Bomb graffiti on the tomb of Nefertiti

I went to see Dave Chapelle’s Block Party Sunday night with Ross, Jess and Stern. As a service to anyone who is thinking about seeing this I just thought I would point a couple things out.
1 – This isn’t a comedy show. It’s not one of Chapelle’s stand-up gigs, and to be quite honest the full out laughs were fairly sparse.
2 – That was just about the best concert I can imagine attending, and I was excited for the whole damn thing.

Now for a review of performances, that will totally give away all of the songs I can remember, so be warned.

dead.prez absolutely killed. I thought their performance of Turn Off the Radio was incredible. I wasn’t feeling Hip-Hop quite so much, because you couldn’t hear the thump that kind of makes the track. However, in case anyone was wondering you can hear it way better on the soundtrack.

Talib had a sore throat so it was kind of weird listening to him rap in a lower voice. I knew about this beforehand so it didn’t ruin anything, but it would have been nice to heard him perform at his regular level. That being said, that boy killed it and I have no idea how. I had a cold last week and could barely talk on the phone.

Mos Def did Umi Says and I loved it. It’s too bad he is actually good at acting too, because I wish he would put out more music.

Mos and Talib did a couple songs from Black Star, which is one of the greatest albums of

Jill Scott and Erykah Badu probably shouldn’t be lumped together, but to be quite honest I am not too terribly familiar with their work. All the Jill Scott stuff I have is off Jazzy Jeff comps, and all the Erykah Badu I have is either with Outkast or Guru’s Jazamatazz. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy their spots, because both those girls can sing. In fact, I should probably dig up some Erykah because I found her songs particularly enjoyable.
I honestly don’t remember Common doing any solo joints, but that was probably because it was near the beginning and I was all focused on how big my popcorn and pop were. Good lord were they huge. I do remember his coming out to kick it with just about everyone though, either as a hype-man or to spit his guest verses. He looked like he was having the time of his life, and that was probably the best part of all of it.

Kanye played early, but for a dude who says he can’t rap very well I thought he was great. Jesus Walks is still a killer song regardless of how many times I hear it, and when he does it live I think I like it ever more.

The Roots backed everybody and did a hell of a job. The highlight of their performance for me Boom from Tipping Point where Black Thought spits like Big Daddy Kane, and Kool G. Rap. For the performance both those dudes came out to kick their parts from the song, and Black Thought was wearing a Big Daddy Kane screened-blazer. I thought that was great.

The highlight was obviously the Fugees performance, which they leave until the end of the show. Lauryn Hill singing Killing Me Softly was probably the highlight of the movie. The Score is still one of my favourite albums.

So ya. That was that.

On a different note, because that last shit I wrote about came out like garbage, instead of finding a better job I have just decided to start a gang, because I hear those dudes make lots of money. I’ve been listening to a lot of hood rap lately and I think this has adequately prepared me for a life of slinging rock. I will have to work on my knife game, but some things are bound to take time. I’ll probably ask the next cop I see what colors are taken, because I wouldn’t want to be cramping any other gangs style.

If anyone wants to join just drop me a line. You gotta bring your own gat if you want one, otherwise everyone is welcome. Except bitches.

Peace.