Da Bluefunk District — Brussel's Finest

11.02.2013 / A Lovelution show !

After a show ignited by the pure energy of none other than Madlib at Vk through Eurpolia festival this year dedicated to India. Thursday evening in Molenbeek area, and after having encountered the magician by the purest of luck in the streets of downtown Brussels, we moved on to UGC De Brouckère. There, awaiting us, were ScienZe and Fresh Daily, fresh out of seeing the new Thor movie while their acolyte, Chuck Le Garçon, was left on his own at Shungu’s place, making beats with a cup of tea and his sacred herb of inspiration.

It was at this very place that we chose to share with them the delicacies of our land: the famous belgian beers! Verdict: the 9° Leffe and the Bush clearly won the battle and put to rest the Kasteel Rouge, found to have a taste reminiscent of bad medicine. A ﬁrst encounter that would play its role in the near future.

It was a windy and rainy Saturday evening, the ones we really love out here in Belgium, as splatters of water would accompany me as far as Luxemburg Place, and more precisely to the Da BlueFunk Apartment. There, we were met by the ﬁlming crew of BeatChronic already hard at work: our sound engineer going through the tiniest cable in order to obtain the most satisfying audio qualit, the cameramen busy, trying to focus their attention on the smallest details of the room…

All the while, the artists were still sending their bellies to deep heaven, down below at the resto-bar, and the crowd was slowly gathering itself to that mysterious apartment, hidden at the very center of a peculiar place.

Having given to ScienZe and Fresh Daily, two nights before, a list of our Top 3 belgian beers (La Chouffe, the Rochefort 10° and the Triple Karmeliet), there were no surprises when we met Fresh Daily with a Triple Karmeliet in hand and satisfaction clear on his face, surely infused by the tenderness of the beer; at least the list found its use! It was only after this short preamble that Shungu and Boa got on stage on the drums of future, soul, beat, trap and hip-hop music…

London chose to take the stage at their exit, with its native crew “Nihilismus”, which managed to take the title of Biggest Revelation of the night. The overall production of Saddler The Kid is ﬁlled with character and is greatly inspired, especially by the drums of the late Jay Dee and the culture of bass, which is deeply incremented in the United Kingdoms an explosive mix that would soon raise the temperature to new levels. A little detail characteristic of UK sound systems: the emcee and the singer were both standing at the sides of the DJ, and not in front of him !

A great picture of equality between the instrumental and the vocal sides of the music. From what we gathered from Ramer One (emcee of Nihilismus), he apparently performed half of his show in freestyle, with skills that would have you believe otherwise, while Pearl (singer of Nihilismus) managed to captivate and hypnotise the crowd with a sweet and bewitching voice, which had us vaguely reminiscing of Muhsinah’s. The war, which held the fate of our love for Hip-Hop, had deﬁnitely begun…

Chuck Le Garçon (beat maker) then took place, ready to make the crowd move with the help of his drum machine and his SP-404. Which he did. Right after this already over-the-top performance, ScienZe came on stage, full of energy, making direct contact with his crowd, especially with his tracks Hero and Enjoy Tonight. After some difﬁculties encountered with his mic, Fresh Daily hurried on stage, restless, impatient to kick it on, all the while moving the crowd around to maximise his range of actions. He then went on sending us big lyrical slaps, and just as his name suggests, he has an uncanny ability to ﬁnd the freshest gems unearthed by Beat makers, the ones who are working like there were no tomorrows in the darkness of their pits…

He traded bars, for example, on “Moonshoes”, composed by Samiyam, and we can tell you that this feat requires a certain amount of audacity. While performing “Easy”, he managed to separate the crowd in two distinct opposites, then had both sides interact with each other while sometimes joining one, running around or popping-up at unexpected places.

Slowly though and despite the huge enthusiasm showed by the public, the performances came to an end as Ramer One took thestage one last time for a DJ set that would make the transition seem natural.

As they say, every good thing must come to an end, and with it came the time for us to ﬁnd our way home even though the party was still going hard: Fresh Daily, busy dancing with a glass ﬁlled with whiskey in hand, all the while chilling with a girl, ScienZe, also in a great mood, busy getting the most of his belgian experience with the people who actually live in Belgium and the rest of the crowd, still deeply transcended by a lingering feeling of glee.

We could conclude by saying that the vibe remained at its peak all along the night, with an audience more than receptive to the potential of the artists, and with the artists more than willing to be ﬁlled by the good energy that Brussels offered them.

Da Bluefunk Apartment, having already welcomed such artists as Guilty Simpson, Moka Only, Jesse Boykins and Homeboy Sandman, was again the perfect location for this type of event.

A room so modestly arranged that the idea of adding a platform inside for the artists would be ludicrous for the proximity between them and the crowd can only be optimal with the room already set up as it is an intricate system of lights that thrusts you into a friendly atmosphere.

On what he would say upon his return in New-York about his stay in Brussels, Fresh Daily had this to say : “I will never forget this night, it was really crazy. Nor the belgian beers. And even less the chocolate.”

If you weren’t there or if you would like to remember that night, have no fears, our movie crew is currently adding the last touches to an audiovisual beauty which will come out soon enough. And last but note least, we would like to give mad props to our partner DA BLUEFUNK DISTRICT for having put this amazing show together. PEACE, LOVE, UNITY & HAVIN’ FUN !

Article written by Kreshik for the French version, co-written by Huru for the English version.
BeatChronic, 2013.

DA LOVELUTION AIN'T STOPPIN' >>>>