FRIDAY 04/01/16 – BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
A wonderfully brisk night should always be capped off with an intense musical experience, one that I was promised when deciding to check out Shinobi Ninja at The Hall at MP. I cased out the venue as suspect as I possibly could be, listening from outside to the jazz playing inside of the New Orleans themed bar/restaurant. First to come on was the host Soul Khan to bring on the opening act Oswin Benjamin, who you might know for doing Sway in the Morning last November, got ‘real’ and sat on the stage to sing for the crowd, then started spitting. That made me appreciate his music even more. He did well, leading into Cross Culture, a hip-hop/rock/funk/soul collective. This was a large group including a rapper, musicians and 3 singers in a setup that reminded me of Motown (I love Motown btw). The singers sang and the spitter spit many a song with great melody, bringing the realness that can never be copied. They utilized their time well, impressing me enough to want to listen to them after the show.