Come celebrate with us the new releae of the graphical interface KDE SC 4.7 on Friday, 19 August at 21:00 in Thessaloniki at Dolly’s (Map, KDE Community Wiki).
We’re going to:
And of course… Have lots of fun!!!
After a whole year, I had the chance to go to a rap live again. Well, I’ve been very busy the last year with various stuff, and although I’ve been travelling a lot to Athens and Thessaloniki as usual, i didn’t have the luck to overlap with a live act. It’s not my fault though, most of the names (and I’m talking the foreign ones, I don’t care about the greek lives any more) weren’t so good in my opinion. Not all of them, I admin I lost some. I’ve been in some non-rap concerts though, like Serj’s performance in Athens and Archive’s performance in my city (I never blogged about the second right? Well, they were awesome, go see them 
) Anyway, time for another trip to Thessaloniki.
Support Acts
The place is called Block 33. It has two halls, a small one were the support acts took place, and a large one were the actual event happens. DJ Waif and DJ Booker kept us company for about an hour and a half with their brilliant DJ set. Then, a breaker came on stage and started dancing, another breaker came afterwards wearing a mask. He removed the mask and turned out to be the first rapper for the night, 12ος Πίθηκος. Very good performance in general, although I don’t like his music at all. He performed many tracks, along with Πελίνα, and the crowd really enjoyed them. Afterwards, Ψυχοδράμα came on stage, which is one of the very few greek bands that I still listen nowadays. Their performance could have been better, but I didn’t care, I had lots of fun. It was only ΔΠΘ (who was totally wasted) and Άγνωστος Χειμώνας there, along with some non-members on stage, like Sadomas. And after a long wait, about half an hour, the doors of the main hall were finally open.
Time for some live
So, we are in. The hall is huge, and I couldn’t believe that it was full at some point! I didn’t even know that so many people even knew who Psycho Realm are. DJ FM was there warming us up, with his old-school latin rap selections, for more than half an hour. Then, Sick Jacken and Cynic came on stage, and I couldn’t stop dancing, although I was exhausted. They performed for almost two hours, and included everything: old and new (even not released yet) Psycho Realm tracks (I’m an oldie, I went crazy on Stone Garden and Showdown ), with Cynic rapping Big Duke’s verses, the best of “The Legend of the Mask and the Assassin”, English, Spanish, Latin, everything! What I personally found really awesome though is that the rappers were very warm, made us make really comfortable and it was like they were talking to each one of us. Of course the group mentioned Sick Jacken’s brother, Big Duke (who is paralyzed). Jacken ordered us to throw our hands in the air to show our love for him, and he showed us back his appreciation after seeing how the crowd responded. Excellent performance, awesome tracks, crazy DJ, in a place full of people. I had a really good time at that night, no reason to say anything more, just don’t miss the opportunity to see them. I didn’t take any pictures, but there are some low quality videos here. Thank you guys.
PS It is really funny when Americans try to say the word “Thessaloniki”
The Canadian rap group named Swollen Members came to Thessaloniki for only one show. Again, one of my favorite bands were going to be live on stage. But this time I didn’t actually want to go there. Mainly because their last album disappointed me a lot, as in my humble opinion was a failed mainstream sound attempt. But in hiphop.gr forum it was mentioned by the organizer (yes, Alex Zoltan again) that they are going to play only two songs of their last album, and more specifically the ones that are available in video clip too. Immediately I booked the tickets for me and my friends and then I informed them that we are going to be there no matter what. The previous day Swollen Members performed in Athens, and people reported that it was a pretty good show.
