Recent Galleries

AFA '07 - Naughty, EPMD, Kurtis Blow (Sep 07) : A year later, the African Festival of the Arts came back to Chicago's South Side with a nice Old School hip-hop lineup.  This year, I went on the last night and saw Naughty by Nature, EPMD, and Mr. Kurtis Blow.  You get the "Mr." title if you can still move the crowd at age 48.  

In a nutshell, NN was nice and Treach still raps with a scowl (like that kid at the Humbolt Puerto Rican festival - in the Events gallery).  "The other guy" could still flow.  When they came to the stage, they reminded themselves there were kids in the audience, and they'd keep the show PG-13.  Then they proceeded to curse the rest of the show.

EPMD didn't care about the kids.  Parrish came out and said form the start, "Excuse my language, but this is how I do hip-hop"  They proceeded to drop F-bombs and the N-word at a rate that would make Redman proud.  I was never a huge EPMD fan, but they did their thing.  The DJ tried to show-out, but he wasn't spectacular.  However, for his age, he held it down.  They pointed out that this was the first time in a while "all three members of the group" had been together.  Am I the only one who didn't know the DJ was a member?  EPMD stands for "Eric and Parrish making dollars" (the DJ is not mentioned in there).  I guess the DJ is a volunteer, since it doesn't say anything about him making dollars too.

Lastly, Mr. Kurtis Blow was amazing for a 48 year old.  Still in shape, he rocked the old-school dances and could still get the crowd going.  It didn't hurt that most of the crowd near the stage was getting blunted up during most of the show.  Kurtis called for B-boys to help him with a song and 7-8 jumped the fence and break danced on stage for a $50 prize.  During the battle, Kurtis got in the circle for some footwork and a few freezes.  Mad props.  Off-script, there was a tie for first and Kurtis offered them each $50.  They agreed to a 3-on-3 winner-take-all crew battle.  It was live and took up the rest of the time.  Kurtis gave the winning crew cash from his pocket.  Nice!

AFA '07 - Naughty, EPMD, Kurtis Blow ...

KBev

A year later, the African Festival of the Arts came back to Chicago's ...

Updated: Sep 20, 2008 1:46pm PST

AFA '06 - Guru & Kool Moe Dee (Sep 06) : The last big festival of the Summer in Washington Park included performances by Kool Moe Dee and Guru.  Along with a few hundred other old-heads, I had a good time right in front of the stage.  I took a few photos for those who wonder what they look like now...  Yes, they did ALL of the classics.  KMD gave love to the old school and point out that "me and LL kept all our beef on wax, we never talked about going and killin' each other like these young guys today".  Guru kicked a nice freestyle verse or two between classics.  He also spent a good portion of the show dropping F-bombs and referencing weed.

AFA '06 - Guru & Kool Moe Dee (Sep 06)

KBev

The last big festival of the Summer in Washington Park included perfor ...

Updated: Sep 20, 2008 1:44pm PST

Switchfoot, Rock Springs, WY July 30, 2008 :

Switchfoot, Rock Springs, WY July 30,...

woman4life

Updated: Sep 02, 2008 7:09pm PST

The Stay Classy Tour :

The Stay Classy Tour

woman4life

Updated: Aug 25, 2008 12:43am PST

Larry Pancake  "LIVE" : Check Larry out on myspace.com/larrypancake

Larry Pancake "LIVE"

Rod Williamson Photography (rodwilliamson)

Check Larry out on myspace.com/larrypancake

Updated: Jul 07, 2008 3:01pm PST

The Revelation at 93 ft east :

The Revelation at 93 ft east

Paul Brock Photography

Updated: Jul 07, 2008 9:47am PST

Bay Area Rock Fest - Liquid Tension Experiment :

Bay Area Rock Fest - Liquid Tension E...

Craig Simon

Updated: Jul 06, 2008 9:40pm PST

The Beach Girlz : Photos of the girl group, The Beach Girlz, featuring Brooke Adams, Mandy Jiroux, Laura New, Dominique Domingo, and Noreen Juliano

The Beach Girlz

volleyshots

Photos of the girl group, The Beach Girlz, featuring Brooke Adams, Man ...

Updated: Jul 05, 2008 8:15pm PST

Dr Manhattan and The Felix Culpa : With They Found Me, They Named Me on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at Just For Fun, McHenry, Illinois.

Dr Manhattan and The Felix Culpa

john brunner

With They Found Me, They Named Me on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at Just F ...

Updated: Jun 21, 2008 12:01pm PST