I went to ZYDECO last night to check out ATMOSPHERE and RHYMESAYERS’ “THE FAMILY TOUR.” it was a pretty good time and the crowd was huge – elbow to elbow almost all the way to the door. ATMOSPHERE was solid – SLUG held it together and made sure that the crowd was engaged, but i was really interested to see ANT rock the beats. his setup was pretty large and he performed all the music live which you don’t often get to see on a hip hop tour. as solid as ATMOSPHERE’s set was, it was the supporting members of RHYMESAYERS that really shined – GRIEVES WITH BUDO and SAB had really solid sets and djABILITIES tore up the turntables rocking a great mixture of sweet turntablism, old school breaks and really nice live mash-ups.

BLUEPRINT really ended up being the artist that stood out to me among all the acts, though, and i spent every dollar i had buying all his vinyl – some really nicely pressed colored singles and a beautiful 2×12” picture disc set. if you are really in love with hip hop, you press vinyl, and so i appreciate that attention to detail a lot. talking with BLUEPRINT after the show, i came to find out that he’s from alabama, so i’m hoping we’ll get to see him back here soon. aside from really rocking the mic, he was rolling with a dj and a dude who played bass live and looked like he would have fit right in in MASTADON, so that visual dichotomy really appealed to me as well – i love when people bring disparate seeming elements together effectively and add really interesting layers to music that most people approach with pretty formulaic sensibilities. well, that’s all for today’s edition of the adventures of hip hop in Birmingham – keep seeking the beats, I’ll see you all soon.

rashid

Check out the Facebook event listing.