Back to the Block
Sunday, March 31
The Record Bar
by NADIA PFLAUM
Last night, Vert from the Record Bar hosted a bear of a hip-hop show, featuring the Bluez Brothers (aka Deuce and Lou of the Soul Servers), the Soul Providers (Reach, D/Will, Hozey-T, Les Izmore), James Christos with Gunn Jakc and the True Spittaz, Heet Mob and Dutch Newman.
The sets were tight, and so was the footwear; a dude named Dietrich won $50 in the sneaker contest for his custom shoes with blue-light ground effects, narrowly beating out a pair of rare Bambi dunks.
Some highlights:
Les Izmore appeared onstage with his signature black flag tightly clenched in one fist, and last night he waved it over his head and performed with the intensity of a rapper possessed.
Hozey-T captured the audience's full attention with a track called "Rise" that he said was dedicated to a friend he lost last week. He didn't name the friend but I instantly thought of Brandon Fauntleroy-McDowel, the 25-year old carjacking victim who was killed near Case Park last Tuesday.
Miles Bonny and Beatbroker (who'd been granted special dispensation to leave his usual post at the Peanut's Hip Hop and Hotwings to check out the Record Bar) arrived with handfuls of discount Easter candy and dum-dums and passed them out left and right. When asked what the occasion was, Miles would only answer, "We went to Wal-Mart. They didn't have Blow-Pops."
James Christos took the stage in a choir gown and remarked on a void he felt in the lineup: he was missing Joe Good. (Joe Good "retired" from the music scene last year.) Christos asked the crowd to shout Joe's name in the hopes of conjuring up the rapper, then danced himself sweaty with a high-energy set.
Watching Heet Mob live is like instantly being transported back to 1995 -- and if you know hip-hop, you know that's a good thing. The fathers (grandfathers, even?) of KC hip-hop are all over 30, but they're aging so gracefully that someone in the crowd remarked, "They're the best-looking set of the night."
I missed Dutch's set (sorry, Dutch) but took a picture of a sign in the Record Bar bathroom that made me smile.
small correction.
the Bambis aren't Dunks, they're Court Force Highs.
still fresh and still rare.
Posted at: March 31, 2008 2:26 PM