Feezable the Germ plays Nectar on Wednesday, October 16—along with Props!, Adam Nystrom, and our own Based Legend Keyboard Kid—no doubt to commemorate the release of Feez’s latest, The Successor of Victor Von Doom. (No references to the Latverian usurper Kristoff Vernard to be found, however.) Mr. 10K—I refuse to call him “Zen Griffey”—that is to say, ya boy Neema, is doing an “unplugged” show at Barboza. Well, a show with a band in addition to his usual DJ Gerze, on Thursday, October 17, with Peta Tosh, John Crown, and rising Portland hustler Cassow, with your host with the most (pale skin in recorded history, according to Guinness), Grynch.
And what else is going on this week—oh yes, the one and only (knock on wood) Kanye West comes to KeyArena on Saturday, October 19, for his first solo tour since 2008’s ambitious Glow in the Dark tour, which kicked off right here in Seattle at the Key. I’m anxious (I mean, we’re all anxious in general) to see how he chooses to present the biggest record of the year, Yeezus—a stark, techno-industrial (shouts out to Iron Man) weapon of a rap record. I’d much (so much) rather hear him on wax or onstage than in interviews, which we’re suddenly seemingly inundated with. Worship, if you will, his poorly constructed god complex (“I wanna help the world, I wanna make peoples’ lives easier… I spent two of my checks in telemarketing when I was 18 years old on my first pair of Gucci slippers”). But before your revisions, remember that even the Big Baby Jesus saw a picture bigger than his own self-portrait. Humorless hubris, hella fetishization of all things European as true gospel—here, here, is your patron saint of the pre-tribulation Rupture. Push the button, start the show, and it’s bound to rock; his opener is none other than Kendrick Lamar.
And maybe you saw Kendrick’s appearance in that Pusha T “Nosetalgia” video? There’s nothing better than that bare-bones rap shit—and Pusha’s My Name Is My Name has no shortage of that raw, conceptually and (exclusively) subject-matter-wise. Executive produced by Kanye, MNIMN often achieves Yeezus-type minimalism (a Pusha trademark since “Grindin'”), even though its production cast is as cluttered as Watch the Throne‘s. His boy Pharrell Williams provides one of the tape’s best moments too, his hook and beat bringing back some old Clipse magic on “S.N.I.T.C.H.,” which could’ve easily been a highlight on Hell Hath No Fury.
The star, though, is Push, and he doesn’t flinch—he delivers some of the best rapping of a career already spent out-rapping everybody in the room. He hasn’t lost his shit-starting streak, either (maybe you remember his relentless Wayne-subbing back when Wayne was tight)—the itchy “Numbers on the Boards” features some top-notch crown-baiting. Midway through the track, the first couple seconds of Jay-Z‘s classic “Rhyme No More” cut in—”Motherfuckers can’t rhyme no more, ’bout crime no more”—and Pusha slyly finishes: “Mix drug and show money, Biggs Burke on tour.” (Biggs being Jay-Z’s old Roc-A-Fella partner, sentenced last year for drug trafficking.) Pusha says it best—”Gaaawwwd!” 