And it’s that format that inspired a trio of hip-hop’s most respected DJs, promoters and entertainers to attempt an unprecedented feat: 50 MCs taking the stage in succession Saturday in Atlantic City to perform a live mixtape, with DJ Jazzy Jeff on the turntables and Doug E. Fresh hosting. Days later, some of the genre’s legendary DJs will re-create Park Jams on Juneteenth in New York City, and a run of arena tours, festivals and even a hip-hop-themed cruise, with headliners ranging from LL Cool J to the Wu-Tang Clan to Snoop Dogg, follow.
“The amount of artists performing, the level of success, the multigenerational appeal, the new acts, the timeless acts,” LL, whose Rock The Bells brand is behind the cruise, a festival and a tour, told The Washington Post. “We really can’t get better than this moment.”
The Atlantic City show came together when legendary Philadelphia-area promoter Charlie Mack merged an idea he said had been “sitting on my spirit for 1o or 15 years” with something Jazzy Jeff had always wanted to do: a traditional hip-hop mixtape, which seamlessly blends songs in nonstop succession, performed live.
The DJ in Jazzy Jeff had always envisioned himself playing maybe four songs, then having the artist behind the fifth come out to perform, then playing a few more and surprising the audience with another live performance.
“And then Charlie went and got 50 MCs,” Jazzy Jeff, laughing, said of the promoter who got his start in 1978 and is the eponym of a song on his 1988 album with Will Smith’s Fresh Prince. “I said ‘Jeez, I didn’t think you would get them all.’”
The set list, which is based on an actual mixtape that the ever-meticulous Jazzy Jeff created, is “going to be sensory overload,” Mack said. The run time is about 2 hours 15 minutes.
“If you have to go to the bathroom, you’d better do it before the show, Mack said. “If you go during the show, you might miss 10 artists.”
Serious planning for the event began more than a year ago. Mack and Jazzy Jeff reached out to Doug E. Fresh, their close friend, to host and help curate the list. Mack said the entertainer was already booked but changed his plans so he could be part of history. And that’s not hyperbole — Mack reached out to the Guinness Book of World Records regarding the number of consecutive performers. The show’s attempt to put early ’80s hip-hop royalty ranging from Melle Mel, Treacherous Three and Schoolly D in the same room with golden-era stalwarts such as EPMD, Onyx, Black Sheep and Naughty By Nature is akin to getting the greatest living blues guitarists onstage with classic rock standouts and letting them all jam.
For those of a certain age, Mack points out, hip-hop has been the soundtrack of their entire lives. “How dope would it be to have it all on one stage?” he remembers thinking.
His longevity helped it come together.
“It was an immediate response when I got the call from Charlie Mack,” said Kurtis Blow, who is often regarded as rap’s first superstar. Scorpio, a member of the Furious Five, likened what was about to happen to a family reunion.
“Me being an ultimate fan, with the ultimate access, and to be able to put it together for the culture,” Mack said, “I had to.”
A chance to ‘fan out’
For Blow, 63, the event is more than just another performance. He had a heart transplant in December 2020.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” he said. “I’m so overjoyed to be back onstage and able to take part in this incredible event,” he said. “I am going to be backstage taking pictures with everybody.”
Roxanne Shante, another hip-hop pioneer and one of its first female stars, hosts a radio show on LL’s SiriusXM Rock The Bells station during the week and performs regularly on weekends. She said she’ll be racing from an earlier performance to get to Atlantic City and plans to go out into the crowd after her turn onstage.
“I’ll get to be a fan and fan out. I’m getting a chance to see Pebblee Poo. When I see her hit the stage, I’m gonna be 12 again, even though I’m in my 50s.”
Though Jazzy Jeff has been performing, making music and collaborating with Smith and others for decades, he admits he didn’t always stop and smell the flowers. On Saturday night, he expects the experience to hit a bit differently.
“I get a chance to be Cold Crush’s DJ, I get a chance to be Crash Crew’s DJ, I get a chance to be Nine’s DJ,” Jazzy Jeff said.
Daddy-O, whose group, Stetsasonic, is a hip-hop band who takes its stage show seriously, says the 50-MC format is as much a chance to celebrate as it is to show whose performance skills have stayed sharp.
“Competition is the cornerstone of hip-hop,” he said. “We know ‘Sally’ is going to win the night. The only way it doesn’t is if Ricky and Dougie go on last and do ‘The Show’ … But other than that, we got it.”
Hip-hop fans can be fickle and list-obsessed, but 2023 is offering them a smorgasbord of options.
Run-DMC, which has rarely performed since the death of Jam Master Jay in 2002, headlines a performance at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 11. They will be joined by a star-studded lineup including Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Lil Wayne and Common, a Queens of Hip-Hop set featuring Lil’ Kim and Eve, and a Pillars of Hip-Hop set highlighting — most importantly — Kool Herc.
For fans who were struggling through the covid pandemic, DJ Cassidy’s “Pass the Mic” got many a hip-hop fan through the doldrums. Now he’s bringing it back for a 25-artist performance at Radio City Music Hall in July. 50 Cent is embarking on what he’s calling his “Final Lap” tour, supported by the always-mesmerizing Busta Rhymes. The Wu-Tang Clan and Nas are running back last year’s “N.Y. State of Mind” arena tour, where they’ll be joined by De La Soul.
Elsewhere, everyone from KRS-One to Digable Planets to Atmosphere will be hitting stages, many as they normally do, but some to mark milestones. Souls of Mischief is beginning the U.S. leg of a 93-plus-stop tour with visits to places as varied as Helsinki and Burlington, Vt., celebrating 30 years of their seminal classic album “93 ’til Infinity.”
LL and Rock The Bells are putting on the second annual festival in LL’s native Queens with a lineup that includes Redman and Method Man, Queen Latifah, Slick Rick, and the Boot Camp Clik. Rick Ross, Lil Jon, Trina and Big Daddy Kane are among the performers scheduled for the cruise leaving from Miami in November.
LL emphasizes the preservation of hip-hop culture in his work curating SiriusXM’s classic hip-hop station. His credibility as an artist helped him to piece together a lineup for an arena tour — The F.O.R.C.E. Live — based on the Grammys medley, with the Roots, Jazzy Jeff and DJ Z-Trip backing him, alongside a lineup of heavyweights such as Salt-N-Pepa, Jadakiss, Ice-T and Juvenile. LL hinted that there are surprise announcements to come; Shante said she expected a rotating cast of artists regionally tied to each tour stop.
“I want people to be able to be on the biggest stages,” LL said of the tour, which begins June 25 in Boston. “To me, the contributions that these artists have made is large enough to be lifted up.”
While DJ Jazzy Jeff is on the tour with LL and the cruise, he’s also excited about what awaits Saturday. He said his favorite thing about the show in Atlantic City might be how it features more than headline acts everybody knows.
“That is the true essence of hip-hop, and what we’re celebrating on Saturday night. It’s the group that put out three songs. It’s the group that put out one album. … Your contribution might have been six months out of those 50 years, but for those six months you had the hottest song out.”
Whether it’s seeing acts who have been stars for years or those they haven’t heard in years, fans are being treated to a run of performances that suggests there’s no better time to be a fan of hip-hop.
“I think the 50th-anniversary celebrations are the beginning,” Jazzy Jeff said. “It’s a tap on the shoulder. I think you’re going to see these next year, and the year after. There’s no way you’re going to come to a show and have this much fun and not want to do it again.”
