Last night at BB Kings in NYC, Flavor Flav brought in his 50th birthday with Chuck D and a bunch of their friends. And when I say friends, it includes legendary Hip-Hop figures such as Kool Herc, Easy Mo Bee, Ice-T, Kangol Kid, Eric B, Mele Mel, Chuck Chillout and more. Even before Flavor Flav even got in the building, everyone knew it was going to be a great show just because it was Public Enemy. So when Chuck D announced they would be performing the entire “It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” album front to back, the crowd went crazy.
The performance itself was amazing. Public Enemy rocked for a solid two hours and, not surprisingly, the energy level brought by Chuck D and Flavor Flav was high throughout as they were constantly on the move either rhyming, juggling the mic, doing jump kicks or just running around having fun. In addition to performing the album, PE also did their classics such as Public Enemy #1, Shut Em Down and Fight The Power.
When Chuck and Flav weren’t running around kicking rhymes, they brought out their friends. Earlier in the night, Kangol Kid came out and did Roxanne, Roxanne. Kool Herc and Chuck Chillout made a brief appearance to show Flav some love. Eric B and Easy Mo Bee came out and did the same. Then one of the oddest (and coolest) moments of the night was when Flav brought out his good friend and legendary boxing trainer Emanuel Steward to announce an upcoming one-time only boxing match between Flav and an unnamed opponent. I guess that’s Flav just being Flav. Chuck also brought out Mele Mel, which prompted Flav to start The Message so that Muscles Simmons could finish it off with a bang. But the most memorable guest appearance of night was made by none other than Ice-T. After Ice came out on stage and said a few words, Flav put him on the spot and made a special birthday request. Flav wanted to play the drums while Ice kicked some rhymes. If that doesn’t sound amazing to you, trust me, it definitely was. It was the dopest part of a night chock full of great moments.
As always, I recorded video of most of the performance. Check back soon for that.
