Went last night. (apparently the Kennedy Center is gonna make it a yearly thing, this year was hip hop and jazz. Maybe next year, hip hop and country?...)
The Place to Be - The Kennedy Center
Who was in the Building - Grey beards and Pot Bellies. Kangols and Bucket Hats. A fair # of white folks, but Chocolate City Overwhelmed. This wasn't the place to look for broads though. More than a few females was in the spot, some drug there by husbands and boyfriends, a few with their GFs. Maybe some waist trainers for the few, but a lot of flabby arms, and un-lost recipes.
And this was a seated show, though closest to the stage did get up and party. (Nice to see from my demographic that's gotten super boring)
The Lead Up - The person other than Jazzy J was playing hits. First song I heard was Ain't No Half Stepping. The vibe was chill. No metal detectors, ushers in their 70's and 80s. At the same time, no ciphers, no politicking, no high capping, etc...
Jazzy Jeff - So he did his little speech on the connections between hip hop and jazz...and doctrinally...lemme take my academic hat off.. He did an "elder statesman" set. Play the break (aka the sample), and the audience is like "I know that from somewhere" and you feel lucky if you get it before the hip hop track comes in. Digging in the Crates folks probably weren't too surprised. I knew at least half of them myself. Nowadays I consume music like a pseudo producer. Look up the sample, listen to the OG, listen to the album that has the OG, and then let the algorithm rock.
Ravi Coltrane and the Rakim Trio - In my head, I had an idea of what this could have been, but instead, it's what we've all heard before. I can't judge Ravi at all. What I heard was excellent, but I'm not a jazz head by any means.
It's how folks typically incorporate saxophones in hip hop - beat plays in the background, live sax over it.
I thought this could be something different than that.
If you've ever seen The Roots play, they replay a lot of popular joints...it's never quite as "krunk" (to use Questlove's "term").
But it could have been Ravi playing some horn breaks, bring in the OG, and then bring in the hip hop. I really don't know how many hip hop samples feature saxes AND are very popular.
This is the first thing that comes to mind, but I'm sure some of you crate geeks got a whole playlist..
Rakim - It's the God Mc. When they talk about the "repose of cool", they're talking about Rakim. I don't know he's as stoic as they come, but at the same time he's cracking jokes between songs. White Nikes, All Black 'Fit, and a Yankees Cap.
The Set List
- Saga Begins
- Move the Crowd
- Guess Whoe's Back
- In the Ghetto
- Microphone Fiend
- Some song I don't know - gotta be on 18th letter or after that.
- Mahogany
- His verse from Addictive - (that Truth Hurts song)
- What's On Your Mind
- I Ain't no Joke
- Don't Sweat the Technique
- Follow the Leader (In the Acapulco style (c) Jazzy Jeff)
- Some dude kept yelling for this, and I was like ain't no way he's gonna do this
- I was happy to be wrong
- Juice
- Paid in Full (The OG mix, not the Coldcut/Arabic mix)
He also did his verse from Classic - Nas, Rakim, Krs-One.
Overall
Rakim still got it. He was never a Blastmaster or like Kane, so it's that style of understatement/classic NY.
The sound (at the damn Kennedy Center!) wasn't really that good. It was hard to tell if the bass player or the keys was doing anything. Rakim wasn't that crisp either, same with Ravi. Which, in my experience is typical for hip hop. Folks have fun because they know the songs, they don't need to hear it for the first time and immediately enjoy it.
It was nice. I started yapping at other folks on what we all just saw, and for a brief second, it was back in the day. When you'd leave a show and started talking to folks, as opposed to everyone on their phones trying to grab an Uber....
