Muja Messiah: "Tha Madness" (Live)

Muja came through the University of Wisconsin-Madison (go Badgers!) last Friday to perform with Illuminous 3 and Toki Wright. It would have been silly for me to not go. More footage from that night to come.

Jordan Looney: "Nothin' To Lose" (Live)

Jordan Looney performing in St. Paul on Thanksgiving night. This track was featured on his Nerd-Hop, Vol. 2 mixtape.

PREVIOUSLY - "Oh Really" (Live)

Jordan Looney: "Oh Really" (Live) + Nerd-Hop, Vol. 3 Announcement

Jordan Looney had a show in Saint Paul on Thanksgiving last week, and I was able to attend and shoot a little footage. First up is him tearing it down with "Oh Really," and a bonus announcement of Nerd-Hop, Vol. 3, which is in the works right now. More videos to come.

The Cool Kids: "Champions" + "Popcorn" (Live in Madison 8/22/09)

More goodies.

PREVIOUSLY - Concert Recap --- "Introduction to Ice Fishing" --- "Delivery Man"

The Cool Kids: "Delivery Man" (Live in Madison 8/22/09)

PREVIOUSLY: Concert Recap -- "Introduction to Ice Fishing" (Video)

The Cool Kids: "Introduction To Ice Fishing" (Live in Madison 8/22/09)

As promised...

Concert Recap: The Cool Kids in Madison (8/22/09)

The Cool Kids were initally slated to perform in Madison on August 22 at the Orpheum Theatre, a ritzy, ornate venue with plenty of seating and not so much standing room. However, in a serendipitous turn of events, the concert was transferred to a new location: The Majestic Theatre. The new setting couldn't have been more fitting for Chicago's rambunctious hip-hop duo. The floor was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with sweaty college students, all ready to nod their heads to the group's unique hipster boom bap sound.

The party didn't start immediately, though. Opener F. Stokes kicked the show off, but I unfortunately had to miss that act due to prior obligations. Next was Milwaukee's hip-hop band Fresh Cut Collective, who made up for in exuberance what they lacked in coherence. The group's sound was at times garbled (do you ever really need two electric pianos, and a violin player?), but the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Just as anticipation for The Cool Kids to take the stage was peaking, they took to the stage rapping the intro track to their Gone Fishing mixtape, "Introduction to Ice Fishing." On records, there's something infinitely fresh about how Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks are almost completely unwilling to raise their voices above talking volume. Despite my skepticism, this was not a problem during their live sets, as they were completely audible throughout the performance. The duo maintained a relaxed yet fun demeanor, and were always composed and in control during the set. Another fun feature about the performance was the video screen hanging high above the stage. During every song, a custom-made video was playing, which was designed to match the theme of the song playing. For example, during "Champions," a highlight montage of cool sports moments was playing, and the opening minuute of "Hammer Bros" featuring a compilation of crushing hockey checks. It was tough at times to decide what to pay attention to, but the video screen was a nice additional aspect of the show.

The Cool Kids continued by running through several tracks off Gone Fishing, including top notch renditions of "Champions" and "Hammer Bros." They brought out flashy guest Tennille to do "Jump Rope," and she stayed on stage for the rest of the show, dancing around and occasionally chipping in on backup vocals. The night really picked up steam, though, during the second half of the show, when they dived into some of their older songs. "88" had the speakers rattling and the crowd bouncing off the walls, as did "Gold and Pager," two of the more exciting songs of the night.

For a final hurrah, however, the group put on quite an encore performance. With the crowd demanding "one more song!", Chuck and Mikey performed "One Two" over a medley of Beastie Boys beats, such as "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and "Paul Revere." That officially validated Mikey Rock's self-proclamation as The Cool Kids being "the new black version of the Beastie Boys," and was undoubtedly my highlight of the night.

Overall, the crowd at The Majestic that night got exactly what they bargained for: a high-octane dance party, courtesy of The Cool Kids. The group clearly has put time and effort into developing their live show, and it paid off in full.

