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B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
237 West 42 St.
New York, NY 10036

Who says rap & country can’t get along? (me!)

Ok, but seriously, I’ve never heard of Downs before receiving the promo from First Priority earlier today. I’m just a bit confused is all.

And listening to the music actually doesn’t offend me (prob cause its kinda bland) as much as it does conceptually and in the case of the video, visually (whoever styled him for the video, makin’ him wear those native american pants to somehow let he world know he’s part Cherokee? Really?).

I can’t even think straight right now. I’ll try to revisit this in a year or two.

Milk kills it.

Milk Dee performing one of the most widely known hip-hop jams of all time. Don’t believe me? Go to any show and when this joint comes on, EVERYONE knows the lyrics. Link

Courtesy of Fat Lace Magazine. Featured in Part 2 of their Milk D Interview.

Audio Two – Jeep Voices ft. MC Lyte

previously:
Milk Dee Relaunching First Priority, Hopes To Release The Unreleased First Dead Indian Album

Head on over to DanteRoss.com to see video (Chubb Rock, Dante Ross, Kool Herc, Milk Dee, Naughty by Nature, Nice & Smooth, Special Ed) from this historic event. Surprisingly it seems this is barely getting talked about. Wtf? Hopefully it’s just the weekend delay. Peace to Dante Ross for the look! Link

previously:
Grandmaster Caz Performs with Sugar Hill Gang, Video Music Box 25th Anniversary Show Is A Night To Remember

The Video Music Box 25th Anniversary Show was a historic event. The artists either performing or in attendance was a virtual who’s who of Hip-Hop aristocracy (partial list below). The whole concert lasted about three hours with 10-15 minute sets for each act, which meant a steady stream of classic material. If you couldn’t make it to the show and want to get a sense of what tracks were performed, just throw on your best of 80s and 90s hip-hop mixtapes.

I gotta give props to Ralph McDaniels and crew for a few things that added to the show’s success. One is keeping the event so organized. Even with the hustle and bustle of artists continuously going on and off stage, everything ran smoothly. Also, the set lengths. There was always enough entertainment throughout the night to keep the crowd involved and on their toes. Of course, major props are due for the line up. Honestly, when was the last time you heard Spoonie Gee, Schoolly D or Milk Dee rock the mic? Let alone at the same free event! Throw on the fact that none of the artists who hit the stage got paid a cent. They all did it out of love and respect for Uncle Ralph and Video Music Box. Hip-Hop unity at its finest.

Obviously, there are plenty of highlights I could run through like Ralph showing off his DJ Clark Kent designed Air Force One’s made specifically for the anniversary. Or July 18th being officially declared Video Music Box Day by Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson. However, the livest part of the whole show was when the Sugar Hill Gang hit the stage to the tune of Rapper’s Delight. By now, most of us should know the back story behind Big Hank’s verse. After Wonder Mike finished up, I wondered how the crowd would react to Hank’s part of the song. The answer was that they didn’t get a chance to because Grandmaster Caz suddenly ran onto the stage and started spitting the rhymes! The icing on the cake was when Rahiem and Mele Mel of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five joined everybody up there. Amazing.

Big ups to Ralph for being the first and putting in 25 years of hard work. And here’s to another 25+! I got video footage for most of the sets but until those are edited and uploaded onto our youtube channel, check out some pictures I snapped in between recordings (after the jump).

Sugar Hill Gang
Grandmaster Caz
Rahiem
Mele Mel
Lovebug Starski
Crash Crew
Chubb Rock
Naughty By Nature
Nice & Smooth
Special Ed
Milk Dee
Spoonie Gee
Schoolly D
Dana Dane
DJ Jazzy Joyce
O.C.
A.G.
Fab 5 Freddy
Kool Herc
Awesome 2
Mr. Cheeks
Kool DJ Red Alert
Large Professor
Dres
Hakim (of Channel Live)

Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Caz, Rahiem and Mele Mel

Special K

Smooth B

Ralph McDaniels and Kool Herc

Ralph McDaniels

Rahiem

Naughty By Nature

Mele Mel

Kool DJ Red Alert

Greg Nice

Greg Nice

Grandmaster Caz and Rahiem

DJ Jazzy Joyce

Dana Dane

Chubb Rock

The classic intro to Video Music Box, after the jump

AllHipHop: The original “Top Billin’” how did it come together?

Milk Dee: I was actually working on a remix for one of Lyte’s songs, “Take It Light,” and I was just down there and I made the beat and I was putting her vocals to it. But then I got inspired to write something. I wrote and spit it and just recorded it and the next day I let Daddy-O and Giz hear it and they kind of let me know the heat, they was like “Yo, this is it right there.” I didn’t realize it. That’s basically how it came about. I was just playing around one night and did it, and Daddy-O and Giz let me know what it was.

AllHipHop: What equipment did you use to make “Top Billin’” and what are you using now?

Milk Dee: When I did “Top Billin’” I used a Boss foot pedal sampler. It only samples two seconds, you can’t save it, they use it a lot with guitars and whatever. I had one of those and I triggered the sample with a Roland-707 drum machine. I recorded it on Tascam 248 4-track. Now, I got everything [laughing]. I got two studios [in Staten Island] full of equipment. The main thing that I use is a MPC2500 and Logic.