Written by: I.S. Jones @isjonespoetry

After my interview with 2G members, Matthew Martinez aka Hookz Murdock and Samuel Jenkins aka Enonomous, I was invited by them to cover their first artist showcase, Dreamcatcher Concert; overall I was immensely impressed with how professional the representative handled themselves, the crowd-moving artist, but most importantly I was impressed by the love the 2G family brings to everything they produce.

The party was hosted at The Flat in Brooklyn which has been described as a “hip, moody, cozy neighborhood cocktail lounge with a retro living room décor accompanied by a full service bar”.  Yet The Flat was transformed as attendance for the party and audience engagement continued strong throughout the night; it seemed to be the case that the more the artist was able to captivate the audience, the crowd either swelled or diminished. Artists such as Enonmous, Nossis, Zeyisays, Danny De La Vi, DaNomads, Frank Knight and others were the voices that made the party this past Sunday.

Frank Knight, holding it down from Brooklyn, served as MC for the night with Enonomous as well as giving the audience such a stunning performance it may have actually added an extra year onto my life. It isn’t so much that Frank comes correct to the mic—each song is an elegant composition of poetry, fervor and muscle—he loves what he does and it shows. Frank, much like Chance the Rapper, owns his weirdness and when he walks off stage you remember his name. He is an artist that is truly about his work; his lyrics are his blood.

One of the most notable artists of the night was Nossis, also the only woman MC on the bill. Her voice comes to stage bigger than her body, and before she even onto stage the respect she garnered from her audience was palpable. Nossis glows on stage. Her voice glows. Her presence radiates. Even when she was dehydrated on stage and had to take a breathier for water, the electricity between songs and with her audience is remarkable. As soon came into her second song, the entire audience swelled, intoxicated by her melodious brilliance. The song about her name was indisputably my favorite, especially when the song was prefaced by her philosophy, “I make sure everyone knows my name by the end of a performance”.

I was impressed with the duo performances such as: Nossis and Hookz then Hookz and Enonomous respectively. Nosis was a titan on stage when her and Hookz did a duo set and killed the stage. What made this pairing so successful was the seamless blend of their voice accompanied by an undulation of energy—they fed off each other, and we as audience members were fed. Hookz and Enonomous were an effortless duet on the mic. What followed after was the collective group DaNomands, and I have to say these cats came so aggressively at their lyrics the floor was shaking. Between getting on tables and getting in the face of audience members who refused to leave their seats, DaNomads came with the intention to wreck shop. But if there was an award for MC with lightning lyrics, indisputably the award goes to Zeyisays. Each line came like a continuous series of jabs before he finished us off with a haymaker.

While most of the performers instantly controlled the respect and imagination of their audience, one of the performers, Danny De La Vie, struggled to command the audience the same way the other performers did. While his stage presence was strong and the crowd did eventually warm up to, he failed to get the audience naturally hype about his rhymes.

The evening concluded with an immaculate performance from the man of the hour, Hookz Murdock. What Hookz does with rhymes, there is no doubt in my mind he and 2G are going places. Everyone in the audience knew the words to his songs “The Killing Joke” “Black Widow” and his dope song about weed as “my n**gs keep that fire blazing”. The fire this man brings to the stage makes him to a cause to believe in. I love how he gets the audience involved in his music; there was a moment where he called on members of the audience standing in front and they repeated his lyrics back. His music leaves you euphoric and grateful. When Black Widow came on, Hookz took off his jacket and the crowd lost their shit to witness his stellar choreography.

The 2G family is no joke; they are a business rising as well as a community of remarkably talented rappers. It was such a pleasure to be in the midst of greatness in the making.