Dope-A-Lot

Review by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky

Here’s how you know you’re in the presence of a rap star: he only has to perform ten-second snippets of his songs to have hundreds of people losing their shit. Busta Rhymes hit the Phoenix and it was one of the most amazing rap shows Toronto’s seen in ages. Your correspondent, for his part, was FLOORED. Never seen a party so packed get so crunk so fast. Real talk. It was extraordinary.

In defiance of the rap-show norm, Bus came out right on schedule, with the regal bearing of an emperor come to bask in the adulation of the masses. It was fitting. Along with the bellowing voice, the lightning-fast flow and the world-conquering charisma that instantly cemented his place in rap history right from his dungeon dragon moment in 1991, he also has better instincts about what makes a hit than almost anyone in the industry, and he’s been firing them out at us and killing the dance floor, the street-corner cipher and the strip club for almost 20 years. He kicked out an hour’s worth of jams, from a knockin’ “Make It Clap” and a smooth “What It Is Right Now” to a rowdy “Scenario” and a blazing “Break Ya Neck”, and had the near-capacity crowd eating out of his hands the whole way through,

He’s also acquired the easy professionalism of a seasoned showman, regaling us with stories of visiting his Aunt Pat in Mississauga and working the nostalgia angle for the true-school heads eager to hear “Woo-Ha! Got You All In Check”. He did what any entertainer worth his salt knows to do: he charmed the audience into making us believe he really cared, and showed us the best time he possibly could. He proclaimed his love for our city, and promised to be back with a sincerity he claimed was real and we were happy to accept.

The less thrilling aspects of his persona and career were on display too: he opened the show with a long medley of joints from his (to be honest) wack-ass new record, he got a little too angry at an overenthusiastic male fan, which reminded everyone of the homophobia he seems to be working just a little too hard to try to mask; and as charming as it was to see his love and support for his hype-man Spliff Starr, it’s still Spliff Starr, and he really didn’t need to give so much stage time to Spliff Starr. But what Busta managed to accomplish is to give us a sense of himself as a complete entertainer, a lion of rap music, whose occasional unsavoury decisions shrink down to nothing compared to the incredible magnitude of what he’s achieved. The wack shit was still there in the background, but he turned up the volume on the love, the chops, and the hits. And for that, he deserved every chant, every scream, every roar of delight I heard from the crowd that night.

Bong bong!

Written by Ace Six | Photography by Philip Litevsky

I love the first Foreign Exchange album, there is no question that the mellow bump of Nicolay’s production matches with my sensibilities. However, I haven’t heard their new record yet so I was going into this show hoping to hear a mix of both and get a chance to experience the new album live.

Since I play records once in a while, I have learned there are some songs you just don’t play at a party. I guess those same rules don’t apply in concerts when all of your material is downtempo, so I won’t judge this show by those standards since it was actually an incredibly well-orchestrated show especially considering the hiccup they had at the Canadian border.

If no one else heard, the drummer who performed with Foreign Exchange last week was a native Torontonian who had never performed with them before and wasn’t familiar with all their material. Their actual drummer was refused entry to the country and so my friend Wan of Shaman Fam was running around trying to find a replacement. Damn, that must have sucked! However, the drummer didn’t appear to lose a beat in the band(bad pun) and they had the feel of a well-oiled machine regardless.

Phonte’s showmanship is outstanding. The man knows how to work a room, and had everyone’s attention during the many breaks in their set. Nicolay obviously knows what he’s doing on the keys, and there was no autotune needed for Zaharah or Darien Brockington, those two can wail for sure.

I thought this would be a purely upbeat review, but to be totally honest I am not in love with the new material. I will take in the album at home to be fair. I might have not even mentioned that if I hadn’t misunderstood that there was an intermission and missed my favourite FE song, Raw Life. Apparently while that was bumping upstairs, I was down in the underpopulated afterparty that I’m sure filled up after the actual show was over. Ah well, I’m sure they will be back because the whole crowd seemed to be loving the show.

Written by Ace Six | Photography by Philip Litevsky

Asher who? What? I am guilty of not really paying attention to the whole Asher Roth thing. I guess he’s a big deal in the States and has a following of white college and university students who come out in droves to see him perform his lily white version of rap music.

However, I don’t think it’s just me since the crowd at the El Mocambo was not that large and a good percentage of those people worked for the label and/or promoter. So what, he’ll catch on up here for sure and sell tons of copies to kids in the burbs.

He raps well, I think there’s something missing that I can’t put my finger on. Everything about this kid reads “marketing plan” and “puppet master”. I feel like his DJ (who was pretty dope to be totally honest) is who runs the stage show, not him. It was well-organized, complete with drum solos and beat juggling but felt rushed and a bit contrived.

However, if your target audience is a bunch of goofy kids who don’t have the same jaded standards as a concert audience that I might have, why not put on a quick show?

I have to judge a show like this with different eyes, and so really I can just say that it was better than I expected but still exactly what I expected at the same time.

Here are pics from a very underrated Tanya Morgan show at Revival. The band’s name notwithstanding, this all male trio is actually amazing. Masia One, in support of her new album Pulau, rocked as always. A big surprise for me was Miles Jones, who did something that I think most rappers should do, use a live drummer. Such a simple, yet potent way to accentuate the beat. Check out some pics below or click here for the rest of the set.

Tanya Morgan

Masia One:

Miles Jones: