Words By: Juan Ayala & Brendan Lee
Photos By: Brendan Lee
Thursday February 28th – From the slums of Shaolin, Ghostface Killah aka Pretty Toney aka Ironman aka Tony Starks (you get the point) and Brooklyn rapper Sheek Louch – performing as Wu Block – played to a packed crowd at Gossip – as presented by MSH sessions and UnionEvents.com, with support by DJ J-Soul, Trinity Chris, Northwest Division, Charron and Greg Beamish.
Greg B started the night off to an already packed crowd. He did his thing and rocked his songs tight but the audience just wasn’t feeling it, which seemingly had a dominoe effect on the rest of the night’s openers. Boos and a wave of thumbs down permeated in the crowd of Wu Tang heads before local boys Northwest Division hit the stage. NWD are Junk, Katch and Young Hungry – a group of talented emcees all in ther own right but the ignorance from some audience members grew stronger as they barely let dudes spit their bars before turning a blind eye to them. They killed it as usual, with the dope, introspective track Lifelines from the group’s recent album and stormed off stage with some disdain towards the disrespectful few crowd members.
Charron, well known for his battles in KOTD, stepped to the stage to try his hand at the tilted crowd but the hate still persisted from the small group. The rest of us were definitely feeling his set as he displayed his witty lyricism and freestyle skills. At the end of his set he took matters into his own hands and roasted one of the dudes that was egging on the boos and negative response, with a straight freestyle battle rap diss – holding nothing back and rightfully so. He bodied the kid with the line “This guys a clown, I bet you thought Wu block was a street in Chinatown,” and the crowd went crazy. It’s safe to say these hateful kids learned a lesson about messing with a real emcee – lesson being, everyone starts somewhere and it’s just straight disrespectful to not give up and coming local talent a chance to do their thing; if you don’t like it, go for a smoke or drink or do anything other than ruining the show for everyone else!
Wu Block’s name is a combination, which comes from Ghostface and Sheek’s respective groups Wu-Tang Clan and D-Block (The LOX). The album was originally going to be a collaboration by various members of Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface, Raekwon, Cappadonna and all three members of D-Block. But was narrowed down to Ghostface and Sheek. However, the album features the original lineup, except for Cappadonna, and a few members from both camps make appearances.
The date was long awaited, the venue set, Ghost Face Killah was once interviewed (by Tim Westwood in the UK) saying he loved the water and on a rainy Thursday night in Van City he took off like a fish iout of water. Sheek & GFK set the tone with a raspy and grimey entrance performing Comin’ for ya head off the Wu Block album. The crowd was energized and ecstatic as a sea of hands and W’s flooded Gossip. Crack Spot stories was another banger off the album and had everyone bobbing their heads and vibing out. Both emcees were amped up and the crowd felt the passion as each one spit his rhymes.
Sheek Louch got down with Wild Out and busted out a Lox classic with Money Power Respect. Sheek displayed his lyrical talent and grimey NY nature as he spit fire through the mic. Both GFK and Sheek performed surprise mixtape songs which included All about the Benjamin’s and I get high.
Special moments of the show included lighters and cell phones lighting up a blacked out Gossip as Can It Be So Simple dropped, which was the fourth and final single on Wu-Tang Clan’s critically acclaimed debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Ghostface ushered in good vibes with a classsic, then, with help from audience members Protect Ya Neck was performed by GFK along with two ballsy volunteers filling in for O.D.B and Method Man. The crowd was reeling and impressed by the unique experience and you can’t forget about the ladies. They were shown some love, invited on stage and serenated with slower R & B influenced tracks (including Ghost’s classic jam Cher Chez la Ghost), GFK and Louch had the ladies dance and gave Gossip eye candy and Killa Priest threw down some freestyle to bring variety.
Ghost was in his element, bringing his critically acclaimed, strong, fast paced flow that kept the crowd excited. Face it, no pun intended, Ghostface Killah is a vet to the craft, true to his roots and with a dime set of solo albums and the Wu Tang era albums under his belt he killed it, the supporting cast of Sheek Louch and Killa Priest, the Wu Block wooed true hip hoppers and gained more fans for the clan.