Last night at S.O.B's had to be musically the best night of the year so far. The line up was similar to the 08 Boston Celtics deal and reminiscent of the 06 New Jersey Nets; three headed beast. The three hottest artist on the New York scene right now, under one roof and they are all scheduled to perform; insanity. The hype of the show alone drew a crowd from the time the doors opened, as the time went by and it drew nearer to the opening act the people kept pilling in at a ridiculous rate. By the time Theophilus London came out to open the show it was difficult to move your toes, much less your whole foot. Mr. London's performance did not disappoint, he kept it interesting with his high energy dancing, pelvic thrust and he even brought a box of tricks on stage. He featured a remix to one of his singles with Jesse Boykins III, Cold Pillow. Theophilus' high energy songs and stage antics was more than enough to get this packed crowd fired up.
The next act was Brooklyn's own, Curt@!n$. It has been a while since New York has seen Curt@!n$ but they welcomed him back with open arms. On the heels of the release of his first mixtape in years, Curt@!n$ hit the stage fully loaded and ready to prove to New York that he's still got it. The theatrical entrance left me in awe, he had his on stage hype man in a full surgeon's uniform. Curt@!n$ was then dragged on stage in a straight jacket, Hannibal Lector style. Now here is an artist that not only makes songs but also puts a lot of thought into the recreation of that song on stage. It's like shows you what was going through his mind when he wrote the song. Once the straight jacket was opened and the restraint was removed from his mouth it was a roller coaster experience with Dope Boy C (Curt@!n$) as the crowd not only enjoyed the music but get a different physical representation of the song for almost each song. Yes that's right, Curt@!n$ changed clothes during the performance three times for a total of four different outfits, each to match the songs that he was performing.
The final act was Mr. Main Event himself, Mickey Factz. He opened up with a acapella freestyle, it was such a statement maker that the crowd was silent and everyone payed close attention. That freestyle should have been called the disclaimer because everything after that was off the wall. He played Jay-Z's verse on My President is Black and then gave us his own verse on the beat. He then introduced us to his band the red pills and we all entered the matrix. The addition of the live band took his performance to a different level as he performed hits like Rock'n N Rollin' and Block Em With My Shades. He even took it back to a classic with My Supra's which has been adopted as the official Supra song. There were times in his performance where Factz himself got caught up in the energy from the live band and broke out into convolutions and fits that sent him spiraling to the ground.
It is safe to say that these three artist pulled no punches and left it all on the stage. I'm sure that if you missed it you can find the footage on youtube but the experience will not be the same. Something this good isn't natural so I predict that many moons will pass before we get to see a show of this caliber again. I'd like to say congratulations to Curt@!n$ on the release of The Great Adventures of Dope Boy C and Theophilus London's This Charming Mixtape releases this Friday so stay tuned for that.
photo credit: Village Slum
SoHo
