| |
 When it was announced that Big Daddy Kane would be making his first appearance in Montreal in 20 years I think it caught a lot of fans by surprise. When the scheduled December show was "postponed"... it didn't. Too good to be true, right? I took it as the final tell tale sign that the only way I would see BDK in person is if I stepped through a time machine or joined the cast of Lost. On April 16th, 2009 it almost felt like I did.
The scene outside Le Saints night club was vintage old school. Gold ropes, Adidas sweat suits even vinyl made a special guest appearance that night. This was the mixtape generation. No, I mean the mix tape generation.What you know about TDK tapes and auto reverse buttons? In a city with no local hip hop radio station, there’s a large contingent of Montreal hip hop fans who absorbed the culture almost solely through the internet. That wasn't the case on this night. Gone were the so called hipsters and new school internet nerds replaced by a more mature, seasoned crowed. It wasn't flashy it wasn't boisterous, it just seemed like everybody knew... Kane Asiatic Nobody's Equal.
Kane took to the stage with the savoir faire of an Ivy league professor. Class was in session. He began the show by ripping through a few high octane joints including “nuff respect”,”set it off” and “wrath of Kane”. Barely even warmed up, a fan was already interrupting the man of the hour, with a outstretched arm hoping to get a few signatures for his record collection. “You want me to stop the show and sign these records for you? Let’s see how the crowd feels about that.” Point made. After a few more classics like “Raw”, “Warm it up Kane” and “Another Victory”, a visibly tired Kane pulled a veteran move and went into a 10 minute RIP tribute shouting out everyone from Luther Vandross to Big L.
After the time out, Kane came back with “I get the Job Done”, “Symphony” and of course “Ain’t no Half Steppin”. The highlight of the night was when Kane brought out 1 of his original dancers, Skoob(of Skoob n’ Scrap) to perform a routine the Godfather of soul himself would have been proud of. With the crowd in a frenzy and obviously wanting more, Kane, like a true showman put up the peace sign and exited stage left, just as swiftly as he came. Even after the encore I couldn’t help but feel that the show was somewhat brief.
20 years later, Big Daddy Kane still has an unrivaled stage presence but this was clearly the post up fade away Jordan as opposed to the driving, slashing, dunk on your whole frontline MJ. Sorry, there is no time machine.
Still, Kane is the single most reason why I, and many other fans fell in love with hip hop in the first place.The delivery, the cadence, the word play, the swagger. He was the total package and it was an honor to see a legend in his field grace the stage here in Montreal, on April 16th, 2009.
A couple of weeks later I happened to be at CKUT radio having a conversation with a hip hop fan I had just met while there. The conversation turned to the recent Kane show and he said: “Hey do you remember that guy who tried to stop the show to get his records signed? That was me! He signed them all after the show. Every single one of them!!”
|
|
