Best Concert EVER!

It's been a few weeks now & I've been able to digest what I (& my little brother @ his 1st concert) was able to witness the night of 3/3/07 @ the LA Center Studios. I can't even begin to explain the beauty & positivity that flowed throughout the evening. The evening began @ 4pm & ended just after midnight & was filled with great music, lyrics & a positive scene (as Fidel said @ the end of the night, not even 1 fight ensued). Just great people, enjoying great music on a wondrous night. I met several cool peeps including the Native Guns, which really dropped it- fusing mind-churning lyrics, phat beats & even blending a little tagalog to spice it up. Pix of the evening aren't up yet (darn camera's acting up something bad) but they will be soon so check back. The event was hosted by Fidel & DJ'ed by the DFR DJ's which were dope as ever!

My brother & I had a blast! Great event fusing hip hop, spoken word specialists (even one of the modern day innovators in this genre- Saul Williams) & thought-provoking speakers. It was really a treat for me as I'd never seen X-Clan nor KRS-1 live (especially since 1 of my 1st music purchases was an X-Clan tape- along w/Digital Underground & MC Hammer). But everyone really brought great energy. Medusa was super fly. Anomolies was an all-female group that really got down. Visionaries, Living Legends & Dilated Peoples always rock the house & did so again. KRS-1 freestyled for a good 10-13 minutes. The icing on the cake was Wil.I.Am showing up @ the end & freestyling for almost 7 minutes. Now that's hip hop! Below is a list of the event participants in chronological order:

1- Olmeca (Olmecamusic.com)
2- Native Guns (myspace/nativeguns)
3- Anomolies
4- Aztlan Underground
5- Quetzal
6- Visionaries
7- Medusa
8- Suher Hammad (spoken word)
9- Sabac Red
10- Funkdoobiest
11- x-clan
12- saul williams (spoken word)
13- Luis Rodriguez (speaker, author)
14- Cynthia McKenna (speaker, congresswoman)
15- Psycho Realm
16- Soul Elevation
17- Living Legends
18- Chief ChasingHorse (speaker)
19- Dilated Peoples
20- KRS-1
21- Wil.I.Am (special, surprise guest)

Thank you for having me, it was my pleasure to partake in the positivity & bathe in conscious lyrics fused with body-bumpin' beats.

ps. The link is now showing the next concert on tap on 4/7/07 & has removed the flyer for the concert I attended on 3/3/07 which is the topic of this blurb...but it's still relevant here.

...1 concert to rule them all...

A few years back, I was going to concerts like they were going out of style. I was fortunate enough to see Talib Kweli, Floetry, Common, Blackalicious, Dilated Peoples, Norah Jones & Aterciopelados (just to name a few). Time constraints have slowed that way down but I'm VERY excited about one that's coming up next month down in Long Beach, Cali.

A close college buddy of mine has been hosting Divine Forces Radio (formerly known as Seditious Beats) for quite some time now. The show is a conscious, thought-provoking fusion of hip hop beats & cultural awareness through self. Fidel's been at this for a while, hosting & producing (DFR airs Friday nights from 10pm-1am on KPFK 90.7FM here in Los Angeles & 98.7FM in Santa Barbara). The concert will be held on March 3, 2007 and is actually a celebration of the show's 9th anniversary. A portion of the proceeds will go to the K.R.Y.L.O.N. 13 Educational Initiative and doors are open to ALL AGES (& it's going to be an all-day/evening affair).

I know this might read like a commercial but it's an event based in absolute positivity (& if you're up on current events, you know the world could use as much as of this as possible). I've always wanted to hear KRS-One and X-Clan in person (& I just missed X-Clan's album release party earlier this month) so I'm excited about that, not to mention the rest of this very solid musical lineup. However, I'm MOST excited about taking my little brother to his first concert (shh, it's a surprise!) and, honestly, couldn't think of a better event for such a sacred ritual to occur at.

ps. The only other concert I was interested in for this year was Coachella (because Rage Against the Machine is getting back together just to play there) but they're sold out already. My problem- every year, it seems- with Coachella is that I love artists on all 3 days & this year's no different (Felix da Housecat, Julieta Venegas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gotan Project, Ozomatli, Rage, Manu Chao & the Roots) but, dang, those 3-day passes are pricey! Because of that, you best believe I'm going to make the best of this ONE, though. :)