Hijack have released a statement about the recent scuffle between group member Kamanchi Sly and Big Daddy Kane, while bashing U.S. rap in the process.
On Saturday (August 26), the Brooklyn veteran headlined a Hip Hop 50 event at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town. During the performance, Sly wandered onto the stage wearing a mask and simply stood in front of the cheering audience. Kane tolerated the interruption for a few minutes but ended up stopping the music to confront the agitator.
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“I need the stage, you’re doing too much,” Kane told him after initially tolerating the interruption. The confrontation escalated when Sly refused to budge, leading the “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” MC to take off his jacket in preparation to throw hands.
The following day, on Sunday (August 27), Hijack posted a clip of the incident and captioned it: “As per usual the DJs and Promoters of the show LICKED THE ARSE OF THE AMERICANS and disrespected UK side of the culture (HIJACK) by not letting us perform! You were always unprofessional CLOWNS.”
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They added: “So we walked on Kane’s set and he and they didn’t like it! AWWW [wacky smile emoji, runny nose emoji] You arse licking promoters and DJs are the reason UK HIP HOP NEVER GREW. Playing UK HIP HOP only in the last 5 minutes of your Radio shows to cover your wack arses a bit!”
Check out the group’s post below:
On Tuesday (August 29), DJ Shortee Blitz responded to the above post with a lengthy statement of his own. He detailed the sequence of events that followed Onyx pulling out of the show, which resulted in set times being altered.
For that reason, Hijack was scheduled to perform after Big Daddy Kane. This was seen as disrespect by the UK group, which is why Sly crashed the stage.
“I say to K Sly ‘Bro WTF’s going on??’” Shortee Blitz wrote. “He says, ‘Masta Ace did this to me 30 years ago, I’m not having this disrespect no more.’ ‘HUH? SO YOU’RE DOING THIS NOW??????’”
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Masta Ace was among those performing at the event, adding to the animosity Hijack and its members felt toward their American peers that night.
Despite the well-documented tension between US and UK rap, DJ Shortee Blitz denounced the group’s behavior and stressed that it is detrimental to Hip Hop and its legacy.
He wrote: “Not only did YOU disrespect the whole culture doing what you attempted and FAILED to do, you dissed, in YOUR words the ‘…dead stock crowd’ which YOUR FANS WERE A PART OF… YOU LET YOUR LEGACY AND YOUR WHOLE CREW DOWN. Including YOU… Unprofessional clowns’ who? Us, or YOU MAN???”
Check out Shortee Blitz’s full account of what went down that night:
Meanwhile, Big Daddy Kane recently praised Eminem, explaining how the Detroit native “surprised” him with his Hip Hop intellect when he spoke with him while filming his new documentary.
Kane spoke with HipHopDX on the red carpet at the 2023 BET Awards in Los Angeles this past weekend, where he revealed Eminem caught him off guard during the filming of Paragraphs I Manifest.
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“The interview with Eminem was very, very intense,” Kane said. “He mentioned some things that I never really paid attention to or thought about, like the way I had to really sit and say, ‘You sure I’m the first person that did that? Like hold on, let me double check.’ He mentioned something that I never really thought about or paid attention to.”
When asked to share a few of those things, Kane simply replied that fans will have to wait to see the documentary to find out.