As a bonus addendum to this review, I'll be uploading YouTube footage of songs at the show throughout the week, so you can get a taste of what it was like. You can subscribe to my YouTube account in case you want to catch those videos when they come out, and I'll also be posting them on this site.

Brother Ali: Two Unreleased Songs from 'Street Preacher' LP (Live at Soundset 2009)

I always have mixed feelings about recording video at concerts. Sometimes I go to shows and really document the hell out of it; but I always end up feeling a little guilty afterward. It's a tough call to make between the honest notion that only paying ticket holders should be allowed to experience a concert, and the demand for nonstop media in today's YouTube age. This year at Soundset I busted out my camera only to take photos, except for two occasions. Brother Ali performed two unreleased songs from his upcoming full-length LP, Street Preacher, which is slated for a fall release date. I decided to record some video of both of these songs. Shouts to my man Brok for the camera work — he had better position in the crowd than I did.

Unfortunately, I don't have names for either of the tracks yet. The first song features a very bouncy, horn-dominated beat, and Ali spitting an uptempo flow pretty much nonstop for 3 minutes. The second song was a very fun live track. It's another thumping, soul-sampling song featuring a self-affirming, joyful Ali rapping and singing about his ever-increasing satisfaction with his life. It looks like Ali may have even been rapping at my camera during that song, but there's no telling. Overall, it looks like, unsurprisingly, Ali is busy cooking up some incredible material for Street Preacher. You can stay updated with all his progressions on the album by following his Twitter.

Soundset 2009 Recap (Photos)

You already know just about everything I'm about to say. Soundset 2009 was incredible. Great performances from (most of) the artists. Got quite sunburned. Legs felt like cooked spaghetti by the end of the day. And so on.

I opted not to get a press pass, and spent the entire day in the thick of the crowd watching the shows on the main stage. My biggest regret is not seeing a couple of sets on the Fifth Element side stage – mainly One Be Lo, Unknown Prohpets and Cunninlynguists, as those are the main acts I had never seen before. However I also regret not catching Sims, Blue Scholars and Heiruspecs, who are all great live. The reason for me not catching those shows is that during P.O.S.'s lively set, in a moment of pure serendipity, my friends and I ended up getting pushed to literally the front row. Although in retrospect, Sage Francis, El-P, and much to my dismay, DOOM, were all arguably "skippable" performances, we decided it was in our best interests to not sacrifice our great crowd position to see the shows on the side stage. While, I was up there, I tried snapping a few "point and shoot" photos with my low budget camera. I'm no professional, but they ended up half decent. If you want to see some great photo coverage of the day, though, go to Jules Ammel Visuals or the Rhymesayers Flickr. I'll leave you with a few thoughts I had about Soundset 2009, as well as my photos.

• Toki Wright was one of the better pure performers of the day. He reallys pours his heart out in his shows: jumping and dancing around, using the entire stage, working the crowd, etc. Great stuff. If only the fans were more familiar with his songs.
• As per usual, DJ Abilities was the true star during E&A's set. While Eyedea gets a little quirky during live shows, Abilities spent a solid five minutes amazing everyone with his technical prowess on the wheels of steel. The guy nevers slips up.
• Speaking of never slipping up, Mr. Dibbs absolutely put it the fuck down during his turntable sting during El-P's set.
  
• P.O.S. may be on the verge of breaking through the Rhymesayers ranks, approaching Slug and Brother Ali's levels of stardom. Maybe.
• Sage Francis seemed to be legitimately enjoying himself up there.
• In the biggest disappointment of the day, DOOM's set was pretty terrible. First off, 75% of the crowd didn't seem familiair with DOOM's Rock The Bells scandal last summer, and thus didn't understand his whole imposter joke. DOOM's hype man was overbearing and annoying. The sound was all distorted, and the bass was overbearing, making it impossible to decipher his lyrics unless you truly knew them word-for-word. He seemed unconcerned with hammering home a truly special performance, and more worried about getting his set over with and getting back in his SUV. Because his set was one of my top three most anticipated of the day, I couldn't have been more let down.
• Why the fuck did Freeway and Jake One not play a one of their songs from White Van Music. It was the perfect opportunity to bring out Brother Ali for "The Truth," and he didn't even do "How We Ride!" Although I still loved Freeway's set, that was discouraging.
• I loved Brother Ali's quote: "Jay-Z put of Freeway's first album, 50 Cent put out his second album, and Rhymesayers is putting out his third album." Although it's technically going to be his fourth, Rhymesayers have established themselves as indie heavyweights in this rap game.
• One of my top three songs of the day happened when Slug came out during Ali's set and they did "The Believer."
  
