Lloyd Banks and Talib Kweli hold it down for NYC Hip-Hop

They say NYC Hip-Hop is dead, well on April 29th at the Nokia Theater in the heart of Times Square some of NY’s flyest came out to set the stage on fire.

First up to bat is the quick spitting youngin’, son of a Gun, literally, Cory Gunz. Officially admitting that he is part of the Young Money crew, the Bronx lyricist killed his 15 minute set, doing cuts off various mixtapes, all certified bangers, such as his popular,” A Millie” freestyle. His set ended with the appearance of his father, Peter Gunz doing his record, “Déjà vu” sans Lord Tariq.

Brooklyn had their opportunity to dominate the building when Talib Kweli stepped on stage. He wasn’t solo on this night, this was an opportunity to promote his upcoming Reflection Eternal album with partner Hi-Tek. The duo performed an onslaught of new tracks and Talib digged deep into his arsenal to do some of his classics, including some of solo joints as well as joints from his Blacksmith albums. Jean Grae was his only major guest apperance.

The crowd began to get impatient somewhere around 10:30 in anticipation for the G-Unit, 2nd in command, Jamaica, Queens own, Lloyd Banks. From the crowd reaction you would think it was 50 Cent on the bill, but Banks proved to have just as many hits as General.

Beginning with cuts off his debut album, Hunger for More, Banks took the crowd on a quick journey through his career. He did every single and included some of his songs off the G-Unit albums as well.

About midway through the set, Tony Yayo popped out on stage and the crowd really went wild, possibly in anticipation for more features. Yayo did “So Seductive” and “Curious” off his debut album, Thoughts of A Predicate Felon.

the night's dynamic duo — the night’s dynamic duo

Banks returned with a change of outfit and a Rick Ross diss song. He even did his verse from “I Smell P*ssy”. But he couldn’t end the night off without doing his latest single “Beamer, Benz and Bentley.” To the disappointment of most of the crowd, juelz Santana did not pop out from behind the stage to do his verse but banks did have a new second verse of his own.