Nah Right and the Smoking Section’s Grand Ole Party of Bootleggers & Tastemakers
Peckerheads, Friday, March 20
Anybody who’s up with East Coast hip-hop likely has NahRight.com saved as a bookmark on their Web browsers. Eskay and his crew promote the best and brightest. Throwing more than enough kudos to the blog that helped put him on the scene, Charles Hamilton flowed twice as hard as the pink polo/Sonic the Hedgehog shirt combo would have you believe him to be capable of. Minneapolis monster Brother Ali repped Rhymesayers Entertainment to the fullest, pulling street-centric beats from BK-One with fellow Twin City spitter Toki Wright playing hype man. Ali was admittedly worn out from the night before but managed to rip through “Uncle Sam Goddamn,” “The Believers,” and “Truth Is” without sounding too beat. Mickey Factz‘s set came 20 minutes late with his DJ running behind, but the Bronx rapper was all business come showtime. He rolled in, guns blazin’, to heavily overdriven bass breaks, packing all kinds of chaos into “Rockin N Rollin” and “Hollywood” before switching into nightclub mode for “Automatic” and introducing Curtis Santiago – seen Wednesday with U-N-I – for a freestyle over the Roots’ “Get Busy.” Headliner B.o.B was right at home fronting his punk-hop band the Eastsiders. The Atlanta do-it-all switched between a six-string and drumsticks, grinning ear to ear as he hopped off speakers and tore up “Eleanor Rigby” cover “Lonely People.”
This article appears in March 20 • 2009.