Last night (April 16th) I had the opportunity to travel down I-40 and check out Dom Kennedy & Big K.R.I.T. at Aggie Fest 2011. While A&T's our rival and all, I have to take my hats off to them for being able to bring Dom to NC for the very first time. To make it even better, the show was free! Two of my favorite emcees at one venue, and I didn't have to come out of pocket at all! This was my third time checking out K.R.I.T. within the past six months, he's becoming a regular in the 336 and I have no problem with that. This was my first time seeing him perform since R4 dropped last month, so it's needless to say that I was kind of gassed.
Dom's set definitely didn't disappoint, he had the whole building rocking with him, even though some of the crowd wasn't familiar with his music. Most of the crowd was though, and that's impressive considering he's an underground artist from a completely different coast, with no albums released to this date. He opened the show with "Choose Up", one of my favorite tracks off From the Westside with Love, and it definitely set the pace for a good set. After that he continued with a couple other tracks off of that tape, including one of my favorite tracks ever, 1997. He then jumped into a few old tracks off of his first tape, 25th Hour. I'm not gonna lie and act like I was the biggest Dom fan back when those first dropped, but it was cool seeing him perform them and see that he's BEEN doing this, the old tracks are just as good as ones you might find on FTWWL or any other new material that he may have put out since then. To round off his set he jumped into a few songs off of his latest release, The Original Dom Kennedy. Those tracks included Playas Punch, Turn Me Out, CDC, and most importantly my favorite song off the tape, Designer Shit. I'm glad he lived up to all of my expectations with his performance. He had good stage presence, a lot of energy, and kept everyone in the crowd interested. He even brought a young lady onto the stage at one point and spit a few bars at her. My favorite part about Dom's music is the cockiness/swag behind it, it's impossible to listen to ANY of his songs without feeling yourself a little bit afterward. But at the same time his bars are always on point and he always gives us a quality product. If you're not familiar with his music I'd recommend that you check out his blog here and catch up on what you've been missing out on.
I think I've written a review each time I've seen Big K.R.I.T. & Big Sant so this is nothing new to y'all. The good thing about their sets is that they keep getting better and better. K.R.I.T. always refreshes his sets when he comes to town so that we're not seeing the same thing over and over. Of course they started off with the classic "Return of 4eva" off of the K.R.I.T. Wuz Here tape, it's only right. Throughout the rest of his set (which was quite lengthy to my surprise) he mixed tracks from 2010's album and 2011's release. I knew what to expect with the Wuz Here tracks, those included Country Shit (with a medley of David Banner's Like a Pimp in the 2nd verse), Just Touched Down, Hometown Hero, Moon & Stars, Glass House, and my personal favorite Children of the World. Though I'd seen him do each of those before, all the energy that he brings to the stage made it easy for me to enjoy them a third time. The best part of the show was him performing the newer tracks of course. He dove into all sorts of tracks off of R4 which included the R4 Theme Song, Dreamin', Rotation, My Sub, Sookie Now, Made A lot (with Big Sant ripping his verses), Player's Ballad, and my favorite song on the album Time Machine. After this show I'd say K.R.I.T. is definitely my second favorite rapper (you all care right?) behind Lupe. The only rapper I've seen in person that's put on a better show than him is Kanye West, and that's saying something. If you've been under a rock these past couple of years, you can check out Live Mixtapes and download K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and ReturnOf4eva, definitely won't be disappointed.
If you were here in the 336 area and you missed out on the show, you lost. If you've yet to check out K.R.I.T. in concert, I encourage you to do so next time he's in your area. Most it will cost you is $15-20 and it'll definitely be worth it. I'd say the same with Dom, but as I stated earlier this was his first time in NC so there's no telling when he might be back.
As always, thanks for reading. Until next time...
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