Sometimes you only have a few simple words to describe how you’re feeling when you hear good news. For me, hearing that the Obese Block Party was coming to Canberra in 2008 saw the first words uttered as something like; ‘oh rad dope man that’s sick’. As academic and refined as this utterance sounds, I’m pretty sure that there were hip hoppers aplenty who uttered those same few words (or something to that effect) across the nation’s capital. The revolution that I’ve spoken about with recent gigs in the Berra is manifesting itself in wicked ways, and I think that finally we can confirm – thanks to the quality and quantity of recent gigs – that we’re on the map!
With such an impressive line up the Block Party was arguably set to be the best hip hop gig of the year. Obese Records are well known for their ability to put on a smashing gig, and it certainly didn’t fail to disappoint with acts like Pegz, Muph & Plutonic, Chasm, Hyjak N Torcha, Spit Syndicate, and the surprise inclusion of Hospice crew members Newsense and Ciecmate. Hip hop heads in Canberra had a field day with this line up, and each act brought something fresh and individual to the evening.
Known for their banging beats, Newsense and Ciecmate kicked things off with a flourish. The Hospice duo are no strangers to the Canberra scene, and their love of the audience showed with an energetic set starting the night. Sydney based duo Hyjak N Torcha followed suit, with the colourful DJ Bonez scratching up a storm and getting down with the best of them. Hyjak N Torcha are verging on veteran status in hip hop, so it was good to see them coming out with new material, although I think had they reverted back to more of their old stuff they may have had an even better response from the crowd. The lads have a sharp wit about them, and a tight delivery ensured a well rounded performance.
Fellow Sydneysiders Spit Syndicate backed up their already solid reputation as a force on the stage, and rocked out with a vengeance. They have a certain dynamic to their music which experiments with a variety of genres, thus appealing to expansive tastes, and this provides for an unmistakably energetic set. Following up was Muph N Plutonic, who are usually a pleasure to watch, but I really didn’t feel them on this particular night. This is not to say that it was an atrocity – or by any means shithouse – but I just felt that there could have been more spark, perhaps a bit more oomph to their performance. Apart from that they played some well known tracks which appealed to their fans and set up the back end of the night nicely, with Pegz and Chasm to follow.
I was so thoroughly impressed with Chasm, having never seen him before. He was definitely the highlight of the evening, and his set was quite simply one big banger which I didn’t want to end. His influences from jazz, through to motown and funk are blended beautifully throughout his tracks, and quite simply the dude rocks a dope set, and I’m of the opinion that he can only go forth from here to bigger and better things. Finally, Mr CEO himself capped off the night in usual spectacular form with Bonez and Patto. Playing a variety of tracks, Pegz’ music is poetry in motion and for this he deserves the highest praise. Coming off the back of his release ‘Burn City’, one thing I can definitely say for Pegz is that he runs a tight and very professional operation, and this is reflected in not only his performances but in the continuity and flow of his label’s artists’ generally. He ended the night for everyone on a mad high and for that I salute him.
As I said before, if you were thinking that Aussie hip hop is dwindling in any way, you cannot be more wrong. 2008 seems to be the year for not only an increase in tours, festivals and performances; it’s the year for Canberra to be blessed with all the things normally reserved for the bigger cities. By the amount of people that rocked up on the night, I get the impression that word is spreading fast, and the plethora of acts that have been flocking here are only going to keep coming back if the crowds do similarly. If you were thinking of rocking the block this year, think no more and do. You won’t regret it.
