Dominion NY deceived me. Walking through the black curtain in the front, I heard Kosha Dillz raunchy beats—but he was nowhere to be found. The only thing I saw, where I thought Kosha should be, was an Asian dude grilling hot dogs, “that’s strange,” I thought and walked to the left of the table and into a mirror. Around back, (to the right of the hot dog table) was an open room where I could make out the White Jewish rapper from New Jersey who I first heard 2 years ago in my rookie-DJ days at WRUV in Burlington, VT. The Speakers moved so much air that the red stage curtains looked like they were having a Hurricane Irene flashback. The room was filled up with a healthy mix of fellow CMJ badge toters, hip-hop heads, and a ton of photographers. Kosha Dillz rocked a punchy version of “DooDoo” with a fantastic intro, asking, “Everybody! Are you guys High? I said, are you guys high?” He performed with energy and charisma, ripping through his multi-syllable rhyme phrases with masterful annunciation.

The NJ and LA based rapper has come a long way from his first release “Beverly Dillz”. I was blown away by what I thought to be him scat-rapping, but in reality was a blend of English, Hebrew, and Spanish on his track, “Span Hebrish (Ech-Ani-Olech)”. Though I had no idea what he was saying, I could decipher him on the hook shouting, what sounded to me as, “Le mala le mala le,” atop a thunderous, reverberating bassline. I looked around to check myself and I saw everyone’s face mesmerized by what was going on. It was the hip-hop version of a face melting guitar solo. Time was tight and Kosha had to end his set after only a couple songs, but he gave out a free skateboard, and I was lucky enough to get a free t-shirt, thanks to the shows emcee, “believing in me,” after he asked for some noise. - Ed Guardaro