Yo, I ain't hardcore, I don't pack a nine millimeter / Most a y'all gangsta rappers ain't hardcore neither...
I used to think I was the only cat who knew about Binary Star. Don't ask me why, but I really did. Somehow I'd acquired their LP Masters of the Universe, and their no-frills combo of boom-bap and intelligent, insightful MCing was an instant winner. One Man Army (now of course known as One Be Lo) and Senim Silla's flows were intricate, multilayered, and complemented each other frighteningly well. One Be Lo in particular was an MC that grabbed your whole attention from syllable one. The two came out of nowhere—namely Ann Arbor, Michigan—and dropped an underground classic. Around the time that Lo started becoming a regular on our sunny shores did I realize that I wasn't at all alone—it seemed like Seattle was full of heads in on the secret, packing shows to rhyme along, word for word, to cuts like "Honest Expression" and "Indy 500." By then, Binary—who'd explicitly detailed on one of MOTU's skits that they weren't an actual group—indeed hadn't rhymed together in years. One Be Lo dropped consistently improving LPs, culminating in his masterful S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. on Fat Beats, but Silla disappeared entirely from the scene, and chances for a reunion looked slimmer than Snoop in a food dehydrator. So just imagine my pleasure to tell you sumbitches that a reunited Binary Star will be rocking Chop Suey on Saturday, December 2. Don't miss this comet—it might not come back 'round.
Opening up that night is a bill's worth of entertainment by its lonesome: Oakland's Crown City Rockers, Seatown's LaRue (I Can Only Be Me in stores now!), and one of our best-kept secrets, Dyme Def. The combo of Brainstorm, Fearce Vill, and S.E.V. is one of the town's meanest triangle offenses—witty bars and fluid chemistry are their trademark, besides a seriously fierce swagger. Their debut CD, Space Music, is one of the very best street-hiphop LPs to emerge from the 206 in the last few years; fittingly, behind the boards for much of the album is none other than BeanOne, one-third of Seattle's Holy Trinity. Space Music captures three confident young MCs promising to one day be just as dope as they say they are, and probably sooner than you think.
Lastly, check out local artist (and my ol' homie from Franklin) Michael Leavitt's exhibit at the BLVD Gallery, as he rolls out his newest series of "Art Army" figures starting Friday, December 8. The reason you're intrigued is because this series, dubbed The Guerilla Crew, features dead-on likenesses of old-school NYC writers like Twist, Seen, Futura, Stash, Lee, Doze, Lady Pink, and Dondi, '80s street artists like Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf, new-school vanguards like OBEY's Shepard Fairey, Spike Lee, skater Stevie Williams, and of course rap luminaries like Tupac, Ice Cube, and Q-Tip. The figures I've seen look incredible, too—and hiphop loves them some action figures, just ask Lupe. So fuck a Power Ranger, G! 
