Went to a hip hop show on Friday night in Boston. It was a record release party/show for 7L & Esoteric’s new album. In 2000, when I was a senior in high school, I made a 40 minute documentary about the emerging Boston hip hop scene and featured them along with Edo.G, Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Skitzofreniks, Virtuoso, Insight and a few others. Ray Benzino from Made Men was supposed to be in it but he ended up threatening me and kicking me out of his office thinking I was police. Unfortunately the Boston scene never really took off like I had hoped it would but there’s definitely some good talent.

Anyway, I hadn’t really listened to 7L & Esoteric’s music in about 8 years but they had a jam back in like 1999 with Inspectah Deck called “Speaking Real Words” of which I was a huge fan (I used to be a backpacker)

Seriously, once you get past the fact he’s white, Esoteric is dope. His last verse on this song is interesting, and mind you this is 9 years ago:
cause I’m takin it back
to a time when it was cool to call hip-hop rap
Cause I’ve been rappin, since fly sneakers were cheap
since I bought em off Koreans down on Washington Street
Since I had a cameo, since I rocked rope chains
Since I had gold fronts with the Polo frames
Since “Goin’ Way Back,” since pro black rap
Since the Jungle Brothers let me know “I Got it Like That”
He essentially predicts the retro craze that would hit pop culture a few years later. Kinda crazy. Anyway, show was great, didn’t hear a lot of older material but liked some of his new stuff. Check him out.

Also, hadn’t heard of this guy Raydar Ellis but he was rocking a gold chain with an OG Zelda NES cartridge attached to it. I thought that was pretty funny.