Support Groups
And here we are inside the Eightball Club again, after only one month. There wasn’t a big delay this time, and the greek rap group SMA had another bad and boring performance. I already mentioned about them in THHF that their beats are really really good, but their death metal rapping style is not my cup of tea. Sifu VERSUS and Iso XL also stepped on stage along with SMA to perform a Φιλική Εταιρία song, which was actually a good ending for them. Then, Ραψωδός Φιλόλογος with Κριτής as his hypeman (from the group Ladose) came up, to inform us that they were going to perform only 3 tracks, just to warm us up, as they do understand that the main purpose of being there is to see the Swollen. I kind of appreciated his words and stepped back to enjoy his not-so-special and short show. Then, a surprise guest, Professional Sinnerz, came out of nowhere to inform us that they were also going to play two songs before the Swollen Members step up. Actually, the sound of this group could be the perfect openning act for this show, and many people expressed their surprise, back when the show was first announced. They were pretty good, also playing only 3 tracks, and one with Κόμης Χ.
The Big Name
Immediately after that, Swollen Members stepped on stage and once again I felt really weird for having one of my favorite groups in front of my eyes. They were really energetic, and made this live act into a party. There were some very strange things going on there though. The first was the girls, that were too many for an underground live, and they knew most of the songs. The second was that Prevail, one of the two rappers of the group, wore a Professional Sinnerz T-Shirt. He later revieled that they collaborated in a song, which they performed live a bit later.
Swollen Members seemed to enjoy it a lot, they gave us a pretty good show full of energy and good raps. They performed most of my favorite tracks of their previous albums, they also freestyled, and when they finished, the crowd shouted for more, so they played three more tracks just to please their audience, which was pretty cool.
At the end I was pretty exhausted and forgot to buy a T-Shirt that I wanted, but I managed to get a photo with Prevail though. He and Madchild were still between the crowd for some chat and to sign autographs and CDs. Once again, thanks Zoltan Tribe!
P.S. Since then I didn’t have time to go to another show, I lost Masta Ace & Edo G, DJ Shadow and lots more, and I really hope I’ll go to another one soon
Photos can be found here
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This particular show was announced about a month before it was going to happen. Just a quick note in hiphop.gr forum by the organizer, Alex Zoltan, made me scream and start jumping around. He was here again two years ago in THHF, but I missed it. Luckily, I had the chance to see one of my favorite rappers in 30 days, I just had to be patient with those exams. The live was supposed to happen a day after my exams were going to be over, which didn’t happen eventually after a change in the schedule. This was not that good for me, as I missed the chance to stay more days in Thessaloniki, and had to leave immediately the next day. But never mind, I was so excited about this that I booked the tickets almost immediately, for me and two other friends. So, after a torturing month, here we are, right outside of the club.
Support Groups and a loooooooong wait
We arrived a little early, so we waited for a while outside of the club Eightball. At 9:00 the doors were finally open, but there weren’t too many people for my surprise. This is very sad, because when legendary rap artists arive to our little country, every rap listener who has respect for this music should be there. The first group went on stage at about 10:00, but DJ Strider did a wonderful selection of tracks, either European or American. We really enjoyed it. First on stage went Ταυτισμένος Λάθος and ΝΕΟΝ, who played a lot of new tracks of their upcoming project. Cisco Kid was their DJ for this show. To be honest, I didn’t like their performance, and since I saw Τ.Λάθος recently I was sure he could do it better. When they finished, DJ Strider performed again a small DJ set and then the next artist performed, which was Λόγος Απειλή, and Ραψωδός Φιλόλογος was his hypeman. I had the same impression for this performance as the previous one, both of them were OK, but I expected more, especially when I saw the same people doing an awesome show just two months ago. As Ραψωδός Φιλόλογος said, though, even those support artists were there for R.A.’s concert, not to actually perform, but…
…he wasn’t there yet! His flight was canceled because of the snow, and two other flights were canceled, and late, I am not sure. He was supposed to fly through Germany or Sweden, well, I don’t think it matters either. We waited for another hour or so for R.A. to step in the building. As a result, many people were bored, annoyed and some were freestyling to kill some time. The good thing is that more and more people were arriving though. And after a long and frustrating wait, various talks, some beers, two not so good live performances, a tiring day, too much (but good) music (props to DJ Strider once again), two hours doing nothing but waiting, and a Friday night that seemed like a disaster, R.A. came to flip everything upside down.
