DJ Cassidy’s ‘Pass The Mic Live’ At Radio City Music Hall Celebrated Hip-Hop 50 In Epic Fashion – VIBE.com
After three years of supplying the masses with golden era music showcases, DJ Cassidy has taken his popular Pass The Mic series on tour. Powered by the Black Promoters Collective and a long list of legendary artists, on July 21, Cassidy pulled off one hell of an historic show at the famed Radio City Music Hall in mid-town New York.
Even though the PTM show’s humble beginnings were birthed on Youtube during the start of the pandemic’s quarantine days, the program soon switched over to BET Networks as a special presentation after most of their highly rated award shows. With a season worth of episodes spanning the BET Awards, Soul Train Awards and others, Cassidy’s PTM brought long forgotten about superior tracks to the forefront from not only Hip-Hop and R&B, but Reggae, Disco and Gospel as well. With his current live tour, each city has a special curated line up that speaks to that city’s region as well as an era in time.
Natasha Campos
The first stop on the tour was in Newark, New Jersey, where he focused on a Mother’s Day 2023 celebration featuring Ashanti, Fabolous, Ja Rule, Lil Kim, Ma$e, Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, 112 and other special guests. It was a much talked about spectacle as that lineup hit all the right notes for the late 90’s to early 2000s.
This second live edition brought out all the stops in mega talent to honor Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary with over 25 acts from the genre’s inception in 1973 to 1993. Going from party starters with The Sugar Hill Gang to the shit starters in Onyx, the show was continuous and flowed smoothly for the nearly three hours of stage time.
Seeing the likes of Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Hip-Hop’s first solo superstar Kurtis Blow, even Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee (who both were once locked in an infamous club rap battle), was a glorious viewing.
Cassidy made sure that all of the artists did their biggest hits. CL Smooth repped with “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You), Dres of Black Sheep (accompanied by Chi Ali) did a crowd favorite in “The Choice Is Yours” in full, MC Shan came through on “The Bridge” and Milk Dee of Audio Two rocked “Top Billin’” for the older heads in the audience.
“Passing the mic to 50 of my Hip-Hop heroes was my life’s greatest honor,” Cassidy explains. “Witnessing the artist camaraderie both backstage and on stage from morning to night was simply magical. It was that beautiful spirit that lied at the heart of this historic, three hour, once in a lifetime experience.”
Natasha Campos
There was an aire of grand nostalgia throughout the venue, especially when Brand Nubian, EPMD and Kid N’ Play did their well known tracks. Seeing the attendees rap along with every word, even tripping up on a few of them, showed how much these songs of relevance mean to the Hip-Hop audience.
Natasha Campos
Cassidy kept the pace going right through to the main headliners of KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and the great Slick Rick with Doug E. Fresh. So many other surprises were in store with Lil’ Vicious and Keni Burke, both assisting Doug with their songs (“Freaks” and “Keep Rising To The Top,” respectfully). The highlight of the night, for many, was seeing Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick doing “La Di Da Di” together. A rare pairing of the two doing this live is definitely for the record books.
Natasha Campos
Appropriately, Cass’ ended the Radio City show with the Naughty by Nature hit, “Hip-Hop Hooray.” After Doug E. and Slick Rick tore the stage down, Cass’ brought every performer back out while Treach returned to do the ultimate Hip-Hop anthem…and rightly so.
Natasha Campos
Overall, Cassidy put on a show for the ages at a famous New York landmark, with the culture’s main architects. The fun with this PTM brand doesn’t stop with this show through. More are on the way.
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