Written and Photographed by Duy Tran

Everyone was black, except me.  At one point an Asian couple walked in for about 5 minutes then left.  I on the other hand felt somewhat privileged to be there.  I saw it as an opportunity to see the inside underground world of hip hop.  I was introduced to many different musicians.  The bill composed of artists from DC and NYC.

Everybody seemed to know each other and there was a lot of support from the crowd.  I can’t really tell you who were the talents that performed.  Then again I can’t really tell who was part of the crowd or a posse or featured talent.  The microphone was being handed off every minute to a new person rapping.  The entire floor was the stage and there were no limits.  Rappers would walk around with the wireless mic and jump bar counter tops and going in and out of the crowd.  It was very intimate.  Everybody was dancing or putting their hands in the air and cheering.

I thought that photography wise, this was an extremely hard event to cover.  There wasn’t much lighting, everyone is black and I’m not using a flash, and because there was barely any light I had a very hard time focusing.  But what I got was very dramatic lighting, dynamic blurring motion and intensity expressed by the artists performing with all their passion.