De La Soul 20 Years High and Rising

Photo's by Shino Yanagawa (iPhone)

At the Nokia theater in New York City a celebration was going on last night. Some would say it was a show but I say a celebration. People from all walks of life came together to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of their album 3 Feet High and Rising. I have to say those boys Pos, Dave and Mase know how to put on a show. I mean when you have Bumpy Knuckles and Buckshot opening up for you, you already know what's up. I walked in on Buckshot's show after talking to a myriad of friends. He was straight killing the stage. The crowd was heavy into his show as he performed jams from the Enta Da Stage album. I was really excited when he did the first verse from his new single with KRS One "Robot". I think the song has a lot of promise (yeah I said promise).

Next up was De La straight from Long Island. Plugs 1,2 and 3 came with it and really showed that they deserve such a long career. The show was full amazing moments assisted by the 10 piece band called the Rhythm Roots All Stars. The executions of songs I'm used to hearing on a CD were flawless. The energy level of these brothers who are all significantly older than me (and many of the new rappers on the scene today)put folks to shame. I particularly loved when they performed the songs Stakes Is High and BUDDY with stage assistance from Ali Shaheed Muhammed along with Dres from Black Sheep.

What was amazing to me is that the real stars of the show were the celebration attendees. The crowd was simply amazing. Thus the pictures chosen for this piece. I was fortunate to have a balcony seat and the view of the crowd rocking during the song "The Grind Date". The scene was mesmerizing. Not to mention when De La performed Rock Box and to add insult to a microphone beat down brought DMC on stage to rip it with them people lost it. Hell I almost jumped out into the crowd from where I was. Even the grand wizard Prince Paul was on deck for the event. You could feel the love in the room and I can count the number of hip hop shows that gave me that type of feeling.



A + show, would view again.