• The Pharcyde were the opposite of DOOM, and were one of the biggest highlights of the day. Great show. Great.
• I've seen Atmosphere perform about six or seven times, on multiple continents, and I can now say this confidently: No one, with the exception of Jay-Z, can control a crowd better than Slug. It may be because Atmosphere's audience is incredibly loyal, and it may seem like that because I was watching an Atmosphere concert in Minnesota, of all places. But, Slug had 15,000 hands in the air waving side to side, and probably every other person in the crowd knew at least some of the lyrics, if not most. And I saw him do the exact same thing in London. Slug can officially rock a show with the best of them.
  

Dumate: "Violince" (Live Video)

Madison, WI hip-hop group Dumate opened for The Mighty Underdogs a few months ago. I was there to check out the show, and I happened to get a bit of footage of them performing their track, "Violince." It's admittedly not the best quality, but the sound is alright. This track will be featured on Flyover Land, but I'm not gonna let loose the studio recording yet. Basically, though, if you're not familiar with Dumate, please spend some time checking them out. Local publication The Isthmus just published an article featuring them, so hit this link to read up on the group.

P.O.S.: Concert Coverage in Madison, WI (Video)

Just as P.O.S. apologized at the start of Never Better, "Sorry it took so long." I've been busy and the YouTube uploader was giving me some problems at times. But, here are a few songs captured from P.O.S.'s excellent performance in Madison, WI. If you're in the Twin Cities this weekend, hit up First Ave on Saturday to catch the Never Better tour — you won't be disappointed. Following are videos for "Half-Cocked Concepts," "Goodbye," "Drumroll (We're All Thirsty)," "P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life," and "Let It Rattle." Although the entire show was great, and P.O.S. did some Doomtree songs with Sims and Mictlan, my personal favorite was "Let It Rattle," so much energy and passion.

Previously:
Doomtree Dance Party
Concert Recap and Photos
Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak Concert Footage
Sims Concert Footage

Sims: "Pop Gun War" + "Slow Burn ft. Mike Mictlan" (Concert Footage)

Previously:
Doomtree Dance Party
Concert Recap and Photos
Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak Concert Footage

Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak: "Hand Over Fist" + "Clam Casino" + "Game Over" (Concert Footage)

As promised, here's the first round of videos from the Never Better Tour's stop in Madison. Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak were the first to perform, so their videos get posted first. Next will be Sims, and then finally P.O.S. Keep checking back for the updates.

Previously: Doomtree Dance Party, Concert Recap and Photos

Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak, Sims, & P.O.S. in Madison, WI (Concert Recap + Photos)

Following the release of Never Better, P.O.S. immediately hit the road to tour the country with a few members of the Doomtree collective. I attended the tour stop in Madison, WI yesterday. This post is a general recap of the show, I'll be following this up with video footage from each of the artists over the next couple of days.

I arrived for the show at Madison's High Noon Saloon, a no-nonsense kind of venue that is usually successful hosting hip-hop shows (good acoustics, stage visibility, etc.). I had to deal with some minor fuckery, for lack of a better word, upon my entrance. Despite being asked to cover the event, I ended up not being on the guest list (likely due to some irresponsible and poor communication on my part). I ended up paying the twelve dollars to get in, and at the risk of ruining any suspense, I'll go ahead and say it was well worth my money.

