Last night I went to see Wu Tang Clan and NAS at their State of NY concert in Melbourne. I’ve been a fan of both for a while, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen them live. It was at the Rod Laver, which was surprisingly cool, the venue was pretty intimate and engaging, the visuals were sick, and the audio was on point, perfect for the scene.

One of the highlights for me was the visuals. There was an assortment of anime, segments of king fu, various colourful features, historic pictures and short video clips of the crew and some incredible AI automation - showing different members of the group traversing through space and time with quite deep depictions of the future.

Throughout the show the visuals really grabbed my attention and the interaction between the different types of images was thought provoking and really interesting. The group touched on the history of hip hop and different aspects that contributed to their unique flavour and contribution to the movement. Hip hop was born in 1973 in the Bronx, New York and Wu Tang formalised in 1992, recording their first record in 1993. Since that moment they have created a cult following and solidified a movement as deep thinking, action takers. The all came from poor, struggling families and through pure creativity, drive and hard work they became one of the pioneers of hip hop.

Last night there was a moment when they got the audience to turn their phone lights on and raise them to the sky, the arena dipped the lights and throughout the crowd’s collective effort the place was lit up like candles in a park. This gesture an experience sparks a range of emotions for me. When I was young I used to hang out for a bunch of guys that rapped and sang and danced, mostly in parks on a Saturday night with lighters as our only source of light but whether you could see or not the energy was there and just thinking about it now brings back from really nice memories. The main thing I felt though was this deep unification, everyone from all works off life were there to witness something special where there to see a group of guys who have achieved greatness, stimulated who knows how many minds to pursue something bigger, anything, music, business or just being a better person. I watched them throughout the night and seeing the snippets of time, creative process taking place on the stage it made me really happy to see that pursuit and success and in that moment when everyone had their phone lights out, it went dark, the crowd lit up the stadium and everyone got down to it. I felt unified, felt connected, felt a movement that had stemmed from decades of the pursuit and delivery of expressive and creative, art and entertainment. I was stoked with the experience and happy to be there in the moment but just recognising and witnessing someone’s pursuit of that was incredible and made me really happy. Being happy for someone else can be the happiest feeling in the world.

“Happiness is something you get from yourself. If you’re completely satisfied with yourself, nobody can take it away from you” - RZA

Thanks,

Dean