Hip-Hop at Blueberry Hill

What up ya'll? So coming up in a week I've got this show at Blueberry Hill. For those of you who don't know about the rich history of rap or the hip-hop culture at Blueberry Hill I will break it down. When I was in college, around 1999-2001, Jay Money introduced me to a hip-hop night at Blueberry Hill in the Duck Room. This weekly event was called the Science hip-hop spin and was every Friday night from like 9pm-1am. The Science was like a dream come true to me. Growing up in little Mason City, IL prevented me from really experiencing the hip-hop culture. Even the bigger cities like Springfield or Peoria didn't have real hip-hop events going on. If they did I certainly didn't know about it! The Science had several DJ's in regular rotation.......and they were dope! DJ Crucial, DJ Grocery, DJ Radic (aka: DJ Chily C), DJ Agile One, and DJ Nappy Needles. These guys and gals would beat blend, scratch, do tricks, everything. DJ Crucial would also play his own wax! Croosh was on a local rap label called F5 Records and would get songs that he produced pressed on vinyl. And his beats were awesome. There were also break dancers. There were cats doing live artwork on the cardboard that the breakers would dance on. At the end of the night there was an open mic freestyle session where TONS of cats would get up on stage and get in line for their turn to spit. When I first moved out here I didn't know anyone. No one knew if I could rap worth a shit or not, so no one would ever pass me the mic. And I didn't want to just push and shove people to grab the mic. I wanted someone to pass it to me. I wanted to earn my chance. It took about a year and a half of going to the Science every Friday night before I got my chance. It was worth the wait. After I kicked my freestyle that night people let me in. It was a great feeling. I started making connections. Then came Fletch: Broken, The Rhyme Commission: Cerebral Poetry, and The Frank Castle mixtape. My roots are in the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill. It is truly an honor and privilege to play there. Check out the links below for more info on The Science and the show coming up at Blueberry Hill.

http://www.myspace.com/thescienceblueberryhill

http://www.blueberryhill.com/events