When I showed up, the opening act, F. Stokes, was on the stage. The venue was unusually full for an opening act, which I credit to Doomtree's strong following in the Midwest (and college towns, at that), and the large Minnesotan population of students attending UW-Madison. Still, F. Stokes got a warm reception from the crowd, and deservedly so — he is a talented performer. Mike Mictlan and P.O.S. were hanging out amongst the crowd during his set; it was nice to see all the performers enjoying the music and conversing with fans.

In between sets, Rhymesayers' house DJ, Plain Ole Bill, was spinning records and keeping an uptempo party vibe alive. In one set, he played Lazerbeak's "Legend Recognize Legend," (in my opinion one of 2008's best beats) and the crowd got pretty excited. Soon enough, Mike Mictlan and Lazerbeak took the stage to perform several tracks from their recent album, Hand Over Fist. Mictlan is a furious performer. His set was concise, with Mictlan quickly transitioning from one song to the next. Yet it was also energy packed – while Mictlan barely had time to catch is breath, he jumped around stage during every track while rarely missing a single lyric. Lazerbeak did his thing, as well. He was working his MPC during all the songs, either banging out samples, or performing the bass drum kicks and snare hits himself, which allowed for some improvisation in each track. They did songs such as "Hand Over Fist," "Suicide Jimmy Snuffa," "Clam Casino," and "Game Over (Go Big Or Go Home Boy)," from the Doomtree album. But no song was more passionately performed than the terrific "Prizefighter," as Mictlan closed his set with his spirited track dedicated to his love and devotion for hip-hop.

Sims performed next, once again accompanied by Lazerbeak rocking the MPC. Sims' performance featured more crowd involvement, as he regularly stopped in between songs to talk to the audience, often with a mix of sarcasm, humor, and seriousness. Still, his songs were full of vigor and deft lyricism (I'm starting to notice a pattern). Many of Sims' older tracks from Lights Out Paris received warm welcomes; but his best material came from the Doomtree album, as well. Sims kicked off the excellent "Pop Gun War" with an acapella, and it only got better when Lazerbeak's thumping beat (reminiscent of Jay-Z's "PSA," to me at least) dropped. Near the end of the set, Mictlan joined Sims for a riveting performance of "Slow Burn." The crew, producers and emcees alike, all have unmatched chemistry together, which reflected through their show.

Lastly, P.O.S.'s set was a truely versatile performance. In promotion for his tour, P.O.S. claimed that he would be doing "a little bit of everything" during the show; he couldn't have been more right. He started out his set with a guitar solo, jumped right into the punk/hip-hop anti-Bush anthem, "Half-Cocked Concepts," despite the fact that we have a new president. P.O.S. wasted no time moving on to songs from his latest album, Never Better. P.O.S. gave gripping renditions of "Graves (We Wrote The Book)," "Never Better," and "Drumroll." He brought out Sims and Mictlan for the collaboration tracks "Accident" and "Savion Glover." In between songs, P.O.S. would play his guitar or freestyle on his MPC with Plain Ole Bill scratching a record. P.O.S. really established himself as a jack of all trades, able to keep the crowd engaged in countless ways. He also has an uncanny ability to relate with his fans, constantly talking and asking questions; at one point he even had an old school thumb war a drunk challenger in the first row (and won twice in a row, naturally). The absolute highlight of his set, though, was his extended emotional performance of "Let It Rattle," which I was able to capture on video and will be posting soon. In true humble fashion, though, P.O.S. declared his fan athem "Optimist (We Are Not For Them)" his last song of the night. He lied — P.O.S. actually closed by trudging two feet deep into the crowd and letting it rip with "Stand Up (Let's Get Murdered)" — but it was a fitting near-ending to a spectacular show.

Throughout the entire night, these Doomtree members only furthered their reuptation as being a relatable, fan-friendly set of performers. Not to mention, they can rap, play guitar, make great beats, and put on one hell of a performance.

Doomtree Dance Party (Video)

Mike Mictlan, Sims, and P.O.S. cutting up a rug. The rest of the videos will be up within two days maximum.

