The closing of Brooklyn’s venerable Southpaw wasn’t anything like the funeral some of y’all might have imagined. It wasn’t about being sorrowful that this establishment which has been so instrumental (you see what I just did?) in bringing MySpace music acts to a real stage was going away. The Southpaw finale was a celebration in fact. That after all this time, we are STILL here.
Hip-Hop music was a fad thirty some odd years ago. Graffiti was simply people scribbling their names on a wall. The ways and means that poor people expressed themselves were always marginalized and discounted. This was even the case when Southpaw first opened their doors after the tragedy of September 11th. There was no way a spot in Brooklyn would survive booking independent and underground music acts. Southpaw did survive tho’. Southpaw thrived actually.
As the music consumer changed the constant was that there still needed to be a place which could present the up and coming acts still refining their craft. This was Southpaw’s mission. They were very much like CBGB in this regard because the Southpaw space had no design of being better than the people. This was music democracy if that ever existed. Everything happened in Southpaw’s building. Every type of music. Every type of party. Everything.
So when Combat Jack asked me to be a part of this historic event I thought it should be a celebration of the great times I’ve had in this building. Hip-Hop has been thru a whole lot these thirty-plus years and it is still alive and thriving because of the people who believe in its value and its ability to give a voice to the voiceless and disenfranchised. Hip-Hop will surely miss Southpaw, but Hip-Hop will survive and thrive as long as someone out there believes. Are you a true believer?
Peep The Great Zee pics from the event
Peace to Jah C and Chino BYI
Southpaw R.I.P.
