Royce Da 5’9 “Success Is Certain” Album Release Party Recap

13 years ago view-show 722,898

The other day I spontaneously decided to go to Royce Da 5’9‘s Success Is Certain album release party at SOB’s in NYC. The event included performances by Royce and a number of other “special guests” that I will get into in just a moment, but first I must say that the lack of females (not that I expected many) really prevented the party from getting to that next level. Unless you were into sweaty bros screaming SLAUGHTERHOUSE at the top of their lungs, chances are you did not get it in at SOB’s on Tuesday.

Anyways back to the concert because that’s what’s important right? Flint Michigan MC Jon Conner was the first notable act to hit the stage, and you could tell he was hungry. By spitting every song he did with a crazy amount of energy and even bringing out Freeway to spit “What We Do” and an acapella freestyle, Jon left the crowd more than ready to see the man of the night, Royce Da 5’9.

However the hour wait after Conner left the stage definitely killed some of the momentum for Nickel Nine, but sure enough when he hit the stage along side DJ Premier on the ones and twos the crowd was right back in it. After opening with a few cuts from the new album, Royce brought out two of his boys from Slaughterhouse as Joe Budden and Joell Ortiz hit the stage to perform about an hours worth of Slaughterhouse songs. Highlights from the Slaughterhouse portion of the show included their performance of “Microphone”, Joell Ortiz’s rendition of “Sing Like Bilal” and how could I forget Royce clowning on Joe Budden for his recurring public issues with the ladies (cough Esther Baxter cough) calling him the Vincent Chase of Slaughterhouse and saying that “he only got one season left”.

After Joey and Joell bounced, Royce got into some Bad Meets Evil joints off Hell The Sequel, which unfortunately were only half as enjoyable without the evil half of the duo. While he’s no Marshall Mathers, Talib Kweli did make an appearance to show love and perform “Get By”, which was a nice surprise.

However, the highlight of the evening in my book was when Jean Grae and Pharaoh Monch came out to spit “Assassins”. Royce insisted that Pharaoh spit his verse acapella, and he absolutely killed it. Royce didn’t even spit his verse, as by that time he was beyond hammered. But hey it was his album release party so the dude deserves to drink as much as he wants, and after ending the night with a performance of his classic “Boom” I’m sure Royce went on to drink a whole lot more. Hopefully not enough to get another questionable tattoo on his face.