I get Krystal Karrington, ice rock gritty…
Seattle hiphoppers argue about
everyfuckinthing. Sports,
politics, and of course music. But in my (vast and all-knowing)
experience, if there’s one piece of music that 99.9 percent of the
average heads from the ‘6 can agree on, it’s Uptown Saturday
Night, the classic 1997 debut from the Boogie Down Bronx’s own
Camp Lo. (HELL no, I ain’t calling them “The Lo”!) For as long
as I’ve paid attention to this city’s hiphop, there’s been some form of
local music both hailed and trashed for its inscrutably verbose
rhymes—from Silent Lambs Project to Oldominion to Common
Market—yet I’ve only ever heard raves for the Lo-ah, whose mode
of speak would give the average NSA code breaker a decade of
migraines. MCs Geechie Suede and Sonny Cheeba spit
an abstract gumbo
of ’70s street life signifiers with a
blissed-out, laid-back self-assuredness (this was pre “swag,” youngins)
that had cats from “hello.”
Uptown‘s daring stands up to this day—a sort of Max
Ernst black-velvet painting in analog, its boldly broken slanguage
glides on merlot Brougham–smooth production from Ski, who
at the time was best known for the hit singles off of Jay-Z‘s
own classic debut, Reasonable Doubt. Thankfully Hov—who’d
already convinced Ski to let him murk off with “Feelin’ It” (to Camp
Lo’s chagrin)—never got the chance to deny Camp Lo the
immortality they’d find on their glorious hit single “Luchini,” as
joyous a celebration of
the come-up as you’ll ever find in the
annals of hiphop. But you know all this—so make sure you see
Suede and Cheeba when they stop through Seattle. Appreciators of the
finer things will doubtless be at the War Room on October 10 to throw
their hands up and sip the amaretto—after all, it’s Lo, it’s
Life, and we can’t get enough of this.
Another thing cats can’t get enough of is Seattle’s own Fatal
Lucciauno. Since “Fae” has been home, he’s categorically massacred
every mic he’s gotten his hands on. I witnessed him tear it down
at McLeod Residence not long ago, and the brother is clearly
eat-your-family hungry. So check him out opening for Wu-banger
Cappadonna at Chop
Suey on October 15, along with fellow
Sportn’ Life monster Spaceman and
DJ
Swervewon. If you got a crew, you better tell ’em!
But first let me tell ’em about some very dope shows this week. You
got Nite Owls, Type, and Billy the Fridge getting
hammered on hiphop at the Sunset on October 11, and the same night,
Murs and Kidz in the Hall rocking it at Nectar. On
October 12 you have a couple good choices—at Rendezvous you’ll
find Alpha-P, Mind Movers, and Tacoma’s own MC/poet
Josh Rizeberg (who recently dropped the Spoken Worlds LP), and at El Corazón you’ll find the violent-by-design rapcore
thrashfest of Ill Bill, Sean Price,
Grayskul,
and the Gigantics. Guard your grill, knuckle up! 