On Saturday, March 3rd, I saw one of the better hip-hop- shows I've been lucky enough to see. Two of my favorite artists at the same show! Quite a steal for $17. I've been listening to the Coup for 10+ years now, after I got their second album, Genocide & Juice. Lyrics Born I have gotten to know through the Quannum crew. I have all their releases except the Coup's Kill My Landlord, their hard-as-hell-to-find first LP. Opening for them was Abyssinian Creole, the two-man team of Seattle legend Gabriel Teodros and Brooklyn emcee Khingz Makoma. Gabriel is a recent addition to the Massline Media crew, hooking up with the Blue Scholars and Common Market. I saw all three of these artists perform on WWU's campus last fall, and all three rocked pretty hard.
AbCreole set things off right--some crazy storytelling and much political inflammation laced in to smart, jazz-induced beats. I'm not sure who does the production for AbCreole, but it sounds like the NW for sure. Gabriel is a gifted storyteller with a lot to say. Khingz Makoma has some crazy energy and has a lot of fun rocking a mic. Get your hands on Gabriel's brand new release Lovework if you want to learn something, and have some fun while you're doing it.
The second group up was the Coup--let me just mention that I've been waiting to see Boots step on stage in front of me for 10 years now. He is one of the most intelligent and strong-willed emcees (dare I say) ever; and besides that, he's a gifted lyricist and one funky badass man. The Coup is made up of Boots and his DJ, Pam the Funktress. Pam doesn't tour, so Boots brought along a 3-piece band (electric guitar, bass, drums) that had so much energy sometimes it looked like they would spontaneously combust. They ran through almost all the tracks from their newest release Pick A Bigger Weapon, but also picked up some of the best tracks from Party Music, Steal This Album, and ended the show with the classic "Fat Cats, Bigga Pimps" off of Genocide & Juice. The Coup is straight up funk-induced, bass-heavy, high-energy, Oakland/Bay area (civil disobedience--"I'm from the land where the Panthers grew/you know the city and the avenue"), pro-Black love, vicious lyricism. They mince no words and pull no punches. The Coup is absolutely necessary for hip-hop, and subsequently, America.
After the Coup rocked my world (and my eardrums), the one-and-only Tom Shimura aka. Lyrics Born took the stage with the touring band he's assembled: electric guitar, keyboards, drums, and a rock-star bassist. LB (like the rest of the Quannum crew) is known for his infinite amount of energy to get the crowd up when he blesses the mic. Not just an emcee, not just a singer, not just a beatmaker, LB is a super versatile artist who keeps you interested through an entire album, or in this case, live show. His first album Later That Day.... almost transports you to the San Francisco/Berkeley part of the bay. The cooled-out funk and soulful lyricism just takes you back (if you've been there, you know what I'm saying). His second album, Same Shit, Different Day, is a partial remix album with new tracks intertwined in. He mixed up his set mostly, playing songs from both recordings, and also a couple of tracks he recorded with Lateef the Truth Speaker, as the legendary Bay area connection Latyrx. LB's got a live album out now called Overnite Encore, which has a show he did in Australia and a few new tracks. It's worth picking up if you like his first two albums. All that I heard about LB's live show was true. Crazy energy, he mixes it up, and of course his tracks sound great live, which is something you don't always find. His band was really talented as you could tell, and his young bassist nearly stole the show. LB also brought up Joyo Velarde, a solo singer signed to Quannum Projects, and their chemistry was great. You can see she shares the same sense of humor but profound sense of self that makes all the Quannum guys great.
The only thing left to mention is that Neumo's, the venue in Seattle, BLOWS. It's a big awkward room with no real great sight lines, and it's basically a hole in the ground off Broadway and Pike. If you have to make a decision between a show there or elsewhere, take your chances elsewhere. It didn't feel like a show, it felt like a big converted basement with bigass speakers.
So check out Lyrics Born, definitely check out the Coup (that is, if you want to get smarter....find out some of the 5 million ways to kill a c.e.o., for example), and don't check out Neumo's. Give AbCreole some love too. Peace.
-hvc
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