Pumpkinhead Tribute Show Recap
By J. Burke
The Hip Hop community as a whole
loved Robert Diaz, aka Pumpkinhead or PH. It wasn’t just the New York
underground scene or his family. It was the crews he was a part of such as
O.B.S., Brooklyn Academy or Team Homi, and countless fans who have been a fan
of his since his days of Makin' records, and transitioning into a solo artist
and eventually gracing the battle scene again. PH was so much to so many people
and at Santos Party House; a who’s who or past and present artist hit the stage
to honor his memory.
The night started off with acts such as
End of the Weak consisting tonight of Big Zoo, Vice Verses and Jess Jamez to
name a few. They are a crew and host of the longest running open mic in New
York City at the Pyramid Club every Sunday night. If anyone knows how to get a
show started the right way, it’s definitely them. The show progressed with three artist being called up on stage at once as a group as one artist performed what
was usually two songs, and the next got up to perform their set. This was likely
done to keep things organized and most people only got 8 minutes or so.
Many veterans of the New York
underground scene such as Thirstin Howl III of the infamous Lo-Life crew, Paze
Infinite, Mazzi and UG of the Cella Dwellas with his unorthodox, but
captivating style hit the stage. Sadat X of Brand Nubian would perform early on
and do his verses off “Come on Muthafuckas”, “Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down”
and “1-9-9-9” and show the crowd that even the veterans who came before PH
respected his work and showed that by tearing it down on stage.
Other acts included Mr. Metaphor of Brooklyn Academy who PH was also a
part of, Mic Handz who was also playing double duty as host and a set by PH’s
crew Team Homi. The crew including Sara Kana, Money Bagz, Swave Sevah and Ike P
as well as many other’s who showed why they are a dual force in the music and
the battle scene as many have competed for URL, Smack, KOTD and Grind Time. The house was packed and it was a night of
celebration and many artist came out with classic records that I myself have
never seen performed live.
If you haven’t seen Jean Grae live at a
show before, she definitely brings a very different style to the stage. She instructed the crowd to act like they
were at a rap show, and to put the phones and cameras away. She also demanded
crowd participation. Her set wasn’t long as she only performed 2 songs but the
highlight was not only her rules of attending a rap show to the crowd, but reading
a verse off paper that she wrote for a song, PH asked her to be featured on. Jean told
the crowd how she never reads people her verses when they ask her to get on a
song, and this was the only time she has ever done so, for PH and she shared
that memory with the crowd in a moment of respect in a night that honored PH to
the fullest.
The Plague, which was another of PH’s crew, hit the stage with long set
featuring performances from Hydra, Bad Seed, Poison Pen, Mr. Mecca,
Substantial, Tonedeff, PackFM and an appearance from Skyzoo who performed
earlier in the night. Sky joined Blitzkrieg onstage to perform “County of
Kings” as PH’s video played in the background.
Royal Flush hit the stage later on to perform some of his classic song.
I’ve seen Flush several times this summer and it never gets tired. It’s further
proof that some music is just timeless.
Before some of the main acts hit the
stage Kid Capri and DP One who is the Plague and PH’s longtime DJ treated us to
incredible DJ sets. After all of this, Pharoahe Monch was up next. Monch
performed songs like “Fuck You” as well as Organized Konfusion hit, “Stress”
and his verse from “Oh No” off the Lyricist Lounge 2 project, of which Danny
Castro was also in attendance. Monch of
course ended his set with “Simon Says” which as usual got the crowd amped up
despite it being nearly 2 am at that point.
The last act of the night, Boot Camp Click being represented by Rockness
Monsta and Smif-N-Wessun was ready to perform. Rock held
it down performing a few songs and then it was time for the headliner. I’ve
seen Smif-N-Wessun a few times recently but they did a few new songs this time
around. I’ve never seen them perform songs off their Cocoa Brovaz album but
they pulled out “Black Trump” and hit us with “One” from Dah’ Shinin assisted
by Rock on the hook.
Of course they ended it in one of the only 2 ways I would have expected,
this time with Sound Bwoy Burriel to send the crowd home happy as Evil Dee
would DJ as the closer. It was a long night, it didn’t start on time, but no
one cared. Everyone came out to support PH’s memory and raise money for his
family. His wife was in attendance and looked to be enjoying herself quite a
bit surrounded by people who care. PH may be gone but never forgotten and with
a daughter on the way, his family is only growing.
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