Inflatable Ferret

Surprise Guest Kid Cudi

The CMJ Music Marathon has provided New York with some of the finest independent music since 1980. Taking place in venues across the city, it features new and established artists alike playing cheap (and often free) shows. The Inflatable Ferret’s Doug Knickrehm was at CMJ’s “Better Recognize” hip-hop show at B.B. King’s to let us know what was up.

After waiting in a huge line moving at a glacial pace on Wednesday night, I finally made it into the show, and Donnis, an up and coming rapper from Atlanta, hit the stage shortly thereafter. Admittedly I was hesitant to give him a fair listen, because he had opened for Clipse the night before, and gave a lack luster performance. He stepped up his game at CMJ though, and received fairly positive feedback from the crowd.

Kidz in the Hall, from New Jersey and Chicago respectively, came on next. They put on an entertaining show, making sure to include their famous hit “Driving Down the Block.” In the middle of Kidz’ set, Consequence, a Queens native, surprised the crowd with a performance of his Kanye produced hit “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.” He was not even featured on the bill, one of the several surprise guests who livened up an already raucous crowd.

Next came the man I’d been waiting to see, Curren$y. Curren$y (New Orleans) aka “The Hot Spitta” has been

Curren$y a.k.a. "The Hot Spitta"

rolling on a wave of independent success the past year and half due to his relentless release of mixtapes. Formerly a member of Young Money (Lil’ Wayne’s outfit), he has started his own group Fly Society and has taken the underground rap game by storm. Chants of “Spitta” could be heard before he arrived on stage as he teased the crowd from backstage with his classic rhyme “Jets set where haven’t we been yet”. He performed “Spit Vicious” from the Fin mixtape first. Then he broke into a freestyle, “Bout it Bout it”, and “Top of the Money”. After these four, the crowd was (semi) surprised with a guest feature, Wiz Khalifa. Wiz (Pittsburgh) and Spitta recently collaborated to compile the How Fly mixtape. The two combined for performances of “Car Service” and “In the Middle.” It must be noted that these two are possibly the biggest stoner rapper duo since Method Man and Redman, therefore ample weed smoke filled the air during the Curren$y set. Spitta finished with “Elevator Music” an ode to music that you ride and smoke to.

After the Curren$y set, we noticed a familiar face holding a bottle of Grey Goose. It was none other than Kid Cudi. Another guest not featured on the ticket, Cudi gave the crowd an interim performance of “Make Her Say”.

The most disappointing set occurred after Cudi. OJ da Jucieman, an Atlanta resident and Gucci Mane associate, has been enjoying a blend of commercial success and love from the hood lately. Unfortunately for him, he was in New York, not Georgia. Almost as soon as he came on stage, many boo’d his set. It was almost painful to watch, and I’m a Gucci Fan! To his credit, Juiceman stayed on the stage, kept a cool head (thanks to the ice on his neck and wrists) and did not go Plies on the crowd.

Raekwon the Chef, possibly the most anticipated artist of the night came out after Juiceman. Raekwon lost his voice earlier in the week, which dramatically affected his performance.

Raekwon the Chef not at full health

He apologized many times for his voice, but still did a wide array of hits. His set featured Wu Tang classics like “C.R.E.A.M” along with newer songs of his recent album Only Built for Cuban Linx II. While not a huge fan (don’t kill me Wu Tang nation), I have mad respect for Rae after CMJ. His voice sounded as if it hurt to talk and he still sang 8 songs.

Finally, at sometime after 2 A.M. Jadakiss and Styles P hit the stage. In their hour-long set, they covered a lot of territory, and many D Block classics bumped from the speakers. The most impressive parts of their performance were the energy Styles and Kiss brought and how well they worked together. Each knew the words to the other’s verses and would interject at the right times. Jadakiss put on a heartfelt performance of “Letter to B.I.G”. He even sang the chorus! My Two favorite songs from their set had to be “Good Times” and “Fuck You.’ “Good Times” is a Styles P classic about his love for weed, and Kiss and P both demonstrated this love. The group closed with a passionate (yes, passionate) rendition of “Fuck You.” Styles and Jada were both dripping in sweat after their hour-long performance, a clear sign that the two venerable hip-hop veterans had just put on the best performance of the night.

All in all CMJ was a great collection of artists of many regions, styles, and stages in their careers. With the exception of OJ, every artist was received well and put on a spectacular show. Much respect to CMJ for putting on such an amazing show for such a low price (ten bucks!).

More photos below…