ROCKSTEADY CREW 33RD ANNIVERSARY IN NEW YORK CITY & NEWARK, NEW JERSEY WEEKEND:
It's been quite along time since I been to a Free Rocksteady Live Concert. My love for Rocksteady, died when they got punked by Mayor Bloomberg for that one summer of 2003. It turns out Mayor Bloomberg had something special planned for the City of New York that same weekend, same year of the Rock Steady Anniversary, to put it in STREET TERMS: "BLOOMBERG WUZN'T HAVIN' IT!" So, since then Rocksteady Free Hip Hop Concerts in New York City been a memory.
Today, Aug. 1st, I felt like waking up on a niggeritus day (sunday) and getting dressed to travel cross state lines via New York/New Jersey transit to witness for the first time since Rocksteady decide to relocate their concert. I just wanna say, I' m glad I did but before I go any further. I would like to thank someone who been special in my life for many years, my mother. It was my mother who bought me along on the path train when I was a youngun for a lil' mother-son road trip moment. I never did forget that day until today. The day I rode out to one of the ruffest, tuffest, dirtiest, filthiest and can't forget grimiest cities on the east coast, NEWARK, N. J. and despite what the media says about NEWARK. I still had a GOOD TIME IN NEWARK! It cudn't have been made possible if it wuzn't for people like Crazylegs and The Rocksteady Crew and all their fans and supporters. Everyone reading this I want y' all to take a moment and just repeat outta respect for the Rocksteady Crew say 33 YEARS!, 33 YEARS!, 33 YEARS!, 33 YEARS!, 33 YEARS! 33 YEARS! now repeat and say it louder as loud as ur voice can get until ur voice swells....... ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCKSTEADY, Y' ALL!!!
Ok, enuff 4 da fun & games. You know I gotta AMP UP my readers before y' all delete it after you read it. I got footage of the event. Enuff coverage to lace y' all with for ur mere entertainment. I just wanna speak on the Rocksteady 33rd Anniversary in Newark, New Jersey. At 1st I thought it was raining when I left my crib to walk to the train. So pissed off at Mother Nature 4 pissing on me. The 1 time I wanna go to Rocksteady & it rains. I just hoped the transportation don't fuck with me all the way to New Jeru on this sunday. It turned out looking good. The rain did eventually stop unless it only rained in certain areas. Word on da street, Mother Nature didn't give a shit about, BROOKLYN, today.
I'm sitting on the Path train, fucking small as hell, less seating but more standing room available I guess thats how they do it stuff a bunch of Jersey niggaz on a daily, back n forth to the city in and out on a regular work week. On a good note though, The Path will get you there. The Path got in New Jersey in.... I don't even know. I wuzn't trying to keep count but that train moved like the muh' fucken L I R R or AmTrak or something.
Once I got to Jersey, I touched the most dangerous turf, NEWARK! I aint gonna front I was shook but you know me I travel no where UNPROTECTED, belee dat. I came out the Newark Penn station and headed for the bus #62 to Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park thats where the Rocksteady Concert is going down. I'm sittin' down on these Newark City buses mad and jealous as hell. These fuckin' buses all cushioned up they got luggage racks in the front of the bus. The fuckin' coin dispenser by the driver accepts dollar bills. Dats sum fucked up shit man, why can't Brooklyn buses have any of that. Brooklyn buses need comfort and luxury. Despite the luxury of the Newark City buses though you still gotta drive through the ghetto. At least when your going through the ghetto you'll be going through in style. New Jersey's hoods, GOT IT MADE! I'm on the bus going down Market street. Now to any other New Yorker who happens to be in New Jersey on this afternoon you would probably see Market street aint no different than Fulton st, Jamaica Ave, Flatbush Av, Fordham Rd and so forth. The reason why I say this is because I hear so much negativity always being said about the violence that goes down in Newark, N. J. but coming to a Rocksteady Free Live Hip Hop Concert in Lincoln Park on Broad St. and Clinton Pl. all of that negative media jargon disappeared. I aint see none of dat once I arrived.
As soon as I walked into the park the 1st thing to my mind was, "Dam, I knew The Brownbag Allstars was going to be performing around the same time as I showed up". The 2nd thing, was, "This looks like a festival". All I see are people with different vendor tables selling items and food and a stage performance area. They even had a square checker board lay out implanted into the grassy mole of the park for b-boy/b-girl battles. Out of all that the one thing I didn't see and that was security. No security, no metal detectors and no bag searchers. I was shocked, it looks like Crazylegs and The Rocksteady are more loose and more open to the public. Perhaps this is the reason, Rocksteady prefer to have the free concert over here in Newark, NJ rather than New York City.
I walked around some more trying to see who's in the house. Phat shout to EOW, who had their very own table slangin' EOW products and EOW were also the host of the day. Who were later joined by Hot 97's own Dj Peter Rosenberg. I showed up to the Rocksteady Anniversary at 2:11pm. It was still early nuthing didn't pop off yet. I actually made it in a nick of time. The performance began shortly after that. The first on the scene was an I believe, Canadian Femcee that goes by name of Eternia. (Shout out to Canada for doin' it real big in the rap game lately nuhmean to cats like Drake) Back to Eternia's performance this is a gurl I been wanting to hear for the past 2 months ever since I missed her in store appearance at Fat Beats back in Jun. She's a pretty, cute and sweet female with a hardcore lyrical twist to her slang. She burst onto the stage wearing a black T-shirt that reads, "Why White Female Emcees Wear Mini Skirts" and the irony. She was wearing a low cut denim mini skirt. The outfit made her look cute. They always say, your first impression is what people will always think of you. Well, what I thought of her was a full fired, energetic emcee thats ready to take the stage and the crowd. Later, she actually joined in the crowd (or should I say jumped in the crowd) with some upfront performance. If you just happened to be in that vicinity at that time y' all would of looked at it as VIP treatment. Phat shout out to Dj Boo who helped Eternia carry her portion of the show.
