Photos: Digital Underground @ The Alley

Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but one of the most original, genre-inspiring hip hop groups to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 80’s / early 90’s just performed this past weekend at The Alley in Sparks, NV.

Thanks to 775HipHop.com, the group which a) helped Tupac Shakur get a start in the industry, b) appeared in the Dan Aykroyd-directed 1991 film, Nothing But Trouble, and c) released old school favorites “The Humpty Dance“, “Same Song“, “Doowutchyalike” and “Freaks of the Industry” aka Digital Underground, performed the expected crowd pleasers and then took it back to their roots of jamming out in the vein of 70’s funk hero George Clinton and Parliament during their late-night Saturday performance (technically in the wee hours of Sunday morning) in Victorian Square.

Original Digital Underground members Shock G, Money-B, Pee Wee and DJ Fuze each brought unique elements to the musical entirety of the group while also making way for both individual members of opening act Black Rock City Allstars plus several other local MC’s in attendance, which just happened to include I Shoot Reno Instagram friend Jevelle Wiltz, amongst others to jump into the MC slot in a game of pass the mic.

As per fancy-shmancy camera speak, my oversized fanny pack aka the Kata KT DW-495 stayed attached to my waist, as per explicit instructions by the man at the door who seemed both impressed and curious at the fact that it both had a handle, which I was carrying, and converted to a ‘strap-on’ (for lack of a better term), while the Nikon D7000 + AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens stayed in-hand and in-action while the magic of the evening unfolded.

Aperture and shutter speed stayed constant at f/2.8 and 1/250th of a second, respectively, while ISO followed lighting patterns anywhere between 1600 and 6400.  Minimal lighting adjustments were made in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 and uploaded to IShootReno.com for your viewing pleasure.

 

VIEW THE FULL DIGITAL UNDERGROUND GALLERY HERE

 

Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Pee Wee, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Pee Wee, Digital Underground @ The Alley
DJ Fuze, Digital Underground @ The Alley
DJ Fuze, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Pee Wee, Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Pee Wee, Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley
DJ Fuze, Digital Underground @ The Alley
DJ Fuze, Digital Underground @ The Alley

 

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED


Go On, Treat Yourself to Something Nice!

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Super Happy Fun Bonus Pics!

Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Shock G, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Jevelle Wiltz, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Jevelle Wiltz, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley
Money-B, Digital Underground @ The Alley

Photos: NoBody Really w/The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley

NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02

Two nights in a row this talented group of local Reno-based musicians tore the roof off the houses in which they share their ground-breaking yet old-school embracing sound with those who are bold enough to come out of their cozy, fireplace heated homes.  Once at Knitting Factory Concert House in the form of Status-FLO (opening for Sage Francis) and the next as NoBody Really w/The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones aka Chari “Knowledge” Smith of the only female-fronted live hip-hop group Northern Nevada needs to concern themselves with … Knowledge Lives Forever.

Update: It has come to light that Anonymous Jones is actually a group comprised of Tony L. Walker and Tsuyoshi “Yosh” Curtis of NoBody Really along with Chari “Knowledge” Smith of Knowledge Lives Forever, not solely Chari.

These artists, musicians … renaissance persons or whatever you may, feed off of each other’s energy while on-stage and carry many times their weight when it comes to setting a fire up underneath the proverbial behind of Reno’s underground music scene.  Like those West coast rappers have been saying since slanging tapes out the trunk of your car was a huge entrepreneurial step in marketing your music to the masses … if you don’t know, now you know.

Oh, right, camera stuff.  Shooting in RAW is definitely something that I’m kicking myself for not doing earlier (even for the ability to go back and ‘remaster’ previous shoots) and can definitely attest to furthering my overall knowledge and growth as a photographer.  The Nikon D7000 camera and Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens which find themselves by my side as of late seemed to function well in the low-light setup The Alley is notorious for.  With aperture open to 1.8, shutter speed set at 1/250th of a second and ISO cranked up to 3200, the images were coming through a little dark, but caught enough of the light to touch up in Lightrrom 3 after the jump.  When the spotlight was caught by a performer, there seemed to be a bit of ‘burn’ in the resulting image and the color palette could be described as being overly flooded with red.  Again, nothing a bit of work in Lightroom couldn’t handle.  In fact, I’m quite proud of these images and I encourage you to click through on the ALL CAPS lettering below to view the full gallery.

 

VIEW THE FULL NOBODY REALLY / RHYTHMATICS / ANONYMOUS JONES GALLERY HERE

 

NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02
Tony L. Walker of NoBody Really keeping spirits high at The Alley...
NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02
Tsuyoshi “Yosh” Curtis of NoBody Really feelin' the love on-stage at The Alley...
NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02
Joel "Jaybird" Cowell summoning a higher musical power on the keys...
NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02
Chari “Knowledge” Smith aka Anonymous Jones taking center stage at The Alley...

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D


Go On, Treat Yourself to Something Nice!

Do you buy stuff online? Do you buy camera stuff online? If this post or anything else on ishootreno.com was helpful to you, please consider supporting this site and making your next photo gear, music or general purchase through one of our affiliate links:

Every time our readers buy new gear through our affiliate links, it helps us bring to the table more of that which brought you here in the first place — the ‘money’ shots!

The best part?!  It doesn’t cost our readers anything extra to show their support!

If our readers do pick up some new gear, please drop us a line … we always love to hear about your new additions!

Comments, Praise, Feedback?  We’re all ears!

Please let us know what you thought of this post on ishootreno.com!

Super-Happy Funtastic Bonus Pic!!!

NoBody Really w-The Rhythmatics ft. Anonymous Jones @ The Alley, Sparks, NV 2011-12-02
(L) to (R) Yosh, Tony & Chari...