Two weeks previously Big Daddy Kane rocked the Melkweg with his classic MCing skillz; constantly in touch with the crowd, barrage of name checks and tributes to rap's past, inviting the crowd to beatbox, breakdance and battle rap. I expected a concert but got a very good value for money old skool party.
Coincidentally, Definitive Jux, an independent New York hip hop label whose rap style was decidedly left-field have just been working its way through my playlist with an impressive rate. Company Flow started the interest with their only album released on seminal indie rap label Rawkus, with their 3 MC's; Big Juss, Mr.Len and El-P deliver tight knit rhymes play packed with political views, social injustices, graffiti writing and population control. EL-P's production isn't any less variative with essentially minimalist beat work accompanied with querky sound effect and spacey scratch pieces. Ever since Rawkus started going mainstream, EL-P started his own label, Def Jux which now stands as the benchmark for New York underground hip hop harbouring artists from RJd2, Aesop Rock, Mr.Lif and El-Producto himself. All that was good enough to convince me to wonder down to the Melkweg to see the man himself.
Supporting an orange prison uniform, El-P was flanked by Mighty Quin and his DJ whose name I can't remember. The 3 piece crew recited El-p's critically acclaimed
I'll Sleep When You're Dead pretty much from cover to cover. Admitedly, the album is a hard one to digest as its theme is dark to say the least as El-p takes the listener through the paranoia of a 20 something living in the post 9-11 western world. It doesn't get any lighter performed live as the amps boom out ambient beats and trippy scratching by the annonymous DJ but certainly isn't danceable. Amusingly El-p still manages to make the crowd form a mini mosh pit smack bang in front of the Brooklyn cat.
His skits and instrumental interludes are quite different to any I've heard before as the DJ pumps out sampled cuts of old breaks mixed with El-p's characteristic electronic synth work not to mention hypnotic sitar samples. The 1 hour gig ended after the encore which feature mainy work from El-p's debut solo LP, Fantastic Damage and thus bringing a close to this ear opening gig and the man certainly justifies the hype surrounding the album he released only 3 weeks prevoiusly.
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