40 Days & 40 Nights: Bahamadia
To commemorate the most beautifullest time of the year for me, summertime in the NYC, I will be posting concert reviews from this Independence Day weekend through Labor Day. I'm calling this endeavor, 40 Days & 40 Nights. I aim to blog that many shows, whether they stir me when the sun bears down brutal or when it has set.
BAHAMADIA, BROOKLYN, 7.23.08
A jeep deposited Bahamadia at Brooklyn's Brower Park a full hour after her free show's scheduled start. I was a little miffed but the meager crowd, a mix of neighborhood residents, veteran hip hop heads and peasy-headed dancers didn't seem to mind. After a run to the restroom, the rapper apologized, citing a broke down train as the cause of her delay, and then assertively spit my qualms away.
'Dia, being not only a beacon for women in hip hop but of the art form, demonstrated why she, a gap-toothed, brown-skinned, relaxer, choreography and coochie cutter-shunning emcee, endured where so many other women have floundered.
Her latest, Good Rap Music, predominated early and featured her rhyming fresh. Bahamadia's no kitschy nineties throwback. Her purr has transcended her moment of heavy Rap City rotation and her extemporaneous wit, from the sound of the freestyles that spaced her set, remains undiminished. She even ceded some of her limited time to Philadelphia rapper/producer Hezekiah, a dervish of a performer, and a bumbling female newbie whose stumbles were assuaged by big sister-in-rap Bahamadia inciting the audience to clap the fawn through. It was the evening's most telling gesture and just as totemic as Bahamadia's medley of hits.
Yes, she blessed the Brower Park faithful with her verse from the Roots' "Proceed III", Soundbombing II's "Chaos", with Kollage classics "Unknowhowedu," "3 the Hard Way" and "True Honey Buns" still blowing fans minds after all these years. We collectively reveled as giddily as the "Oops-Pow Surprise" barber/rapper in that classic Dave Chappelle sketch and savored the rare stateside performance from the BB Queen.
Check out my Flickr slideshow for more steep-angled shots of last night's Shell-Toed sensation.
Tags: 40 Days & 40 Nights, Bahamadia, Hip Hop
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Comments
1.
gypsygoddess says:
ooooohwee! wish i coulda been there...she's a brilliant one indeed.
so smoove wit it, makes me wanna date a boy whose picture is in the collage of her first album!
xo
07/30/2008 at 12:15 AM