[Videos] Art Of Cool Fest 2019: Saturday Night (9/28) Lineup At Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Durham, NC – Run DMC, one of the most influential acts in the history of hip-hop culture, will headline AOCFEST on Saturday September 28th at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. This iconic group will lead the all-star lineup for the 2019 sixth Annual Art of Cool Festival (AOCFEST) held September 27-29th in downtown Durham. Produced by The DOME Group LLC, AOCFEST will feature a range of R&B, Neo Soul, Hip-Hop, Jazz, alternative and spoken word performances and speakers at multiple venues: Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP), the Durham Armory, Motorco Music Hall, Carolina Theatre, The Pinhook, The Masonic Lodge and Beyu Caffe. Run DMC will commemorate its 30th anniversary, having sold tens of millions of records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
Whodini, one of the first rap groups to add a R&B twist to their music, will open the show Saturday evening. Grammy Award-winning rapper and actor Big Daddy Kane together with The Symphony (Kool G Rap, Craig G and Masta Ace) will also rock the Durham Bulls Athletic Park stage on Saturday, September 28th.
“We are really excited about the lineup and activities about to hit the Bull City during AOCFEST 2019,” said Sulaiman Mausi, CEO, The DOME Group LLC. “We are grateful for our sponsors: Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, American Tobacco, APLUS Test Prep, North Carolina Arts Council, Bedlam, Provident 1898, WRAL, Go Durham, Discover Durham, Durham Convention Center, AT&T, The Tower at Mutual Plaza, Johnson Lexus, Coastal Credit Union, Heineken, Long Beverage, Around Dinner Catering, Townebank and Watered Garden Florist Studios. We anticipate an unforgettable cultural experience for loyal Cooligans and newcomers alike.”
Festival attendees can enjoy this one-of-a-kind event featuring 20-plus acts for 1 price. One Day, Weekend, VIP and Sunday Brunch passes for AOCFEST 2019 are available through Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/30BS5Nb.
Scroll down to check out the videos and learn more about Art of Cool Fest Saturday performers at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park:
RUN DMC
All three members of Run-D.M.C. were natives of the middle-class New York borough Hollis, Queens. Run (born Joseph Simmons, November 14, 1964) was the brother of Russell Simmons, who formed the hip-hop management company Rush Productions in the early ’80s; by the mid-’80s, Russell had formed the pioneering record label Def Jam with Rick Rubin. Russell encouraged his brother Joey and his friend Darryl McDaniels (born May 31, 1964) to form a rap duo. The pair of friends did just that, adopting the names Run and D.M.C., respectively. After they graduated from high school in 1982, the pair enlisted their friend Jason Mizell (born January 21, 1965) to scratch turntables; Mizell adopted the stage name Jam Master Jay.
More than any other hip-hop group, Run-D.M.C. are responsible for the sound and style of the music. As the first hardcore rap outfit, the trio set the sound and style for the next decade of rap. With their spare beats and excursions into heavy metal samples, the trio were tougher and more menacing than their predecessors Grandmaster Flash and Whodini. In the process, they opened the door for both the politicized rap of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions, as well as the hedonistic gangsta fantasies of N.W.A. At the same time, Run-D.M.C. helped move rap from a singles-oriented genre to an album-oriented one — they were the first hip-hop artist to construct full-fledged albums, not just collections with two singles and a bunch of filler. By the end of the ’80s, Run-D.M.C. had been overtaken by the groups they had spawned, but they continued to perform to a dedicated following well into the ’90s.
In 1983, Run-D.M.C. released their first single, “It’s Like That”/”Sucker M.C.’s,” on Profile Records. The single sounded like no other rap at the time — it was spare, blunt, and skillful, with hard beats and powerful, literate, daring vocals, where Run and D.M.C.‘s vocals overlapped, as they finished each other’s lines. It was the first “new school” hip-hop recording. “It’s Like That” became a Top 20 R&B hit, as [READ MORE…]
WHODINI
Coming out of the fertile early-’80s New York rap scene, Whodini were one of the first rap groups to add a straight R&B twist to their music, thus laying the groundwork for the new jack swing movement. The group consisted of rappers Jalil Hutchins and John “Ecstasy” Fletcher, adding legendary DJ Drew “Grandmaster Dee” Carter, known for being able to scratch records with nearly every part of his body, in 1986. Whodini made its name with good-humored songs like “Magic’s Wand” (the first rap song to feature an accompanying video), “The Haunted House of Rock” (a rewrite of “Monster Mash”), and “Freaks Come Out at Night,” and their live shows were the first rap concerts to feature official dancers (U.T.F.O. members Doctor Ice and Kangol Kid). Following 1987’s Open Sesame, Whodini went on hiatus due to problems with their record company, as well as to concentrate on new families. The group attempted a comeback in 1991 with Bag-a-Trix without much success, despite receiving their due as rap innovators. Five years later, Whodini returned with their sixth album, appropriately titled Six.
BIG DADDY KANE
Big Daddy Kane was born Antonio Hardy in Brooklyn on September 10, 1968; the stage name “Kane” was an acronym for King Asiatic Nobody’s Equal. In 1984, he met Biz Markie, and the two struck up a friendship. Kane would go on to co-write some of the Biz‘s best-known raps, and both eventually became important members of the Queens-based Juice Crew, a collective headed by renowned producer Marley Marl. Kane signed with Marl‘s Cold Chillin’ label in 1987 and debuted the following year with the 12″ single “Raw,” which became an underground sensation. His first album, Long Live the Kane, followed not long after and was equally well-received, producing another underground classic in “Ain’t No Half-Steppin’.” Kane consolidated his success with 1989’s It’s a Big Daddy Thing, which spawned arguably his most effective love-man song in “Smooth Operator” (and also found him working with new jack producer Teddy Riley on “I Get the Job Done”). 1990’s A Taste of Chocolate was a wide-ranging effort, highlighted by Kane‘s duets with Barry White and comedian Rudy Ray Moore, aka Dolemite.
Emerging during hip-hop’s massive creative expansion of the late ’80s, Big Daddy Kane was the ultimate lover man of rap’s first decade, yet there was more to him than the stylish wardrobe, gold jewelry, and sophisticated charisma. Kane possessed a prodigious rhyming technique honed from numerous B-boy battles; he could also be an Afrocentric consciousness-raiser versed in the philosophy of the Nation of Islam’s Five Percent school, or a smooth urban soul crooner whose singing was no match for his talents as an MC. While he never scored much pop-crossover success, his best material ranks among [READ MORE…]
THE SYMPHONY (fea. Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Craig G & Master Ace)
KOOL G RAP
CRAIG G
MASTER ACE
Festival attendees can enjoy this one-of-a-kind event featuring 20-plus acts for 1 price. One Day (Friday or Saturday, Weekend (Friday and Saturday), VIP and Sunday Brunch passes for AOCFEST 2019 are available through Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/30BS5Nb.