J Rod
J Rod is a 14-year-old rapper who looks 9. It's a somewhat comical sight to see him on stage bouncing around because he just looks so small and young commanding a whole stage by himself. Now, I'm not going to hate on a kid so young. He shows potential with a competent flow and a heaping helping of charisma. His vocal presence leaves a little to be desired, but he really enjoys himself up there and you can't knock that. In a few years, we'll see where he's at. I looked for his music on YouTube, but his name is too generic, couldn't find anything.
Will Abele
Will Abele
Will Abele (pronounced like "able") is someone I had seen back in the summer, playing hypeman to P. Win (who we'll discuss later) as Win opened for Tech N9ne, and later on I saw them both again opening for Stevie Stone. Something has definitely changed since then, because I was completely unimpressed both times. Now, this venue (a small club called the Outland Ballroom) had a better sound system than the Stone show did, and I paid more attention than I did at the Tech show, which may have something to do with it, but it even seemed to be more musically sound than before. His whole steez seems to be "white Flo-Rida" with some of the beats he raps over being complete Europop, so it's very trendy and rather unoriginal, but I'm not mad at the actual performance aspect of it. He has a very sound flow, a good stage presence, and his lyrics are above average. He even performed a slower, more introspective song with Nelly-esque sing-song flow that I actually rather liked. He's definitely improved significantly over the past few months and it was a solid showing for him. Again, no luck finding his music on the 'Tube.
DJ Mr. Kristopher
This kid is just a dubstep/house DJ. He doesn't rap or anything, but he had a good mix of some club tracks mixed with hip hop that had the crowd moving, and was enjoyable to watch. The music itself borderline hurt my ears (not a fan of all this house/Europop stuff) but his music was well-done and it was a good show. Nothing much else to say.
Yung Bar/Newgoon
Ces Cru came into the club to bring out gear to their merchandise booth and sign autographs, so sorry kids, I didn't watch either of your acts.
Mask & Glove
At some point during either the Yung Bar or Newgoon set (I don't know who was who so I don't know who performed second) Ces Cru left the room again, and I approached the stage to check out Mask & Glove. First of all, I found out they were unaffiliated with Win Entertainment and second of all, WOW. Everything about this was dope as HELL. Excellent rapping, commanding microphone and stage presence, no lip-syncing at all (you could see the veins popping out on their necks and their faces turning red as they spit every bar without any sign of vocal weakness, and this was LYRICAL music). It was traditional hip hop, even with an actual DJ doing cuts and scratches, not just playing Mr. Replay. His name was DJ Nick Fury, and while I'm uncertain due to information I've found on them since if he is their full-time DJ, he was VERY good. (They also kept repeatedly pointing out that "this is a real DJ" to the point I almost wondered if they were taking shots at Mr. Kristopher or the other DJs there who didn't even use turntables during their sets.) Anyway, this was EXTREMELY impressive. I don't know where to find their group music, but one of the two MCs, Loogey, has a mixtape you can download here, and here is a track featuring both MCs on Brief's SoundCloud. And I have a YouTube clip:
P Win
As I said with Will Abele, I'd seen him twice prior to this show, once as the opener for Tech N9ne and once as the opener for Stevie Stone. Neither time was I impressed. But, since Will Abele managed to show out and change my opinion of him a little, I had every expectation that P Win, as the most-hyped artist associated with Win Entertainment, might do the same. Well, to make a long story short, he didn't. This is now the second time Win has gotten to be the closing act for Win Entertainment and been shown up by someone that had to go up before him (last time was Springfield's own Playmakers at the Stevie Stone show, also Win Entertainment artists who were in St. Louis opening for Method Man on this night--having beaten out P Win himself for the chance at a local "battle of the bands" event). The thing about P Win is that he's a small, young white boy who is CLEARLY a Stevie Stone fan, as he attempts to incorporate Stevie's flow, stage moves, and Midwestern drawl, and none of this suits his voice or look. For those that don't know, Stevie Stone sounds like this and there are very few that can pull that sound off. Win is not one of them. But, he's a young guy, he enjoys himself on stage, and he's achieving some success so I can't hate, but he does definitely need to find his own sound as a performer if he wants his success to take him to a higher level. He's been invited to tour with St. Louis rapper Spaide Ripper this year (some of you might recognize that name from Scarface's My Homies compilation album), so I guess he's doing alright for himself, but I'm not on the bandwagon. Here's a video of him trying too hard.
Ces Cru
And now for the main event, and they even brought along Tech N9ne's own intro guy Scenario to do his patented "official shit-talker of Strange Music" bit. Any time Scenario is around, you're going to be entertained, the dude is hilarious and an excellent emcee/hypeman and even occasional DJ. Ces were joined by Stevie Stone's DJ P-Caso, and they immediately launched into their patented multisyllabic rhymes, performing nearly every selection from their Strange Music debut EP 13 as well as some older selections from their respective solo mixtapes and their previous full-length The Playground. Again, there were no tricks here, as the Cru spit every syllable without even a hint of a vocal track playing in the background, and although they don't engage too much in the on-stage theatrics and choreography of their label boss, they command the stage in their own way, simply with their tongue-twisting rhyme schemes and incredible flows. Ubiquitous and Godemis each took a solo turn, with Ubi performing his solo track "Swing Set" from Playground and Godi performing a selection from his The Deevil mixtape (unfortunately I can't now remember which one). They had some simple choreography incorporated for 13's "Colosseum", and stunned the crowd with their flows on the tongue-twisting "It's Over" and "Ion Dat". I have to say, these guys may not do the triple-time thing, but there is a lot of double-time rapping and complicated rhymes, and they did not flub so much as a word, and it was impressive as hell to see. Finally, for the closer they performed crowd favorite "4 Nothin'", which is rap performed as a round, something I've never heard anywhere else. This song has the potential to be the equivalent of Tech N9ne's "Stamina" as a crowd-pleaser and attention-getter, and once again there was not so much as a hint of mistake in the performance. Ubiquitous is more of a natural showman than Godemis, but throughout, they both impress constantly with their crowd-moving abilities, and I have every reason to believe they'll bring even more of this to the Independent Powerhouse Tour this spring. Check out the tour schedule here and see if they'll be in your city, this is a must-see.
I leave you with the only song that they didn't perform of those I was hoping to see.
P.S. Download Godemis's solo mixtape, The Deevil and Ubiquitous's solo Matter Don't Money for free to get a feel for what they do. Neither tape is as good as their group material, but they're packed with bars and give more of an insight into their individual personalities than the group work does.
