Ninjasonik & Spank Rock
Ninjasonik at Santos Party House
September 4th 2010 marked a sad day in Hip hop, and even more specifically underground hip hop. The West Village’s intimate little hip hop vinyl shop, Fat beats closed its doors, citing the internet and Serato as two of the main factors for the closing. A-Trak, Just Blaze, and DJ Scratch were just three of the many DJs that showed up that night to spin a set, and send the classic hip hop store off the right way. The question raised (at least for us) was: With Fat beats closing, is this a sign that hip hop is truly dead?
The answer is no, as long as you’re willing to embrace the change, and accept the future. The underground scene now belongs to cats such as Ninjasonik, Theophilus London, Das Racist, Spank Rock, amongst many others. I wouldn’t exactly call their sound traditional or underground hip hop. However, the “underground” lies in the way they choose to present themselves, from the shows they choose to do to the venues they play.
For instance, Spank Rock chose to headline at the Film Forum, the night that a 35 MM print of Wild Style premiered there. Wild Style is a graffiti documentary that is considered (in many hip hop historian’s heads) To be the end all cinematic documentation of Hip Hop culture. Ninjasonik, meanwhile, chooses to play anywhere from obscure warehouses in Brooklyn to small random clubs, to the Williamsburg Bridge. Yup, you heard right. On July 20th, 2009 after the Siren Fest, Telli of Ninjasonik informed us that they would be playing with Spank Rock live from the Bridge. Next, he spread the word through twitter. Within the hour, the bridge was swarming with kids eager to watch the impromptu show.
The beats were provided through a large 80’s looking boom box reminiscent of old school hip hop. One kid climbed the fence, and was tagging up (graffiti) on the bars of the bridge; making hip hop heads feel even more at home. And of course, there was Spank Rock, prompted up against the fence overlooking the train tracks belting out his tunes. It’s moments like these that help us realize Hip Hop is alive, and the torch is gripped firmly in the hands of guys like Spank Rock and Ninjasonik. We, as an audience, just have to learn to embrace the change.
