CLUBS

Yet another legend of hip-hop is coming to town. Dick Thornberg can’t wait.

Wow. Weapon Of Choice really pick their line-ups, don’t they? After the successes of the Sugarhill Gang and the Furious 5, WoC are moving on through hip-hop history a few years. But before we get to the headliner, this night's supporting line-up alone is enough to salivate over. We have MK vs Mr Thing vs Harry Love with Yungun hosting in a proper showdown of the very best of the British hip-hop movement, there's the original bassheads Smith & Mighty fresh from killing it at Shambala, there are honorary Bristolians Rodney P & Skitz who are no strangers to smashing it at a variety of venues around the city, there’s Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols to bring more low-frequency party starters, and there's DJ Derek for some cardigan-sponsored reggae meanderings.

As if this mini-festival of a line-up was not enough, we come to the headliner. A gentleman who’s never afraid to speak his mind (who’d have thought that of an MC?); a man whose first album, Boogie Down Productions’ ‘Criminal Minded’, was the blueprint for a harder-edged, stripped-down, more politically charged, “hip-hop as hip-hop” approach and one of the albums that began the genre’s golden age; he who penned ‘Sound Of Da Police’, ‘Step Into A World’ and ‘I’m Still #1’ – KRS-One (pictured).

Born Lawrence Parker in the Bronx of the 60s, KRS-One embraced spirituality and creativity from a very young age, putting it to good use as a graf writer and poet with his friend Scott Sterling, aka Scott La Rock. Sadly, the latter was the fatal victim of a street argument gone wrong not long after ‘Criminal Minded’ was released, and this tragedy galvanised the Blastmaster to make hip-hop his life and religion, making it a subject he speaks endlessly about – not just as a musical artform but as a creed and cultural teaching. The acronym of his name, ‘Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone’, implies a spirituality, the existence of a higher being perhaps, and a surprising humility – the idea that he isn’t the greatest himself certainly isn’t apparent when he steps to the mic.

This is an admirably balls-out way to kick off the In:Motion parties, which stretch from now until Xmas time, and if the following nights match this opener for scale and ambition, we privileged Bristolians are in for a cracking few months.

WEAPON OF CHOICE WAS AT MOTION ON FRI 1 OCT.  
 

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