The Actual Show
Yes, one of my favorite rappers, a living legend was just in front of me. I forgot everything, and it seems that he also did the same when he stepped on the stage and saw a hungry for party crowd. He came completely unorganized (pretty often he would go alone on the back and close or change the music, which would annoy Strider, but he seemed to enjoy it at some point), very tired and he was drinking tea!!! It was for sure a life experience, I doubt I’ll see soon such a good performance. As soon as he stepped on stage, he asked how many of us know him, and guided us to make him known to the others while raising his hand: "I’m the leeegeeendaryyyy". He performed many songs of all his albums, even the Crustified Dibbs one, and of course the rapping technique was perfect. Some of the tracks were: Lessons, Die Rugged Man Die, On The Block (where every time he mentioned a rap legend’s name, he was pointing us to scream), Black And White, Give It Up, Uncommon Valor (EPIC), Cunt Renaissance, all his Soundbombing tracks and many more. He was wearing a coat, a mafia hat, then a backwards baseball hat, then a T-shirt, then no T-shirt, too nasty to be true. When he removed the T-Shirt, he was making funny faces, saying that no woman can resist his huge belly. He also made many jokes with the crowd. Here are some highlights:
Of course, during the whole show the girls were his target, going close to them, saying funny things or even trying to sing RnB tracks to them! Actually, he tried but the wire was not long enough and it got unplugged as soon as he tried to sing. Also, one of the funniest moments was when he asked a guy from the crowd: "Hey man, is that your girlfriend? And you brought your girlfriend to my show? Bad idea man" And then he jumped from the stage to a table in front of the couple and started singing the hook of his track "Fucking Your Bitch", while dancing really funny. The show ended after more that an hour and a half, with R.A. asking if the wire is long enough to go down to the crowd, as he wanted to go close to his people. The organizers weren’t very sure about this, but he just didn’t care and went down, rapping while dancing and hugging with the people. Really awesome! Thank you Zoltan Tribe once again, see you in next concert, which is Swollen Members at 19 March, Thessaloniki again!
Photos can be found here
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I was very excited about this from the very beginning, mostly because I didn’t have the chance to be in another THHF since 2004. I mean, how can someone not be excited about this, given all those live performances and side events, plus the fact that I have seen videos from all the past events and regretting every single year for not going? I was about to witness some of my favorite bands live on stage, after so many years of waiting and listening to their tracks. The event took place on Friday, 18 and Saturday, 19 December 2009 at the club Block33. So, let’s begin our trip.
Warning: This is going to be extremely verbose
Background
First of all, some background about THHF. As the name states, it is an annual Hip Hop Festival which takes place in Thessaloniki, Greece, starting in 2003. It began as a simple live event that hosted the most popular/hot greek rap names, but since then it has been extended very much. It has hosted legendary american/german/french/british rap groups, MCs and DJs, and now it also includes many side-events, like DJ and MC battles, graffiti sessions, DJ sets, workshops, movies etc. The credits for this belong to Zoltan Tribe, which is a group of people that organize various Hip Hop (but not only) events in northern Greece mostly. The team is very respectable in Greece, not only for the past THHF’s, which were big success, but for many other events. And time to move on the inners of this year’s Festival.
