Concert Review: Danse and BKLYN Stickup Rattle The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival

Before leading man Danse (above, second from left, in the chain and the sweat) charged out on stage, a large white man (above, second from right in the camo hat) stomped across the stage, saying something about “Can Brooklyn make some NOISE?!” The typical hype man, right? No: he kept going. Getting redder in the face, he shouted “We done lost homies, we done caught cases up the block from here! We are Brooklyn!!” Either these guys were going to be the epitome of fake, trying way too hard to be hard, or they were going to be the most raucous offering of the entire Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. As soon as the imposing, gold-tooth, high-top-faded Danse strutted across the stage and began losing his mind on the microphone, we knew it was the latter.

With his veins popping, voice straining, limbs flying, and crew following along, Danse ran through about five tracks in his savage set, with BKLYN Stickup shirts waving like pirate flags behind him. He displayed extreme technical ability, never missing a word, delivering hard and clear on each bar, his imposing frame and gritty ’90s-inspired look making for a sight to see. Among the highlights was “Grown Ass Man“; a title no one could deny Danse: he was clearly too strong, too visceral to fail, too polished to be written off.

Though the show certainly could have given the impression that Danse and co. were one hundred percent in support of street life, or even were rabid for the flesh of their fellow man, Danse, a college grad, paused midway through the show to tell the crowd that that wasn’t entirely the case. “Though, at first glance, it might seem like BKLYN Stickup is about crime, you should know that we are really about taking opportunities when they are not given to you. We do this for the have-nots…” he said, paraphrasing BKLYN Stickup‘s website’s mission statement. It was clear that this aggression was accompanied by the final necessary factor to keep it rolling and to make it relevant: heart. Perhaps nothing was more convincing of the fact that Danse was an act to watch, though, than the show closer, “Roll With The Wave”. Not for the song itself, though it went hard, but more for how loyally, rabidly the Stickup posse mobbed along. Complete with some of the grimiest twerking in recent memory, the festival’s most passionate onstage posse cemented BKLYN Stickup in the memories of all in attendance as a crew that is simply not to be fucked with.