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CHANGE CITY :
The Forum. Pantheon of.. stuff. This was a stellar line-up with People Under the Stairs, DJ QBert and Blackalicious all on the one stage, on the one night for the hiphopification of of us all. With local fella Diaz warming us up with a bit of Common and scratching as we walked in, we didn’t have long to wait for the action to kick off, one of the upsides of such a crowded bill.
People Under the Stairs were in Sydney in late 2006, on the back of their release Stepfather and they ripped things up at the Forum then, although they were the main thing and not the warm up. Since then they’ve obviously been touring a bit, working on their show and apparently, Double K is working on a solo album whilst Thes One is getting down with a whole host of ‘secret projects’. This is all to the good, especially if you’re fans, but somehow you got the impression that those numbered too few in this arena. Whilst everyone seemed to appreciate having something to look at it seemed pretty clear that it was Blackalicious the heaving crowd was there to see.
Since I last saw them I’d say Double K has improved his rapping. Tight and precise with articulate control and a finger on the button of the bass box (this is not a euphemism), he gave a good account of himself and, at least, won over a new section of the crowd by firmly stating that he’d been smoking pot since he was 13, was still smoking pot and was never going to stop smoking pot (thank you man at the front for giving him the means to prove this). Thes One meanwhile seems to have spent his time working on a rather daring new look. Slightly comical with shaved head and bug-eyed glasses, he nonetheless layed down his lyrics with verve and panache and the dynamic duo worked through their catalogue using material from Stepfather, OST, Stay Tuned and oddly… a bit of Cypress Hill.
If you’ve ever seen these guys interviewed you’ll know they like a laugh and it came through, lots of asides and silly interchanges to add doses of humour. Their soulful brand of hip hop is knowing and considered and draws heavily on 70s samples for melodies so whilst their performance was good it was a shame that the mikes and bass were up so high that the melody was all but lost. How did you shock the house, why did you turn it out? These questions and more remained unanswered.
DJ Q-Bert followed up and started scratching away. In a SF 49ers get up and beaming a near picture perfect smile, he mixed and mixed and mixed the more. It’s hard with a scratch DJ to really get across what he’s doing. An old-skool hip hip track, a godfather riff, some soul and funk thrown in, all mixed and discharged in about 30 seconds. The only way you could really appreciate what he was doing was to get up high and watch his fingers at work. I’d go so far as to say, after being hypnotised by his manual dexterity that he way well be, in part, robotic. A theory backed up by his cutting edge technical styles. After and before live acts it’s not easy to entertain with just two decks but he did well enough, even if the assembled were in gawking mode and not dancing mode, and probably the most telling tribute to his skills came from Diaz, the local DJ, a mean scratcher in his own right, staring on from the sides of the stage and shaking his head in amazement.
Finally on come Blackalicious for the main performance. Their last album The Craft was well received a couple of years back and added to their reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the world of hip hop. With Gift of Gab on the mike joined by the deckman and producer Chief Xcel, a drummer and a couple of backing singers they certainly filled up the stage, the more so Gift of Gab with his bo-diggidy style. He’s always reminded me a bit, of the guy from Gunshot. They come from The Roots and Gang Starr stable of hip hop: thoughtful, disciplined and musically expressive. That said, when they first came on the whole room started vibrating and I thought my head was about to explode leading to a hasty retreat towards the sound booth where the noise settled down in to music.
A bit of material from Blazing Arrows was dropped in along with the more recent stuff, dealing with social issues, music, life. I can’t say I was hanging on every word and for good reason. I was dancing. And hard. Something that generally happens when a drummer hits the stage. These guys make music and intoxicating music too.
With Gab freestyling and spitting out more words in one breath than any human ought to be able to, it was a jump up, get down night of music, courtesy of Slingshot Touring. Aural Pleasure indeed.
