FenaxiZ Online

photo courtesy of Phlip Pinas

I just wanna congratulate UGN Son, AJM, and the staff at M-Studio for pulling off a crazy smooth show last Saturday. From the logistics, rehearsals, soundchecks, performances, etc. EVERYTHING was crisp.

The night started out with Vibrasonic Sessions, a live hip-hop band who set things off properly. Aside from the crazy instrumentation, there were b-boys, beatboxers, english AND tagalog MCs and impromptu freestyling sessions. TRULY, HIP-HOP WAS IN THE BUILDING THAT NIGHT AND IT JUST HAPPENED TO BE FILIPINO. Big ups to Pinoyz At Work, Natural Noyze/Karisma, D-Pryde, S Dot, and the list goes on and on and on and on. Give y’allselves a pat on the back ’cause history was made that night.

And here’s a lil’ pre-show footage outside M-Studio:

The show went laaaate into the night (what you expect with 25 artists!??!) and I gotta send out an apology to some of my ppls who didn’t know it would be that long. Next show though, I got y’all, believe it.

With that said, I was dead tiiiiiiiiiiiired the next day for Rock The Bells. We got there around 2pm, had some eats on a patio grill by Molson Amphitheater, and went in around the time Slum Village was leaving the stage. M.O.P came and managed to wake me up with “4 Alarm Blaze,” “Downtown Swingas,” “How About Some Hardcore?,” and “Ante Up.” After their set I went to buy a t-shirt and holy shit I got robbed. Not literally, of course, but… they were selling Slaughterhouse t-shirts for $40!!! I ended up getting one, but still. Argh.

So ya, SLAUGHTERHOUSE was next (click for bigger pic):

L-R: Budden, Crooked, Ortiz, Royce

Not much else to say except they KILLED it.

After, Tech N9ne graced the stage and was met with mixed reactions. K’Naan and his band were next and actually got love from the Screwface hometown. Reflection Eternal did pretty good though I’ve seen Talib do better. RZA came in and went through all his different eras from the Gravediggaz right up to Bobby Digital. After Prince Rakeem was EPMD as they ran through some classics. Big Boi followed and was a highlight of the night as he went through most of the Outkast catalog. Mos Def came through with an alright set, which was redeemed by a Black Star reunion as they went through “Definition,” “RE:Definition,” and “Respiration.” Finally, Nas and Damien Marley finished off the night with seperate solo sets until joining together to preview some tracks off their upcoming “Distant Relatives” album and end it off with “Road To Zion” of course. Between sets, KRS-ONE and Supernatural held it down on the freestyle tip with Pete Rock on the wax.

All in all a great day to celebrate hip-hop and I was just happy to get home and SLEEP that night.

I’ll end off the post with a pic from the BBQ on Sat:

Alcohol does = poison

PEACE,

FENAXIZ