Thanks for the good review of the party Steve. It was great to get together with bunch of people who were down for a night of non-jiggified fun.
We'll be putting up an archive of the party on the dublab site sometime in the near future.
positive music driven lifestyle
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Catanzaro stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com
Sent: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 06:55:53 -0700
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Concert Review... J5 f. Mos Def...
OK, y'all, as part of LA Weekly Music Week and Dublab, The Jurassic 5 played at Club Vynyl in Hollywood Thursday.
The show began with an extended set from the maestro himself, DJ Cut Chemist. ("We have wonderful live music coming up, but till then, here's the kind I prefer...") While watching him, I got the impression of seeing a virtuoso instrumentalist of the highest order, something akin to Vladimir Horowitz or Andre Watts on classical piano.... except those guys can't get asses to shake like that! It was an incredible set that kept building and building... with mad diverse drops from Shelly Manne to Ryuyichi Sakamato. Incredible. This is the mark of a professional.
With little fanfare the J5 MC's with DJ Nu-Mark hit the stage. Wow. What an incredibly TIGHT crew. But more than that, there was absolutely none of the overloaded testostericity that makes some hiphop so thoroughlly unenjoyable (like... ok, I admit you've got the better area code... now what?)
Good thing, too, cuz these guys are SHORT! Matter of fact, I bet I could whip 3 of their asses at once, if T-Bird would restrain the 2 large 2na Fish!
And speaking of LARGE. Oh man, 2na is the Ben Webster of rap, with 2tight flows that assault you from every angle. The rest of the crew, Marc 7 etc., held it down amply, and they played ALOT of material that is not on their EP or their fresh-off-the-press release. Not only that, the 2nz u know and love were amply reworked. "The Lesson" was unrecognizable as such after about 35 seconds.... morphed into some freaky swing shit. Ditto "Action Satisfaction." Nu Mark even played some kind of ancient Oriental-looking string instrument like a gigantic koto... Catch the LIVE if u can, and if you've only napstered... shame on U! Go out and BUY their product.
The only negatives were that 2na's voice gets higher as the night progresses (whatup with that?) and the turntabalathon with Nu Mark and Cut Chemist was so bad it caused obnoxious wierd chicks to start dancing uncontrollably and they had to be manhandled by security!
At the end of the night, the mighty Mos Def climbed on stage for some freestyle fun. Man, another short guy who deserves an ass kicking for being so SPLENDID! Although, I will say, in the freestyle department, he lacks; if those J5'ers were really freestylin' that shit, they're gonna turn a lotta coast to coast MC's into sukkas! Unreal! Coltranesque! The show lasted about 2 hrs and could've gone on for 2 more... They never even played "Action Satisfaction." Bastards! What a nite! They're on tour now with "Warped..." Go see 'em if they come in to your town... they'll be buckin' off some rounds of that underground sound! Yeah! Represent 310! er, 213! I mean 818... or iz it 323? No...714.... ah, forget it.... but LA hiphop is getting GOOD, no?
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