Above the Clouds

"I self Lord and Master shall bring disaster to evil factors/
Demonic chapters, shall be captured by Kings/
Through the storms of days after/
Unto the Earth from the Sun through triple darkness to blast ya/
With a force that can't be compared to any firepower, for it's mindpower shared/
The brainwake, causes vessels to circulate like constellations reflect at night off the lake/
Word to the father, and Mother Earth"

- Above the Clouds by Guru of Gangstarr.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peep the scene. It's 10.30pm, late on a Thursday night. Workers in the rat race be putting their heads to sleep, getting that much needed rest for the next day. Uni students staying up late at night sweating over that assignment. Hot off the press, the next day's news has been printed and is ready for distribution. Mothers be telling their seeds to go to sleep.

But their's a group of zombies that refuse to go silently into the night. Hiphops heads have turned out in small numbers to see Baldhead aka Guru of Gangstarr perform at the Gaelic club. After collecting our prepaid tickets and getting that red ink stamped on our arms, we usher in to the sweet sounds of the night.

The place is packed. Cigarrette smoke lingers in the air, shorties be bouncing, the alcohol be overflowing. Generation Y and Xers are out in full force, in the new -old preppy look: rocking a t-shirt over long sleeved shirt and faded denim. The line at the bar is 3 deep. Corona's in hand we head upstairs to get a better view.

Album art is projected at the back of the stage area - showing old skool covers like Souls of Mischief, of music you'd be hard pressed to find in your local music store (Nate/Ivan you'd be impressed). The warmup act, a local MC named Katalyst jumps on stage and entertains the crowd with his slightly American sounding accent and does his best "Bop Bop Bop, Fire" call complete with handgun action. I ain't really feeling it but interesting sidenote: Tim does notice the dj behind the decks is that dreadlocked Islander baller from the KGV.

The main act is about to arrive. Guru better not pull a Busta Rhyme and not show up and cause a Riot Akt. I know the night will be good because DJ Doo Wop, comes out puts on some hip hop classics like KRS-One which automatically forces everyone to nod their heads in unison. Solar (Guru's producer) comes out to hype the crowd. He looks eerily simlar to the baldheaded one and intially I think he is Guru. Throughout the night, he acts like a backup singer, dropping lines, emphasising Guru's rhymes and overall adds a nice balance to the show.

The man of the hour cames out and the crowd goes nuts. Starting off with recent classics like "You Know My Steez" and " Royalty" heads were mesmerized and enchanted by the deep booming voice. As they kept telling the crowd it was New York Strait talk, America's best. Changing it up, Guru dropped a mad beat in the form of a Jazzamatazz track with Angie Stone, "Keep your worries".

With one of the deepest catalogues in the rap game, classics like "Step in the Arena" and "Just to Get a Rep" had the crowd bouncing. Always a crowd favourite the "Militia" then hit the spot along with "Skillz" from the Ownerz album. We were then introduced to some of the newer tracks from the soon to be released Street Scriptures LP. The energetic emcee showed us why he's still at the top of the game with the hits "Surviving in the Game", "Hall of Fame" and "Cave In". Ever the innovator and biter-hater, he took time out to call out a new MC called "Young Guru" telling the world that's my name, get your own biatch.

As the show came to a close, he asked the crowd what they wanted to hear. Randoms were screaming out all different names but the dude in front of me agreed with me that "Above the Clouds" needed to be heard. Guru then asked for the lights to be switched off, encompassing the stage in pitch black. Telling the crowd to take out their cigarette lighters for the fallen rappers, he then paid respects to the ones who's lives were cut short in their primes. From Big Pun, 2pac, Biggie, Scott La Rock, Freaky Tah, everyone knew where it was headed cause as soon he said "Big L rest in peace" - BOOM!!!!!!!! the place went bannanas as he launched himself into the single "Full Clip". Finishing off the night, DJ Doo Wop cut the music as Guru answered my request with a acappella version of "Above the Clouds".

And as we piled out of the Gaelic club at 1 in the morning, the zombies went quietly into the night, having met their hip hop hunger. And we all agreed - Gangstarr, one of the best yet.

a dj ho production