DJ Premier

This legendary hip-hop producer worked his way through the capacity crowd to the stage, surrounded by an entourage of large men carrying his crates as if he was royalty or a heavyweight champion defending his title. It seems fitting that Premier would be able to part the crowd in two and leave gasps on faces; he is, after all, responsible for the majority of classic hip-hop beats created in the past 15 years. For those that have been under a rock, Primo dropped a good dozen of his Gang Starr tracks in succession to start the night. The crowd went bananas for gems like "Mass Appeal" and "Code of the Streets," but Gang Starr was just the tip of the iceberg, as roars rose for classics from Nas, Jeru the Damaja and the Notorious B.I.G. as well. Just as Primo had everyone under his spell, he decided to take things to the "next level" and began busting out classic rock, from Joan Jett to the Eurythmics. Next thing you know, the same heads that were rapping to every word of "Ten Crack Commandments" were nodding their heads to "Sweet Dreams" as the producer shouted, "Are you still following me?" If anything, it served as a nice breather between his hip-hop assaults, which were flawless. The low ceilings and the overly hype crowd gave the entire night a magical feel, like an old school basement party that just happened to have one of hip-hop's greatest figures moulding the night with ease.