[home] [radio show] [playlists] [who is toast?] [images] ['nuff respect]
[audio] [incarcerated scarfaces] [written word] [after dark]
[gotta have 'em] [contact info] [clicks of interest] [stuff to buy]

from the March 25, 2004 edition of The Metroland (www.metroland.net)...

DJ Toast’s 15th Anniversary Celebration
The Hudson Duster, March 20, 2004

For a DJ to last 15 years at a college radio station is no small achievement. Saturday night’s lineup at the Hudson Duster in Troy was an anniversary celebration for DJ Toast, whose popular Friday night hiphop show The Main Event has broadcast on WRPI 91.5 FM airwaves since 1989. For historical reference, that’s three years after the commercial breakthrough of Run-D.M.C. and a good four years before Dr. Dre let loose with The Chronic. DJ Toast’s decade-and-a-half allegiance to hiphop has earned him shout-outs from big names like the Pharcyde and Funkmaster Flex, as well as the respect of the local 518 hiphop scene. So it was no surprise that Saturday’s party was a well-attended, festive affair. True to DJ Toast’s varied playlists, the bill featured nods to the underground—the headliner was up-and-coming New York City rapper C-Rayz Walz—while referencing hiphop’s “golden age” with a set by Craig G, a member of the legendary 1980s Juice Crew. The rest of the show was dedicated to the area’s undersung hiphop talent, with worthwhile sets by Poughkeepsie native El Gant (a four-time battle champion on MTV’s Direct Effect) and several 518 acts. Local DJs C-Nyce and Kutt Masta Supreme laid down backing tracks and spun music in between sets; area hiphop booster Sev Statik provided feel-good energy in his well-worded performance; rapper JB had a barbed-wire, urban sensibility; and boisterous duo Fund the Mentals warmed up the show with coarse humor that verged on obnoxious, yet sufficiently roused the crowd.

With a bill so packed, it was nearly 2 AM before headliner C-Rayz Walz appeared on the stage. (Actually, it was a balcony, which meant the visibility was good but the neck suffered.) Fortunately, the Bronx native had the energy to keep people engaged at that late hour. Walz records for New York City’s Definitive Jux, an artist-owned independent hiphop label that has fans among rap purists as well as college-age indie rockers. During his set, Walz covered much of the material on his 2003 Def Jux album, Ravipops. A renowned freestyler and battle MC, Walz spat out words in a dense jumble of quick-witted metaphors that referenced everything from pop culture to mythology. (In “The Essence,” he manages to name-check Gandhi, Godzilla, Persephone, Jay-Z and Jabba the Hut alongside low-rent catalogue retailer Fingerhut.)

Walz is the son of a murdered drug dealer, and his rhymes often touched upon the gritty realities of urban life (“We live where heavy metal ain’t a rock magazine/Where children get shot down by Glock magazines/We live where there’s no God in the sky/But we live because we can’t die”). Yet even the grittier numbers were informed by a refreshing positivism, particularly when Walz rapped about his dedication to his children (“Protect My Family”). And his moves were fun to watch, whether he bopped across the stage like a jester or playfully pressed his face against the bars of the balcony railing as if imprisoned by the Hudson Duster.

—Kirsten Ferguson