A capacity-crowd packed the world famous Apollo Theater last Saturday evening to witness some prominent Five Percenters perform on stage to commemorate their nation’s 50th anniversary with this historic throwback concert.
Roxanne Shante came out dressed in 3/4ths Earths (as the women are known) attire, recalling her youthful years as a Five Percenter in “the desert,” as Queens is known, before performing her 1987 cut “Have a Nice Day” and hosting the first half of the show.
While working with Stetsasonic during the mid-1980s, Frukwan was one of the first Five Percenters to be prominently featured in hip-hop. He recited verses from his efforts with the Gravediggaz.
Savior’s Island (aka Staten Island) natives Force MDs started early with some of their baby-making classics like “Let Me Love You” and “Tender Love.” They stopped by the Allah School, 2122 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., afterwards and reflected on the 50th anniversary. “I sincerely love Allah’s mathematics,” commented one of the group’s members, Brother Khalil.
Popa Wu, aka Freedom, represented for his crew, the Wu-Tang Clan, and explained the importance of “teaching your children.”
Next up was Now Rule’s (aka New Rochelle) Brand Nubian, who ran some of their classics like “Wake Up,” “Love Me or Leave Me Alone” and “Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down.”
There was a brief pause as the audience, steeped deep with Five Percenters, broke into an a capella chant of their anthem, “The Enlightner,” written in the late 1960s by Knowledge Allah. There was also a tribute paid to some of Allah the Father’s (the founder of the Five Percenters) relatives, who were in attendance.
Papoose’s magnificent wordplay was displayed as he spit numerous complex terms, which began with each of the alphabet’s 26 letters, to the audience’s amazement. He then called his fiancee to the stage, causing Remi Ma to step from behind the scenes and add on as they exchanged verses.
Erykah Badu performed her debut single, “On and On,” where she clandestinely coded some messages that only those with their third eye open could detect. For example, “We were made in his image, so call us by our name” and “I was born under water with three dollars and six dimes/Yeah you may laugh, cuz you did not do your math/Like one, twooo, threeee!”
Big Daddy Kane opened his set by going through some history of when the Gods commanded major respect in his Bed-Stuy hometown, known as the “Heart of Medina” to the Gods.
“This way of life is for real. We took it seriously… study your lessons,” he urged.
King Asiatic temporarily interrupted his show to introduce Busta Rhymes, aka Taheim Allah, who hyped the audience with his high-energy performance. The smooth operator then went into a synchronized dance routine with his backup partners, Scoop and Scrap, as he closed with his classics “Raw,” “Ain’t No Half Steppin’” and his verse from “The Symphony.”
Many were disappointed with Rakim’s nonappearance. “All the night’s that he’s gonna do this [not show up], he did it for the NGE’s 50th celebration?” one disgusted patron vented.
Smif-n-Wessun closed the night with “Sound Bwoy Bureill” and “Bucktown.”
