The Foreign Beggars hit Adelaide, supported by some of this cities finest helping to launch the Battlehoggs mixtape as well as some interstate stars, both rising and established. Arriving into Live reasonably early there was a few people already milling around as Leans spun a nice selection of tunes. The odd scenario of a private party in the smaller room meaning a curious mix of crowds both indie and hip hop in the one space, and the volume in the main room a little low. Thank fully as the set was winding up the soundman rectified that situation and Adroit Effusive’s Motion took the stage to announce the nights first act Raven. It’s somewhat unusual to have the nights first act as an interstate guest, but that was an indication on the quality of the line up. Raven delivered a top quality set, Gecko alongside side of him doing an excellent job as hype man as DJ Kansel manned the decks. Performing tracks from his excellent Humble Beginnings CD he had all heads in the room nodding and a reasonable crowd down the front of the room. The biggest shame being that not to many appeared to know the tracks, meaning they have slept on one of 2008’s better releases so far.

Next up was for me the night’s highlight, the Battlehoogs showcase. With DJs Kansel and Juice manning the turntables it was a never ending stream of the album’s guests grabbing the mics and ripping the stage. Purpose kicked things off and was classy as always, followed by a stream of impressive guests. K21 showed why he is going to be a big name for years to come, Adroit Effusive in their various guises rocked the stage, Motion on the solo tip particularly standing out to me, while Social Change reinforced his about to blow reputation. The Soundbombers from the Crackhouse crew delivered rhymes at breakneck speed, while from interstate Briggs and Mortar proved well worth the airfares. Closing things out was the Lostralian Delta, who delivered his verse from the mixtape, a freestyle and then closed exchanging freestyles with Motion. It was an awesome concept to have all the artists from the mixtape perform one after the other for an entire set and one that was pulled off without any noticeable hiccups.

From Melbourne town came the one and only Billy Bunks with Canberra’s Newsense (Hospice) as his onstage partner in crime. This had been the set I was anticipating most for the night and I was really let down. His album Spit & Gristle is brilliant for its unique subject matter, excellent selection of beats and Bunk’s undeniable charisma, but all these went missing live. I’m not sure whether it was a long days work before flying to Adelaide that had drained him but Bunks was really flat, the crowd responding in kind, a disappointing vibe for a set I had been waiting to see. Devil’s Clay managed to get some response as did Strumpets but after the energy of the Battlehoggs set the room just seemed flat. Headlining proceedings all the way from the UK were the Foreign Beggars, well Vulgatron, Metropolis and DJ Nonames – the trio that made up the touring party to our shores. With some work to do to hype the room back up Vulgatron and Metropolis busted their asses on stage to a crowd that I don’t think really knew a lot of their work. The energy in the room definitely rose though and by sets end they had won the crowd totally over to their side, a call and response chant that’s not really printable here evidence of that. One thing that we don’t usually see here and that went down surprisingly well was the drum n’ bass influence to their set, some of them emcee’ing throughout at that sort of pace, admittedly much more lyrically deep, and the set even closing with a straight DNB track. Off their two album back catalogue there were some tracks I would have rather heard than those performed but it was a tight set and the crowds reaction is hard to argue with.

At the end of the evening it was another successful City Of Verses event, the only disappointment for me being a flat set from Bunks. What was most pleasing to me was that on a night featuring interstate and international talent, it was the homegrown Adelaide emcees and Battlehoggs DJs who stole the show.