REVIEW: JB!!! aka Dirty Moses Holds Down Sunday Night at The Pickle
4/13 @ The Pickle, Troy
Photos by Kiki Vassilakis
“There’s four or five pillars of hip-hop, and the DJ has always been central to that. Before there was lyrical rapping, there was a DJ spinning records and a guy next to him talking about ‘yo, you over there, your mom’s gonna come pick you up.’”
JB!!! – three exclamations – has been a part of the Capital Region hip-hop scene for as long as I can remember. Always hat clad, he tends to wear many of them: I first met JB!!! as an emcee in 2014, after his first foray into DJing, before he started promoting shows and booking tours. These days, he’s doing all three.
On April 13th, JB!!! was at the turntable ahead of a Northeast tour as an emcee. Punctuation!! will see JB!!! alongside his nephews, up and coming artists Shiloh the Messenger and Mundy.
Prior to his set at The Pickle in Troy, JB!!! and bar owner Jamel Mosely invited me in early to answer some interview questions. Jamel, who has been previously featured on the cover of our January issue (prominently displayed behind the bar), stepped into ownership suddenly last year and is doing well. His sound background is helpful during set up, as speakers and faders get tweaked around the bar. There’s a low buzz that everyone was struggling to locate until JB!!! says, “it’s my laptop,” and shifts the computer. A wire was running into his table and causing the only sound issue the show would have.
That solved, JB!!! and I started discussing his recent and upcoming work. He shows me a video that’s soon to be released for his song “Ghosts”, shot at Cussin’s in Schenectady. He also plays a track he’s working on with his nephews and is excited to bring on tour. It’s classic JB!!!, the kind of lively and bass-laden Hip-Hop that gathered crowds during the New York Blackout decades ago. He’s excited to play it live on tour.
We then discuss his recent Eddies nominations, which included both Hip-Hop/Rap Artist of the Year and Music Video of the Year. He won the Hip-Hop/Rap award last year and ended up repeating the feat this past weekend. Still, he talks about the awards with a bit of trepidation.
“They’re nice to get but they’re not super meaningful to me.” JB!!! believes he deserves the accolades, but he’s in the business of selling tickets and doesn’t feel the Eddies have helped move him in that way.
As the crowd starts trickling in, I ask about the importance of DJing. Why is JB!!!, an emcee, taking DJing back on?
The short answer is gigs. There’s more work and more money in DJing, and you’re less likely to burn an audience out on your own music. The long answer is tradition.
“There’s four or five pillars of hip-hop, and the DJ has always been central to that. Before there was lyrical rapping, there was a DJ spinning records and a guy next to him talking about ‘yo, you over there, your mom’s gonna come pick you up.’”
No one was expecting a Sunday evening in early spring to be packed out. There’s one bartender on staff and a bouncer and the crowd builds from regulars. It’s all walks of life at The Pickle; there’s a date I’m guessing is the first, another I’m guessing is the millionth, a group of gaming friends, and a group of friends wondering where they can score substances. This presents a problem for a DJ: when a crowd is discordant, their job is to unite.
JB!!! is not a DJ who plays pre-recorded mixes. This would be blasphemous to him. As Jamel pours JB!!! a coffee – agave, no milk; even musicians have sensitive stomachs – the DJ starts playing some throwback Method Man hits. By the time the crowd has settled in, we’ve switched to more contemporaries. “Collard Greens” and "Broccoli" cut through the noise and draw attention.
Still, many people are here to hang more than to get lost in the music. One couple is speaking in two languages—English and another I can’t quite make out. Early in the set, they dance along not mockingly, but with enough irony to pretend they aren’t into it. That’s when JB!!! has a moment of genius: he glides the music softly into Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison.”
This is what you hire a DJ for. Prior to that opening break, I don’t know if I could have recalled this song let alone thought it would get people moving. But when those opening vocal notes hit, the crowd all began to move.
Jamel leaves a bit early, but shouts to JB!!! on the way out, “You’re killing this man!”
The two share a quick dap and carry on, JB!!! picking up his over-ears and getting back to it. I linger about the bar notetakingly as some of the crowd rotates out and others rotate in. Drinks are drank and smokes are smoked all around, heads continue bopping. This is award winning hip-hop. This is how JB!!! brings a party.
