CMJ Madness: Percee P & Wildchild

Throngs of suburban college students flocked to Times Square last night for their hip-hop fix as old-school Bronx rapper Percee P took the stage at B.B. King's Blues Club. Joined onstage by former Lootpack emcee Wildchild — whose own energized set had the house bouncing — Percee made a point of encouraging up and coming rappers in the crowd to keep pushing their tapes on the street. (He made a name for himself selling his mixtapes on the streets of Brooklyn.) "I meet so many of you out there pushin' your tapes," he shouted. "Don't give up on your dreams. I'm livin' my dream up here."

After guesting on a crowdpleasing new Wildchild track entitled "The League," (whose chorus, "We are the league of extraordinary gentlemen/The fantastic five MCs," inspired the audience to sing along), Percee got down to business, backed by veteran turntablist J-Rocc of the Beat Junkies. The rapper wasted no time blazing through his half-hour set, including a five-minute a cappella performance that had the crowd on their knees. Closing with a solid mix of new rhymes and classic tracks from his nearly 20-year career, Percee thanked the audience and humbly took his place among the crowd.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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