The Wu-Tang Clan is bringing the ruckus back home.
Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, two legendary members of the iconic hip hop group, will headline a major concert in their native borough next month as part of the week-long festivities celebrating the city’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor de Blasio announced Thursday.
Speaking on Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning,” de Blasio teased the headline announcement for the Aug. 17 gig on Staten Island by referencing the Buddhist Temple in China that the Wu-Tang crew has long used as a reference for their beloved fifth borough.
“There’s a very powerful concert, a legendary concert, a legend in the making, and it will be in a mysterious place, shrouded in mystery, called Shaolin,” de Blasio said.
In addition to Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, the “Homecoming Week” show at the waterfront Richmond County Bank Ballpark will feature a laundry list of other hip hop and R&B acts, including Kool Keith, EPMD, Force MDs, Crystal Waters, Hakim Green and DJ Chuck Chillout.
“It’s going to be a long show, a rich entertainment opportunity,” the mayor said, adding the gig will kick off at 4 p.m. and run through 9:30 p.m.
Raekwon, real name Corey Woods, and Ghostface Killah, real name Dennis Coles, are among the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan. The group, formed in 1992 on Staten Island, is considered one of the pioneers of East Coast rap.
Three of August’s other four “Homecoming Week” concerts will also be heavily focused on celebrating the city’s eclectic rap scene under the banner of “It’s Time for Hip Hop in NYC,” de Blasio said in his daily briefing later in the day.
The first concert, on Aug. 16 at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, will be headlined by New York rap heavy-weights KRS-One, Slick Rick and Remy Ma. They’ll be joined by Furious 5 featuring Grandmaster Melle Mel and Scorpio, Kid Capri and Soul Sonic Force, among others.
A subsequent Aug. 19 show at Brooklyn Army Terminal will feature Big Daddy Kane and Desiigner as the main acts, with C&C Music Factory, DJ Mr. Cee, Elle Varner and many others joining in on the fun as well.
The next day, the party heads over to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, where George Clinton + The P-Funk All Stars and Too $hort will take over the headlining reins, with Mobb Deep, Yo-Yo and others also performing.
De Blasio, evidently a huge Clinton fan, hyped the Funkadelic founder’s appearance by putting on his best falsetto and belting out: “Nothing can stop us now!”
Feeling confident in his pipes, the mayor also suggested that he and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who joined him for the briefing, should get up on stage together and do a “duet” at one of the homecoming jams.
“I’ll hold you to it,” Diaz laughed in response.
Bringing the briefing back to reality, Rocky Bucano, the executive director of the Universal Hip Hop Museum under construction in the Bronx, noted the homage to New York City represented in the homecoming lineup.
“Many of the artists performing in these shows are native New Yorkers hailing from the five boroughs,” Bucano said. “It’s their talent, creativity and passion for the culture that spread it from the stoops, parks and playgrounds to stages worldwide.”
The week-long celebrations will culminate on a non-hip-hop note, with an Aug. 21 show on Central Park’s Great Lawn featuring Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Paul Simon and Carlos Santana, among others.
All five “homecoming week” shows are free — but attendants must show proof of coronavirus vaccination in order to pre-book tickets online. Tickets are expected to be made available in batches, starting Aug 2.
The back-to-back shows come as the city struggles to jack up vaccination rates while coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are ticking back up due to the delta variant.
De Blasio has maintained that the festivities will be safe because attendants are required to be vaccinated.
“This delta variant is like a freight train coming on,” he said Thursday. “This thing is very, very dangerous. So, we need people to get vaccinated.”
