The Show

Sway and King Tech present Back 2 Basics Concert

Saturday May 28th @ The Vanguard (Club Q-Topia) 6021 Hollywood Blvd.

As always I arrived at the show on CPT. It wasn’t my fault this time tho’ I swear! The plan was to meet up with everyone at 36 Chambers and jet to the show. After shuffling through clothes and getting some loot, I met up with the Enabler # 1, K-Beatz (more on the Enablers in a minute) and we rolled out. We thought we were following the right SUV, but soon figured out that the people in front of us were not our people. So after riding in circles for a minute trying to find the spot, we finally made it to the club. By the time we got in, Crooked I was already on stage doing the damn thing. That meant that we missed Chino XL, Kam, and God knows who else. To calm my nerves, I hit the bar while Crooked I showed love for all the “black and brown” in the house.

The club was packed too! From the back it looked like standing room only on the main floor. I hung out up in the balcony for a minute, watching the show. Sway and Tech came out and hit the crowd off with promos then went on to introduce Sly Boogie. I’m not really up on Sly, but he did his thing. He had the crowd going with “Everything” and had a tight set. Self Scientific hit the stage next and rocked “Better Days” off the “Back 2 Basics” CD. Sad to say, my attention was diverted by yet another trip to the bar during his set, but I heard him and dude is nice! Be on the lookout for this cat!

After a while, I wanted to change the angles and get better look at the stage so I tried my luck at backstage right. Me and Beatz fought our way thought the crowd to get just as RZA hit the stage. Now I may be biased on this one a bit, but I think RZA had the best set. You should have heard the crowd when the spaghetti western intro came across the speakers. When RZA hit the stage and “Nothing to Fuck With” came on, it was over.

The crowd went ape shit as RZA ripped though some of his classic Wu-Tang cuts. Then he gave Prodigal Sunn some shine as they went into the RZA produced “Brutalities (The Grindz Remix)” single off P Sunnzini’s upcoming album. C.C.F was on stage to, and the entire stage was filled with Wu-Representatives. RZA continued to rock his hits afterwards and the crowd showed mad love for the Wu. They ended the set with a dedication to ODB and said goodnight to the Vanguard crowd.

After that, it was Talib Kweli’s turn and when he hit the stage, the decibel level of the crowd went up a few notches. I caught a few of his songs and was called away for the usual card passing politicking that takes place backstage, yao ming? So in the end, I missed a lot of the show, but caught some of the best performances of the night. Make sure you cop that Back2Basics CD!