Throughout our lives we all bare witness to those moments that we can look back at in our old age with tearful nostalgia. The kind of moments where we can tell our grandchildren that “I was there”. One of those very moments took place this past Friday at the Jazz Cafe where history was made as the legendary Masta Ace and Edo G performed for the first time ever as “A & E”.
As you can imagine, this was not going to be your average Hip Hop show for “de youts dem”, with the random entourage of one hundred people armed with a microphone each just prancing around on the stage. This was proved as the show actually started on TIME!!! I couldn't believe it. Once I got over the initial shock, Ace and Edo bounced on stage with a remarkably abundant energy and took control of the stage like the veterans they are. They were immediately in their element. Wearing fitted hats representing their home cities of New York and Boston respectively, they opened the show with material from their new album “Arts & Entertainment”. Songs such as “A's & E's” and “Hands High” were responded to enthusiastically by the audience with them reciting the rhymes, which was amazing seeing as the said material has only been available for just over a month.
One of the highlights of the show was where they recognised the contributions of collaborative duos in Hip Hop over the years. “Just The Two Of Us” by Bill Withers burst through the speakers and after every refrain of the chorus, Ace and Edo paid tribute to a number of legendary Hip Hop duos. Nice & Smooth, A Tribe Called Quest and Mobb Deep all got their props that night. It was a truly inventive routine that did not come off as corny at all and truly is a testament to the humility of Ace and Edo in saluting groups that came after them but nevertheless did it right.
They took it to another level when they cracked open the vault, started dropping classics at will and brought the Jazz Cafe to its collective knees. First, they blazed through their previous collabs like “Wishing” and “Wutuwankno”. Everybody was losing it – in a good way. Ace then rocked solo joints like “Born To Roll”, “Good Ol' Love” and “Acknowledge”. Edo matched him with his solo renditions of “I Got To Have It”, “Love Comes & Goes” and “Say Something”. There was one particularly charming moment when the fan in Ace was put on display and he politely asked Edo if he would perform one of his favourites, which happened to be the touching “Be A Father To Your Child”.
Overall, this was a great show and the love, respect and excitement was truly tangible. The chemistry between Ace and Edo is no flash in the pan and they took it from the studio booth to the stage which is no easy feat. They were confident, energetic, charming, funny and they even knew ALL of each others ad-libs – that was the impressive part! It was an exhilarating experience and even if it was for a couple of hours, I was just a fan enjoying Hip Hop in its purest form in the presence of legends. This was definitely one of the best shows I have been to all year and Ace and Edo deserve all the respect that they have garnered over the years. They definitely proved that their art will continue to be our entertainment for years to come.
