Monday night I went to a benefit for Hurricane Katrina. The lineup was:
Monday, 9/19, BB King Blues Club (42nd St.), $25 advance, 10pm:
DEAD PREZ * TALIB KWELI * Q-TIP * THE BEATNUTS * THE
X-ECUTIONERS * DAVID BANNER * REMY MARTIN * MEMPHIS
BLEEK * DJ ASSASSIN * & other Special Invited Guests
Dave Chapelle was there unannounced, Styles P, and the Last Poets were also there.
We got to the club around 10:30, and the place was barely full (capacity is 1000). I found this surprising, since there were a lot of well known rappers that would be appearing. The stage was setup very simple- just some turntables and that was about it. And frankly that was all that was needed as this was just going to be a raw, stripped down hip hop show to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Q-Tip was the emcee and DJ for the night, but didn't actually perform. He made some opening remarks that escalated into a ramble about the Hurricane that went on so long I eventually tuned out. After his speech, the Last Poets came out to vent about the disgraceful handling of the Hurricane survivors and read some of their poems. The standout piece was "America is a Terrorist." If I recall correctly, the last lines were "Evil uses Christianity to bring the world to its knees" followed by "You cannot kill what you can't see." I haven't been able to find the whole poem online, but if I do, I'll post it.
Next up was the Beatnuts. They got the crowd going by playing "Off the Books." Unfortunately, I'm Beatnut-ignorant so I can't really report details from the rest of the set. Look, I'm impressed with myself for even knowing THAT song.
After they were done, we went up to the bar to get our drink on at $9 A SHOT. Ridiculous. AND they didn't even have sugar to coat my lemon wedge for the Lemon Drop shots I had ordered. So basically I just drank shots of straight vodka with some lemon juice squeezed in it. Being a typical girl, I normally favor fruity drinks, so this was a little hard to take. But it helped me accomplish my goal of reaching a fantastic buzz, so I got over it.
While we were up at the bar, a man was on stage speaking to the crowd. But since we were talking amongst ourselves, we didn't hear what he was saying. Suddenly he freaked out and screamed "EXCUSE ME!!!" into the mic several times until the crowd shut up. He was yelling that his family was murdered recently (!) and ordered us to be quiet and say a prayer. That's what you call a showstopper. And a total buzzkill. But I am not going to apologize for socializing at the bar. After all, Q-Tip told us to have a good time, and that's all I was trying to do. I continued to drink as if nothing had happened and was back to feeling good in no time.
Saigon, known from the HBO show Entourage, was up next. I honestly had no clue he was a real rapper. A friend asked how long he's been around and I said "Not that long. Turtle like JUST discovered him."
When he finished, some Katrina survivors that were in attendance came up on stage to thank everyone. A man in his early 40s and a small boy came out to introduce two girls who had written a song about the craziness they just went through. The man said that they had been up on their roof up until 8 days before the concert and had gone 59 hours without food. The girls' names escape me, but they said they're going on tour soon, so hopefully they'll get some cash from their music to get back on their feet. Some of their lyrics talked about being locked in their attic for shelter for a few days in a row. I can't even picture dealing with that kind of scenario. But the real tearjerker moment was when the little boy enthusiastically shouted "I'm a New Orleans survivor!" and smiled. I almost lost myself in the moment and *gasp* expressed emotion in public. While the girls performed, he was running around dancing with them and even crowdsurfed, which was adorable. Imagine going through all that BS and still managing to find a way to enjoy life so soon after? I guess the lesson to be learned from them is that you can sit and feel sorry for yourself, or give thanks that you're alive and celebrate.
Next up was Talib Kweli. At this point, I was feeling very nice due to vodka and the weed-saturated air I was inhaling. I had never had an honest-to-goodness contact high before. Needless to say I wouldn't mind it happening again. As a result of this, Talib's performance is a blur. But I remember noticing that the crowd was at its largest during his set. The highlight for me was "Just ta Get By." I saw him open for the Beastie Boys and he was great, but I never went to check out his stuff. I guess I should.
After Talib was Memphis Bleek. At this point I was in a full-on haze. Apologies to Bleek fans, because I don't remember a damn thing except that he was wearing a really bright orange striped shirt. In fact Styles P's set was blurry as well. Now that it was closer to 1am, the crowd had begun to thin out, as people had to run to catch trains (the last ones depart around 1:30), or were leaving in order to get sleep for work. But thanks to liquor, sense of responsibility escaped me, so I stayed.
It was somewhere in this time frame that Dave Chappelle came out on stage to say a few words about the event. As my friend said: he should have just come out and said "Hi everyone. I'm not performing. Back to the rappers!" It was cool to see him, as he was one of the current hot topics in the press all year. However, it was slightly disappointing, since my primary reason for going to this event was because of the rumor that he'd perform. But I'll live. Nothing will ever top being at the taping for the Wayne Brady episode of his Comedy Central show anyway.
After a short set from the X-Ecutioners, Remy Martin (from "Lean Back" fame- bouncers don't check her, she just walks around the metal detectors) came out. She is a very intense woman. With really, um, interesting hairstyle choices: completely blonde bangs, and then long black hair with red highlights. But somehow it works for her. She did a lot of freestyle and did her part of "Lean Back" live as well as "Conceited."
Finally, emerging around 2:30am from a barrage of camera flashes sidestage came David Banner. Prior to this performance, all I knew of Banner was his quote that the Suge Knight shooting at Kanye West's VMA party was something that's normal at events with a lot of people. Um. Yeah. Not so much. By now, there were only maybe a little over a hundred people left in the club. It was like a house party at this point.
His set was basically 4 or 5 songs- none of which I can tell you because like a lot of the performers on this bill, I wasn't familiar with his work. In between songs, he would go on incredibly long rants, about the situation down south, the state of the US and George Bush, etc. The anger and dramatics had me totally riveted-it was almost like watching a meltdown of sorts. He said he was drunk. A damn energetic drunk from what I saw. He was running around the stage, twirling the open bottled water and chucking it at the few of us left at the show. He went into the crowd to do some songs, performing from the middle of the club. During a bit about how his people need the white people because there are actually some of them who do care, he affectionately grabbed this preppy looking white college kid by the head and talked directly in his face. He said "You! You and I have a special bond that you don't even know about right now", which cracked everyone up. Then he had the DJ play a clip of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for "the white people." If I can tangent for a moment, I have to say that I never liked that song. I never admitted it to anyone till this show. And now all of you know. But I digress. Anyhow, David's passion-fueled performance reminded me of Jacoby Shaddix. His set finally ended at about 3:30am.
I knew this was going to be a great show even though I didn't know more than one or two songs from each act. The one thing I did not expect was the emotions I'd be experiencing. I thought it would be an evening of dancing and drinking, maybe Chappelle will do some comedy, etc. But it ended up being a very moving night. Especially when the New Orleans survivors came out. That just blew me away.
I finally got home at 4:45am, fell asleep at about 5:15, had to get up at 9 for work, and it was worth it.