Day 1: Live Events
Disclaimer: I’ll keep the greek names intact
At about 19:00 I was outside the club Block33 with some friends. We had waited for more than an hour outside in the cold, as Killa Kela’s flight from London was 5 hours late and we had to wait for him to do the necessary sound check. After some time the doors opened, and we got in. There were graffiti artists (Ser and Yakuza Crew) in a small backyard right next to the concert place, right behind a glass, so we could see the sketches evolving during the live performances (pretty cool, huh?) The place was not very big, but I later found out that there is a bigger one next door, in which the Saturday’s live performances would take place. The attendance was not exactly what I expected, but still, there is the Saturday which is a full Hip Hop day with more performances, so I guess the rest of the people will be here tomorrow. After a while the live started. Sifu VERSUS, one of the most respectable greek Hip Hop Artists, was going to be the host of the evening for second year in a row. He opened the Festival by welcoming us and introducing the first group that was about to perform, 4012 Beats. Although the name was unknown to me, I happened to know one of the MC’s from some past lives, but this specific performance of the group was a very nice surprise to us. They made us banging all the time, the best warm-up that could take place I guess. Next was the group SMA, which I don’t like very much, especially their rapping style, although I think that their productions are in a very high level. Then another brilliant performance took place, this time by MC Yinka. His sound is not pure hip hop, but mixed with dub, drum & bass, reggae elements that makes it very unique. Without a doubt, this was one of my top three performances for the whole two days. Next, Απέχεις, one of the hot newcomer bands in the greek Hip Hop scene. I usually don’t like that kind of performance, meaning 4-5 people just screaming. But in this case I really enjoyed this performance, especially the tracks of group member Λόγος Απειλή, whose name is featuring almost everywhere nowadays. And this is the part where I get drunk and do some nasty things that I don’t need to describe. In short, I couldn’t stand still any more so I was forced to see Killa Kela‘s awesome performance sitting in the back, unable to do a single headbanging just to express my enthusiasm 
. Of course Killa Kela (with his band) was the highlight of the night, he is a machine, this wasn’t beatbox, it was a clear drums sound (and a million other sounds altogether), just fantastic, something that words can’t describe. The reinforcement of the sound with the follow of the live band made it more awesome. And people of course never stopped banging, hitting, pushing and having fun! This was the last performance for Day One. The whole day left us more than satisfied, making us looking forward for the next full-Hip-Hop day. But it does, a full Hip Hop Day, so let’s move on.
Day 2: Movies and Producers’ Workshop
I woke up with a terrible headache (I know you are impressed now). At about one o’clock me and my friends were at Block33 again, for a full Hip Hop day. We saw two movies, the first about graffiti and the second about beatboxing. The graffiti movie was boring, just some guys going to trains and running from the cops, back and forth, all the time (although the music was terrific). After that, the producers’ workshop was about to begin. Four producers were given a sample and half an hour to create a hip hop beat. The four contestants were Prophet Of Noise, Strider, Κριτής, all of them well-known greek Hip Hop producers, and a newcomer, Ed Gain, which was the winner of a remix contest (online) which took place about a week before THHF, and Ed Gain as the winner had the right to participate to this workshop. Prophet was going to do his production with an MPC, Strider with (something that I don’t remember, I think MPC too), Κριτής with fruity loops and Ed Gain with Reason (although he had some software problem and he couldn’t participate as expected). While the beatmakers were beatmaking, we had the pleasure to enjoy a brilliant marvelous fabulous DJ set by DJ Sparky T, a well known DJ worldwide. He included Hip Hop from the early and mid nineties (exactly my style). Without a doubt one of my best moments there. After half an hour the producers were ready. It was really impressive what they managed to do in only half an hour! People applauded Κριτής’ beat mostly, while my personal preference was Prophet’s beat, as it was more complex, while Κριτής made a very simple but stronger beat. Ed Gain also presented some of his productions. Every producer explained the way he worked on this production, which was very interesting. And then, here come the battles…
Day 2: The Battles
So, time to take it back to the streets. The only MC battle currently taking place in Greece is THHF Hip Hop Battle. 8 freestylers were about to compete for the title of 2009 Freestyle Battle Winner (plus some presents/clothes/whatever ). The contestants were Sipno, Άρχοντας, Καταχανάς, Παίχτης, Mile, Εφτάψυχος, Πηγαίος and Naruto, the judges were Sifu VERSUS, Λόγος Απειλή, Ραψωδός Φιλόλογος and the voice of the crowd (whose vote would count for two in case of a tie) and DJ D-Mice giving the beats. The thing is that those freestyle battles are very impressive, and very funny sometimes, as people respond to each others’ punchlines with very funny lines usually. So after a lot of laughs and excitement, and a very long final round between Παίχτης and Εφτάψυχος, Παίχτης won the title, with the 3 judges voting for him, while the crowd was slightly in favor of Εφτάψυχος. I also voted for Εφτάψυχος, because his girlfriend was right behind me screaming all the time After that, there was the DJ Battle, which was presented by Sparky T, and wanted to do something similar with the DMC contests. It was the first time that a DJ Battle was hosted in THHF, and that’s why it was a bit unorganized. Still, some of the contestants were very skillful and proved once again that DJing is the backbone of Hip-Hop. Finally, the winner was DJ Mode who beated DJ Wester. At the end we enjoyed another awesome DJ set, this time by the german DJ Unkut, who also had an impressive communication with the crowd while DJing. And yes! Time for the live performances!
