Harlem Week - Legends

So, y'all already know I'm exhausted. Today, I followed up with a family outing to 135th street in Harlem for a dose of Harlem Week. We got there at around 2 pm and we didn't leave until 7:30 or so. We walked around and did a little bit of everything. We bought a couple of things, ate some great food, did some children's activities and then capped it all off with some incredible music.

While we were waiting in line to get something to eat, we saw the most gangsta kid ever! He was cool as a fan and, of course, everybody that passed him had the, "WTF!?" face on. It was so funny.



Back at the main stage the Harlem Chamber of Commerce gave recognition to legends DJ Red Alert and Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box fame for 25 years of community service. It was great to see Red Alert get the award. He's always out in the streets representing at public events in Harlem.


After they cleared the stage, the DJ spun some oldies and the whole crowd was dancing and singing along. It was so much fun! On a side note: I saw the man with the crustiest feet of all-time while I was sitting on the curb in front of the stage taking a much needed rest. Look at this sea of people. The best thing about Harlem Week though is even with this many people out, it doesn't feel cramped. I had a good 2 feet of space on every side of me when I took this picture.



As I'm standing there listening to the DJ spin, out comes another Hip-Hop legend. None other than Grandmaster Caz from the Cold Crush Brothers comes out onto the stage! He talked to the crowd for a little while and told us how he first herd Kool Herc play and knew he wanted to DJ. It so dope to see him in person. He was real chill and just came to hang out.



Then came the moment everyone was waiting for. "The Teacher" a.k.a "The Blastmaster" KRS-One blessed the stage. He was CREW THICK! The stage was just swamped with people. Of course, he killed it! Freestyles, classic songs and knowledge drops. He had the whole of 135th street rockin'. The people in the next block even had their hands up in the air. I went into a frenzy when he did "MC's Act Like They Don't Know". Probably my favorite KRS-One track ever. After he rocked for about 20 minutes, he told the DJ to drop some breaks and started a cypher. They started to lose the crowd so he grabbed the mic back and brought on Lil' Vicious. Needless to say, he's not "little" anymore. He did "Freaks" and everybody livened back up. At that point, my feet were furious with me for torturing them so we started for home.



I had such a good time and I always do at Harlem Week. I can't wait for Harlem Week '09 and this one isn't even finished yet!