St Kilda in summer is awash with the sound of pommy accents, clinking beer glasses and splatters of ice cream falling from the cones of unfortunate kiddies. The streets and pier are crowded as the summer throngs amble past ugly apartment blocks adorned with self defeating signs opposing inappropriate development. From outside the Espy looks packed with the open air section out front filled with happy punters. Inside it’s far quieter as most of the evening’s crowd seem content to drink in the heat before heading inside for the years first double bill of Californian hip-hop. When the clock finally pushes on past eleven the crowd surges in from the still warm night to fill the Gershwin room to find the DJ is spinning a mix of party starting tunes with such casual flair that he manages to send text messages between record cues.

People Under the Stairs have made many a tour to our shores but have never made the impact of other regular hip-hop tourists from LA. Lacking a live DJ, Thes One and Double K simply cue up the backing tracks to rap over robbing the show of any spontaneity. Sure, the ‘nah, ya’ll ain’t loud enough for this’ routine is tired and predictable, but it’s just laughable when the rewinds are pre-programmed. At least pretend that you’re really interacting with a live audience. The two MCs trade verses, but there’s little interaction between them and little variation in the show. PUTS motto of ‘party time is anytime and anytime is party time’ feels little more like an excuse for them to be shambling and drunk, rather than delivering for the audience. But then as PUTS close their set with a call to ‘get loose’ most of the crowd are already well ahead of them and the drinks are flowing easily down throats, t-shirts and shoes. PUTS appear again to dedicate a final song to the ladies only to have their sound cut mid tune as punishment for going over time.

After eight years ,2008 will finally mark the end of the now almost obligatory hip hop show chant of ‘Fuck Bush!’. This dull ‘political’ posturing from almost all touring American hip-hop acts, and a few locals, will finally be laid to rest as Bush leaves the scene in November. PUTS are the first to trot it out this year, unfortunately they won’t be the last. The only president we really want to hear about tonight is the Paragraph President that we’re happily treated to during Blackalicious’ set.

Though Chief Xcel is back at home anticipating the birth of his second child, but Blackalicious has always been more about the staggering speed and dexterity of Gift of Gab’s flow. Xcel has been replaced on the decks tonight and Gab has plenty of quality support on stage with two backing singers and Alfredo Ortiz – usually seen touring with the Beastie Boys – on percussion. The only piece of stage banter more likely to be heard than the Bush-bash unfortunately appeared during the Blackalicious set with the crowd dividing ‘which side is louder’ routine. In fact that’s the basic problem with the night – it all felt like another routine night for the tourists, entertaining without being truly captivating of thrilling. There are plenty of tracks from Blackalicious’ 2002 album and high water mark Blazing Arrow though Gab also threws in other crowd pleasers such as the older cuts Swan Lake and Deception – with it’s sing along ‘laaa di da da dadi da ’ refrain. The main set closed with Alphabet Aerobics, with Gab racing through his A-Z rap, but while past tours have proved his talent for speeding through his rhymes he seems to be struggling for clarity tonight. When he revs up to full pace Gab garbles his lyrics to gibberish as he picks up the pace, blurring his skill in a rush of meaningless syllables.

Both Thes One and Double K, looking weary from their backstage partying, briefly joined Gab on stage for a ‘freestyle’ session that struggled for rhythm and quickly collapsed – though Gab regrouped to close with Chemical Calisthenics. The bill promised two fine performances from but never fully delivered and while it was a fine way to spend a summer evening, but it certainly won’t be troubling any best of lists at the end of the year.