The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is B-Girl Heaven.

When I went to sleep on Saturday morning,
at 7:13am, I did not have a ticket to the
Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival.

By 12:30 pm. I did. THANK YOU JASE.

You ever go to a function and the energy just crackles.


Like YOU KNOW you are about to have the time of your life.

Thats how it went down.

I gets there.

Firmly plants my @ss up front.

I wanna be so close to the speaker
that when they play the Bridge is Over,
I feel my kidneys jiggle.


Couple people I ran into were like, you here by yourself?

I was like, Yessir.

A few weeks ago, Your boy the liberterian introduced
me to classmates parent and described me as someone
who has , " a 5 foot party periphery around her at all times."
At first I thought he was being funny. Then I realized that sh*t was true.

Dolo ain't a problem.
I mean its a HH festival in BK. I ain't alone!



Without further adieu, I present to you, my BK HH Festival Rundown.

THE CROWD
The crowd was like democracy on crack.
White Folks. Babies. Old school Bronx b-boys.
Young bucks w/ tribe t.shirts.
Fly ladies.
Frat Boys.
Mexicano's.
Filipinos.
Negros.

Just straight LOVE.

In fact in observing the crowd, I began to wonder if
is the unifying nature of Hip Hop why Pac is dead.

I can't think of any other thing could bring
this mixture of people together.

THE ARTISTS.
TANYA MORGAN
These cats were on stage when I arrived.

They are some charismatic, Hip Hop loving dudes.

I MEAN.

EMCEES, who are HAPPY to be rapping.

They have an exciting stage presence.

The BEATS KNOCK. HOOOOOOOWWWWRD.

Peep SITTIN AT THE BAR. It go <------as the hyphy kids say it. SH*T is life affirming.

In fact. Their energy reminds me of Pharcyde.

EMILY KING
This jawn has some pipes.

Her voice is like teena marie's lil
b-girl sister.

Fly style. Check.

Plays guitar. Check.

Crazy B-girl swag. Double check.

Emily is a winner.

Buy her music.

EXTRA P.
So old boy is in my lane. I have an affinity for
the horn rimmed, malcom X glass wearing cats.



His set was short. Yet perfect.

The Bug out, is that he had salt and pepper in his beard.
Awwwwish.

Grown Man Emcee!

And I think his daughter was on stage. Posted up, taking
pictures. Awishhh. Hip hop. A family affair.

THE EL-MICHAELS AFFAIR
These cats BLEW MY MIND.
Their music is like Fela meets Tower of Power.
I.
Kid.
You.
Not.

My favorite part of their set was "Guess the Wu Tang beat".

They played WU instrumentals, LIVE.

DUDE.

The moments after they played the tune,
you could see almost feel hip hop brain waves
rippling through the crowd
trying to figure out, WHAT BEAT IS THIS?

After the first 10 or 20 seconds, we would figure out
and folks would shout out OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH's.
That sh*t was like church.

SKILLS
Skills is a rappers rapper.
A performers performer.

I been new about him.

BUT.

To witness him is another experience.

You know what it is?


HE IS AN ENTERTAINER.

And smart as sh*t.
I mean. It has been so long that \
an emcees rhymes were so fly that
I just wanted to be their friend.

"i feel that hip hop if it isnt careful will
maybe go the same route that jazz music went..after a while the people
wont care...they wont support it or come see it... Same shit...different music"

Artist do that. You know?

He engages with the crowd.

He's comical.

Works the stage.

Asks for and expects crowd participation.

I would actually PAY to go see him.

Like somma that outta pocket 2007 Hip Hop show
in Manhattan ticket prices.

Feel me?

JERU
Ol' boy stopped by and did the water song.

He wasn't even on the line up. Just popped by.

MAN. LISSEN.

Can you imagine. Sunny day.
Brezzy.

74 degrees. Perfect periwinkle blue sky.

And hearing the little,

Bloomp, Bloomp, Bloomp, Bloomp... You wanna buck whhhhat?

Buck Shot popped by and did "I gotchu opin."

He wasn't scheduled either.

Dres did a Fever for the Flavor,
and some new songs.

By this time it was 5 something.

Ghost was scheduled for 7.

I had been standing up for about 3.5 hours and wanted
to go get some carbs and a nap and come back.

My boy Jase was like,

"Ghost isn't coming on till 9."

I was like word.

I thought about it.

DRES was on stage performing his new sh*t.

I was like. Ummm. Laters on these.

M.Dot was ty-yerd.

So I bounced.

So im sitting in the middle of lemonade refill,
a twenty minute walk away from the festival
and I get a text from Jase,

"Ghost is performing".

Dude. It was 7:41. I was piiiiissssssed.

But.

I kept it moving.

I went home.

Got dressed and got scooped by my
gurl, and went to ,Jamaica Flatbush
and then to a party in Fort Greene where I danced
so hard my feet were 'bout to declare mutiny.

So.

In hindsight.

I missed Ghost.

But I got Extra P.

So Im happy.

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Did you go to the festival?

If you could choose the line up,
who would you add?

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