You already know I can’t start this off without saying RIP to a
legend of b-boying, the beloved Wayne “Frosty Freeze”
Frost of the almighty Rock Steady Crew. If you ever peeped
Style Wars or Flashdance, then you saw his groundbreaking
work. Seattle’s floor rockers all honor you. Rest in peace.
If I told you the dirty South ain’t all gRiLLz and crunk juice, I
wouldn’t be blowing your mind, right? I hope not. I respect you enough
to think you’d shoot me back a hearty “no shit, Sherlock,” just like I
expect you to know that there’s more to Seattle than grunge, Starbucks,
Microsoft, and Boeing. (Dumb rappers/dumber writers: This is a dead-ass
cliché, okay?) With that, it should come as no surprise that
there’s some brilliant
underground hiphop from the former
Confederacy (nyah nyah!)—case in point, Lexington,
Kentucky’s CunninLynguists. Having the distinction of probably
being the most popular slept-on crew in the U.S., Deacon,
Natti, and Kno are six albums deep (if you count the two
Sloppy Seconds mixtapes, which you should) and they show no
signs of slowing down.
There are two camps that the ‘Lynguists always get compared to, and
that’s ’cause it makes perfect sense: They really do sound like the
love child of Little Brother and the Dungeon Family conglomerate. This is, of course, driven home by the smoky late-night
vibe-out of “Yellow Lines” off of 2007’s dope Dirty Acres, which
features LB’s own Phonte and the perennially slept-on Dungeon
Famster Witchdoctor. Like their thematic and sonic antecedents,
CunninLynguists proudly and capably advance the notion of intelligent,
honest hiphop from the South, and have a devoted fan base that fiends
for the QN5 (that’s the ‘Lynguists label/crew) to touch down in
their hometown. So I’m sure they’ll all be out in force for
CunninLynguists’ Friday, April 18, show at Chop Suey, along with QN5
Music’s Substantial and Tacoma’s (hey, that’s kind of
South) own Can-U. If this sounds like your particular cup of
lean (no Lil Wayne), you should be there, too.
That is, if you didn’t shoot your figurative wad partying out at
Nectar the night before: Thursday, April 17, finds Fremont’s hiphop HQ
rocking with Inglewood, California’s least gangster MC, Pigeon
John, as well as Lightheaded coconspirators Braille and Ohmega Watts. If the (wait for it) “Christian rap” tag
throws you off of any of these guys, you’re sleeping: Pidge’s last
album, And the Summertime Pool Party, was a damn good time, just
as readily paired with sunshine as the title implies. Ohmega Watts is
roundly celebrated through the Northwest and far, far beyond as a
helluva producer and MC. And his man Braille will, by the time you read
this, have just released his newest album, The IV Edition. Dudes
are nice—and nice—not to mention not beating
in your head with the JC, so stop tripping. There’s little hope for
you or me anyway, buddy, so just you enjoy the rap music. 