Old news, but did you watch the Grammys? Fuck is wrong with you? Congratulations, Adele, on being recognized for making resonant art, rest in peace, Whitney Houston, the voice and the legend who it feels like we all grew up with, through all her ups and downs, and burn in fucking hell, Chris Brown, at least till you're actually sorry for the damage done (to Rihanna's face and to the psychic well-being of young people, especially women, everywhere, many of whom will now accept the abusive fists of men they see as sexy). That's just a brick in the wall, though, of a society that dehumanizes everything it touches. We're fuckedâdo your part and authentically spread love.
On Thursday, February 23, at Capitol Hill's Faire Gallery, catch a grab bag of talent from all the fuck over brought to you by Immaculate Flave, the label/conglomerate headed by Seattle native X-Kid, a name a few of y'all will recall. X-Kid, Knox Fam, George Life & the Bridge (SLC), Timmy Grins (NJ), Rose Bent (PDX), LD & Ariano (CA), Kiing David & Jonny Ray, Artoffacts (PDX), and my dude DJ Seabefore all perform at Faire's intimate corner with a view. That same evening over at Nectar is the 2Racks Rap Contest, which I helped judge last time around and had a damned good time. It's a quick-moving single- elimination tournament of known and unknown talent competing against one another with original songs. Usually I'm dubious of such setups, but host and producer SF MC/promoter/revolutionary poet Selassie was dope and on point. Up-and-coming artists might wanna investigate, registration may be closed, but they apparently do these all over, even in Hawaii, where the Spam musubi run wild.
Aloha, scumbags of all ages: If you missed your chance to see on-the-rise Seattle barbarian MC Nacho Picasso a couple months back at Chop Suey, here now is your redemption (I have to make it sound epic when we're talking about such a grandiose, myth-referencing MC as Nacho). The SEA's own Blue Sky Black Death, Nacho, top Tacoma talent Bruce Leroy, Kung Foo Grip (who just dropped the first video from their upcoming Giorgio MoMurdaâproduced release Indigo Children: Tales from the Otha Side), jackin' Jarv Deeâwho just dropped the video for his already-kind-of-a-local-classic "I Just Wanna"âand DJ Swervewon all play an all-ages show at Neumos on Friday, February 24. Miss this powerful lineup and risk earning the enmity of the gods themselves.
On Saturday, February 25, the Crocodile has the final stop of the TPOB tour, standing for the Posse's Off Broadway, a collective consisting of some local names you're surely acquainted with: Dyme Def, J. Pinder, GMK, Eighty4 Fly, and Royce the Choice. They've been swinging thru the NW spreading flyness in solidarity. After you hit the Croc, go back the other way and stop and eat at Dick's, that being the place where the cool hang out. Remember on "Posse on Broadway" when Mix's crew laid waste to a dude beating on his girl? Nowadays, somebody would probably give that dude a Deluxe.