Grizz Halftime Last Night
Last night at the Grizzlies game there was an epic celebration of Memphis music that featured the North Mississippi All-Stars (white dudes), William Bell (Stax producer/legend), Bobby Rush (Funk-Blues Pioneer), and everybody's favorite local rapper, Al Kapone. NMA started by playing some blues -rock (couldn't tell what song because I was legitimately sitting on the very last row of the very top section), before William Bell took the stage to play some Stax-like soul music. Next Bobby Rush, who is still a pistol despite being in his late '70s, sang some of his high-energy, vocally-erratic blues. Finally, Al Kapone took the stage and brought everybody home. On came the beat that everyone had been dying to hear, and while he rapped an original verse the crowd swallowed up that noise with a raucous, "WHOOP THAT TRICK! WHOOP THAT TRICK!" (Only in Memphis.)
Two things in this city seem to transcend race: music and sports. Dating back to Stax records and maybe even Sun to an extent, black and white have worked together musically to create some pretty badass stuff. While the relationship is perhaps muddier than, say, what the stax museum would tell you, it worked. I think sports for whatever reason have that same ability to unite people of different backgrounds, ideologies. It's just something to get pumped about and people can get pumped about it however they want. So last night was pretty amazing, it was a real celebration of Memphis music in all of its forms and it helped rally the crowd around what was sadly a reeling Grizzlies team.
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