On Saturday night Scion brought their free hip hop tour to Baltimore headlined by J. Period and the legendary Big Daddy Kane (backed by a live band!). As we waited outside the main stage we could hear the band warming up, practicing Kane classics like ‘Warm It Up Kane’ and ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin.’ Once the horn started blaring from ‘Smooth Operator’ I was amped to see how Kane would get his “Roots” on.

However, before Kane rocked J. Period, known mostly from his best of mixtapes with Lauryn Hill, Nas and The Roots, came on to warm up the crowd and straight up killed it. For two hours he was dropping back to back classic tracks from a set that ran through treats from Run DMC, Black Moon, Slick Rick, and even the Artifacts and O.C. He touched on reggae, soul and more stirring the crowd into a frenzy before Kane came out.

Finally, after a jam session by the backing band, Kane came on the stage in a suit to rip a dope, albeit short performance which ran through his key tracks with the standout being ‘Smooth Operator’ as the backup singer belted out the hook and adlibs. And with that Kane was gone in a flash as the band broke out backstage leaving the crowd wanting more. They’d only get one more verse from ‘Wrath of Kane’ before BDK left for good. Luckily, J. Period hopped back onstage and picked up where he left off earlier in the night killing the crowd with more bangers until Sonar kicked us all out. All in all a good night of hip hop.

Posted by Jbutters on Monday, December 18th, 2006 and is filed under SICKWIDIT, REVIEWS, SHOWS.