Review: The Funkdoobiest (@FunkdoobiestUSA) 20th Anniversary !

On 28th Novem­ber 2013, 200 or so ded­ic­ated, under­ground Hip Hop heads were giv­en a badly needed and unex­pec­ted treat. To cel­eb­rate the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Which Doobie U B?’, The Sil­ver Bul­let and Strictly Busi­ness brought the West Coast and Soul Assas­sins rep­pin’ under­ground legends Funk­doobi­est back to the UK after nearly two dec­ades of absence for a one-off Lon­don show.

The last time ‘The Brothas Doobie’ were in the UK in the ‘90s, they played at Brix­ton Academy, and between then and now, either alone or with fel­low Soul Assas­sin mem­bers Cypress Hill and DJ Muggs, they’ve per­formed their uncom­prom­ising, cen­sor­ship defy­ing, ganja and porno-lov­ing sig­na­ture style of West Coast Hip Hop-Funk at sim­il­ar scale ven­ues around the globe. In con­trast, the com­mit­ted fans that snapped up the 188 tick­ets were giv­en all that arena and sta­di­um rock­ing energy con­cen­trated into the com­par­at­ively small Fins­bury Park ven­ue. And that was a huge pos­it­ive. Intim­ate isn’t a word that should be asso­ci­ated with Funk­doobi­est or that could be used to describe this show — the energy, the raw, unadul­ter­ated Hip Hop vibes and the nearly con­stant mosh pit were intense, fuelled every time one of the under­ground clas­sics got dropped. Some heads at the front even ended up on stage as the energy and mosh pit over­flowed.  ‘I’m Shit­ting On Em’, ‘The Funki­est’ ‘XXXfunk’ and ‘Wop­bab­bal­u­bop’ got the best crowd response, until the very end when, pre­luded by con­stant calls for it through­out the show, Son Doobie gave in and dropped the crew’s biggest track ‘Lost In Thought’ and the mad­ness hit anoth­er level!

The event was dope, suc­cess­fully trans­port­ing the crowd back to the 90’s – some joints even got sparked up inside – pre-smoking ban style! A Funk­doobi­est show wouldn’t have been com­plete without it! The only down­side was that crew mem­bers Ral­ph M and Toma­hawk Funk weren’t there, but Son Doobie got expertly backed, hyped and sup­por­ted by West Coast Hip Hop legends Sean B and, mak­ing his first ever UK appear­ance, Brett B – the man cred­ited with teach­ing B‑Real to write struc­tured bars and with writ­ing the clas­sic hook for the Cypress Hill track ‘Hand on the Pump’. We even got giv­en a Soul Assas­sin his­tory lesson!

The homegrown sup­port held it up too. The night got warmed up with a live MPC per­form­ance from UK-based Hun­gari­an pro­du­cer Yet­izm, a more relaxed and chilled set from UK/Sweden based Galaxy High. The real gem was a rare per­form­ance from UK Brit­core pion­eers Son of Noise, who prop­erly set the 90’s hard­core hype vibe for Funk­doobi­est to build on. After the main event, UK emcee/DJ/promoter and over­all grinder Oliv­er Sud­den show­cased a set of his new tracks, show­ing how high the level of UK Hip Hop is at the moment. It was a big night all-round. Mad respect to every­one at Strictly Busi­ness and The Sil­ver Bul­let for a heavy night of real Hip Hop.

Apex Zero

@ApexZero00

 

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Apex Zero

An emcee, beat­maker, film­maker and writer from Lon­don with Gren­adian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learn­ing and liv­ing Hip Hop cul­ture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and reg­u­larly tour­ing the globe, Apex is well trav­elled, and uses the les­sons this provides to inform his art and out­look. He is a mem­ber of the Glob­al­Fac­tion digit­al pro­duc­tion house and the inter­na­tion­al Hip Hop col­lect­ive End of the Weak.

About Apex Zero

An emcee, beatmaker, filmmaker and writer from London with Grenadian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learning and living Hip Hop culture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and regularly touring the globe, Apex is well travelled, and uses the lessons this provides to inform his art and outlook. He is a member of the GlobalFaction digital production house and the international Hip Hop collective End of the Weak.

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