...the hip hop stop in cleveland

It has been several days since I checked out the Dabryre (pronounced DAUB-bree) show @ the Grog Shop in Cleveland. There were two opening acts on the bill including Percee P. I can't recall the name of the first act, but I was diggin them. It was a multi-media turntablist deal with two guys. The on screen images appeared a bit weird to me - it was some sort of Asian flick, but since I caught this act toward the end, I may have missed the commentary about the accompanying film short.

The middle act was Percee P. I must admit, I'd never heard of Percee P before last Thursday evening, but he's been out there for a bit. I really enjoyed his set. He gave enough background info about himself and he was truly pimpin his cds; he was truly gettin his hustle on. I did purchase his "Throwback Rap Attack" cd. It only has three tracks on it and they are all remixes, but I like them all. His full cd is called "Perseverance," but I don't think it is complete and it has not release date.

Percee's dj was pretty cool too. He was getting his dance on while Percee throw out his rhymes. Unfortunately I can't remember his dj's name, but he did give me a complimentary cd called "Kan Zulu AKA Presents Bored in the Crates Homage." I have not listened to it yet, but he tells me that it is all beats and I likes me some beats.

Oh, about Percee P's set, it was really nice. He seemed to perform snippets of his tracks, but I liked his delivery. Sort of reminded me of Rakim; very much old school and you know that everything old is new again ... ?

Now on to the headliner, Dabrye. He was good. He had Kadence as his frontman. It was a nice set, but it was a bit anti-climatic and Dabrye did not come off as the headliner. He seemed a bit reserved and as a result the show seemed to be missing something - like excitement and enthusiasm. However, Kadence is off the chain! He really knows how to command the stage - not to mention that he is a bit burly physically. I absolutely love his lyrics. He puts much thought into what he says and how he says it. I wish I could give you an example, but he says his cd is still in the works with no release date in sight. You can check him out on track #4 of Dabrye's disk, "Encoded Flow." Kadence is on my radar.

My final note about the Dabrye show in Clev, is/was that it was sparsely populated. Where in the hell is the support for true hip hop? I guess if you are not talking about the size of a woman's ass or your grill, folks will not pay $8 to see you perform live! And people in Cleveland wonder why they get a bad rap ... whatever!

Oh, but let me tell you ... I did check out a club after I went to the Dabrye show. It was 'crunk' and just plain ole out of control. I have not seen a sight like this in some time, heck since I was commandeering the mic back in the day. It did remind me of the Club Squeeze days in Buffalo - the club wall to wall mainly with young people who could care less if they reek alcohol the next day at work. The women show alot of skin; the men gawk at you when you try to meander past them; everyone wobbles out to the club at closing time ... Then there was the 2 a.m. car show complete with 'the booming systems' - crazy! It was not my scene at all, but it was a scene to be seen and that's not a bad thing, just the way things went down on a hot summer night in downtown Cleveland. There is nothing like free entertainment. And btw, who says young people are irresponsible. I overheard one visibly drunk female state to her friend, 'can you drive? I'm too drunk.'

That's all for now ... embrace a hip hop show near you and stay true, kfox