“Salt N Pepa’s Legends of Hip Hop Tour” blew through STL and I was fortunate enough to have a pretty decent fourth row seat. \u00a0Unfortunately I forgot my camera so my words will have to do the show justice.<\/p>\n
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The line up included Kool Moe Dee, Kurtis Blow, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Doug E Fresh, and the headliners Salt N Pepa. \u00a0I should point out that almost the identical lineup appeared right about a year ago with Whodini and Big Daddy Kane subbing for MC Lyte and Kool Moe Dee. \u00a0I missed that show, and having seen four of the six acts before I was somewhat excited, but not overly so.<\/p>\n
I was, however, looking forward to the venue (Chaifetz Arena, home of the St Louis University Billikens) which was by far the largest that I had been to for an Old School show. \u00a0I’d say there were at least 3500-4000 there, but that could be the low end. \u00a0There were a couple very large video screens used for basketball that ended up being used during the show to some affect. \u00a0There were three separate DJ booths which boded well for the turnaround time between acts.<\/p>\n
It was a fairly diverse crowd, but obviously the ages skewed over 35 generally speaking. \u00a0I was with a friend of mine who had never really been to any hip hop show outside of the Beastie Boys about 10 years back so I enjoyed taking him along for the experience.<\/p>\n
Let’s run through the evening’s lineup.<\/p>\n
Kool Moe Dee<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Treacherous Three<\/a> himself <\/a>was first out of the gate. \u00a0Believe it or not, I had never seen him live before. \u00a0He brought the hits right out the box with “I Go to Work” followed up with “Go See the Doctor”, the lyrics of which seem so tame by today’s standards, but I remember hiding the song from my parents when it first came out.<\/p>\n He spoke a little about his beef with LL Cool J, but showed him nothing but respect overall. \u00a0Then followed it up with “How Ya Like Me Now”.<\/p>\n He was joined throughout the set by a few others who did some fun routines behind him during the set. \u00a0Among them was LA Sunshine from The Treacherous Three who did a bit from “Feel the Heartbeat”, and an added surprise, Mighty Mike C from the Fearless Four<\/a>, who did about 30 seconds of “Rockin It”.<\/p>\n After that they ran through some tributes to other old school legends like Lovebug Starski<\/a> and DJ Hollywood<\/a>.<\/p>\n He capped off his brief set with “Wild Wild West” which got the crowd going.<\/p>\n Kurtis Blow<\/strong><\/p>\n I first saw Kurtis Blow<\/a> open for Run DMC<\/a> in what was definitely a life changing concert for me about 20 years ago. \u00a0I’d seen him at least twice more since then and he’d done basically the same sets every time. \u00a0I was pleased when he went a different route this time out.<\/p>\n He opened with a shout out to Krush Groove<\/a><\/em> and then went into a couple of verses of “If I Ruled the World”. \u00a0Next came “AJ Scratch” (who was on the wheels that night) and “Rappin Blow”.<\/p>\n Kurtis it seems really embraces his age (early 50’s) and made a real effort to connect to the crowd. \u00a0He got lots of love after announcing he’d been in the game for 38 years.<\/p>\n He brought a few up from the crowd up on stage and had them show their breakdancing skills after which he showed his.<\/p>\n He finished up with “The Breaks” (of course) and the crowd sang along.<\/p>\n Kurtis has fully embraced religion and he turned the night into a revival of sorts as he stuck around to act as host for the rest of the acts. \u00a0He even had some in the crowd shout our their churches and he gave respect by announcing them to all in attendance. \u00a0He stepped into the crowd between sets and took photos with the crowd.<\/p>\n I particularly enjoyed a bit between acts when he ran through various old school lyrics and had the crowd finish them up. \u00a0For one when he said “If your girl starts acting up…” and the crowd answered “then you take her friend” he faked disapproval and said “I though you all were supposed to be Christians!” which got a big laugh.<\/p>\n Biz Markie<\/strong><\/p>\n Biz Markie came out and did a quick set of hits including “Biz is Going Off”, “Pickin Boogers”, “Make the Music with Your Mouth”, and “Nobody Beats the Biz”.<\/p>\n Cutmaster Cool V is still rocking the wheels for Biz.<\/p>\n He did some tributes to Rick James and Michael Jackson. \u00a0Watching Biz do Rick James was certainly entertaining.<\/p>\n He did “Vapors” (my favorite from his catalog)\u00a0in its entirety, and ended with a very short version of “Just a Friend” which was essentially the chorus a few times.<\/p>\n MC Lyte<\/strong><\/p>\n The Voice….<\/p>\n I hadn’t seen Lyte before and I must say that she did not disappoint. \u00a0Her voice sounded spectacular and she appeared to be in great overall shape.<\/p>\n She opened with “Cha Cha Cha” and quickly knocked out 3-4 more tunes including “Poor Georgie”.<\/p>\n As she started into her famous verse from “Self Destruction” she stopped and grabbed a woman from the audience to come up and traded the lyrics with her to crowd’s delight.<\/p>\n She joked that backstage she admitted to Salt that she sometimes does some of their stuff in her sets, but decided tonight might not be the best to do that.<\/p>\n She went into my favorite Lyte track “Paper Thin” before closing with “Ruff Neck”, a song I had completely forgotten about.<\/p>\n I had always known that she represented the tough female persona of hip hop, but seeing her in the flesh and watch her do her thing really drove that vibe through. \u00a0Other than Kool Moe Dee, it seemed obvious that she was the next best overall rapper of the night.<\/p>\n