A lineup with a bunch of "zware jongens." An evening of deep voices and rugged beats. This sounds like a formula for a successful evening. Did it live up to its expectations? (Tekst: Engels)
So here we are in Haarlem, home of the infamous Patronaat with its “breezer chicks” and “gezellig” podium placing you an arm length away from your favorite MC’s. As usual, boss Yid made us arrive at the venue so early that it was not even open yet. So we first decided to hit up a local Haarlem bar full of old drunk people listening to Frans Bauer. Shit was dope.
20 minutes later and waiting in the rain with DJ MistaSweet and MC Kisa, we all hoped for a crazy evening full of random shit. I mean, that’s what we can expect from big names like RA The Rugged Man, Black Market Militia, and Hollands finest: Supercharger Records. Sjatoch?
After a little bit of waiting and confusion about our interview with Rugged Man, it was time for the gentlemen of Supercharger Records to open up the evening. The men took the stage, the lights went out, and the dope beats started jamming hard from the speakers. The hype Supercharger MC’s consisting of MOD The Black Marvel, Ciph Barker, and Thun took the stage and their energy immediately reminded me of Non Phixion. The crowd was being receptive as hell, and Thun even looked like Ill Bill on stage. Hitting bangers from their recently released record “The Campaign”, it is really dope seeing these guys get better show after show. It is now possible to say that they are close to reaching the level of the big names in America. Im already looking forward to their show in the Czech Republic this summer. Hiphop Kemp, here we come! The Supercharger gentlemen finished off their insane set with the (by now) underground classics “Bilderberg” and “Hell.” Crazy moshing and full enjoyment on stage meant that the acts from America had to work hard to keep up the standard.
Now it was time for Rugged Man to take the stage. Yid kept on bothering me about this man for around half a year now. “You know Rugged man? That guy is DOPE!”.. “You check out Die Rugged Man Die? That album is crazy!” Funny thing, I had never heard of the guy. Apparently he is quite big in the States, and has made music with Biggie Smalls. Checking out his website and video he made along with the Smutt Peddlers, I was immediately sold. This man WAS dope and I had to see him live. Before the fat man from New York took the stage, the DJ and warm-up MC Hussein took the floor. To be honest, I wasn’t very impressed with the MC but that DJ knew what he was doing. Around 10 minutes later, the man from New York was there to entertain us. Combining hiphop and standup comedy, he definitely put on a worthy show. Besides rapping with his ambiguous voice, he also told us the story of how he hooked up with Biggie, followed up his his #1 college radio hit single “Lessons.” While doing this track, Rugged Man got half naked, kicked the shit out of somebody in the front row, and took an old lady on stage to play with her breasts. Yes, it was funny, but sometimes he was pushing it too much. I’m sure that the kid who got kicked wasn’t smiling. The set lasted for around 25 minutes and this was definitely a shame because I did enjoy the standup he was doing. I felt like I was on Rayman Is Laat. But I wasn’t. I was in Haarlem with a bunch of Breezer Chicks listening to Rugged Man.
The headliner of the evening was supposed to be Rugged Man, but apparently he wasn’t. It was the Black Market Militia which is headed by Killah Priest. As all Wu-Tang affiliates tend to do, these guys also used classic Wu-Tang beats such as GZA’s “Liquid Swords” and other Wu tracks to get the crowd going. Al though it is a crazily played out tactic, it worked like a charm and the crowd went bananas. Including the usual “Fuck Bush and Blair” speeches in their set, the men also gave a tribute to ODB. It really was a shame that these men did not perform many tracks from their latest release “The Black Market Militia” because that is a crazy dope album which was not used to its full potential. Killah Priest on stage was not anything too spectacular, and the absence of Tragedy Khadafi was really a minus point for the evening. The other MC’s were Hell Razah and Timboking, who did a pretty good job of hyping up the crowd and keeping them bouncing. Overall, the evening was enjoyable but also tiring since it really went into the late hours. The afterparty consisted of RA The Rugged Man trying to dance with the breezer chicks.
On a final note, you will soon be able to check out the Rugged Man interview here on HIJS. Not only setting up the interview was difficult, but the talk itself was very vague. RA was definitely not into it and getting interrupted by groupies didn’t help out our cause much either. By the end of the interview, I was thanking the rap spirits that nice people like Vinnie Paz and Eyedea existed, or else I would quit promoting these assholes altogether.
Fixtures:
Hoogtepunt: Supercharger Records
Dieptepunt: Rugged Man “kapsones” backstage
Bier: ?
WC: Free
Fotograferen: No problem..
Geluid: Not too great, but not terrible either.. You know what I mean…
Bezoekers: Almost full
Damage: 12.50 (CHEAP!)
Cijfer: 8
