Raekwon Invades Brooklyn
Last week I had the pleasure to witness the final Heineken Green Room show in Brooklyn which featured the Chef himself, Raekwon. You already know the legacy this man so there is no need to dive into it but we can talk about his opening act: IDK from Maryland. I been listening to this kid for some time now(probably one of the few New Yorkers that listens to him) from his breakout mixtape "Subtrap" to his latest project #IWASVERYBAD which I consider one of the top ten of 2017. Imagine my surprise when I get the opportunity to see a upstart and a legend in the same space for free. After Quiana Banks got the crowd hype with her mix of current and Wu classics it was time for IDK to perform. He started from his early joints from Subtrap and Empty Bank then went into his new tracks which got the crowd going. I was impressed by his stage presence because these young rappers today always rhyming over vocals and he hardly did that. Also by the fact that New York knew some of his material and singing along made me realize that maybe I am not a outsider anymore.
After IDK left, Quiana came back to keep the energy going before Rae hit the stage. Once he got on, it was a wrap he wasting no time going deep into his catalog and the crowd recited the lyrics. People always forget other than Ghost and maybe Method Man no other Wu member has a deeper catalog than Rae so he had too many hits to go through. The crowd was carefully looking around to see if any other Wu member but alas it was just Rae by himself and that's not a bad thing at all. I did ODB justice by performing Shimmy Shimmy Ya and ran through Only Built 4 Cuban Linx part 1 before performing the new material from "The Wild" Rae definitely showed why he is one of the best performers out of the Clan and even though it was free it was probably better than most performances I paid for this year. Heineken Green Room closed their season in style with this one and hopefully they'll kick off next year with the same energy.