Nas
Rain and more rain defined the BMI Atlanta Unsigned Urban Showcase featuring Novel, Trey Songz and Nas on the outside. Inside Esso, however, even with poor sound at times and with the AC set on Alaska, it was an outing well worth defying Mother Nature. Unfortunately for Novel, the sound didn’t help his set. When he did his homage to Prince with “Purple Rain”, he couldn’t even strike up the guitar. BMI honcho Catherine Brewton demanded that the sound be fixed and, for Trey Songz, there was a great improvement.
Trey didn’t disappoint his ladies. Looking clean-cut and dapper with velvet vocals that tingled more than the ears, Trey stared seductively at several women around the stage as he breezed through hits like “I Can’t Help But Wait” and “Last Time,” which Bryan-Michael Cox, who was on stage, in a corner taping the show, produced.
DJ Khaled and Catherine Brewton certainly did their part to get the crowd hyped for Nas. He let his band come on first and these cats certainly rocked it out. By the time, Mr. Escobar appeared, looking hood-boy fresh in the Mitchell & Ness crisp green Jets hat, a white tee under an Adidas green jacket, completed with jeans and “too fresh and too clean” white Adidas kicks with the green accents, of course, it was game on. Ripping like a kid that just stepped on the scene, Nas was definitely ruling the stage. Whether he was delivering his classic "Illmatic" steeze or swagging it out with his verse from “My President Is Black” with Young Jeezy, he left no question as to why he’s earned his spot in the “best of all-time” hip-hop annals.
For the unsigned artists, singers Ryn Nicole and Kameron Corvet, rapper Rain and R&B group 718 that had hit the stage earlier, this class was definitely worth being marked present. California girl singer/songwriter Ryn Nicole impressed the judges that included mega-hit master Sean Garrett and Keyshia Cole’s manager Manny Halley so much that they gave her a G ($1000) out of their own plush pockets. Boy group 718 got the grand prize, which includes production, stylists, you know, basically, the everything you need to make a hit special. It only comes once a year, but this BMI showcase, thanks to Nasty Nas, definitely lived up to the hype.
—Ronda Racha Penrice, Special to Metromix
