Saturday, November 20, 2010

East Coast Rappers Sell Out West Coast's The Roxy






On Friday November 12th, 2010, hip-hop veteran Ghostface Killah, hip-hop journeyman Sheek Louch and the up and coming Hebrew hip-hop hipster Kosha Dillz sold out The Roxy for a quintessential rap show.

With the crowd steadily lining up on Sunset Blvd. long before doors, and Kosha Dillz razzing people while they waited with incarceration stories and tales of how he became an NBA 2K11 character - you could anticipate something exciting to come.

Kosha, who'd been hopped up in a studio in Echo Park working on his second full length album, brought the excitement with the live debut of some new tracks and a handful of his freestyle antics. In addition to the performance premier of "Sweatpants Song" and a wicked out your pockets freestyle (video below) featuring shout outs to The Roxy, The Viper Room, Guru and even an L.A. Dodgers' Daryl Strawberry, Kosha Dillz dropped his first album hits "Doo Doo" and "L.A. Ish" for the growing crowd of Los Angelenos.


He closed it out with a brief sample of his recent song with RZA and Kool G Rap - and then joined a growing crew on stage for some of Frank Dukes beats. Chopping it up backstage and in VIP were a handful of Wu family - including Ol Dirty Bastard's cousin and Cappadonna, Sheek Louch's crew, young photographer/cinematographer Ron Polk and even Married With Children's David Faustino.





The crowd was certainly at capacity for Sheek Louch - who played new music, as well as old, like The Lox banger "Money, Power, Respect." A heavy hype-man, who very well could have been an accomplished MC whose name I don't know, also held things down. Sheek and his team had the crowd marinating on hard original hip-hop for over forty minutes, possibly to keep the crowd from losing interest during the delay that followed before Ghostface Killah took the stage.

In classic Wu Tang Clan and affiliates fashion, Mr. Ghostface took stage at 1:25 a.m. for a show whose doors technically close at 2. The crowd's impatience quickly turned to enthusiasm once Ghostface took the mic. Rocking the crowd, he shed his classic looking down jacket and proceeded to rip through classics (I wish I could remember which ones...).


The entourage was thick, and grew consistently throughout the set; women and Wu crew were paraded on stage with relative ease. At one point, Cappadonna joined him, dropping some devestating "Hot 97 Mentality," before the set wrapped up about thirty minutes after it began.



As the packed house spilled out of the venue, you could hear the rumblings of fans wishing they'd had just a bit more time with Tony Starks, but nonetheless happy they witnessed his magic.


When the fans want to see you do more cuts....you know you did a good job. Thanks to The Roxy, Ghostface Killah, Sheek and Kosha for a SUPERGOOD night.

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