The Lyricist Lounge

As the ’90s progressed, the Lyricist Lounge moved around different venues in New York City, including the classic jazz spot The Village Gate. As the event’s popularity increased, the format shifted from being a straight-up open mic night to a showcase for upcoming talent, complete with headlining hosts.

Danny Castro

We saw the momentum growing and saw it go from like five people to 40 people within a couple of months. It started to attract industry folks coming to see what was going on. So there were times when P Diddy used to come on the low, on the humble, just to check out what talent was there.

Anthony Marshall

It was about ten percent A&Rs in the crowd.

Danny Castro

Jamalski used to come all the time, and folks that were unsigned and then got a record deal like Da Bush Babees, of course Mos Def, Agallah who was known as 8-Off the Assassin then. We even had A&Rs who’d come and get on the mic, like Schott Free at Loud Records who was responsible for signing Mobb Deep and Cella Dwellas.

Anthony Marshall

This was after we moved from the small space to a venue called The Muse. We decided we needed a host ‘cause we can’t just have chaos going down on stage, so that’s when we got Mos Def to host. So our second or third showcase was Mos Def hosting and he introduced this girl and her name was Queen Nefertiti and she was 14. She turned out to be Foxy Brown.

Danny Castro

Her crew was called Rotten Candy at the time.

Anthony Marshall

She was incredible.

Danny Castro

Mos was great as a host. It was during a time when it was hard to get people to get on stage.

Anthony Marshall

Mos always made it feel like it was a family: “Yo, what’s up the Lounge? I love this shit. Come on y’all, get on stage, come closer.”

Danny Castro

He was funny, he used to crack jokes and try to get people on the mic.

Anthony Marshall

The format was after 20 scheduled performances, then there would be a 40 person open mic. It was very long. They would wait until the show is over – it would be just those 40 people left, like, “Okay, it’s my turn, I’m not going home until I get on.” But that was our marketing tool – we were an open mic night, so a big part of the audience were people who wanted to perform.

Danny Castro

That’s when we decided to have celebrity hosts come in. The first person we got was Doug E Fresh. Mobb Deep performed – they were like 16 years-old at the time.