Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 91

Summer Stage 2016 — Joe Bataan meets SETENTA/ Joan Català

Summer Stage never ceases to surprise me. Every year, across the 5 boroughs of New York City, the City Parks Foundation holds a Summer Stage for absolutely FREE. Free is a word that catches almost every New Yorkers eye. It surely caught mine and every year, I’m always surprised at the different events that the City Parks Foundation provides for us.

Today, I had the opportunity to visit one of the events in St. Mary’s Park, located on 3rd Ave. 149th street. The location was actually a bit more into the park, on St. Anns, between 145th and 146th street, on top of the hill. It’s a huge hill, and by the time I reached the top, I was out of breath and all I wanted to do was sit. What I saw though, made my energy spike. The Hispanic community, amongst other diverse races where there and everyone was having a great time, listening and dancing to the music that was being played. I took my folding chair and sat down and listened to the music, provided by Joe Bataan and SETENTA/ Joan Català . Even after wanting to sit down after the hill climb, I got out of my seat and started dancing, joining in with the others. There was so much love between the people there, with all the hugging and dancing together. It was good to see the different cultures interact so freely with each other. The music was in English and Spanish so everyone could have a chance to understand the lyrics. For the lyrics that I couldn’t understand, the instruments touched my heart and the music felt more universal than anything.

Today, the Parks Department won on this one. They really outdid themselves with the beautiful music and bringing people together. Even if you can’t understand the music, if you feel yourself dancing to the beat and feel your heart connecting to it all and the people around you, then it doesn’t matter.

Written by Bobbi Cordero

FAT JOE at SUMMER STAGE

Although I live across the street from Crotona Park, it was nice to see both Fat Joe and Remy Ma perform in my hood for the Summerstage Concert series. I originally thought they were supposed to show up the next day but my sister overheard them performing and it was “What’s Luv?” the joint he did with Ashanti back in 2001. Then my mom comes in through the door with the same enthusiasm as my sister, hyped about Fat Joe and Remy Ma performing as well, so I decided to throw on my sneakers, grab my keys and both my iPhones and speed walk to go catch the show in my basketball shorts and a grey t-shirt before the show was over. When I got there, it was super crowded. People were all over the park with their phones out recording and singing and rapping along to the songs they were performing and it was “Lean Back” when I got there. I decided to find a good spot to stand at and get a good angle to record them on my busted iPhone that I keep for hip hop occasions like this. I got a good 1 minute long video of Remy doing her verse to “All the Way Up”, which is one of the hottest hip hop joints out this year. While Remy did her thing, strutting across the stage, spitting her verse with so much aggression in her voice, the DJ played with the song a little bit while the audience got hyped and rapped along with Remy to her verse while jumping up and down and simultaneously recording on their phones at the same time. It was dope to see The Bronx represent as hard as they did because The Bronx is such an underrated and forgotten borough in New York. It was also dope to see a lot of hip hop fans and older heads out there enjoying the show instead of doing their usual “new school rap” hate rantings all day. Watching Fat Joe and Remy Ma up on that stage made me very proud to be from The Bronx and of course, it was another monumental dope hip hop moment for me, even though I caught it at the very last minute, looking crazy in a t-shirt and basketball shorts.

WRITTEN BY-Jay-DOGGZ

KOOL HERC at SUMMER STAGE

Another dope and incredible event that happened in my hood. Where? Summer Stage Crotona Park this time it was the Father of Hip Hop himself, DJ Kool Herc. I met this man already two times before so to see him again made me very happy and I am forever grateful and honored to be apart of his presence and to be a witness of his skills on the turntables. But anyways, this event was Kool Herc on the turntables and lots of people of all kinds of different backgrounds and ethnicities coming together to dance and enjoy the music spun by Kool Herc. It’s always a joy to see so many people come together to dance and enjoy the occasion without any altercations and drama, that’s the beauty and power of hip hop. There were breakdancers and there were two steppers, there were booty shakers and there were the simple finger
snapping and head nodders just recording what was going on as well. After that, Kool Herc gives a brief but short speech about the social injustices towards our Black communities and people that’s currently going on in the world and gives his condolences in the same sentence and preaches about showing love too. After that, it was the screening of the documentary “Rubble Kings“, which by the way was an incredible documentary. “Rubble Kings” is a 2010 documentary about the gang life back in the 1970’s in the South Bronx that later led to the influence of other gangs in other boroughs all over New York. The history of how broken and abandoned the Bronx used to be and how these gangs formed and came together kept me glued to the screen, very fascinated and eager to learn about this. After the tragic death of one gang member comes with a peace treaty and BOOM, here comes hip hop, which put a huge smile on my face as I continued watching. The documentary ends on a positive note about how things were beginning to transition from one era to another. Things went from gangs with dirty clothes on, fighting and being socially and politicallyinvolved to the fresh b-boys around the way at the jams battling through dance and art. The documentary made me think about the state of hip hop today versus back then. So much unity and fun then, too much negative things being glorified today but that’s a whole ‘nother story. I walked back home at exactly 10 at night happy about another dope hip hop occasion. I left with so much inspiration knowing that being from the Bronx, there’s lots of history here but of course, people don’t care or understand.

BY JAY-DOGGZ

Category: Whats Buzzing in the Streets

Summer Stage 2016 — Joe Bataan meets SETENTA/ Joan Català

FAT JOE at SUMMER STAGE

KOOL HERC at SUMMER STAGE

JACKTHRILLER INTERVIEW