...CL then inquired: “yeah, wasn’t the basement crazy back then? Who came thru?”
Pete Rock answered: “The basement back in the days? Fuckin LL Cool J, Shaquille O’Neal, Fresh Prince, Father MC, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Redman, Erick Sermon, Parrish Smith… all been to my house! Rakim! Nas! By the way, go pick that Nas shit up… now I want to do something special. I want to say rest in peace to my cousin Heavy D and to my brother Trouble T-Roy.”
The moment we’ve all been waiting for. It was here, and it felt just so beautiful to experience in a crowd of nearly a thousand hip hop heads from across the 20 years this song has existed on this planet. An unparalleled moment of rap magic happened next. The original sample for “They Reminisce For You” came on, the Tom Scott cover of “Today” by Jefferson Airplane, and the crowd started feeling the sensation of something special creeping over, around, and into their entire collective mind, body and soul. The understated, somber and sacred sounds of “T.R.O.Y.” began to become clear to our ears, and we all knew exactly just what time it was.
Suddenly, Pete Rock stops the record and says “Everybody sing along! Da da dada dada da dah-dah!” to which the crowd obey and plays that supreme saxophone solo with their mouth, in unison. You know how it goes, but you have never seen this many people sing it together, with so much enthusiasm. The first horn comes in. The chorus melody comes on. The beat drops. And they performed the entire song like a prayer to the pasttime greats. With timeless perfection, CL Smooth started it off with the words that we all know by heart: “I reminisce for a spell, or shall I say think back…” precisely as it should be performed. I’m sure some people were crying while this all was happening. I feel tears of joy just remembering this concert moment. For the hook, Pete Rock would demand: “say T to the R-O-Y!” and everyone would. All three verses were given to us, it was nothing short of everything we all dreamed for. As well as a bonus flourish, when CL says “Pete Rock hit me! Nuff respect due” and Pete sliced it up three times, it was electrifying. And it all felt marvelous. They took it to the heart-warming outro, and beyond: “Never be another, he was my brother… Trouble T-Roy. And you don’t stop.” The sobering fact that both Heavy D and Trouble T-Roy are both kickstepping and breakdancing in the mysterious next dimension after life makes moments like this infinitely more priceless, precious and pure beyond all expression except inside the music itself. And being in the audience of that creative moment is an experience worth remembering forever and sharing with all special friends who care about the golden eras of our artform.
The rapping ended there, the show was done and well done. It could have ended there, but Pete Rock decided to bless Toronto with a few of the records he produced over the years, as well as deliver a nice serving of other hip hop classics as he manned the turntables as the brimming with bliss listeners ushered themselves out of the event.
Thank you to Pete Rock and CL Smooth for peforming all of Mecca and the Soul Brother for Toronto. It was hip hop heaven circa 1992, and thank you for taking us back there. Would it be too much to ask for you two to do The Main Ingredient in its entirety in 2013? Just let us know.
Now, the Public Enemy concert that happened on the same stage a couple weeks later? Compellingly promoted as It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back in its entirety? In comparison, this show was a beautiful beast of an entirely different breed.
continued here: http://www.connectdadot.com/2012/11/12/ ... lic-enemy/
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