By: Adam Wells

Yesterday (June 4th, 2016), I took a rather long trip from Park Slope to Queens with a friend to see Wiki & Princess Nokia at a small venue called Trans-Pecos. It was the first time that I had been to this venue, let alone gone all the way to this particular neighborhood to begin with. The venue had an indoor area with a small stage, a bar and an outdoor area with another stage. This show was a little unusual because it started at 2 PM, having Princess Nokia go on at 6 PM and Wiki at 7 PM.

Shortly after entering the outside area, the first actual performance we got to see was buy an alternative rapper named PsychoEgyptian who I had never heard of before. After doing a bit of research, I found that he is signed to Mykki Blanco’s Dogfood Music Group label, creating experimental Hip-Hop that is also influences by experimental electronic and noise music. The sound system kept screwing up while he performed, so a lot of the songs that he performed got cut short. Nevertheless, he was able to fully keep his composure and the crowd was definitely feeling his set. He brought out one of his friends named Tre Special, a rapper that brought a very mellow Hip-Hop vibe that deviated what PsychoEgyptian had performed to a great extent. They performed a song that had a very smooth instrumental, however I can not find it online.

After PsychoEgyptian’s set, the outside area started to fill up pretty quickly in anticipation for Princess Nokia. The demographic of the show was 99.5% hipsters, which I was not surprised about at all considering the low-key vibe of the venue as well as the performers on the bill. It was a very diverse mix of people that you would not normally see at a regular Hip-Hop show. When Princess Nokia got on stage, she was accompanied by two hype-women and a DJ. I have never listened to any of her solo music, but I had high expectations for her due to her stellar verses on “Steep Tech” as well as “Puerto Rican Judo” under the moniker Wavy Spice. She had very good stage presence, getting to crowd involved by making statements in between songs, crowd surfing on about six separate occasions and letting women come up to dance with her. At one point, she said something along the lines of, “People keep asking me why I would do a show with my ex-boyfriend. I’m doing it because I’m just as good of a rapper as he is!!!” This statement was met with a lot of cheers. She proceeded to say that Wiki is the biggest influence for her as a musician, explaining that she really wanted to do a joint show with him. She also applauded all the women in the crowd, saying that it takes bravery to show up to Hip-Hop events that are very male-dominated.

Credit: Ashaefia (Instagram)

Throughout the show, Princess Nokia bolstered a rhetoric that encouraged minorities as well as women to embrace being unique in a world that is dominated by one specific type of people. She encouraged all the women to come to the front of the stage for her set, met with a lot of appreciation and excitement from the women at the show. My expectations were most definitely exceeded by her set, and I will definitely have more desire to listen to her discography in the future. As a Hip-Hop fan that mostly listens to male artists, it can sometimes be hard to listen to female artists with the same expectations and appreciation due to the few female rappers that have actually made a name for themselves (Lil Kim, Missy Elliott and MC Lyte come to mind.) Even so, Princess Nokia seems to be a different type of artist that not only transcends barriers of gender but also makes music that goes outside the realm of just Hip-Hop. This is an aspect that I will have to open my mind to when listening to her music, which I am willing to do due to the vibrance of her set.

By the time Princess Nokia’s set was done, it started raining pretty heavily, so the event had to continue inside. People poured into the tiny venue to surround a tiny stage that Wiki would perform on. The venue was jam packed with a lot of eager Wiki fans. Luckily, I got a spot in the front right next to the stage. People were being pushed around, which is pretty common at a busy event. Before Wiki came on, I accidentally pushed into some kid. This kid thought he was tough, so he told me to back up form him. I told him that I did not intentionally push into him, and that it happens with a packed crowd. He continued to try to be tough which got me pretty irate, but obviously I was not trying to start a fight and get kicked out of the venue. Everything ended up being fine, but I really hate it when people go to Hip-Hop shows and try to yell at people who bump into them. Have you never been to a fucking show before? People are going to get pushed into each other inevitably – yes it is really annoying, but don’t try to act tough and complain about it. We’re all trying to have a good time, and you trying to be a tough guy is not going to help further that process. I have been at rap shows in the past where people start fighting due to exactly that, and it never ends well.

When Wiki hit the stage, the energy of the crowd soared exponentially. He started with “WikiFlag”, the first song on most recent project “Lil Me”. He proceeded to perform “Living with my Moms” with Nasty Nigel making a guest appearance, “Seedy Mother Fucker”, “Lil Me”, “Whole Half”, “Crib Tax”, “Hate Is Earned”, “God Bless Me” with Sporting Life performing his verse, and “Sonatine” to finish it off with Slicky Boy doing his verse. Wiki payed homage to Muhammad Ali, who he claimed to be one of the first rappers – not literally, but this statement had obvious cultural connotations within the realm of Hip-Hop culture. Wiki periodically hit himself on the head with the mic, showing his tenacious attitude towards performing live. The crowd was energetic the entire time, with mosh pits in full affect. I saw Wiki perform almost the exact same set when he came to perform at Wesleyan in January, but that did not really matter to me since I could go to a Wiki show every day of my life if I could. Towards the end of the show, I went on the very end of the stage to avoid having to deal with the pushing. Nobody on the stage seemed to care, so I was set!

Credit: SeanMattison (Instagram)

I have a unique experience with listening to Wiki due to the fact that I went to Brooklyn Friends School while he attended at the same time, him being a senior and me being a freshman. I have followed his career from the very beginning, listening to the first version of “Wiki93” that came out on BandCamp while he was still at Brooklyn Friends. I will always go to his shows, even if he performs the same set every single time, just because I look at him as a huge inspiration for someone that did what he wanted to do by doing it well and believing in himself, with a huge knowledge of Hip-Hop and music in general. His popularity can be off-putting to me at times because the demographic of his fan base are a lot of hipsters, and I never want to be looked at as a hipster. Regardless of his fanbase, I will always support him. It is hard for me to look at him as a celebrity because I used to see him in the halls of my high school. Wiki does not act like a celebrity, seeming to be the type of guy who wants to keep a low profile and maintain his teenage roots. Whenever I see him, he remembers who I am, which makes me happy because a lot of rappers act really hollywood and don’t acknowledge the people that support them for their craft. I’m pretty upset that RatKing seems to be done, since Hak seems to not have interest in making music with Wiki anymore. Nevertheless, I know for sure that Wiki is going to keep making great music that I will support even if I end up not enjoying it, but I doubt that will ever happen.