NYC, 11-23-07, Wiley, MRK1, Messiah, Mundo, more

[bd1982]

wifey decided not to head out to the show so i got an extra ticket if anybody needs one....is it even nearing the sold out mark?

[Sharmaji]

post-game for those of us who couldn't reach?

[gus]

Yo how was it?

Did Wiley show up?

[petergunn]

Yo how was it?

Did Wiley show up?

my two cents, not trying to diss anyone involved, much respect for putting the work in... that said...

the dj's and mc's before MRK 1 and Wiley were pretty terrible... whoever the asian indie-rock MC was, he was terrible... just really really bad... i don't mean to be nasty, but he really had not business being on stage... i was up in the balcony wondering why i was there...

the turn out was pretty bad... i don't know if this is b/c the people doing this were from Texas not NYC, the fact that it was the day after thanksgiving, or just a general cool down on the hype that grime had a few years back, but the place was only about 1/4 full, compared to the Roll Deep show from two or three years ago that was sold out... things got a bit better when Keith P started spinning some grime... he dropped Sidewinder and people got open... i think he should have just dropped a full set of grimey stuff, but he sounded good...

MRK 1 and his boys were ok... i was never a big Virus Syndicate fan, but they had their moments... for lower level dudes, they had one or two good bars and MRK 1 def has a few bangers (albeit monotinous ones)... they were techinal problems thru most of their set, tho, leading to the Coki Marijuana refix being played for like 10 minutes straight (got the biggest response of the night) Serato strikes again! basically the technical problems dragged down a set that was only going OK to begin with...

Wiley came on and performed to a pre-sequenced track, reminding me of seeing hip hop shows in the early 90's when people came out and performed with a DAT tape... I have to say. having no DJ fucks up the flow, especially with grime... no rewinds, no changes, no pauses, no funny Wiley chatter...

anyways, yeah, he performed to one big long track, that to his credit, he had obviously put a lot of time into laying out... some songs he performed all of, others were cut aft6er one worse, going directly into another, like a pre-arranged mix... he did alot of songs from Playtime is Over, like Bow E3, My Mistakes, Gangsters, Eskiboy, 50/50, and No Qualms...

the two songs i was most psyched to hear him do (and was def not expecting to hear ) were Sorry, Sorry, Pardon What (people kinda went nuts it, which i did not expect) and Jack's Not Nimble... let's see Nightbus dubplate was sick and he did quite a few things I didn't recognize, although I am not caught up on anything after Tunnel Vision 5... all in all a good setlist and a very long set, one of the logest i have seen a solo MC do in a while... plus, he barely had any resting time, with the pre-sequenced backing track and all... the minuses were he barely engaged the crowd, just paced the stage; it was like watching someone shadowbox... little eye contact, banter, or stage show... also, he seemed a little tired and his flow was definitely not razor sharp... Wiley always has a tendecy to sometimes fall a bit off beat and this was definitely apparent... plus, for Esiboy, Gangsters, and at least a couple other tunes, he rapped on top of the VOCAL versions, which i think was really weak and unexcusable... i am curious as to what his reasoning was, i mean, he MUST have the instrumentals and it's not like Gangsters is a particually demanding tune to rap...

to close out, he spat over Marijuana refix (i think they were switching computers or something) and then announced the last track... everyone yelled for What You Call it? and Wiley heard them, telling the dude manning the laptop "we haven't done Igloo..." after a false start, traded bars with Zinc Larnyx, who sounded better with Wiley next to him (tho he gets the gasface for selling his CD's to the front row while Wiley was performing... c'mon dude, have some class....)

all in all, Wiley put on a long, solid set, tho i think he would have benefitted from a DJ and some occasionall pauses to catch his breath... and the attendence really made me question is anyone gives a damn about grime in NYC these days...

[perkalerk215]

i was wondering what happened that night.....we had mrk 1 with zinc and his boy come to NEPA....and they KILLED IT> you all should really ignore hype about NYC and just take the 2 hour ride to smaller areas who have the heart and energy.....the place went isnane and heard it was a better night all in all from the people themselves than the night before in NY. so i guess....sorry it wasnt such a great night, but the 24th in wilkes-barre was insane. def made history here....and def brought it. (ps i had a little to say also though about zinc tryin to sell his shit in the beginning of mrk1s set...all he talked about on the mic is he has cds for sale...10 bones...blah blah blah....and then right after they finished walked around the crowd pushin them on people. im just glad i got mine for free...even though i would have paid the 10 bones for it. they got my respect.)

[chu]

Whilst it was good to see Wiley the whole event was a little meh. Spitting over a mix CD was too relentless, as Petergunn said no pauses/rewinds/banter meant Wiley was just doing tune after tune after tune, for me at least, that gave the show a certain monotony; there was no 'rewind that shit right now' crowd frenzy or mic japery, and it actually got a little tiresome. Coupled with his serious lack of crowd interaction, I felt under-engaged at a show I thought would be seething.

Keith P at the start was cool, although I wished he'd mixed in more bassline.

Virus were Virus and put on a decent show as standard.

The 'Burnin' shenanagens were waste.

Perklestein glad your show was all live, gotta get to nepa!!!

[gomb]

I showed up for a bit... the girl i was with isn't a fan of dubstep so we stayed for only a drink. Seemed alright for the few minutes I was there though.