May 03, 2020

Building Night Club + Kid Capri Live (Polaroids, 1989-1991)


Once upon a time—1989, to be precise—in New York City, a nightclub called Building was born. Housed in a decommissioned Con Ed power station, the club was unlike anything else on the scene, the creation of a cast of players on the cutting edge of downtown nightlife. Says Stretch Armstrong, "Building was where Kid Capri really made a splash. If you were into hip hop, you might know him, but if you were just more of a downtown club person who liked hip hop, you may not have known Kid Capri. He came to Building and utterly destroyed the place on a weekly basis. And, you know, that was before the internet, but the word of mouth was so strong, and what Kid was doing in that room, it just elevated him to a whole other plateau as a celebrity.... Kid Capri was the first deejay I ever saw who would regularly turn the music off, just like oozing with confidence, and with this super loud voice just command the crowd to do stuff. He would have them in the palm of his hand and the music would come back on at exactly the right time, just as he was getting the crowd into a frenzy. There was this give-and-take that was incredibly dynamic and powerful. He didn’t use the mic because he was making up for any deficiency as a deejay. It took his deejaying to another level because he was always nasty on the turntable, but the added dynamics of that crowd control, that was just something that people downtown hadn’t really seen." For more on the Building, there's an exceptional and lengthy article available HERE. Below is a live recording of DJ Kid Capri at Building, the short-lived New York hip hop club that existed from 1989-1991. via Stretch Armstrong.