photos by Ryan Muir

Ghostface Killah Celebrating Brooklyn

"Although he only had 45 minutes on stage, for which he apologized a few times to the crowd of "10,000" fans, he played hip-hop classics off his solo albums like "Ironman," "Supreme Clientele," a bunch of bangers from Wu-Tang Clan.

But, Ghostface wasn't alone on stage, Cappadonna, the unofficial tenth member of Wu-Tang, took the stage and did a killer rendition of the song "Winter Warz" over Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who Shot Ya" beat.

Sheek Louch also hit the stage and played his verses from The Lox's various albums.

By 8 p.m., the police cut off the crowd, which Ghostface said was about 10,000 deep, from filling the fenced off area in front of the stage. So, as die hard fans still filled the park surrounding the bandshell, they lined up along the fence to dance and rhyme along with the hip-hop MCs. [Patch]

Ghostface Killah played the free Lyricist Lounge anniversary show in Prospect Park on Saturday (6/23) with  Camp Lo, Astro (who you might know from TV show The X-Factor), Farrah Burns, and Rah Diggah. Lots more great pics from that show below.

Rap continued at Celebrate Brooklyn earlier this week with Danny Brown and Schoolboy Q opening for Childish Gambino (Instagrams here and here). Ghostface plays NYC again as part of Wu-Block (at Highline Ballroom and in NJ at Rock the Bells)

Meanwhile, Celebrate Brooklyn continues in Prospect Park tonight (6/28) with Ballet Hispanico, "the leading representative of Hispanic culture in American dance" (8pm, free). On Friday (6/29) it's Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, The Brooklyn Steppers, and Dayna Kurtz (7:30pm, free), and Saturday (6/30) it's Angélique Kidjo's Women Waging Peace with Special Guests Laurie Anderson, Sibongile Khumalo, and Somi (7:30pm, free).

More pictures of the Ghostface show below...

Continue reading "Ghostface Killah, Camp Lo & more played Prospect Park (pics); more free Celebrate Brooklyn shows this weekend"

I just noticed that Celebrate Brooklyn updated the August 9th free Prospect Park show lineup...

Visionary music producer HAL WILLNER returns to the Bandshell with a multi-artist celebration of acoustic R&B pioneer BILL WITHERS, whose Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone, Lovely Day, and Lean On Me only hint at a body of work that ranks him among our greatest songwriters. ANGELIQUE KIDJO, NONA HENDRYX, THE SWELL SEASON, COREY GLOVER, JAMES "BLOOD" ULMER, SANDRA ST. VICTOR, TEDDY THOMPSON, ERIC MINGUS and many more! plus an all-star band featuring Lenny Pickett, Steven Bernstein, and Cornell Dupree will be among the ensemble castâ€"check our website for the latest updates but expect surprises and late additions. "No one puts on a better tribute concert than Hal Willner ... a sympathetic and generous listener with an almost preternatural ability to match performer to song, and a Rolodex to back it up." (Variety)

That's over a month before The Swell Season play their own show in Central Park.

Angélique Kidjo @ Central Park Summerstage, Aug 12, 2007 (CRED)

Junior Senior @ Sound Fix, Aug 12, 2007 (CRED)

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars @ Prospect Park Bandshell, Aug 11, 2007 (CRED)

* Tokyo Police Club, Harlem Shakes & The King Left play Bowery Ballroom
* Portugal. The Man & The Photo Atlas are playing Knitting Factory
* Justin Timberlake is playing Giant's Stadium
* Junior Senior are at Highline Ballroom

Badly Drawn Boy was supposed to play Spiegeltent, but I guess it got cancelled. He's still playing tomorrow though. What else?