Day 2: Live Events
Sifu VERSUS announced us that the doors of the other bigger building are open and soon the live performances were about to begin. We were pretty excited, so we headed there. The live opened by some newcomers which I didn’t know much, KAS, Diezel with a guest appearance by 12ος Πίθηκος. Then performed the artists Αδέσποτο with a guest appearance by Sadomas, Stigma & Xquze and Εισβολέας, who later teamed up with Γέλως and they performed as Σκοτεινή Πλευρά. To be honest I didn’t pay close attention to those performances, either because I have seen them in the past or because I didn’t really like their music. Not to mention that I was getting tired, and at some point we went back to the small building, which was empty at that point, to take a breath. At some point Sifu VERSUS thanked us all for being there that night, as the festival was sold out! I later learned that a lot of people stayed outside. Then, one of my favorite greek Hip Hop groups came on stage, Ψυχοδράμα 07, where they had an excellent show, with many old and new tracks. This was the second in my top three highlights. I was disappointed though that ΔΠΘ, my favorite MC from Ψυχοδράμα, was not there. Still, Άγνωστος Χειμώνας and Ταυτισμένος Λάθος (the lead MCs) were very active and skillful, making us dancing and banging all the time. Of course Τ. Λάθος offered us some of his traditional rolling (by far the best in Greece at this). Also, Άυλος and Αλλοπρόσσαλος performed really well. Next it was the turn of Έκπτωτος Άγιος (Ανάφλεξη), one of the oldest MCs in Greece, who had a very special show (in a good way): I noticed that he didn’t communicate with the world that much (making the croud to shout various things, as it is used to), but he was rapping all the time, thus letting his music speak. Then, Ladose, also one of the hot names in greek Hip Hop scene, came to the stage, to bring the ruckus. Some greek Hip Hop groups are very loud when they rap, Ladose is one of them. Although I really enjoyed their show, I think they shouldn’t be so noisy and let their music speak mostly. Sifu VERSUS came to the stage to introduce us the next performer, but he had lost his voice as he was screaming two days in a raw. We all made some noise for the man, and Alex Zoltan (the main organizer) took his place, and announced the next group. So, we were about to witness Foreign Beggars (from London) live on stage and forget everything we knew so far. We forgot that we were tired, we forgot that we were in Thessaloniki, we forgot our names, our faces, everything. Their show was by far the best one in my life, and I really doubt I’ll experience anything like this soon. In the end MC Orifice Vulgatron did a stage diving as a perfect ending. The thing that impressed me the most is that those people were having more fun than anyone in the building, and they transfered that huge amount to energy to us successfully. After that, another excellent show took place, this time by the legend rapper named Afu-Ra. I feel very lucky that I saw an MC from Brooklyn performing historical tracks, most of them produced by also legendary people, like DJ Premier. Last one was Τάκι Τσαν, also one of the oldest and most respectful rappers in Greece. He, with the help of Εισβολέας and DJ Alx, presented to the crowd tracks of his new LP, Ρίμα Για Χρήμα 2, sequel of Ρίμα Για Χρήμα, which was released ten years earlier and now it is considered a classic in greek Hip Hop music. I have seen him before many times, and I don’t really like his music any more, so after 3-4 tracks we left. I headed straight to my house, where I slept for 20 hours. Well done to the organizers and the participants/performers and everyone involved. We all had a really really great time.
