By Eleanor Nagle
Dancing frat boys moved and clapped to the beat of a variety of hip-hop artists at McDaniel’s second annual Hip-Hop on the Hill on December 1.
Despite starting forty minutes late due to technical difficulties, this year’s Hip Hop on the Hill provided sure entertainment to all in attendance. Junior Clayton Rosa (right), who organized the show, opened with a self-written rap and introduced the MC for the night, hip-hop artist Fresh Daily.
The first performance was from the group Illah Willy Shakes and DJ Boy Wonda, who did duets that literally brought everyone out of their seats to dance with lots of interaction with the audience. One of their lyrics, “I’m off probation now and I’m gonna get high,” led Daily to say that, “We’re high off life right now,” after the performance.
The second performance was from the group Roman Empire (below) from New York. Roman Empire is a pretty well-known group that has performed with rapper T-Pain and has been feature on both BET and MTV. They opened their set by telling everyone, “Put your hands up in the air!”
Roman Empire is made up of two rappers, one from Africa and one from Bulgaria who cite their cultural difference as one of their inspirations. “We come here to make things really hot with our different cultures and backgrounds.”
Roman Empire shook things up a little when one of the members played a violin in the background. More information on Roman Empire is available on their MySpace Page, Myspace.com/REROCKERS.com.
Another band that performed, God’s Illa, was made up of three brothers. The group came out and led the crowd in a chant, “Please, give me some hip hop music. Please, I need some hip hop music.”
It was after God’s Illa (bottom right), that Clayton, the only McDaniel student to perform came out again and explained what hip-hop meant to him.
“For me, hip hop is a culture…it helped make me who I am today,” he said.
Fresh Daily, the host of the show, also performed with the front row frat boys yelling his name to which he responded, “Make some noise for my frat boys in the front.” Fresh Daily also performed with rapper Picasso.
The final performer of the night was Substantial, probably the most famous rapper of the night. Substantial was backed by a jazz band and vocalist and provided a nice mix of jazz and hip-hop.
He performed one of the most memorable numbers when he did a hip-hop rendition of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Lyrics to the song included, “Hip Hop is one of my favorite things.” The female vocalist that accompanied the rapper dazzled with her vocal range.
When it comes to audience response to Substantial, sophomore Eric Welkes said that the rappers performance was “pretty substantial.”
The night was not only enjoyable for the audience but for the performers as well.
“The energy is always great,” said Willie Shakes. “It was definitely a pleasure to come rock out again.”
Fresh Daily, who hosted last year’s Hip Hop on the Hill said there were noticeably more people this year. “It was a lot of fun. The crowd was mad,” he added.
The audience reaction was incredibly upbeat and there seemed to be a general agreement that the show was quite good.
“It was hip and groovy. I really dug it,” Welkes said.
CDs were sold in the lobby for $5 by the rappers themselves and many audience members got autographs and pictures.