Wanna know why there’re no rap songs about how great wintertime in
Seattle is? ‘Cause it fucking sucks. I’m on my second cold in as
many weeks, holla! Anyway.
Abyssinian Creole—Khingz and Gabriel
Teodros—are headlining a bill of that live shit over at
Neumo’s on Thursday, January 10. Bambu (formerly of L.A.’s
Native Guns), Sleep, and Orbitron open; DJs
B-Girl, Phatrick, and Tecumseh
man the wheels;
and Alpha P (Asun
and Jerm) host.
There are at least three good hiphop-related reasons to step out on
Friday, January 11. The first is Blake Lewis collaborator
Lupe Fiasco, who’ll be at the Showbox doing his thing; it
saddens me to say that my once-fervent fandom for Mr. Fiasco has been
on the wane since the retail version of Food & Liquor dropped. At first, I wasn’t tripping—the leaked version of F
& L was so much better to me, but hey, that happens all the
time. By the time the rap Velvet Revolver of CRS (the
Lupe/Pharrell/Kanye supergroup) was announced, I was getting
worried. I’ve listened to Lupe’s brand-new follow-up, The Cool,
a couple of times now, but man… it’s not leaving much of an
impression on me. The production strikes me as glossily bland. With few
exceptions, the songs seem very undercooked. Despite demonstrating a
command of delivery beyond most, Lupe doesn’t seem to say much. What
are the verses on “Dumb It Down” or “Go Go Gadget Flow” supposed to
fucking mean, anyway? Then again, seeing as I grew up on the
stream-of-consciousness conscious rap of De La Soul and A
Tribe Called Quest (which Lupe certainly did not, ahem),
maybe I should give this record more of a chance to sink in. So all you
all-over-print-lovin’, overpriced-Japanese-toy-collectin’,
like-to-go-out-with-your-boys-wearing-matching-jeans cats, spare me the
hate mail for now, okay?
If Lu’s not your bag, you can kick push over to Chop Suey to see the
legendary West Coast hiphop/electro pioneer Egyptian Lover. I
missed EL when he was here on the Stones Throw tour. Guess I was too
busy getting thoroughly frisked up (while across the street at Sugar,
they were letting somebody’s gun breeze in—bad move).
I would say to skip all of that though, and come to the High Dive to
see the Saturday Knights, (Seattle Sound cover boys!)
Dyme Def, and Cancer Rising. I’m stoked, brah—I’ve
been wanting to see this exact lineup for months. I wouldn’t miss
it.
On Wednesday, January 16, catch Body Language at the High Dive,
hosted by Phil in the Blank, Sage Nomad, and Orb,
with performances by Dirty Scientifix, Odd Fellas, and
EarDrumz. Dirty Scientifix (Orb and EarDrumz)
quietly dropped an ill-ass LP in ’06, fully conjuring a vintage
Digables vibe with Drumz’s jazzy production and Orb’s smooth,
earthy b-boyisms. Swoon units, what? 