still buy it, and not just out of nostalgia for a past I wasn't actually part of.
1 comment:
Interesting to know.
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