Like many album release parties, the plan was to showcase the album and its highlights, said highlights being the guest spots and appearances aka the “in crowd” of contemporary underground. Tim William and his band the Arcade All-Stars opened up to an unreceptive crowd of on-lookers. Not due to the lack of quality, but more so because of the placement. When sandwiching a rock band that has punk tendencies with R&B vocals between two DJ’s (DJ TimBuk2 and Just Blaze, respectively) you’re gonna have to expect to loose some folks.
Just Blaze carried the show between the live sets playing a large selection of his catalog as well as classic joints. When the Kidz came out, everyone was a more than a little anxious for the headliners to get at it. Naledge & Double O made the best of a lethargic crowd and brought out almost every guest on the album. Phonte from Little Brother, Travis from Gym Class Heroes, and Estelle all showed their support and helped make a slow start a relative success. As an added slice of spontaneity, an impromptu “Drivin’ Down The Block” featuring Game Rebellion’s Netic and Mickey Factz brought the night to one of its final swells (which was unfortunately 20 minutes prior to Estelle’s arrival). Estelle helped close the night with a performance of “Love Hangover” and then her own “American Boy”, which concluded with the audience bum rushing the stage. All in all, it was a pretty okay night for underground hip-hop, and a decent launch for the Kidz In The Hall before they move on to their summer tour schedule- peep their myspace for details.
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