This was a show put on by the team known only as THE COLLECTIVE. i know who these cats are and you will soon. They are ready to maintain the uber dope name they already have (wink, wink, nudge, nudge...J8). Off the bat i liked the line up of the acts that i knew of already and was eager to see if they had anything up there sleeves, and THEY DID!!!!!
FROM JUMP
The show opened up with a band i had never heard of, THE SALUTION(http://www.myspace.com/thesalutation), but boy am i glad i have now. They were dope as hell. From what i gathered about these cats from their performance, they are all business. They were the first act up, early as hell, and were rocking that joint to make sure they left their mark and let you know that who the hell they are!!!! Look, seriously these cats impressed me. They had the typical rock look down to the eyeliner and different color hair tight pants. Sound however was weighted with a very subtle difference. shhhh keep this quiet... its a secret, the drummer (Irish) hits some hip-hop sticking in the midst of the rock guitar riffs.... At least i think so... don't quote me on that. Anywho.... The vocal game is on point as well IX has got the more smooth unique tone that one needs to be different, but Dark Shadow has the heavier more hardcore sound that anchors the rock vibe. Check em out right now!!!! Please don't wait for them to reach MTV fame. SERIOUSLY, Don't be followers, your parents didn't raise you for that lame ass roll in this film called life.
They set the tone for the show!!!! They put the bar in the rafters!!!! Unfortunately my high was blown, figuratively of course, by the next two performers. Hell i won't even mention them. Not even worth the text.
After braving the pollutants i was handed a hip hop inhaler by my man Nosaprise (http://www.myspace.com/nosaprise). He was a surprise, no pun intended, hell i was almost certain i was not gonna bob my head til Hero, Rad and Mic Skills touched the stage. I was wrong my attention was drawn by this cat. Old school feel, his own swag, ORIGINAL TRAX!!!!!! He had a voice i had to adjust to, but i did it quickly. Subject matter was dope, he wasn't dumb deep, but he wasn't on that bullisht either. Word play was straight, not to be slept on. Overall, a fresh sound. i will say i would have liked to see him more amped. There was a bit of a disconnect between him and the audience, but that could be chalked up to the audience. Check him out let me know what you think. i realized as i'm writing that i am a bit out of the loop, and dude is a lot more official than i knew.
The acts that were the main focus speak for them selves, but i will still give a few words about the cats respectively.
Hero, Rad and Mic Skills ripped it!!!!!
Lower Life form did their thing!!!!!
K.O. killed it!!!!
http://www.k-otix.com/
Naw but seriously they were great performances. Flawless i can't say enough about the cats so all there is to say is....
YOU BETTER BE THERE THE NEXT TIME!!!!!!
Besides that the lack luster performances from the unmentionable abominations, i did have a couple other issues. The missing MC for the night made for a open mic feel that was not diggable. The damn long sets and to many hip-hop acts. The set length would have been dope IF there were less total acts and/or a bit more variety, by way of the genre of music, hell even just a change in styles of hip hop.
All in all THE COLLECTIVE did their thing... They did a wonderful job putting this show together, but the best days are still ahead of these cats. KUDOS to you cats from CHAPLON CLOTHING.
PEACE&LOVE FAMILY
M. Francis
p.s. for more info on these artists just get with these cats on the links provided.
