Issue 5, Article 3
It's the 25th day on the road and, on less than five hours of sleep, the journey to Massachusetts begins. The night before, they rocked NYC's infamous nightclub, Tramps, until dawn. RZA, the voltranic head of the Wu-Tang Clan, "had us on for like six hours!" proclaims ?uestlove. After the show, the five travelling members of the Roots board the tour bus and get ready for a four-hour trip to Worcester. At the Palladium, the soundcheck goes smoothly, and they finally get a chance to relax in their coffin beds on the bus and munch on two-day-old fast food cuisine. It's a hard-knock life on the road! Showtime! About 9:30, DJ Evil Dee comes out onto the stage to fiddle with the turntables. People start to yell and stomp the floor like hip-hop addicts, but he's not doing anything yet. The addicts persist, and Evil can't resist giving a little tease to the dilated ears of the Massachusetts heads.
Evil breaks out in his routine. As his fingers grip the edge of the turntable, the power starts the records spinning, and with a brush of his hand over the needle, Hip-Hop is released. His hands flash between turntables and alternate with the mixer in a fashion that excites the crowd. As the musik is pumped out, the crowd is hooked and the repetitious melody causes heads to fluctuate back and forth. But the injection of musik does not calm the people - they want what they came here for.
A distinct chime is heard in the background. ?uestlove (drums), followed by Kamal (keyboards), Hub (bass guitarr), Scratch (human beat box), and finally Black Thought (manifesting ryhmes), enter with cow bells. They strike the bells with a tone that echoes off the bridge of lights. As the lights flash off and on, each member of the Roots freezes in his space. The addicts are getting impatient and the chimes are quickening their rhythm. Black Thought gets the blood rushing to heads with a chant of, "Hip Hop Musik!" As the call and response ensues, Thought pauses one last time to aim his mark and injects, "I shall proceed and continue to rock the mic." A flash of blue, red, and purple light bombards the stage. ?uestlove bangs out the beat of their breakthrough hit while Scratch mimics the sound of a DJ cutting up records.
The crowd is so infected that the stage security guards are dancing with the hip-hop addicts. As the Roots run through their enigmatic cache of substances like "Universe at War" and "Desperado," the crowd has become inebriated with the onslaught. Their energy has been so zapped from yells and panting that no one can distinguish the shadow in the back right of the stage. After a dramatic pause, the lights change to orange and yellow to illuminate the mysterious figure known as Common. The addicts rejoice with the presence of the booster and scream, "I can't believe this!" The crowd is knocked off their feet with "I Used to Love H.E.R." and afterwards Common and the Roots make their RUN DMC poses. The show is interrupted by Thought's voice: "Hip Hop musik and culture brought all these people from all different walks of life together." The lights fade.
After Black Moon performs, the Roots do an hour-long freestyle session where familiar hip-hop beats are amalgamated with television tunes. The show has ended with all the addicts filing out of the building like zombies having been transported to another time and place which they haven't realized has disappeared.
It is about four hours after the show began when we get to go back to the bus. Once inside, ?uestlove decides he wants to play pool, Thought wants to go back to the hotel and sleep, Common is sick and falls out in his coffin, Mos is already sleeping in his girlfriend's lap, and Hub is cracking jokes. Obviously, he got the last laugh on me!