The year-and-a-half spent in Houston was filled with several awesome moments that’ll never leave my limbic system. One particular story involves a one-time only music festival extremely catered to core Hip Hop heads within the area called FlyFest. From the looks of things, it was a sonic paradise for anyone who wanted rap sans any mainstream influence. One cool aspect about it was how regionally agnostic the acts were. Literally West Coast, Mid-West, Southern and East Coast Hip Hop were all represented in one former dinner theater turned club called Numbers. It also served as the first time I saw watching Sean Price perform. Actually he hit the stage side-by-side with Guilty Simpson. The year before, the two had dropped the Random Axe project with Black Milk. Individually, Simpson was several months away from dropping Dice Game and the same could be said for Price’s Mic Tyson album. Considering the daily grind before eventually making my way to DX, sets were running late and I honestly felt too tired to make it through the festival.
Attempting to cover more dope stuff as a music journalist, FlyFest was something cool to cover. Regardless, I persevered and caught some dope acts ranging from Doughbeezy, Jackie Chain and Marcel P. Black to K-Rino; artists I still remain fans of today. Looking back, the honor in watching Price rock the crowd was something to behold. Not only did I become a large fan of the Bar-Barian himself, it also opened me up to more projects within Duck Down Records’ catalog. At that time, my only familiarity with the label included Pharoahe Monch’s W.A.R.(We Are Renegades), Kidz In The Hall The In Crowd and anything involving Skyzoo. Making my way home that night, I found Jesus Price Supastar, an album that officially made me a believer.
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Price’s bars and delivery were top notch alongside with the crazy beat selection. Jesus Price Supastar just knocked. My favorite tracks on the album included “Like You” and King Kong featuring fellow Heltah Skeltah member Rock. However, the most interesting feature involved sound clips of Reverend X. For those without understanding, here’s the an example:
That was always the Brooklyn emcee’s appeal; transitioning between serious, silly and plain ol’ goofy with an expert level of technical skill. Of course, this prepared me for what would become his last full-length album through Duck Down, Mic Tyson. Then there were the hilarious videos referred by many as The Sean Price Show. Obviously, the best ones were Price’s best Nardwuar impression with Monch, reporting from Hurricane Sandy and his take on Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting. Most recently, Price dropped a visual humorously joking on Tyrese’ classic coke ad (which the R&B singer paid homage to in promotion of his Black Rose album not too long ago).
Sad that Price won’t be alive to see the upcoming release of Songs in the Key of Price but there’s no doubt it’ll be anything shorter than spectacular. Hopefully, it’ll serve as a testament to the lyrical and creative prowess of Hip Hop’s greatest soldier. However, if it sounds anything like “S.E.A.N.,” there’s nothing to worry about at all.
