That night Mad Dukez and Fresh Kils landed an opening slot for Masta Ace and Wordsworth at the Casbah in Hamilton, Ontario. As we were waiting to get into the venue, I was immediately shocked at the line going down the block. Most golden-era hip-hop artists aren't drawing these type of crowds back home in United States. A number of solid opening acts from surrounding areas kicked the night off and the crowd was responsive and energetic from the jump. Dukez and Kils were the last of the local openers to take the stage. Their live show is one of the best I've seen in recent memory: Kils in the background doing all live MPC routines with Mad Dukez's solid delivery, stage presence and sing-along hooks all made for a memorable performance.
On their last song they invited Steddy P and I to join them. Kils fired up the beat for "Worldwide" off their new EP and Dukez launched into his verse. I had to jump on the house DJ's gear and use whatever samples I could find on his laptop so I made due, providing scratches on the hook and outro. Steddy P followed with a crazy freestyle that had three or four moments of "Oohs" and screams from the crowd on certain punch lines. The crowd went nuts, and the set concluded on a high note. Wordsworth was up next and put on a solid set with a lot of freestyle and crowd participation elements. Masta Ace took the stage and performed from his extensive catalog of tunes dating back to 88' Juice Crew.
Sunday we drove into Toronto and spent the day exploring the city, hitting up some sneaker spots, comic-book stores, and eating some amazing food. We ended up at Fresh Kils' recording studio, the Kilzone, and Steddy P and Mad Dukez knocked out a collabo in less than two hours. Been waiting for those two to work together. That night was the tour closer for Dukez and Kils at 3030. After soundcheck, we were approached by Sandeep Dhanjani of KingOfTheDot.com. He wanted our input on a mobile app that he was designing to aid MCs in writing songs. Steddy P and Mad Dukez provided him with some useful advice and it was a really interesting concept. Sandeep exchanged info with us and said he would be in contact with us about Beta testing the software when it was ready. Looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
Steddy and I kicked off the show doing our new tour set with a variety of songs from our last couple projects. One thing I noticed is that we had their full attention. Everyone in the crowd hung on to every word and clapped after every song. I was really happy with our performance and the audience showed us a lot of love. We went into the crowd, CDs in hand, and interacted with a number of hip hop fans, artists, and some local radio hosts.
