This past Saturday night I attended the Boston Hip Hop Unity Fest, an event I’ve been looking forward since it was first announced. It was organized by none other than Boston Hip Hop legend Ed O.G. Since the passing of Guru, the man that left Boston for New York on a quest to finally put Boston Hip Hop on the map for good I felt this show was necessary for several reasons.

I had a hell of a time trying to get in as a member of the media (free.99) and I was fine with going as a civilian. I fucked around with preparing for my Scrunchface Sundays radio shows, listening to a gang of new music submissions & advance releases until it was two days before the show & I didn’t have any tickets or a way in.

I asked for help on Twitter and I was able to find tickets a few hours before doors opened @ 7 PM (Shouts to G. Valentino Ball, Oz, Neomatrix, D. Grease of Grow On Flow On, Lady Lex & J.C.I.T.Y).

Due to issues with the MBTA I decided to walk all the way from the South End to the Paradise Rock Club straight down Commonwealth Ave. Boston University just had it’s graduation that night and the streets were teeming with new graduates, their families & loved ones.

I walked right through the endless sea of tourists and jaywalked like a pro. They all seemed to be in shock that people jaywalked right in front of the people. We’re famous for that in Boston. Read a damn book.

I made it to the spot around 8:30 and Chief Rocker Mo D was on the decks spinnin’ classic shit. Ed O.G announced that the show was starting @ 8:45. I was like “Word!”. I wasn’t in the spot longer than 5 minutes before DJ Next recognized me & hit me off with a Amalgam Digital shirt. Cool.

Soon the opening acts began to take the stage. Ed O.G. is a generous cat who believes in putting people on & giving them an opportunity. I salute him for that. However, some of these cats I saw that night simply weren’t ready for the stage yet.

Boston Hip Hop vets RADIx opened the show & rocked a light crowd with great energy followed by Ebb & Flow who had some Serato issues but the emcee of the crew held it down kicking acapella rhymes. All in all I saw a gang of up & coming acts (Team A&R, Serge Didenko, Wild Yotez, etc.) and a gang of vets rock on stage that night (such as Mark Merra of Agari Crew & DJ Philly Black).

Due to the sheer of amount of acts some cats I really wanted to see didn’t get to perform at all (Akrobatik, Team 220 & The Bulldogs) and others had their sets shortened (J The S & Dre Robinson). The last 90+ minutes of the show (including Boycott Blues & Blacastan & Colombeyond but minus Nancia & Carmichael) were worth the price off admission. See TeLisaD’s full show recap here

Even better than getting to see cats like RADIx, Ebb & Flow, Blacastan, Boycott Blues, NBS, Dre Robinson, J The S & Greater Good, Millyz, Jeru Tha Damaja & Jay Electronica perform was finally getting to meet people that have known about the shadowy figure known as Dart Adams for between 3 to 5 years starting back with the old BostonHipHop.com & RepDaBean.com days but had never met me before in real life like Marlene Boyette @ Restless Entertainment.

I’d just recently met my extended family from That’s Major in person (Oz, Neomatrix & G. Valentino Ball) after knowing them for the same amount of time. I also ran into cats that I used to see regularly back between ‘98-00 like Virtuoso, CheckMark, Akrobatik. I  met J. Biggz of NEHipHop.com, DJ J-Ronin came down from NY & I finally got to meet TeLisaD and J The S in person after years of Twitter convos.

I knew this wasn’t a regular Boston Hip Hop show when it was pointed out to us that Jeru Tha Damaja, Jay Electronica & Angela Yee had just entered the building. Shouts to VS1 & JK of White Boy Likes Hip Hop?. I decided against going public with my full show notes after all. All lot of heads should be breathing a sigh of relief about that…

The show closed with Sandro Castro doing a set with his boy Jeru Tha Damaja on stage. Then Jeru came out. He went into “D. Original” and Jay Electronica came up onstage. Jeru started a Guru tribute telling the crowd about how Guru essentially saved his life and got him into emceeing but time was short.

Jay took the mic & said “You got ALL the time you need!”. Real shit. Then the DJ went into “Take Two And Pass”. Then Jay spit “Take It Personal”. Then Jeru did “Come Clean” and the entire Paradise Rock Club lost it’s collective mind. Then Jay Electronica came on and closed the show the right way. I saw the whole shit go down. It was beautiful. Moments like that are why I’ll die loving Hip Hop.

On May 27th @ The Middle East they be a Boston Tribute To Guru show put on by Leedz Edutainment and on June 17th (Boston Day) they’ll be another ridiculous Hip Hop show. I look forward to once again becoming an active part of the scene that I’ve been around since I was a little kid back when Planet Patrol, Jonzun Crew, New Edition, GangStarr Posse, Almighty RSO & FTI Crew were all among Boston’s prominent acts back in the early 80’s.

One.