By David Whitely

August 21^st 2011 was New York City’s Summer Stage “Salute to Hip Hop” concert in Central Park.  The show was headlined by “The God Emcee” Rakim, and featured performances by famed duo Eric Sermon and Robert Parish, known by their stage name EPMD, and Hot 97’s Funk Master Flex. 

Scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. patrons were still filling up the main stage space twenty minutes prior to showtime, making sure they found a good spot to see historical figures in Hip-Hop perform.  Some were worried about the coming sun shower to hit the area, but still did were not trying to pass on this opportunity: seeing these major players in Hip-Hop history perform for free.

Facing a crowd of several hundred people, Funk Master Flex kicked off the show at 3:10 p.m.  Jumping on the 1’s and 2’s, and dropping his signature bombs, Funk Flex began to take concert goers on a history trip through Hip-Hop history playing classic cuts from the 80’s and early 90’s.  Most in the crowd were rocking with Flex as he played joints, but a few in the crowd were still upset about his Tupac rant he made earlier this year, and heckled him through his set in screaming out “Tupac” and “west coast.”  The Brooklyn born DJ did not let the hecklers stop his history lesson as he went through records like UTFO’s “Roxanne Roxanne,” Salt n Pepa’s “My Mic Sounds Nice,” Slick Rick’s “Bedtime Story,” and Lisa Lisa’s “Take You Home” to name a few.  Flex didn’t stop there, he went to one of the early Hip-Hop beefs in playing Mc Shan’s “The Bridge,”and KRS-One’s “The Bridge is Over.” 

Keeping the crowd the largely 35+ crowd rocking, Flex didn’t regionally discriminate in playing the legendary record “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A.  Funk Flex was taking the largely older crowd down memory lane in continuously saying to the crowd “If you’re 35 and older, get your hands up right now.”  But at the same time was schooling the younger people there on early Hip-Hop records.  The crowd was definitely rocking with Flex as they answered him back when he asked them questions, singing along to the records, yelling out “That was my jam back in…” dancing along to familiar records, and asking him to play extra records as an encore.

Most of the younger Hip-Hop fans nodded their heads as they couldn’t sing along because they didn’t know most of the records Flex played.  They didn’t have to worry too long because Dj Scratch took to the stage next and played some more recent records like The Throne’s “Otis,”  Freeway’s “What We Do,” and a few others before EPMD graced the stage.   

Eric Sermon and Parish Smith took to the stage and performed hits like “You Gots to Chill,” “You’re a Customer,” and “So What You Saying.”  Keeping towards the older crowd, Sermon took time throughout the show to say who and Smith are to younger audience members in case they did not know.  Sermon even stopped halfway through the set to jump into a freestyle where he spits, “I’m from the Golden Era, an 80’s baby//way before T.I//way before Shady//way before Luda//way before Baby//I rock now for those who can’t lately//I’m from the New York C-I-T-Y//Now ya’ll see why we fly//I rocked bells with L//did tours with Run//I did this for fun, years before Pun.”  The crowd went crazy after this due to the name dropping and supposed jabs at the mentioned artist.

Next up was the main event, Rakim’s performance.  The crowd was already in a frenzy seeing the earlier performances from Funk Master Flex, and EPMD, but this was different.  The energy of the crowd was at an all time high in anticipation of the God Emcee to come on and bless the stage.  Despite the coming clouds over the main stage, no one moved.  For many there, Rakim is the reason why they fell in love with Hip-Hop, so to leave before his set due to a little sun shower would be an act of blasphemy. 

 To introduce Rakim, Dj Ralph McDaniels and Technician the DJ came to the stage to get things started for the upcoming performance.  In commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the classic album, Rakim went right into hits from 1986’s “Paid in Full.”  The crowd erupted when he performed “I ain’t No Joke.”  The crowd went along with every word that Rakim rapped, while flashing pictures and video recording the performance.  From there he performed other hits like “Holy Are You,” “How to Emcee,” “Eric B. Is President,” “Move the Crowd,” and “The Ledge.”  Halfway through his set it began to rain.  Instead of going home, audience members pulled out umbrellas and rocked with Rakim to the end of his set.  This was a real demonstration of appreciation by true Hip-Hop fans in that not one person left the area.  If they didn’t have an umbrella, they had on a poncho, if not a poncho, they were underneath someone else’s umbrella, if not that, they just got wet in the rain, no one was walking out on Rakim.  During his set, Rakim brought a few guest stars to perform classic cuts.  Peter Gunz came out and performed “Deja Vu” (Uptown) for his hometown crowd, and Cormega hit the stage and recited “Affirmative Action.”  Rakim closed out the show in jumping on the 1’s and 2’s and did some mixing and scratching himself.  The crowd was amazed by how nice he is as a DJ.         

 Audience members went home satisfied in enjoying a great show with Funk Master Flex, EPMD, Rakim, and the surprise guest.  Both the younger and older crowds of attendants were very happy with the turnout of the show, even with the rain, they wouldn’t trade the day and experience for anything.