However act two and I say act two because I'm unsure whether or not this person is a well known emcee. The next emcee introduced to the stage went by the name of Reckless. I believe he's an Newark resident. He didn't look much Reckless to me. He didn't receive too much love for his one song performed but as stated before his performance. He did mention he was also a dancer and the crowd acknowledged and saluted Reckless more for his choregraphed dancesteps than his music. Which is cool it seems making up dances to go with a rap record is popular these days (go figure). I just felt bad for Reckless because after his performance this man came on right after him. The man who hates FUCKING RAPPERS!, Pack FM. Being that Reckless is a rapper was that wise to put Pack FM on right after him. Were you guyz trying to say something. Pack FM coming onto the stage with Mecca of The Source Magizine Famlee and special guest, Newark, N. J's own Pace Won. Pace Won, I haven't seen him inna minute it felt good seeing him again. These guyz rocked this set. Which is always gonna be more likely whenever you have "EMCEES ON STAGE THAT FUCKING HATES RAPPERS!" I gotta admit it I used to fucking hate Pack FM but I was tripping back then.
Next up the one man De La Soul, Mickey Factz comes on stage. Before I go any further I want it noted his name shud be changed to Hippie Factz. Despite his 50 year old attire he is still a good artist. The time was whinding down and coming amongst us. Imma be real, theres only a few artist I actually came out here to see today and one of them was up next.
Everyone reading this across the land I want to put your hands up for THE LORDS OF THE UNDERGROUND and if you can't say it all just say LOTUG. I was so happy to see the Lords of the Underground but something wasn't right. There's something missing, NO MR FUNKEE! WHERE'S MR. FUNKEE? I was still happy to see Do It All but the performance is not the same with just 1 half of the group and during the whole time Do It All was performing he never bought up Mr Funkee's name. He never mentioned anything to the crowd. We didn't hear anything of Mr Funkee's whereabouts. I just hope he's alright. You know what I think, I think they broke up. It's the same ol' same ol', we lost The Artifacts, we lost Das Efx and now LOTUG. Okay I maybe jumping the gun. I hope LOTUG are still together and I hope we can get another lp out of them whether it be major or independent. This the hip hop I grew up on.
Speaking of hip hop I grew up on. Here's a brother I never seen in concert before. Now this time readers I want y' all to throw ur peace signs up and ur "A's" and let's say A' SALAAM A' LACUUM to our GOD and GOD Emcee, Larkim Shabazz. This was gr8 I felt like that 8 yr old boy watching him for the first time. Where have Larkim been all these years? Larkim Shabazz performed 2 of his power refinement single from the 80s, "Black is back" "Fade the black" and then he went on to perform a new song for an upcoming album he has coming out. That's right, the GOD is back. The day just keeps getting betta I should have known I spoken too soon.
Next up another emcees from the late 80s early 90s, Chill Rob G. I wasn't really feeling his performance I was never a Chill Rob G fan. You would think after all these years his music might have grown on me by now. Skip all that bullshit cuz now this is the knitty gritty.
The moment of truth, the moment everyone been waitin' for Mr Uh Uh Uh, "BIG DADDY KANE". I got another chance to see Big Daddy Kane perform again this summer. Kane performing, "Aint No Half Steppin", "Warm It Up, Kane", "The Wrath of Kane" and other superb hits. I never miss a chance to see Kane perform but this time Kane aint come alone. He bought some friends along, y' all remember Scoob and Scrap. Big Daddy Kane performance was so ill but what he did at the very end when he called out Rocksteady to battle him, Scoob and Scrap that was sick. After all that mayhem on stage the performers had to take a breather, the crowd had to take a breather. If this was football it would be halftime.
Everyone went for halftime but during halftime we got to enjoy one of my favorite djs of all time, The 3X Dj Champion-Dj Scratch do his turntablism segment. This been a good day for me twice I got a chance to see 2 supersters that I already seen perform this summer. This day just given me that opportunity to see them all over again. Dj Scratch's segment was awhile but gr8 which lead into the introduction of EPMD. EPMD, another group who I just saw recently perform at Queensbridge Park on Jul 15th. I don't know what happened I like EPMD and everything but they were lame. They did the same exact routine. Performed the exact same songs that they did at Queensbridge Park. Oh that super freestyle that I thought Erick Sermon spit at Queensbridge Park, he spatted it at Rocksteady some freestyle that was. Seeing EPMD perform at Rocksteady was a waste of time especially if your going to do the same exact thing that you just did like 2 weeks ago. Sure Eric & Parrish your probably saying, "no one in Newark was at Queensbridge, 2 weeks ago" maybe true but I was there and I'm that type of nigga that wud put you on blast kinda like what I'm doin' now.
I had an excellent time out there in Newark for Rocksteady's 33rd Anniversary. I manage to get alot of footage and y' all will be seein' it up on here real soon.
I just want to send a thank you to the Newark NJ police department who were on patrol that day. The reason I need to shout out the Newark Police department because quote on quote people claim that this community is a so call high crime area but yet they manage to put an event that began from 12 in the afternoon and ended at 9pm. I don't know too many high crime areas that will let an event go on till 9pm at night all because the media and the residence are too scared, boo hoo grow some balls. I was out there and I had a gr8 time and enjoyed a gr8 33rd anniversary and most definitely looking forward to attending the 34th anniversary along with other Rocksteady events. All the events all over again. I wanna pick up where I left off.
From Yours Truly,
Your Favorite Writer's Favorite Writer Dj Handspin
