VH1 Def Jam Showcase Review

So Def Jam is celebrating their 25th anniversary and decided to throw a massive party in Brooklyn and the shindig was hosted by Tracy Morgan, awesome. If you grew up when Hip Hop was young, especially in the tri state area Def Jam directly affected everything about you, your threads, your kicks, your dome piece, your slang, and your general swagger. If you don’t understand what I am saying then this particular review is not for ya.

All of Def Jam was honored on this VH1 Special including Rick Ruben, Russell Simmons, LA Reid, and Lyor Cohen. In fact the the best part of this showcase was these 3 to 5 minute black and white documentary style snip-its with the architects of Def Jam talking very candidly about the label. My favorite part was when Lyor Cohen talked shit about Bad Boy and Death Row labels, it flashed to the balcony where Lyor Cohen’s crew were all jumping on top of him after the segment played, nothing like talking shit on the competition to get your crew fired up!

Most of the special consisted of Def Jam artists and artists that did Def Jam covers. Black Thought and Slim Shady(yeah Eminem) opened the special by covering Rock the Bells by LL Cool J, I guess LL was busy doing CSI or something. The highlight was Redman and Method Man doing their thing thing and then right after Mary J Blige and the Ticalian Stallion did the 1995 lovers banger “Your All I Need”. Then my man Ghostface Killah came out at the end for a medley of Def Jam artists that are currently on the Def Jam Label, Tony Starks is the man.

But there were some no shows. Obviously no Beastie Boys because of MCA recent cancer plus they have bad blood with Def Jam after leaving the label, a label that they helped create. They did get honored by Gym Class Hero’s and KRS 1 covering “No Sleep till Brooklyn”, but KRS 1 basically said fuck the cover I am gonna freestyle,  and he set that shit on FIRE! Public Enemy also showed up and did Rebel Without A Pause with both the Roots and Street Sweeper Social Club, that’s right Tom motherfuckintheman Morello. So many people showed up to give love to Def Jam, even DMX performed, but there were some serious no shows. No Jay Z, No Kanye? WTF dudes. I guess their egos were too big to get into the door. Hell Foxy Brown came out of hiding new tits and all and performed with Fabolous, yeah that’s how he spells his name.

So all in all if you are a fan of Hip Hop, grew up in the Tri State area or are part of the culture this is a nice treat for the LCD. Remember kids, Def Jam started in a dorm room.

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