bombonyall
I was lucky enough to catch the Quannum label world tour last night at Irving Plaza with Tamara and Saleem. this marks the first time the entire crew has been on tour together, and the lineup was impressive: Shadow, Joyo, Latyrx, Blackalicious, the Lifesavas, and D-Sharp. the show was jaw-dropping.
notes of note: Shadows was sporting two Pioneer DVD turntables, which I'd heard about from Woody when the demo'd them at the turntable lab, but never seen. I don't even know if they're officially released yet, but he had them. he was scratching video clips they shot with DV, old hip-hop videos, and other stuff I couldn't place. it's flawless. absolutely flawless, and really cool.
D-Sharp continues to impress me - the dude can juggle like a circus seal. he's so goddamn smooth, and even better live than on his mixtapes (how often does that happen?). The Lifesavas, despite still not having as much name recognition as they deserve continued to show how they can rock a crowd with their awesome stage presence (this is the 4th time I've seen them) even to a bunch of heads who had no idea who they were an hour ago. Joyo's voice is still angelic. Lyrics born is still an incredibly gifted, incredibly cocky emcee, and Lateef is untouchable on stage. Latyrx was incredible - Shadow backed them up for both Lady Don't Tek No and Storm Warning, and I almost shit my pants both times. and then when Shadow reconstructed Organ Donor and the Number Song live... hoo daddy.
the big surpise of the show - Gift of Gab is no good live. or at least was no good. I mean, I love the guy to death for his writing, but I don't know what his deal was: he was three beats behind, always out of breath, and way off key... I know the dude has had some serious health issues lately (he's diabetic and almost went blind a bunch of months ago, looked like he'd gained a bunch of weight), and maybe that had something to do with it, but it was almost painful. not what you wanted to see when Make You Feel That way makes you wince instead of nod.
overall, two and a half hours of the most comprehensive hip-hop I'll see in a while. it's amazing all that has been going on for 13 years, across two labels and many states, and it all started with a bunch of college buddies at the UC Davis radio station. in the mix for the future: Lateef and the Cheif (Xcel) have the Maroons album this summer, Gab has a solo this fall, Shadow has a DVD coming this summer, and Blackalicious has an album for 2005.