The Mighty Underdogs In Madison, WI (Concert Coverage)

The Mighty Underdogs are a hip-hop "supergroup" composed of Lateef The Truth Speaker, Gift of Gab (from Blackaliscious), and producer Headnodic. Their tour made a stop in Madison, WI last week on February 2; naturally, I was there to cover the event.

The Might Underdogs' debut album, Droppin' Science Fiction, is a funky, fun, and relaxed album from start to finish. Many of the tracks have a chilled-out party vibe, and save plenty of room for Lateef and gift of Gab to kick some socially conscious lyrics. Their concert was pretty much what you would expect, after hearing the album once or twice — energetic, free-wheeling, consistent.

After a terrific opening act from the local hip-hop band Dumate, the crowd was surprisingly hyped for The Mighty Underdogs. Madison is a city that, from my past experience, has a pretty sketchy attendance record for hip-hop shows, yet the concert venue was packed for this show — on a Tuesday night, at that. After a brief wait, The Mighty Underdogs took the stage for their performance.

The set started out lively, with a dynamic performance of their track "Gunfight." The Mighty Underdogs proceeded to shuffle through various songs on their latest album, such as "Hands In The Air," "ILL Vacation," and "Want You Back." But with only one release to the group's name, their options were limited for group songs to play. This ended up being an asset to the performance, as Gift of Gab and Lateef, both veteran performers, delved into solo tracks they have done in the past. The two emcees also launched into multiple extended freestyle sessions, which kept the crowd actively involved in the show.

Overall, the concert was a solid one. The artists' many combined years of experience allowed them to put on a polished act, despite having only one album in release. The Madison crowd was clearly enjoying the show — particularly Gift of Gab's rapidfire lyricism. With this show, The Mighty Underdogs lived up to the hype of their supergroup status, and delivered with a enjoyable and entertaining performance. Check out a few videos I shot during the show below.

The Mighty Underdogs: "Gunfight"


The Mighty Underdogs: Freestyle Session


Lateef The Truth Speaker: "Wonderful Night"

I Self Devine: Freestyle / "Cold World" (Live Concert Footage)

So my college institution, UW - Madison, put on this Homegrown Hip-Hop Festival, a concert featuring lots of the Midwest's underground hip-hop talent. Some really dope artists showed up to perform, including Muja Messiah, I Self Devine, and Doomtree. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch the Doomtree or Muja shows, for a variety of reasons. I was rather pissed about that one, but I did catch I Self Devine.

Despite a really poor showing on the student body's part to actually come to a damn hip-hop show (STEP YOUR GAME UP MADISON), I Self did his thing. He played a lot of new material, from his upcoming album, that I was not able to catch the title of. If I remember correctly, though, it will be released in July 2009, so exercise your long term memory for that joint. I Self Devine also played songs from his excellent album released by Rhymesayers, Self Destruction. Those, along with some assorted freestyle sessions, made for a very entertaining show.

I Self Devine: Freestyle of the "Letter To The King" instrumental, from The Game's recent album, LAX


I Self Devine: "Ice Cold"

Murs & Kidz In The Hall In Madison

So on Monday, October 20, the Murs & Kidz In The Hall tour stopped through Madison. I know I kind of blasted Murs For President in my recent review, but Murs is still my boy for all his older material. And you know Kidz In The Hall can put on a solid performance. So naturally, I made the trip to Madison's High Noon Saloon to check out this show.

After some absolutely terrible opening acts, Kidz In The Hall came on. They basically ran through about 75% of The In Crowd, as well as some older material and other assorted singles. But, since lots of their songs feature guest verses from rappers who obviously weren't there, Kidz In The Hall basically did a quick-hit barrage of parts of many songs. There were two unexpected sections of the show which made it a very satisfying experience: 1.) Naledge kicked a freestyle while Double O was rocking his drum pad, which I'll explain in more detail below, and 2.) They performed Naledge's section of "Swagger Like Chi," which I did not see coming at all.

