RVA Rapper’s Delight will feature performances by Ant the Symbol, Cane, Nickelus F, Radio B, Mike Street (who will host the event) and Rep!. The show is Aug. 11 at The Hippodrome Theater, 528 N. Second St., starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. (Photos courtesy Springstory)
You can call RVA Rapper’s Delight a dream lineup of some of the city’s finest hip-hop artists, or you can say that it’s a history lesson. The show’s organizers want this Aug. 11 event at the historic Hippodrome Theater to be both.
“It’s all about paying homage and spreading the word,” says producer Ant the Symbol, aka Anthony Gillison, who is curating the show. “We want to give flowers and appreciation to those in the past, showcase those who are doing it now and encourage those that want to do it in the future.”
Nickelus F, Noah-O, Radio B, Cane, and Rep! — five performers who have had significant impact popularizing hip-hop in the 804 — will perform at the event, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the genre. The showcase is sponsored by the Shockoe Records music label, and Mike Street of 106.5 The Beat will host.
“Mike will be taking everybody on a walk down memory lane, honoring those that have done it in the past,” Ant says, name-dropping the stellar likes of Mad Skillz, Danja Mowf and Lonnie B, as well as hometown heroes Red Rum, J Roddy Rod, ElBravador, The Awesome Threesome, The Honorable Sleaze and Doja, among others.
In between performances, DJ Hip Hop Henry will be spinning Richmond hip-hop discs from across the eras. “Ant has picked the best of the best from Richmond,” says Reese Williams, communications director for the Shockoe Records label.
RVA Rapper’s Delight will cap off the inaugural Richmond Music Week, a seven-day promotion of the city’s music scene that starts on Aug. 4 with 804 Day, a free music festival co-sponsored by Shockoe in and around the 17th Street Market. “As soon as we heard that it was the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Craig Martin, one of our owners, said that we needed to commemorate Richmond’s place in the music,” Williams says of the Hippodrome show. “It’s been wonderful to have Ant as one of the artists on our label and to have him spearhead this celebration.”
Organizers of Rapper’s Delight hope to remind the home crowd that hip-hop has long been strong in the River City. It will honor trailblazers including Mad Skillz, the first hip-hop artist in Virginia signed to a major label.
The showcase will also remind audiences of today’s movers and shakers, such as Radio B, aka Gregory Carden, who heads up Southpaw Battle Coalition and RVA Rap Elite, two groups that are keeping the once-thriving world of competitive rap alive.
Radio B wants Rapper’s Delight to help people appreciate “where the music started, which is the lyrics, the community, the artistic desire to express oneself but not having the means to do it but finding a way. ... That’s the spirit of hip-hop. It’s the biggest music genre in the world, but it still has that underdog, get-it-from-the-mud spirit.”
But the music hasn’t always been popular with local gatekeepers and club owners. Ant the Symbol acknowledges that but thinks that local venues are opening up to hip-hop events more than they have in the past. Still, progress is slow. “We need to make ourselves heard a little more. We’re yelling now, but we need to yell louder. There’s no shortage of talent and no shortage of depth in the content, no shortage of effort. It’s all here, and a lot of it is better than what you hear on the radio or see on the internet. Opinions are all relative, but people need to hear what’s going on here.”
