The first time they rocked the Netherlands was the famous hardcore to the bone 'Def Jam Tour ’87' in the ‘Jaap Eden Hal (venue)’. All the trouble you can imagine of a HipHop concert were there. And it’s still the most loved and cherished memory in the Dutch HipHop scene.
Eric and I made a bet. He was convinced the show would only be half an hour. Which is a stigma for American artists. I said it would at least take one and a half hour. It became 2 and a half hours. Eric had to give it up. Chuck D: "Any one who is coming to Amsterdam and does a half an hour show, is disrespecting you. Don’t let them get away with that."
PE rocked the Paradiso venue with a total set with all the old songs and the new songs. Even songs never performed before. Surprisingly the sound was this time decent and so was the light. Could be better though. I shot five professional films and used a trick my photo shop had told me to do. All the material was wasted. The one normal film which I just shot for fun with fans was not within two hours ready but a day later. Good one hour photo service. So that is the reason we are late with bringing you a report of the PE concert on September 2nd 1999 in Amsterdam. There was no support act and Terminator X could not be here. But there was a good back up by a guest DJ Lord Aswad. S1W showed their fighting skills and techniques.
Flavor Flav: "Everytime I am in Amsterdam, I’m having a good time."
Flavor Flav had a great time and had his own crew of Dutch girl friends with him which he has around him every time he walks beneath sea level. Promoting his t-shirts printed with clock and new album. "Fuck Def Jam!", he said, "They did not release my solo record." At last his solo record will be released soon. "The album is eight and a half years late! The record is called: ‘It’s About Time’." Flavor (www.flavorflav.com) had a small clock around his neck and some fans had even bigger clocks with them. The guys had great fun and ran around and around on stage. Griff even did a tour trough the audience with the S1W’s. A couple of times Chuck, Griff and Flavor ran into each other, Flavor fell most times in these clashes.
Chuck and Flav did a Funky Four routine and checked what the crowd thought about some names like Ice T, the crowd made it mad clear they love him. As a surprise Africa Islam showed up. He pops up more often in Amsterdam, perhaps he moved over here?
On the name Puff Daddy, Amsterdam made clear he better don’t show up here. Flavor told he does not give a fuck and loves him. Chuck, well he gives a fuck and if you want to know what he thinks about it, just check his column on www.Public-Enemy.com.
Professor Griff
On stage Griff is a focused, very concentrated person who is part of the show while he also watches out for the security. Some peeps in the crowd somehow had a reason to pay a ticket and then during the concert occasionally throw a plastic glass on stage. Although it is a standard symbol for disrespect outside of the Country music scene to throw glasses on stage, it some times brought funny silly images. While Brother James of the S1W jumped in position for an attack move, a cup bounced on stage from the balcony right into his hands. And James made a good catch.
Griff enjoyed the crowd and even walked through it. Is this the man America media write about as a racist and dangerous? We could only see a righteous man having a very good time. And after the show when he mingles with the crowd in his tracksuit, he just looks like your friend from the block.
We had a chance to ask him some questions.
AQ: "A lot of people hate Puff Daddy, but he is making the industry more black. Something we are talking about for a lot of years."
Professor Griff: "Well I do not like him. Every two years you have somebody like him. It was Vanilla Ice and now it’s Puff Daddy. I really do not like him."
Auch, comparing him with Vanilla Ice is something that even Puff has to hurt. But hey it’s Griff being straight up. Public Enemy already asked us if we were ready for 2000? Pointing out the ones who have access to Internet will be the haves. Who will not have the access to internet will be the have-nots.
AQ: Pointing that out, our HipHop and in the black community we are the ones with the least computers or access to internet. How we gonna make sure we will have the power to access the internet?
Professor Griff: "I’m not worrying about that. The prognoses show that in the year 2005 the majority of music exchanges will be through the Internet."
Meanwhile PE will keep on rocking and exchanging info and knowledge through the only way it should be done: rocking hard and rocking good.
Eric & AQ
