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!

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.

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.

Kid Famous

Tanya Morgan

Masia One:

Miles Jones:

Click on the cover for more info!

National Tour (April 20 – May 3)

TANYA MORGAN (Brooklyn/Cincinnati)
Tanya Morgan is back with their third project, Brooklynati. Since Von Pea, Ilyas, and Don Will formed Tanya Morgan in 2003, they have received high praise from media elites such as Spin, The Source, XXL Magazine and a resounding seal of approval from the blogosphere. Considered by many to be our generation’s torchbearers for De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, Tanya Morgan will once again put their skills on display. The sites, sounds, memories, and events of Brooklynati will be unleashed on May 12th through Interdependent Media.
www.brooklynati.com

MASIA ONE (Toronto/Vancouver)
Born in the Lion City Singapore, raised in Vancouver, and currently based in Toronto, this emcee is a unique entity in her own right. As the first female rapper to be nominated for “Best Rap Video” in the MuchMusic Video Awards (2003), Masia is no stranger to maintaining independence in the music industry. She credits Jay-Z, Peter Tosh and Public Enemy as influences. Masia has since gone on to release 2 full-length albums – Mississauga and the latest double release, Pulau. With the Toronto Star calling all of Masia’s current success, “fate” and numerous urban blogs hailing her “the next big thing”, Masia has recorded a forthcoming release with Grammy Award winning producer Che Vicious (Lauryn Hill, Dr. Dre, Aretha) releasing under the label, Kops & Robbers. Hold tight for the positive movements. Masia One Love.
www.masiaone.com

also featuring…

MILES JONES (Toronto)
www.myspace.com/mojorecordings
Runaway Jones coming soon…
CHRIS QUOTES & DJ SAUCE (Montreal/Toronto)
www.myspace.com/puffycoates
www.myspace.com/sauceproduction
Supernova EP coming soon…

with SWEET TOUCH FOUNDATION (Riccachet & Thera-P)
www.myspace.com/sweettouchfoundation

Tuesday, April 28
REVIVAL
783 College St.
Cost: $10 advance | $14 at door
Tickets: clubzone.com . Play De Record . Slinky (MOOG) . LiveStock . Soundscapes
Doors open at 9pm | Show at 10:30 sharp!
19+ event

Click on the pic below for the rest of the set.

It has taken almost two decades to bring Big Daddy Kane to Toronto. But Substance Group made it happen on March 26, 2009.  And if you weren’t there, you will likely have your hip hop head card revoked.  The talk outside amongst the crowd after it was done was pretty unanimous: This might have been the best show we’ve ever seen.

This wasn’t a concert.  This was a gospel revival, and the Word was Hip Hop.  Toronto is notorious as a hard crowd to rock, but Big Daddy Kane commanded this audience like he was molding Play-Doh.  This audience was the true hip hop audience, serious scholars and aficionados of the artform, and we all knew how important and urgent a moment this was: we were watching one of the greatest practitioners in the history of the artform – potentially the GREATEST EVER – demonstrate his mastery.  This was like an art lover getting the opportunity to watch Da Vinci paint.

The guy comes out and he’s dressed in his flyest pimp threads.  No opening act, just out he comes dressed to the nines, shaking hands with the front row.  Then he launches into his set and his technique is so razor sharp that you can barely believe you’re seeing it live.  His presentation is so deftly crafted that the audience has been reverted to wide-eyed children in awe of the thing. He is so gifted a showman that everyone there shoots their hand in the air or screams at a deafening level at the merest suggestion.  By the time he’s performing choreographed dance routines, you are so out of your head that he show could be flying around outer space and it would make perfect sense.  And then perhaps the most brilliant move of all: he left the stage and ended the show while the energy was still high and the crowd was still hungry.  Hip hop acts often forget the importance of leaving them wanting more.

If Kane had been tempted to rely on a hype man to cover up or fill in some of the more difficult phrasings, we never knew.  Kane is utterly committed to being the best, and he has no hesitation in showing you, over and over, how and why he’s earned that stature.  Nor how much fun it is!  For all of the shouting and chanting and enthusiasm, no one was having more fun than Kane himself who savored every syllable of every word like it was really expensive chocolate.  For a hip hop fan from way back there is no sensation to compare to the feeling of watching Kane, after swaying and wiggling his hips about the stage for the ladies, casually lean over the audience with his foot on the speaker and let the lyrics flow.  And then switch it up to double time.  And then double-time it again.  By then I thought people were going to faint.

I know KRS-One likes to call himself The Teacher, but I couldn’t escape the idea that big Daddy Kane was a professor and class was in session.  Everything you need to be a successful MC was being handed to you.  You could have sold this show as a seminar and called it How to Hip Hop.  If KRS proclaims “I Am Hip Hop” and represents the truest essence of hip hop’s conscious and political side, Big Daddy Kane personifies the other side, the side that has a lot more to do with the everyman’s daily life.  The side where Jay-Z, Puffy, and most current artists find their success.  The side where life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money.

The hip hop generation is still coming of age but at least they’re not stumbling and learning as they go any more.  If Big Daddy Kane is going to go up there, 40+ years old, still making money, still the flyest dressed man in the room, still pulling off those moves, and still having that much fun, then we can rest easy knowing that we have a role model like Kane to look up to.

It was a jammin’ evening at Revival on Monday night. Uncharacteristically for both the night of the week and for this city’s rap crowds, those gathered were brimming with enthusiasm, and the acts onstage deserved the love. This city’s own Notes To Self went in and wrecked shop.

Their content is a little pedestrian, but there’s a reason that the call-and-response chants, the crowd-pleasing fast-rap, and the familial crew vibe have turned into clichés: it’s ’cause they’re seldom not fun to watch unfold on stage.

As lyricists and as mic presences, the Notes fellas are perfectly legit– not always exciting, but better than your average T-Dot cats, and more than good enough to be worth supporting, especially Roshin, whose lightning-fast spitting was what turned the Notes’ appearance on fellow local celeb Abdominal’s recent “T. Ode” cut into pure win. And it was big homie’s birthday, to boot.

As much as there was to like about Notes, and about the awesome scratch set by the estimable (and, as a stage presence, very personable) DJ Babu, the night was stolen outright by a guy I’d barely heard of, a name most of us won’t know, whose song titles I couldn’t even name, but who absolutely ripped shit up.

Brothermack’s name was Rayhaan, and he let fly with a series of dope joints, including some resickulous rhyming over that amazing Shawty Lo “Dey Know!” beat. I’m not sure about what his personality’s like on-record, but his live show was electric, and in a city of likable but humdrum rap cats he’s someone who has the spark to be able to go places. Watch the sound!