Ali Shaheed Muhammad @ Fluid

July 14, 2004 5:04 PM
by

Fluid Nightclub
613 South 4th Street

July 7, 2004 Scion and the Rebel Organization bring Ali Shaheed Muhammad along with LA's Haul and Mason, and DJ Statik [Ill Vibe Collective] to Fluid. This was free event but in order to get in you had to RSVP on the Scion website. It is a part of a tour Scion (a hip car manufacturer) and the Rebel Organization, which include appearances by various acts across the country.

For those who do not know, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, is a Hip Hop legend. Most people would recognize the chant spoken by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest "We on award tour with Muhammad my man going each and every place with the mic in our hands...." He is talking about the same Mr. Muhammad. Although, he was not accompanied by his Tribe teammates, Ali Shaheed Muhammad held it down on the ones and twos.

The night started off with DJ Statik. He was spinning some funky Hip Hop and soulful joints. Stuff I was unfamiliar with but would not mind hearing more of. In the middle of the dance floor stood some dude who reminded me of Dove Trugoy from the DA.I.S.Y. Age. He was feeling the tunes pumped through the speaker. Not too far away a woman is doing the cutest dance. She is waving her hands from side to side and, bobbing up and down. Other than that, the dance floor is barren.

However, as time goes by, more and more people trickle in. By the end of DJ Statik’s set, the dance floor has a good amount of people on it. DJs Haul and Mason step up to spin. I have never heard them before but when they came on the whole vibe changed. More people start to dance. They call their style the 2 X 4. It is cutting and scratching with a whole lot of blending. Blending is when you pair vocals of one song to the instrumental of another song. Supposedly, these guys are new to the hip hop scene (that’s what their promotional CD says) but I don't believe that. Their crates are too deep. In their mix were old jams by Rakim, Bush Babees, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Biz Markie, Ice Cube... the list is pretty extensive. When they played "Poison" by Bell Biv Devoe the whole place went wild. Most of the patrons looked like they were in middle or High School when that song came out.

By the end of the Haul and Mason set, the crowd had died down a little bit. Ali Shaheed Muhammad starts off by playing a soulful joint. If I had my guess I would say it was Lucy Pearl but I am not sure. Then he makes an announcement, he would only play on one condition, that everyone should forget he was up there and just have fun. Of course nobody could or would forget. More people than ever were on the dance floor. Mr. Muhammad begins again with some old school Hip Hop that was just too obscure for me to recognize. The beat is funky like disco tracks usually are. He quickly transitions to that cliché battle between Queens Bridge and South Bronx.

Heads are steady bobbin' their heads and some try to create a break dance circle but there were too many people. Still, that did not stop people from having a good time. Ali Shaheed Muhammad has deep crates as well. He runs though a few Boogie Down Production tracks, a UTFO joint, Rakim, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Souls of Mischief, Black Sheep, a few KRS ONE songs but he had the party really jumping when he spun Wu Tang Clan's "Protect Ya Neck." It looked like people were about to start slam dancing but they did not.

Overall it was a good time. Fluid is such a fly place. It is small but fly.

Any comments, suggestion or invites, please send to meningito@cooljunkie.com. No attachments please.