For the second time within a month, The Corner Hotel played host to two of the finest names in modern-day funkdom and hip hop: J-Rocc (of The World Famous Beat Junkies) and live party funk outfit Breakestra.

J-Rocc got things off on the right foot, and as expected played a set dedicated mostly to the honour and memory of one James “J. Dilla” Yancey, whose birthday and passing occur within a few days in early February (February 07, 1974 – February 10, 2006). As is the custom since his untimely death, February is now “Dilla Month”, with events, tributes and parties happening all over the globe. J-Rocc cycled through a few of Jay’s well-known hits and productions, also playing sample sources for classic hip hop tracks (Towa Tei’s “Technova” segueing into A Tribe Called Quest’s “Find A Way”, for example). Though the majority of the crowd didn’t seem to know the Dilla tunes all that much, J managed to warm the crowd up anyway via spontaneous break dancing. Nothing makes me smile more than a DJ who so into his or her own selections that they start to get down with reckless abandon.

Breakestra then got on…and it seemed like they would never get off! Their entire set consisted of one funk jam after another, designed to get asses shaking non-STOP in a similar vein to their first two jammin’ releases, The Live Mix Part 1 (1999) and Part 2 (2000), in which the group cover classic breaks and material that’s been ceaselessly sampled by hip hop with no stoppages in-between songs. If you were ever wondering why put these two acts together, it’s because hip hop and funk share history together. Or more correctly, funk begat hip hop. The defining elements of one of the most continuously popular genres of music today owes its beats, grooves and samples to the granddaddies and grand-dames of funk & soul muzak. So it was a fitting double-bill.

Breakestra powered through an entertaining mix of selections that featured much of the oft-sampled songs used in hip hop (e.g. Bob James’ “Nautilus”) including some of their own material, all-the-while plugging their latest full-length release, Dusk Till Dawn. Band leader and multi-instrumentalist (and sometimes-vocalist) Miles Tackett even got down on the cello at one point, with the band covering material from James Brown to The Meters and even busting Apache (causing Fresh Prince fans to imitate the dance Will & Carlton made famous in one particular episode to that song), before introducing to the stage guest vocalist, poet and actress, Afrodyete (real name Beverly Ann Johnson), to help take home the final hour of their thumping two-hour set. I’m quite sure by the end of the night, for those who had casually attended out of curiosity, were now well-and-truly fans. The incredible professionalism and energy from the (granted, constantly-rotating) group of musos shone through, and there were none left who weren’t blinded by the light.