JAYFORCE

Last Saturday night, Jean Grae alongside her DJ & emcee Mr. Len kicked off Jean’s tour for her upcoming release “Cake Or Death.” The show was hosted by Ms. Dia (The Show, 89.3 WRFG) and featured opening acts Lyric Jones, Boog Brown and 4Ize. The show was held at the Apache Cafe, on Spring St. in Midtown Atlanta.

Lyric Jones started the night off with a set that lasted about twenty minutes. She introduced a new single, the hook repeated a chant with “Go” as the theme. She also brought J-Live on stage to perform with her. Both wowed the crowd, rhyming together with relative ease. DJ Doug Boogie held down the one-and-two’s for Lyric Jones during the Atlanta via Boston’s emcee’s entire set.
Detroit’s Boog Brown was next to grace the stage.  She also brought on a few featured guests, including Atlanta based duo Clan D & Binkis Rec’s  Flux Wonda played hype man on a few singles. Boog rhymed and rhymed, and at about the fourth song, she pleaded with the crowd to give her a quick minute to take a water break. Her DJ dropped “Dope Girl Magic” which was obviously a crowd favorite.  I may have been the only person in Apache Cafe that didn’t know all the lyrics.
4Ize performed after Boog Brown as producer Locsmif took over DJ duties on during his set. After a few solo songs, he brought Senor Kaos on stage with him along with special guest emcee Headkrack (co-host on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show). 4Ize toyed with the ladies when he performed a braggadocious song comparing his manhood to Chiquita bananas. He then calmed down his humor when he ended his set with the thought-provoking song “Rap Sucks.”After a small break between opening acts, Mr. Len stepped on stage, plugged in his lap top and played a few 90s hip hop classics to warm up the crowd for Jean Grae. She opened her show with the single “Uh Oh” and as the wild applause ended, she asked the crowd to give full attention to her performance. She pleaded with everyone to be “in the moment,” enjoy the concert and not record video through out the show (so as inspire people to come and attend her shows while on the road the next two months). The crowd agreed to cooperate. She proceeded to perform “You Don’t Like It” and a few other songs her abundance of fans were already familiar with.
Mr. Len played a few hip hop classics in the middle of the show, and then Jean introduced new tunes that will be on the upcoming album “Cake Or Death.” The new songs covered topics such as love, self-esteem, and of course her skills on the mic. She also dedicated a moment of silence to fallen UK songstress Amy Winehouse. After the show ended, Jean Grae received chants for an encore, and Mr. Len dropped the music for “On And On.” At the end of the song and after an incredible applause, she thanked the crowd for coming out to support her and reminded everyone to get ready for the album “Cake Or Death,” slated to hit stores this fall.

–Kool Kila
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