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All the chatter about the 50th birthday of hip-hop has been wonderful to experience. But to truly get at the essence of what has turned this genre from an underground sensation into the driving cultural force of our modern age, your best bet is to see the music live and in person. And there was no better example of hip-hop’s breadth and reach than the show that packed out the Star Theater last Wednesday.
The gig was ostensibly a celebration of the 30th birthday of 93 ‘til Infinity, the debut album by Oakland rap group Souls of Mischief. The quartet has been on the road pretty much nonstop since March honoring this anniversary, and anticipation for their arrival in Portland has been high. Wednesday’s performance sold out fast, leading promoters to tack on a second date the night before. The group acknowledged that fact in their set, promising to give a little extra to thank folks that bought tickets early. True or not, the group was road tight and bounding with energy as they hit their call-and-response raps with well-rehearsed ease.
To more fully grasp hip-hop’s impact on the Northwest music community, the artists joining Souls of Mischief on the bill painted a clear picture. Directing traffic was DJ Klyph who welcomed to the stage two fine representatives of hip-hop’s past and present: Boom Bap Project and Bad Habitat. The former is a sharp-tongued duo that returned to the scene after a long hiatus and lost none of their wry wit or streetwise truth in the process. The latter, a young, goofy multicultural group that dresses like they hit the stage after a trip to the beach, pepper their songs with pop culture references and feature DJ LadyX, an all-too-rare female presence behind the decks. Voices like theirs are guarantees that hip-hop will remain relevant and refreshed for decades to come.
