Big Daddy Kane: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Feb. 19, 2018, Abby O Neill One of the greatest to ever bless the mic, Big Daddy Kane treated Tiny Desk to an office block party in the true essence of hiphop. He performed a short set of classics, including Smooth Operator, Ain t No Half Steppin, Raw and a bonus freestyle. Through his warm, engaging and devilishly selfeffacing style, the pioneer used an interlude between songs to address the intergenerational divisiveness defining rap today and the importance of fans of all ages supporting whatever they like, while focusing on what s positive and keeping that in the Kane, aka Dark Gable, was a breakout member of the seminal Juice Crew in hiphop s golden era during the latter part of the 1980s. He popularized quickcadence flows and multisyllabic rhyme schemes before passing the torch to early mentees like JayZ. Many a night during my adolescence was spent trying to memorize the baritone MC s lyrics. During thos