The Common Ground is anything but common. It’s more than a brick to the face, it’s the building block of success. If you are gonna rock mics, you better be able to show face in Riverside. Home to Noa James and the whole Black Cloud music movement, you can find a little bit of everything at the Common Ground. From honey dips sitting on the bar, to weed and brews, to raw skills and french fries named after the intelligent elegant elephant himself, the Common Ground got it going on.
Sahtyre came out swinging, putting in solid bar work on the mic, rocking acapellas in between songs from his latest release, “The Buddah.” Shit was official. The new age Project Blowdian got things rowdy, kept the girl’s interested, and still made time for a small chronic break to accompany his performance.
Stevie Crooks was on deck next, reinvigorating the jacking for beats scene by rocking over Ras Kass’ “Marinating” instrumental while preparing for his latest mixtape, Cashmere Killer, to be released incahoots with LRG and djbooth.net. He had the home court advantage performing in the Inland Empire, and mos def heads came out to support the young god.
TiRon & Ayomari closed the night out right with more microphone mathematics. Some girls had traveled from the heart of Los Angeles out to Riverside just to check them get busy, and they did their thing like a bank counts money. The two of them packed enough energy in their performance to get the other rappers at the event pumped and jumping around like House of Pain.
Art Barz had performed earlier and was slanging his cd’s in the venue. Konami Homi, A.Cain & Smirk, Celphi, and Kasino had all also performed at the start of the evening. DJ’s C’est La Vie and Calligraphy held down the 1’s & 2’s all night. The event was popping, from start to finish, heads had shown up and shown out just to show love to the Common Ground on their 3 year anniversary. Inshallah the Common Ground keeps things uncanny for the next 3 years and some change. Word life, respect to everyone involved with the event, make sure you schedule an appearance in Riverside to check the Common Ground out the next time you get a chance. It cracks every sunday at the Vibe [1805 University Ave.] You better ask somebody.
-you know ya man’s Drop Jewelz
All photos by æron archambault
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