Talib Kweli, Jean Grae @ TheEspy, Melbourne (17/04/2010)

Mon 19th Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Check out photos from the Espy here

The Sugarhill Gang’s rhymes ‘The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn’ was true of Saturday night’s sold out gig hosting Talib Kweli and Jean Grae that kicked off about 8 and went into the wee hours for die hard hip hop fans. Some might say ‘don’t believe the hype’ but the humble buzz surrounding Talib Kweli is real. He is the rapper’s rapper receiving kudos within song lyrics by Kanye and Jay-Z.

Jean Grae was surprisingly good live and brought more than studio quality vocals and her talented gospel inspired backup singer to the stage for a 1 hr set. The New York hip hop femme-fatale also likes to drop the f bomb. Finally the main man appeared in his black NY cap to full house for a lenghth set. From Eardrum and The Beautiful Struggle to his more current mixtapes, all the records dropped one by one. It’s amazing that Kweli started out in underground circles with close friend Mos Def in 1998 and has reached the point in his music career in 2010 where he has total control of a crowd as he rhymes Black Girl Pain and Say Something, where he encouraged the crowd to put their hands up high. Something about this guy is charismatic and is all about the music with a socially-conscious style of rapping instead of gangster rhymes about bitches, guns and bling dreams.

Supporting two of hip hops finest, was a turntable of quality local and international flavours. In the Gershwin side room, the sound quality was simply better than the front bar. The cheeky rap about ‘spanking it’ from the likes of UK talent* LoTek* and his local crew was enough to get the crowd warmed up for the night ahead. Thief and Wolfgramm were great on the decks followed by King Kaspisi and crew who were simply funky bringing some unique south pacific vibe in contrast to that of the main stage hosting Lotus and Manchild.

Melbourne MC and Obese records poster boy Mantra did his best to put his power of the spoken word to the test and used his raw, somewhat unpolished stage presence that can only be described as hip-hop swagger. Lady MCs Class A and Nikkita rocked the mic with a bevvy of admiring male punters checking out the booty shaking more so over their obvious developing rhyming talent.

The standout for local female MC performance was Melbourne based MC A-Love, whose flow and delivery were so smooth on her opening hit Cowboys and her lovely soul sister backup singer made the live set that much better proving that the ladies have more than a singing role in the local scene. In the side room Motley was doing ok but was left to hang as all punters reported to the front bar dance floor for the main event.

I hate to say it but Aussie hip hop don’t have much on the Brooklyn NYC originators, although things are certainly improving. The Australian voice is unique to us but sometimes the diction delivery from some doesn’t sound smooth and some basic hip hop samples just sound monotonous. The general rhymes and message from the local performers are always positive and have a great party vibe. However, it isn’t helped by unintentional poor vocal sound which makes it hard for the MC to hear themselves and give a great delivery over a commonplace flow.

In all my years frequenting the Espy I have never seen the front bar so packed to the rafters that I had no room to bust a move. Nonetheless, the show was well worth staying up past 3am for.