If you grew up in the 90’s, chances are you’ll be well aware of Naughty By Nature. The Grammy Award winning hip hop crew responsible for some huge hits during what was arguably one of the best decades of the genre were in Adelaide on Sunday night to take people for a trip down memory lane, performing not only their own material but also reminding us of some of the other greats. But before we get to how things went down on the actual night:
Now that’s out of my system, let’s turn our attention back to The Gov. The venue was fairly packed out for this one, which was encouraging. Full Tote Odds and DJ Sanchez had things warmed up early on as the crowd liquored up and prepared for the main act to come onstage. Vin Rock, Treach and DJ Kay Gee didn’t take long in emerging to a rapturous applause – this was a party motherfuckers, and the trio was prepared to send everyone in the venue home seriously regretting not calling in sick for work on Monday.
“O.P.P” gets things off to a popular start, Treach doling out condoms casually while taking the time to spot a woman in the crowd not far in front me, a lady he’d keep returning to throughout the set, eyeing up and throwing towels at. It’s a hard life. The enthusiasm the crowd brought was not lost on Naughty By Nature, the repeated exclamations of ‘Adelaide, you the hypest!’ throughout the night didn’t get weary. As Vin and Treach went one for one with each other, it’s hard to believe that the trio went through the hardships they have done. Whatever animosity or bad blood the existed in the past was clearly left off-stage during this performance – it was all about getting the job done and the goal achieved.
“Feel Me Flow”, “Holiday” and “Hip Hop Hooray” were obvious stand outs, with the latter of the three beckoning people onto the stage at the end of the night. The crowd was diverse in ages – there were people here for the nostalgia, people here to get a dose of some old school and those of us here to add to the list of performers touring to mark anniversaries of some classic records and indeed, extensive careers. Throwing respect up to long time friend and collaborator Tupac midway through the set no doubt would have rammed the point home to a lot of the younger fans in the crowd who may have been unaware of Naughty By Nature’s place in the ranks of 90’s hip hop and its legacy, not to mention inclusion of samples by RUN DMC, Arrested Development and The Notorious B.I.G being more than just throwaway party starters.
Treach still has flow and knows the figure he cuts on stage – once the shirt is off and the tattoos are well on show, the MC works the crowd, pouring Hennessy into the mouths of people in the front row, posing for selfies and fist bumping those who decided to blaze up. Between himself and his two Naughty By Nature comrades, they’ve got a well-prepared live show together and it’s obvious they know how to get a crowd riled up, more than two decades on. Had there not been a curfew, they probably would have continued the party longer, but even so, the show Naughty By Nature put on would’ve been enough to tide the fans over until the next time. Can’t take that away from them.
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