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The Mark Healy Hip-Hop Showcase featuring Lyrics Born
Your intrepid overage blogger and his patient girlfriend Tracy went to the El Rey here in LA on Friday night to check out the Mark Healy Hip-Hop showcase. The primary attraction for me, other than a rare night out on the town, was the rapper Lyrics Born, formerly Asia Born, the underground MC who has been around for over a decade and has collaborated on innumerable albums with such well-respected acts as Latyrx, Blackalicious, Quannum and DJ Shadow. "LB" has a distinctive gravel-voiced delivery and a tremendous word flow that is second to nobody in the rap game and I was happy to plunk down my $17.50 to see him and a few other up-and-coming "underground" hip hop acts.
Problem was, I didn't realize that there would be FIVE groups performing before Lyrics Born took the stage and a couple of them played for 40 minutes or more. For a show that started 40 minutes late at 7:40, the challenge was now staying awake long enough to see the main attraction. I'm not old, but I'm not a spring chicken and let's face it, no matter how high quality a rap act might be, if you pile one rap group after another they all start to blur together after a while.
Not Swamp House though--act number two on the bill combined a live band(including a horn section) with a three-pronged rap attack that was lively, danceable and lyrically strong. As an added bonus, they hail from "the 303", Denver, my hometown, but my own prejudices notwithstanding they've got the talent and the charisma to go far with a few breaks. It would be helpful, though, if they remembered to tell people who they were when they were on stage...Symbolic Language featuring MC Escher (ha ha) offered nothing special and a muddy sound mix that rendered their lyrics unintelligible...the Speech Impediments had a polished stage presence and a record deal but nothing about them stood out...then came Noah King and his bass player sidekick, who started with so much hyperkinetic energy they threatened to explode into self-parody. (The bass player especially seems to think he's sexy playing with his shirt off.) Beyond some vaguely leftist lyrics about being a renegade and making a difference (and a bizarre shout out to Scarlett Johansen, who apparently is a big fan of the duo), Noah King didn't seem all that spectacular and by now we are way past eleven o'clock with no Lyrics Born in sight and too many overpriced rum and cokes in our systems.
The final act to take the stage before LB was Ostrich Head, or as I like to call them, Black Eyed Peas Jr. Or maybe the Lima Beans. They had stage presence and some nice, funky grooves and a hell-a-sexy singer with abs that Gwen Stefani would kill for, but by this point they were just blending into the mix. Nothing they rapped about stopped me from longing for their act to be over.
Then finally, at 12:25 a.m., Lyrics Born took the stage with his band and backup singer, wife Joyo Velarde. After years of struggling, he's finally getting some solo success and critical acclaim with his two recent albums, Later That Day... and Same Shit, Different Day (a remix album). The joyous call-and-response single "Callin' Out" has been getting a little bit of airplay and LB's performance of this song was the highlight of his 1-hour show. LB is a little on the heavy side, but like Fat Joe or, back in the day, Heavy D., he uses his girth both to give authority to what he has to say but also in a playful, self-mocking way that makes his stage presence immediately likeable. If the girlfriend and I hadn't been tired and starving we would have loved the show even more and we wouldn't have booked out the second the final note was played. I guess to sum the whole night up my feeling is this--never have more than three acts on a bill at the same time and if you do, make sure you strictly limit how long each act is allowed to play. And for God's sake, speed up the set changes!
Afterwards, Tracy and I wound up at Canter's Deli, which remains one of Los Angeles' most distinctive and lively late night hangouts. In the time we were there we saw Marisa Tomei (looking very stylish and highly alert for 3 in the morning), Richard Greico (?) and a young, unnamed refugee from Club Largo who did her best Exorcist impression with some projectile vomit right in front of the pastries. And I enjoyed a tasty banana split and part of a turkey-on-rye. You can't beat that. "To Live and Throw Up in L.A..."
Now to spend the rest of the weekend recovering, watching coverage of Hurricane Dennis and trying to figure out how to overthrow the Bush Administration, preferably while lying on the couch sipping an Appletini. If you have a chance, go out and buy either Later That Day... or Same Shit, Different Day, I doubt you'll be disappointed.
Until next time, peace...
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