SummerStage Salutes Hip Hop!!! Funk Flex Tears The Stage Up!!!

Thousands of hip hop fans crowded Central Park’s Rumsey Field in the pouring rain to hear many hiphop legends tear the stage. Funk Flex set the tone to the show by running through hits of early hiphop tracks all the way to today’s music. Some of the artist that performed were EPMD and Rakim. Hit the jump to read the story.
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Thousands of hip hop fans crowded Central Park’s Rumsey Field in the pouring rain to hear hip hop legends Rakim and EPMD rip the microphone, Long Island represent!

All summer long the City Parks Foundation Summerstage concert series has been drawing thousands of people from all over the city to NYC’s Parks for a series of star studded free concerts.

Central Park’s Rumsey field played the host to yet another fantastic showcase, This time around they gave a big salute to Hip Hop, which included hip hop giants such as: hot 97’s DJ Funk Master Flex, hip hop lyricists Rakim and two of music’s premiere funk/hip hop producers/performers EPMD.

The show was kicked off with a 60+ minute dance party manned by non other than world renowned spin master Funk Master Flex of Hot 97. Flex kept spinning classic dance tracks from the 70’s to today’s hot music hits until it was time for the Hip Hop Vets to hit the stage.

First up was the underground’s funk/hip hop impresarios Eric sermon and Parrish Smith of EPMD. Once their track for “crossover” began playing the crowd started to roar!

The love/hate hip hop duo known for showcasing power hitters of their own via the Hit Squad, such as: Redman, Keith Murray and Das Efx, kept the crowd jumping and screaming for more of their thunderous bass driven hits such as “Strictly Business”, “Headbanger” and “So Wat Cha Sayin”

The Duo has been banging out beats and hits for over 22 years, and still has plenty more to offer their fans. Eric Sermon stated jokingly: “I’ve been in the hip hop business for 22 years and I still have all this sexy at 39 years old” the dynamic duo’s performance was old school Hip Hop at its finest, which made their set well worth standing in the pouring rain.

Famed DJ’s also on hand to keep the large crowd entertained between sets, was the concert’s Host and VJ Ralph McDaniels and ‘DJ scratch’ who’s DJ’ing skills truly live up to his name!

It was finally time for the headliner to take the stage; the crowd could no longer wait to hear hits from Hip Hops premiere lyricist, the G-d Emcee himself.

Rakim burst onto the stage in all his MC swagger and let loose with a musical showcase the crowd was already amped up to see!

The Microphone Fiend” let the rhythm hit em from every possible side; he performed his mega hits: “Don’t Sweat the Technique”, “Let the Rhythm Hit Em” and many more. When he broke into “Juice” from the motion picture soundtrack, the crowd became hysterical with Rakim’s hip hop fever. During his performance Rakim joined in on the turntables along with ‘DJ Scratch’ and ‘Technician the DJ’ for a Mixmaster flurry.

The G-D Emcee continued on with some of his earliest classics such as: I Ain’t no joke”, “Microphone fiend” and “I know you got soul” The Hip Hop showcase was a very memorable performance, Rakim wanted to keep on going but the heavy rains finally shut it down, the show also included performances by Cormega and Peter Gunz, who joined Rakim on stage to perform their past Hip Hop hits with the ultimate lyricist of hip hop.
Examiner