The opening acts at the Key Club were some of the best I’ve seen at one of the shows put together at the venue. “Truthlive” and Moe Green from the Bay area were both gifted lyricists. His label “Im” is proud to release Canibus’s tenth studio album. “C of Tranquility” he was rumored to be around somewhere, but after having a chance to chop shop their performance came and went without a signing. Set change not withstanding, Seventh Day, and Versis kept the energy all the way up with “1,2,3,4″ featuring Makeshift from San Diego and LA’s own VerBS that got a warm reception from the crowd. As I made friends with the engineer, I learned Cannibus was indeed on his way and was going to do some new material before the act everyone came to see.
Admittedly I’d never seen him live before and it was something out of the ordinary, like Rass Kass over 12th Planet’s production during the two hour dubstep set at Electric Daisy earlier this year. I looked it up, the new album has production from Jake One and Dj Premier so that’s reason enough for me to buy a copy on vinyl from Fat Beats when it drops next month.
Jay Electronica came out to La Roux “Going in for the kill” Skream remix. I remember the first time I’d heard that remix it was my introduction to La Roux whose since become a bit of a hype machine herself in recent months. Detroit’s own House Shoes was the 1st of many shot outs by what could be easily my favorite rap performance of all time. He started with “Dear Moleskine” and I tried to take photos, film footage and geek out all at once. I’ve been playing that “snippet” or whatever it is on my phone for months. The elevators, in the subway, my brother’s wedding you name it. Ghost of Christopher Wallace had him bring the whole crowd on stage. “What are y’all scared?” Fifty or so fans climbed on the stage and joined him for the verses. I didn’t miss that chance, myself and went up there spitting bar for bar with one of music’s promising new songwriters. Word on the grape vine is Chicago’s 1st annual North Coast Festival which had Lupe, De La Soul and Mayer Hawthorne among others labor day weekend had a whole stage closed due to the riot surrounding Jay Electronica’s performance.
Exhibit A and C where spit back by the entire crowd word for word minus a handful. I stood in awe of what I have come to believe is the first real role model of this new age digital distribution for rap legends and amateurs alike. From Raekwon’s “Only Builty for Cuban Linx 2″ beating out Jay-Z’s blueprint 3 (the first week on iTunes) to Drake’s chart topping singles (minus label support), we’ve seen the impossible become the present. We live in an age of MC’s being in charge of their own marketing, A&R of their own career whatever. Jay admitted to hoping his much anticipated “Act II : The Turn” comes out on his birthday later this month but who knows?
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