I understand that I don't have to explain the Murs set much. It was fairly typical. Murs was full of energy, jumping and running around, clowning in between songs, and just overall having a good time. That man puts his heart and soul in to putting on the best show he possibly can, and it pays off in the form of great entertainment and mad respect from fans. It's early in the tour, and he was already nursing a groin injury - not quite sure why he has this groin injury, haha - but Murs still didn't hold back. He was wearing sweat pants, but probably because it was Madison, WI, on a Monday night (Although, considering the circumstances, the crowd was pretty live). For reasons you already know (if you read my review), I didn't feel like getting footage of many of his new songs, but the crowd got super hyped for a couple of them. I cared more about relatively older material from 3:16 and Murray's Revenge, but it was all dope. Enjoy the footage (In semi-chronological order).

Kidz In The Hall: "Black Out"


Kidz In The Hall: Freestyle
Side Note: Double O was having some trouble finding the instrumental to whatever track they were intending to perform. So, after Naledge BSing with the crowd for a bit to buy time, they just said fuck it and kicked a freestyle.


Kidz In The Hall: "Love Hangover"


Kidz In The Hall: "Swagger Like Chi"


Kidz In The Hall: "Mr. Alladatshit"


Murs: "H-U-S-T-L-E"


Murs: "Can It Be (Half A Million Dollars and 18 Months Later)"


Murs: "Road Is My Religion"


Murs: "Dirty Girl"


Murs: "L.A."

Atmosphere, Brother Ali, & Kidz in the Hall in London (Video)

So, as I have mentioned previously, I'm chillin here in London this summer. Already been here for a little over a month, still have about three weeks left. But last week, on June 18, I believe, there was an Atmosphere, Brother Ali, and Kidz in the Hall concert at this spot called Koko night club here across the pond. Atmosphere and Ali are touring through Europe this summer for their 3 The Hard Way tour. Of course I wasn't going to pass up a chance to see that shit. I even caught both of them at Soundset in May, the day before I came to London, but the more the better.

So I show up to this place, and the venue is absolutely crazy. Koko night club appears to be an old theater that was converted into a music venue. It's got this big floor area, and two or three balconies which provide rather good views for watching a concert. It's also pretty large, so I didn't expect the concert to be very full by any means. This is independent hip-hop in Europe, after all. But how little did I know. To my surprise, the place was absolutely packed. Atmosphere has really laid out the blueprint for how to gain popularity, going from a little known Minnesota hip-hop group to selling the #5 album in the states during their debut week, with Lemons.

As for the concert, Kidz in the Hall rocked it pretty hard. They played some new tracks off of The In Crowd, including "Drivin' Down The Block," which I have some footage of later in this post. Their set was almost a little too loud though, and it was hard to decipher the lyrics at times. Still a fun show. But then it was time for Ali and Atmosphere. One thing I didn't realize about this tour (and which made it really special) was that Atmosphere and Ali were taking the stage at the same time. It was interesting, they kind of traded off songs, with Slug and Ali basically taking turns as each other's hype man. Ant was Djing the whole time, killing the set as usual. They had an interesting mix of songs, and overall if was a spectacular performance. I took some photos and videos, which I'm about to post here, I hope you enjoy, I sure did. I'd have more, but my camera ran out of batteries. Though I'd like more footage of the show, that did thankfully allow me to focus more on the music and go down to the main floor, which was definitely a good time. Great night.

Kidz in the Hall performing "Drivin' Down The Block"


Brother Ali performing "Whatcha' Got"


Brother Ali performing "Forest Whitaker"


Atmosphere performing "Puppets"


Atmosphere performing "Shoulda Known"


Atmosphere performing "Sunshine"

My Last Soundset Post (I Promise!)

Here are the only two videos I took during Soundset. Like I said, I got very lazy, and was too involved in the actual shows to sit and take much footage. Here it is anyway. Sorry for the poor quality, at least the sound is pretty good!. I promise to make amends: I'm going to concerts by Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Kidz in the Hall, Cool Kidz, and Jay-Z while I'm here in London, and I'll get better footage there!

Saint Paul Slim


Brother Ali - "Lookin' At Me Sideways" (Verse One)