Live Review: Collusion: DJ Premier X Pete Rock

It may be tricky to rock a rhyme that's right on time, but it's also not easy to be a hip hop DJ. The genre has short intros and none of the instrumental parts that make dance music easy to mix in and out of. This leaves fast transitions or fade-outs as the remaining options.
Tonight DJ Premier and Pete Rock have chosen the latter. After the first verse and chorus of each song, one fades out the current track while the other scratches into the beginning of a new song. It doesn't make for the smoothest transitions, but this evening's producer legends are relying more on tune selection and their auras as hip hop royalty.
It's a shame when songs with lyrically rich second or third verses are cut short, but the duo make up for these short quantities with an abundance of quality rap. Oh Hello! is packed out with heavyset hip hop fans, forming a perfect sound absorber in a room that normally has the fidelity of a bomb shelter. Chest-thumping kick drums pulse through the room, and snares crack at the feet of those willing to dance more than the standard hip hop head nod.
The pair navigate through their record collections, reaching a fervent peak with cuts from Nas's seminal 1994 album Illmatic. They form a medley of their productions from the album, with Premier's NY State Of Mind and Rock's The World Is Yours getting the best reactions from the crowd. The former receives obligatory rebranding as Brisbane State Of Mind by Premier, which only endears us to him further.
The two veterans stop the music at times to talk. They compliment each other and rattle off more hip hop RIPs than America has dead presidents. This being said, when they're not mixing, the guys follow in the grand hip hop tradition of swearing at the crowd and encouraging them to put their hands up. It discourages dancing, and when the two lock down into their next and finest medley people begin to shake their bodies down to the ground Jackson 5-style.
Launching further into selections from their own work, Rock goes with some I.N.I. and Method Man. Premier responds with Run-DMC's Down With The King, and a slew of Gangstarr tracks. Premier coaxes Rock onto the mic for a song, and the crowd response is huge as they climax with Full Clip and T.R.O.Y.. Even Rocks's botched intro from the Jefferson Aeroplane original and onomatopoeia of the horn line can't ruin the moment. They finish with a bittersweet Big L medley, mirroring what their sample-based approach to production has always done: pay respect to the past, and continue its legacy into the future.