Amongst the crowd of riled up people waiting to get their seat closest to the stage, Nas’ “One Mic” bleeds through the DJ’s speakers welcoming everyone to York College’s “Afrique Unique” event.
The hosts Olusegun Williams and OgTega announced the line-up which included many underground hip-hop artists along with designers, poets and step teams but, shockingly the show arose from the crowd as many hopped on stage through intermissions.
What really got the crowd going was the DJ himself who brought the audience back to the 90’s. In return, the audience celebrated in a 90’s style manner, jumping up, head bopping and of course shouting and representing their home borough.
The battle of “which borough is better” first erupted, but the hosts didn’t think that the noise of the crowd could determine the answer. “This isn’t going to work, if your borough is better than show us, I need two people from each borough to come on stage and battle it out,” said Williams.
“They really aren’t doing this right now, it’s going to get crazy in here,” said Daniel Rodriguez a 21-year-old English major. “I feel like we aren’t even in a college right now, it feels like we are in a house party which is the dopest part,” said Rodriguez.
The aisles went crazy and many rushed to the stage, with no structured order and of course no instructions followed many were on stage at once as they went as hard as they can to represent and take the title.
The 90’s hip-hop throwbacks did the crowd major justice but for the battle 2 Milly’s “Milly Rock” was the chosen song to the determine the winner. Everyone was too hyped up to even realize a winner wasn’t chosen at the end of the battle but the show went on.
“Honestly, this is nothing like I expected, it’s literally a party in here and it’s all because the music is popping and we are all here to celebrate and just let go,” said Shantel Davis a 22-year-old sociology major.
The fashion shows and dances were all influenced by hip-hop music. The models walked down to Drake’s “Controlla” and “One Dance” and the music being played was all hip-hop based.
Showing the skillset of underground hip-hop artists Skeeter Sinclair was one of the many artists who got the crowd going. With background dancers and his hype-man beside him he asked the crowd to mouth “ah skeet skeet” during one of his songs.
“I’ve seen him perform before, I love his energy because he’s confident and he treats every performance like it’s his last,” said Jeanikah Henry a 19-year-old black studies major. “He really got background dancers and he just looks like a pro,” said Henry.
Another underground artist who goes by the name of Osa performed a song that channeled an old school vibe with a TLC backdrop behind him. Singing and rapping he had company on stage jamming to his music.
With the show coming to an end after four hours of pure party vibes and good times the talent on the stage had everyone’s energy at an all time high. The DJ kept the crowd off of their seats for the remaining of the show.
Celebrating African culture was the vital part of the event held by the African Students Association at the college but nonetheless, the love for hip-hop seeped through each and every person at the event.
Get a sneak peek of the event here:
https://youtu.be/8uud04r7qno