Post by trashcanman on Jun 17, 2016 19:56:38 GMT 2
At 38, a mild hip-hop enthusiast, and a veteran of more concerts than I can count, you'd think I'd have, at least by accident, found my way into a rap show before now. But a combination of too few quality acts coming to town, accounts of Fresno's gang violence, some televised weak live performances, and just general life stuff and logistics have kept me away until now. I finally broke that run last night when I went to see Del the Funky Homosapien at Strummers (thanks in part to Songkick). And yeah, live rap done right is a wonderful thing. Even the opening acts were fantastic, and two of them personally handed me free CDs.
Funny thing about this show: about the only black dude in the club was headlining onstage. My mother cautioned me that I was going to be the only white person there (not sure if that was supposed to be a bad thing or what experiences she was drawing on to make that assumption), and like I said, I've heard believable rumblings of gang members at rap shows making things uncomfortable for everybody there, but Del is practically nerdcore so i figured the gang bangers might take the night off, and I was right. There were old dudes, young Asian kids, white girls of all ages, and Mexicans, but I swear we saw maybe two black dudes. It was weird. You'd see more than that just walking down the street, much less at a hip-hop show. I remember watching a Public Enemy DVD once that had a totally white audience and laughing, though, so it occurs to me that in spite of online accusations of culture theft and appropriation, non-black people appear to be the ones holding this scene and culture together if my limited experiences are any indication.
Anyways, openers Mayfair District were a Macbook/MC duo of white kids with some solid chops and tracks, but when the frontman sang the hooks it was pretty bad. Good rapper, though. After the set, he walked through the club and handed a CD to everybody there. Pretty cool. They were followed by Pure Powers, who has the makings of an underground star. Great, intense performer, killer rapper, and solid music.
The next act was Ritchie Cunning, and he was worth the price of admission by himself. He has a live DJ, which made a huge difference, and at a couple points had the crowd jokingly turn on him and chant "Bad DJ!" which was really fun. Great damn songs too.
And check this Ecto-One sample:
No surprise, Del killed it. Tracks from all through his career including non-solo projects. I felt like his set was kind of short, but fuck it, he played like 4 Deltron songs, gave us a custom flow, and threw in a diss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (currently playing against his hometown team in the NBA Finals) which I missed capturing on video by literally seconds. It's a shame too. The crowd's reaction was epic. The audience participation throughout was insane; far beyond any rock show I've seen. Here's some highlights.
My voice was shot by the time the encore chant came around, but I said fuck it and murdered it some more and was dully rewarded.
And in an actual surprise, Del closed with the Gorillaz tune that put him on the mainstream map ever so briefly. It had occurred to me he might play it since he practically owns that whole track and made Albarn an afterthought on his own hit, but I'd forgotten all about it by the time he closed the show with it, and the audience lost their shit.
Anyways, good times were had, hands were both thrown in the air and also waved in a manner suggesting casual indifference, stereotypes were squashed, and I'm not a hip-hop virgin anymore. Cheers.
Funny thing about this show: about the only black dude in the club was headlining onstage. My mother cautioned me that I was going to be the only white person there (not sure if that was supposed to be a bad thing or what experiences she was drawing on to make that assumption), and like I said, I've heard believable rumblings of gang members at rap shows making things uncomfortable for everybody there, but Del is practically nerdcore so i figured the gang bangers might take the night off, and I was right. There were old dudes, young Asian kids, white girls of all ages, and Mexicans, but I swear we saw maybe two black dudes. It was weird. You'd see more than that just walking down the street, much less at a hip-hop show. I remember watching a Public Enemy DVD once that had a totally white audience and laughing, though, so it occurs to me that in spite of online accusations of culture theft and appropriation, non-black people appear to be the ones holding this scene and culture together if my limited experiences are any indication.
Anyways, openers Mayfair District were a Macbook/MC duo of white kids with some solid chops and tracks, but when the frontman sang the hooks it was pretty bad. Good rapper, though. After the set, he walked through the club and handed a CD to everybody there. Pretty cool. They were followed by Pure Powers, who has the makings of an underground star. Great, intense performer, killer rapper, and solid music.
The next act was Ritchie Cunning, and he was worth the price of admission by himself. He has a live DJ, which made a huge difference, and at a couple points had the crowd jokingly turn on him and chant "Bad DJ!" which was really fun. Great damn songs too.
And check this Ecto-One sample:
No surprise, Del killed it. Tracks from all through his career including non-solo projects. I felt like his set was kind of short, but fuck it, he played like 4 Deltron songs, gave us a custom flow, and threw in a diss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (currently playing against his hometown team in the NBA Finals) which I missed capturing on video by literally seconds. It's a shame too. The crowd's reaction was epic. The audience participation throughout was insane; far beyond any rock show I've seen. Here's some highlights.
My voice was shot by the time the encore chant came around, but I said fuck it and murdered it some more and was dully rewarded.
And in an actual surprise, Del closed with the Gorillaz tune that put him on the mainstream map ever so briefly. It had occurred to me he might play it since he practically owns that whole track and made Albarn an afterthought on his own hit, but I'd forgotten all about it by the time he closed the show with it, and the audience lost their shit.
Anyways, good times were had, hands were both thrown in the air and also waved in a manner suggesting casual indifference, stereotypes were squashed, and I'm not a hip-hop virgin anymore. Cheers.
