IN THE LAP OF RAP LUXURY

Dec 1, 2004 12:00 PM

           
 

Do you know where your favorite big-ballin' rappers were from Sept. 29-Oct. 2? On the mile-long tropical beach of an all-inclusive luxury resort in Puerto Rico, naturally. That's how the seventh annual MixShow Power Summit went down this year in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Founded by Rene McLean and the RPM Group, the event lured more than 400 mix-show DJs and rappers, including Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Twista, Grandmaster Flash, Chingy, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Trick Daddy, Ja Rule, Pharrell Williams, Xzibit and a helluva lot more. Aside from the Weapons of Mass Destruction concert at the Sauza Club Arena, including performances by many of the aforementioned artists, the event had its first MPS 50K Fight Klub Battle. MC Jin ferociously battled Shells, Jae Millz and Wreckonize (while onlookers allegedly tore down tables and placed bets) for a grand prize of $50,000 and a Chevrolet Cobalt car.

As with many conferences, the MixShow Power Summit featured a keynote speech — in this case by Warner Music Chairman and CEO of U.S. Recorded Music Lyor Cohen. Meanwhile, Queen Latifah stopped by for the screening of her latest movie, Taxi. And there was a whole lot of eating and partying all around. But one major highlight — at a tribute to the pioneering hip-hop DJ Grandmaster Flash, which featured a performance by Big Daddy Kane — was Flash's gift, a $6,000 crystal bottle of Courvoisier, aged since the late days of Napoleon and hidden in Courvoisier's vaults since the early 1800s. Flash's acceptance was humble, praising the crowd and people from MixShow. “I felt at home with people that I'd never met before, sort of like a family reunion of cousins who I hadn't yet met,” he says of the event. But Flash's new family won't likely be getting anywhere near his “le cognac de Napoleon,” if they know what's good for them.