Leeds Hip Hop Scene

Once again, the boys from Fresh Jive offered me some free ticketage in return for a bit of flyering. How could I say no?

And so it was that I found myself in the Faversham, awaiting performances from two acts who’d flown all the way over from sunny California to show a bunch of rain-sodden Brit students how they do.

Having bumped into Kid Kanevil earlier in the day and introduced myself, I had been filled in on the fact that the support act Giant Panda might actually be doper than the main event. And to be honest I think he may have a point, although that’s not to say PUTS weren’t decent - but they’re not fire either.

Before Giant Panda came on we were looking at an empty stage set as the promoters had seen fit not to book a DJ for the night, instead just banging on a mix CD - admittedly quite a dope one, with RA the Rugged Man’s “Flipside” and OC’s “Time’s Up” featuring, but no substitute for the real thing. So by the time MC/ DJ/ producer Newman from GP stepped up behind the decks, I was a little bored and sceptical.

Newman immediately tried to get things running by talking to the crowd about picking up his first two tunes in Manchester the previous day - the very first being “That Shit” by A Tribe Called Quest, which quite rightly prompted him to speak an “RIP” for late producer Jay Dee (AKA Jay Dilla), whose work the track was.

However, things didn’t really start rocking until he was joined on stage by rapper Maanumental. The two played off each other seamlessly, with a comfortably energetic West-Coast flow reminiscent of the MCs from DJ Shadow’s Quannum crew and with Newman running back to the decks every few minutes to trigger a new beat. The set certainly followed a number of old-school conventions (including a call-&-response “all the ladies” “all the fellas” section) but still managed to be fresh and interesting. Absent crew member Chikaramanga also dropped in via the wonders of sampling to say “hi” and ask us whether we were ready for the next tune - by which point we certainly were…

Buoyed by all this goodwill and in-the air-handwaving, I decided to move from the front of the stage for a second and grab another beer before People Under The Stairs came on. Oh boy, was that a mistake. The Peoples were on almost immediately and by the time I got back there was no chance of getting anywhere near them. My view for the rest of the night was something like this:

Without meaning to sound bitter at my lack of line-of-sight contact, it was hard to see what the added degree of fuss was all about. The music was solid but resolutely old-school and without the flamboyance Giant Panda had shown on stage. Double K’s scratching was unquestionably top-notch and they never put a foot wrong rhyme-wise but when Thes-One started mockingly rhyming at a guy at the front for skinning up (at a hip-hop gig! Whatever next?), I couldn’t escape the feeling that they had missed their true calling and should have promoted themself as stand-up comedians with musical backing. The fact that they dealt with a stage-invader by freestyling at him until security arrived also suggests that hecklers wouldn’t be a problem and hell, they’re not exactly facing stiff competition from Nick Cannon.

I’ve honestly got to say that the only thing PUTS have done which I’m properly enthusiastic about is their “Youth Explosion” 12″ from 2000 (which to be fair is an amazing track). Sadly, that’s not enough for them to prevent me from putting them in the same pigeonhole as Jurassic 5 - the one marked “It’s 2006 lads - had you not noticed?”

Giant Panda escape narrowly on the basis of talent, charisma and a cheerful refusal to take themselves too seriously. I bought a copy of their 12″ “SuperFly” on the night so I’ll look into reviewing it later in the week - I’m hopeful that their live energy will translate well to record and if so I may well have to play it out at some point.

Analogue
www.straightoutleodis.blogspot.com