New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Jesse Abraham Official Website) On Fri March 18th, 2011 the SXSW
Music Festival in Austin, TX got a treat that only hours before had been a mere possibility in the minds of two NYC-based emcees.
Jesse Abraham and PremRock, both staples of the underground hip-hop scene in New York City, have been organizing and performing in a showcase entitled Skill Or Be Skilled for less than a year, yet they have already made waves with their brand of concert. "What started as a free show in a smoke-filled room in the Lower East Side of Manhattan has turned into a real trademark and opportunity to share some of New York's dopest talent with the world," says Jesse. "The success of the first one we did, featuring The Sleepwalkas, Broken English and others, was legitimately a shock to us. Now we just try to outdo ourselves with every show."
According to PremRock, it was on the flight into Austin that he and Jesse began planning the event (for which the binding details were scribbled on a sheet of loose-leaf in their hotel room a day before the show.) While acts such as Odd Future, Das Racist and Danny Brown were performing around the festival, JA & PremRock opened the doors to Empire Garage at 9PM for their free show, only to keep audiences enthralled until they decided to call it quits at 2AM. "We were told the cops would shut us down at midnight because we were an unofficial show, but people kept coming in and we just kept rocking. Everybody was really supportive, from the sound guy to the bartender to the full moon. It was wild."
JA & PremRock hosted the event, which featured the likes of Sam-U-Ill, Eagle Nebula, Rebel Diaz, Crosby, We Stole The Show, Willie Green, Lucky IAM, Mo Danger and Shinobi Ninja. Homeboy Sandman's DJ, DJ Sosa, was the resident turntablist for the event. The show seemed to be coming to a close after Prem and Jesse Abraham delivered an hour-long collaborative set, but the crowd lingered and demanded more. The two emcees, along with producer Willie Green on the MPC, spent the next hour creating songs on the fly, soliciting suggested song topics from the crowd. "One person would shout a word, then another, then another...we'd smack em together and make a song out of it, with Willie creating the beat on stage with us. That's Southby for ya," says Jesse.
The show came to a close as Prem and JA delivered encores of their catchiest tracks, (Trust Me I'm Aware and Yoga, respectively) and the crowd devoured whatever merchandise and products the two artists had in tow once they stepped off stage. "I just released an EP a few weeks ago called One Day, so that worked out well ha," JA explained.
PremRock will be embarking on an impressive 15-country European tour this April, and Jesse Abraham is set to rerelease One Day via DJBooth.net in May, complete with remixes and a collaboration with Homeboy Sandman. Look for these two ambitious artists to bring their brand, Skill Or Be Skilled, to a city near you soon.
