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 MTV & Chibuku presents Mark Ronson, Cash Money & Scratch Perverts live ‘Nation’ Liverpool
 This event was part of MTV’s ‘Isle of MTV’ tour, whatever the fuck that means. Since I refuse to watch MTV ‘till they bring back Dre, Ed lover and T-Money, I wouldn’t have a clue. Anyway, also on the menu was Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, the excellent ex Cream resident Yousef & Tim Deluxe for the house heads.
The event went down in ‘Nation’, legendary 3,000 capacity home of the world famous ‘Cream’ nightclub in Liverpool. It was run by a promotion I have been highly impressed with in the city, by the name of ‘Chibuku’ (which according to their website they named after a vile yet potent African beer the promoters had discovered on their travels, “sour tasting yet a staple for the working class of Malawi”).
Now Chibuku’s policy, despite being predominantly followed by the house crowd, has been known to be adventurous and eclectic; but considering the house heavyweights in the place on the night it came as a very pleasant surprise to see that they hadn’t crammed the Hip-Hop into the annexe as I expected they would and had instead decided to put them on in the main event room, the massive ‘courtyard’….so called because it is simply a huge courtyard covered with a metal ‘air hangar’ style roof.
Also a pleasant surprise was not only the sheer number of people who actually turned up, but the fact that a sizeable amount of the (mainly local/North West, since the students have all gone home) large crowd were keener on checking out Cash money & the Perverts than anything else.
This interested me as I’ve been told on many occasion that Hip-Hop events in Liverpool have to be run in term time only, as apparently it’s the students that prop up the Hip-Hop scene here and apparently ‘Hip-Hop doesn’t work in Liverpool in the summer’ when they aren’t around.
 As the locals and fellow north westerners (and a few out of towners) stuck two fingers up to that principle, Mark Ronson began warming up what would prove to be an incredibly successful night.
Ronson’s set was actually the biggest surprise of the night. Were it not for the incredible DJ “chi-ching” himself this could have been the show stealer. Gradually he built his way around an eclectic selection of Hip-Hop classics, some up front soul/disco tracks and rock classics such as ‘Lithium’, and the obligatory White Stripes joint that’s been popping up in every fashionable fuckers Hip-Hop set just to prove “how different and unique I am”.
It does have a wicked bassline though, doesn’t it backpackers!?
This led on to a bizarre list of co-incidences that would slightly (only slightly though!) mar the night a bit for me. Such was the overwhelming desire to play something no-body would expect a Hip-Hop DJ to play (bearing in mind the audience/MTV expectations), that ALL three performances contained a lot of the same tracks, therefore the Stone Roses classic ‘Fools Gold’ would be played by all THREE DJ’s (if you count the Scratch Perverts as a single person entity). The sense of De Ja Vu prompting me to seriously re-consider my booze intake.
A fine example would be Mark Ronson’s playing the album mix of ‘Jump Around’ which he (expertly) mixed into the Pete Rock remix of the same tune….a few hours later and the Scratch Perverts mix the Pete Rock version into the album version, of the same H.O.P. track, prompting the talk of the Chibuku internet forum the day after to be….
“did Mark Ronson, Cash Money and the Scratch Perverts only have one box of records between them?”
This was quite a remarkable feat. You could tell the Perverts pre-performance were thinking “Ah just wait till we drop ‘Fool’s Gold’ and that House of Pain blend tonight, they won’t be expecting that!”
Nevermind eh!
Anyway as I said, Ronson’s set was excellent. Apart from the fact it was varied and interesting, it was also beatmatched FLAWLESSLY, a particularly difficult task when you’re mixing different genres and wildly varying tempos. More importantly he did what 99.9% of Hip-Hop DJ’s can’t do….he made everyone dance.
Fuckin’ brilliant DJ’ing work.
Naturally enough he finished with ‘Ooooo Weeee’, extending the mix with the instrumental version, as an incredibly annoying emcee who’s name escapes me (he was that unremarkable) barked some uncomprehendable nonsense over the top of it.
Bearing in mind what I’ve just told you about the evening’s playlist, it won’t surprise you to hear that the track received more than the one play during the night.
 After some begging from Ronson’s emcee about “buy my album on J Records when it comes out”, next up was Mr cha-ching himself….the showstopper, the wheeling dealing, kiss stealing, DJ Cash Money.
Sadly he also brought an emcee with him who was only slightly less irritating than the last one. He decides to perform THE most patronising, childish, cock licking bumming up to the crowd “call & response” I’ve ever heard.
“Who do ya’ll support?” He cried to which I responded “EVERTON!” as everyone else bleated “ENG-ER-LAND!!!”
“….and who’s gonna win the championship!” he yelled…… ”SPAIN!” shouted I, as the rest of the optimists cried “ENG-ER-LAAAAAAANNND!”
Thankfully Cash cut his boy off with a flurry of cuts before slamming into his first track, and luckily for the rest of the night the hypeman pretty much shut the fuck up except to state the obvious “Your looking at the worlds greatest DJ!”.
Yeah mate we know.
