First things first: Happy Birthday, Macklemore. Come help the dude celebrate his 26th born day on Thursday, June 19, at Chop Suey, along with Pigeon John, Evan Roman & Xperience, Cancer Rising, Tha Stahi Bros (Vitamin D and Maineack Tubman), and DJ BeanOne. Rest on Friday—drink some water. Then, come back to Chop on Saturday, June 21, and party with Grynch, as he tops off a crackin' bill with D.Black, Xperience, Khingz, and Sonny Bonoho; Marc Sense spins the cuts, and yours truly will be hosting. Come support local hiphop (and of course, Grynch's notorious strip-club addiction).
Dyme Def are celebrating the release of their 3 Bad Brothaaas mixtape/album (mixed by that skatin' ass DJ Fourcolorzack) with a release show at Nectar on Sunday, June 22, with a fire lineup also including JFK of Grayskul, the Physics, My Man 10 Grand aka Neema, Kublakai, and Marcus D (who dropped the solid debut LP Revival of the Fittest late last year). This event is all ages with bar—youngsters get the upper level, lushes on the bottom. The first 100 heads in the door get a copy of 3 Bad Brothaaas FREE, and rest assured those are gonna go fast!
Fans will not be disappointed here—Bad Brothaaas is heavy-pour top-shelf liquor, picking up right where DD's debut, 2006's outta-nowhere superbanger Space Music, left off: high-energy, motor-mouthed style-outs by three of the cockiest (on wax at least), most cohesive MCs in town. When the triangle offense of Brainstorm, Fearce, and S.E.V. do that two-bar-for-two-bar tradeoff shit, I can't help but think of that joined-at-the-larynx aspect of another popular rap trio the Lox. Brain's synth workouts are spacier and sparser than ever, with a freakin' bottom like Esther Baxter (note: this reference may be lost on Stranger readers). BeanOne's on some upper-crust shit with this, refining that ingeniously spare, retro formula from Space Music into something sleek and mean as a Phantom swooping past your 300C. His beat on one of the tape's highlights, "To the Limit," finds all three asserting sheer dominance over a seriously classy BeanOne banger that will Grey Poup-on all comers. Bravo!
Lyrically, the three stick to the program: two parts "fly as all hell/I'll snatch your chick" to one part "startling introspection." When they get fly, they definitely soar—"Swagger Jackin," "That Shit's Knockin," and Fearce's solo, "Full of Myself," will surely make the unconfident rethink their game plan. For my money, though, the real gem is "Journey," where DD contemplate their path with a chilling assist by one of the city's best voices, Darrius Willrich; check S.E.V. as he says it all:
Still had the hottest joints
Running with a city full of leaders
And convertin' the city into believers—they need us
And we need y'all just as much
I'm reaching out trying to keep in touch, is that enough? 
