Thursday night I trekked out to the Salute to Hip Hop show at Best Buy Theatre. Uncle Ralph McDaniels was the host of the night, introducing the numerous acts the crowd was treated to throughout the show.

The night kicked off with Large Pro and Neek the Exotic performing a few joints off their new album before getting into tracks from Breaking Atoms LP. One piece of advice, don’t tell Neek to leave the stage early.

Moving on … Black Sheep, Brand Nubian, Nice N Smooth, EPMD, and Kweli also got into their fan favorite material throughout the night. And there were rare live appearances by Nine and D-Nice. Kid Capri went in on a long set, taking the crowd through the early stages up to present day status. Besides the Nubian’s set, the technical difficulties were kept to a minimum.

MOP performed selections from a long list of bangers, including their first single “How About Some Hardcore”. I’d never seen the First Family live, but heard good things about their stage presence. They definitely got it. The crowd was crazy hyped throughout their set.

The Lox was up next, I think it’s safe to say most in attendance were there to check this act. Mucho D Block tees were in the building. From what I recall … they kicked “All About the Benjamins”, “Money Power Respect”, “Niggas Done Started Somethin”, “We Gonna Make It”, “Fuck You”, “Wild Out”, and “Two Guns Up” (sure I’m leaving something out). The instrumental for “Good Times” also dropped, but their time was up. As a Pinero advocate, I would’ve liked to see some of his solo material too but no complaints.