That much was obvious as Cash Money blew the tin roof off the fuckin’ place, with a devastating set which not only equalled Ronson’s exquisite blending, but also showed any turntablist a trick or two. The years haven’t dulled the former DMC winner’s skills as he proceeded to rip juggle after juggle and routine after routine.
It was blatantly obvious that the crowd witnessing Cash Money hadn’t reckoned on him actually, really, being ‘the best DJ in the world’. The poor things were unprepared!….Mark Ronson wasn’t as he excitedly pulled out a camcorder and proceeded to get some home movie footage of his hero showing us how to rock a crowd. And man, was that crowd rocked!
I was witness to approximately a thousand people going absolutely bananas; particularly as he performed his now legendary “LL Cool J is h h h h h h h hard as hell” juggle. Dozens of voices from behind me screamed “OH MY FUCKING GOD!” as he cut his way through every hip-Hop classic known to man amongst Jackson 5 classics and an extremely well received dancehall segment.
 Some heads had suggested to me that Cash Money’s set was becoming tired and even ‘he does the same fuckin’ routine every time’. Not so tonight, with the exception of the ‘LL’ cutting, most of what I had heard was new on what he dropped the last time I saw him at ‘No Fakin’.
As Mark Ronson looked on, clearly in awe, and filming every gesture from the master and every response from the crowd, I tried to put my hand on just what exactly it is that makes Cash the best DJ in the world. The conclusion? The same clichéd thing everyone says…. put simply he is the ultimate party rocker. That certain intangible.
Someone must have told Yousef (himself one of the best regarded house DJ’s in the country) that it was ‘jumping off in the courtyard’ as he hurriedly turned up from the middle rooms, to appear on the courtyard stage to see for himself what was causing all the fuss. Grinning his face off he was….at the sheer enjoyment of Hip-Hop played at it’s best. “Wow!” he mouthed as he and Ronson exchanged glances, no doubt thinking ‘he’s got them right were he wants them’.
Before we know it Cash Money’s finished and before we can all contemplate what’s just happened the Scratch Perverts take to the stage, again another annoying as fuck emcee in tow. “Give it up for Prime Cuts, Plus One and Tony Vegas!!!” he yells passionately.
Fair enough mate, but all you proceed to do all night is beg everyone not to leave and to keep on dancing and even more pathetically proceed to reproduce Dizzy’s lyrics off the ‘Fix up, look sharp’ track we’ve already heard twice tonight. I can’t think of anything worse than an individual with a microphone, on stage, rapping someone else’s lyrics over someone else’s track. ‘Witness the Fitness’ is also played for the 3rd time, as the emcee again, raps Root’s lyrics word for word…. not one original bar spat.
The Perverts do enough to impress the gathered crowd with their excellent turntablist skills, Plus One in particular on the cut as Tony Vegas (wearing an extremely unattractive white vest and bucket hat ensemble) prats around with various effects and switches on the Pioneer house mixer everyone’s suddenly started to use. Creatively speaking they are very impressive, what with all these mad samples and effects they seem to be triggering on the Pioneer, crowd rocking wise though…. they’ve lost it. Even though surprisingly, their set is the most (believe it or not) jiggyfied of the whole night.
Sadly they then decide to dedicate the next hour or so of their set to some diabolical, god awful Drum & Bass effort, which is where I must leave them, for I cannot stand that shite.
I retire to hook up with the rest of my mates who are enjoying a fantastic set from the ‘ginger headed kid’ Tim Delux, who’s massive curly mop has to be seen to be believed….still buzzing like fuck over Ronson and Cash’s sets.
 The night comes to an end and I go to walk out the door extremely satisfied by a very well run and entertaining night. To be honest I would have enjoyed Cash Money’s set alone as it was, but Mark Ronson’s was a very pleasant ‘extra’ something I wasn’t expecting. As I walk towards the exit I notice a chap standing chatting to some people and notice he’s wearing a diamond encrusted turntable necklace.
I’d love to be able to tell you I coolly approached my DJ’ing idol in a cool, manner….gave him “a pound and a complement and be out” type shit, but the truth is a totally marked the fuck out. Whatever I said to Cash Money (my mates compared it to a 14 year old girl backstage at a Britney concert) he politely replied “Thank you my man that really means a lot to me, glad you enjoyed it”.
“Oh man! Thank you, yo that’s cool man!” he replies to my blurting out of “I’ve got Ugly people be quiet at home mate, one of me most treasured records….you’re the fuckin’ shit mate!” I walk away repeating “I shook hands with the greatest DJ in the world…. I spoke to the greatest DJ in the world”
Yeah it was good like.
Mark Ronson 8/10
DJ Cash money 10/10
Scratch Perverts 6/10
Overall Rating 8/10
- Coakley
 Related Links:
Well regarded eclectic Liverpool promotion, ‘Chibuku Shake Shake’. Usually
resident @ ‘The Masque’, but tonight running things in Cream’s home ‘Nation’.www.mtv.co.uk
Multinational music media behemoth….and killer of the legendary Yo! MTV Raps.
The dick’eads.www.markronsonmusic.com
Website of DJ/Producer Mark Ronson.
www.djcoakley.com
(Me!)
 www.britishhiphop.co.uk
Database resource of local and nationwide artists & DJ’s.
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