Rock Steady Crew Anniversary 2013: Central Park – Sunday, July 28 – SummerStage

The Rock Steady Crew, one of hip hop’s most revered organizations, celebrates its 36th anniversary with a star-studded, free outdoor concert event in New York City’s Central Park, as part of the City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage Concert Series.

The series, which has had a large focus on hip hop as the music and culture celebrates 40 years since its inception, continues throughout the summer, highlighting organizations like the Rock Steady Crew and pioneers like Kool Herc.

For years, the Rock Steady Crew Anniversary had been held at Newark’s Lincoln Park. This year, the hip hop extravaganza returns to its NYC roots, as Central Park will be playing host. Among the expected entertainment, local artists like Torae, Homeboy Sandman, Rasheed Chappell and veteran artists like Special Ed, Craig G and Brand Nubian.

The culmination of the concert will be a rare performance by iconic duo Pete Rock and CL Smooth. Other expected guests and participants include DJ Evil Dee, JS-1 and the event will be hosted by the folks from long-running weekly showcase series, End of the Weak.

[LISTEN] Our The NY Hip Hop Report interview with Erika Elliott, director and curator of the “This is __ Hip-Hop” series at the City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage

Though known best for pioneering the B-Boy lifestyle, the Rock Steady Crew has continued throughout the years, working to preserve the integrity of B-Boying, both stylistically and culturally, as well as to provide workshops and educational initiatives for youth, in and around its New York City birthplace, as well as around the nation and the world.

The most prominant “face” of the Rock Steady Crew, Crazy Legs, has been in the news recently himself, receiving positive attention from mainstream news outlets such as CNN. Crazy Legs is also host of popular weekly live video “vodcast” The Lunch Breaks Show, merging music mixing and cooking with interaction from a lively chat room.

While the Rock Steady Crew Anniversary is surely the highlight of the organizations summer schedule, RSC has a continuing presence during the SummerStage series. For instance, on July 31, also in Central Park, RSC will premier RSC Ghetto Made, showing “New York and the world what a real Hip-Hop show looks like as they bring it back to the basics and display why they are the kings of the original movement.”

For more information on the Rock Steady Crew 36th Anniversary, visit www.CrazyLegsWorkshop.com, www.SummerStage.org or the BirthplaceMag.com NY-area hip hop events calendar.