Uwishunu.com

Philadelphians jonesing for some outside Philly love needed to look no further than Thursday night’s Artists for Heat concert at the Troc. Headlining? Public Enemy. That’s because Flava Flav loves him some Philly. And he couldn’t stop mentioning it.

“Yo,” he told the crowd, “back when we started, we did one of our first shows in Philly. I think it was the first time I’d left New York. Philly gave us mad love back then and ya’ll have supported us strong ever since. We owe a lot to Philly.” (I’m paraphrasing, of course, because Flav isn’t inclined to publicly string that many words together without including various colorful yet unprintable expressions.)

True to form, Flav was as theatrical and effusive as ever, chatting up the audience even more than notoriously political and vocal co-star Chuck D, who didn’t let the opportunity go by “” during what was a benefit show to raise money for Americans who can’t afford heat “” to fill his fans’ ears with rants about the current state of governmental affairs, and how they’re affecting the lower class.

But the evening was far from all talk. The atmosphere on stage was explosive, with every musician using his body to physically manifest the power and joy they experience from playing their music. During their almost two-hour set, they played tunes from their latest album, How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul, but finished with their old classics, “Don’t Believe the Hype,” “911 Is a Joke,” and “Fight the Power.”

Somewhere in the middle of the set, Chuck D introduced a DJ who he said was DJ Jazzy Jeff, who’d shown up as a surprise to skillfully mix on a song or two, but your fearless writer is still working to confirm that it was, in fact, the Philly-raised hip-hop artist. What is sure, though, is that for its encore, Public Enemy brought out Stanley Clarke, the revered jazz bassist who played earlier in the night, to jam out with PE, adding a bit of more-traditional old-school pre-hip-hop style to a segment mostly driven by mixing and rapping. Flav literally got on his knees and bowed to the man he called “my idol.”

Although Public Enemy provided the biggest national draw to the benefit co-sponsored by uwishunu, it would be a creative sin to overlook The Roots, who took the stage before PE. Rocking out hard with keyboards, a tuba, a South American drum set, ?uestlove on drums and smooth-voiced Black Thought on vocals, the energy on stage could have provided enough heat to warm at least the audience’s houses. As ever, The Roots were tight, hot, exuberant, and if I do say, totally fun to hang out with backstage.

Everlast, of “What It’s Like” fame and Ali Shaheem from Tribe Called Quest both also made musical appearances during the show that fired up The Troc until 1:14 in the morning.

The Troc
www.thetroc.com

Artists For Heat
www.artistsforheat.com