ny-t festival

When we arrived at Central Park for the New York-Tokyo music festival, we were initially disappointed by the underwhelming crowd. The energy was running low even with DJ Red Alert spinning some classic old school joints. DJing aint the same anymore when the dude is checking his playlist on the laptop rather than flipping vinyl.

The eclectic crowd made for interesting people-watching. Lots of backpackers and hiphoppers draped in Bape, ultra-fashionable Japanese and Asians as well as some artsy American folk. Our fashion star of the day was this crazy 80's styled Japanese dude in waist-length dreads rocking striped leggings, fluorescents green hightops and carrying a retro boombox. I was especially drawn to a trio of elderly white people. I suspected that they were professors of Asian studies at one of the universities. They were greeted respectfully by some young people including one white boy who spoke fluent Japanese.

The energy of the whole festival finally picked up when The Teriyaki Boyz hit the stage. Their special guest - to the roaring approval of Bapesters in the crowd - was Bape general Nigo, who DJ'd the whole performance. I know he's gotta be in his mid 30's but he looked like a little boy in chain ropes of platinum. I expected a watered down caricature of American hiphop, but they were actually more entertaining than the usual live rap act. And you can argue that their essence is more respectful of the artform. Their playful showmanship, fashion and musical vibe reminded me of the mid 80's Beastie Boyz. They were fluent in English and slanguistics. I was very impressed how smoothly they switched from Japanese to English in mid rhyme with dexterity. They definitely rocked the crowd and we were really wowed to see the two gray haired female professors waving their hands in the air like they don't care.

Here's their video hamming it up with Kanye and Nigo spoofing YouTube