by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
If any other night club or bar tried to pull off a nice night of rapping by white people, I would scoff them publicly and this would be quite a different article, but when TSI does something, you can count on it to be on the cutting edge. When S.K.I.P took the stage, I thought it was Hip Hop Hell, a popular freestyling night that happens at various clubs on various nights of the week, and someone let a skinny white kid take his shot on the mic. As the evening progressed, however, I realized that this lot of white rappers wasn’t just an unusually pale night of Hip Hop Hell. I realized it because I came across a flashy full color flyer for the show. Instead of advertising, this flyer was more of a program that listed the strange spellings and acronyms of the names of groups (or emcees) featured in the show.
People say that TSI, the hipster nightclub on Bay Street in downtown, is inaccessible. Everyone there is too cool. But the truth is that the owners and staff of the place are really welcoming to every sort of person. The people that go there can be a little snooty on some nights, when the place is packed to the gills with hipsters, but the place itself is nice. It’s uptown chic without being stoic and strange. It’s low-lit with original art painted directly on the walls and a round stage, but it also has a room with pool tables and they bring in some of the best underground bands. So when they put hip-hop on stage, I’m at least curious about what this particular hip-hop has to offer.
Astronautalis was the headliner. Hailing from Jax Beach, Astronautalis does a mish mash of genres performed alone on stage. Although cast as hip-hop, and his freestyling skills are legendary, his music is a concoction made of Tom Waits, the Pogues, Red Man, and Coldplay. Add that to his own flavor, even though that mix is fairly distinctive on its own. He’s a little self-involved and comes across as arrogant, so he has plenty of hip-hop in him, but his set is deeply personal. I am usually impressed by his passionate delivery and innovative rhymes.
But the standout performer of the show was definitely Joe Beats and Blak, and I’m not just saying that because Blak was the only black guy on stage that night. I’m saying that because Joe Beats was the most amazing thing I’ve witnessed at a hip-hop show. The last time I thought that was the first time I saw Astronautalis and how deftly and confidently he could take phrases the audiences provided and concoct them into confident, seemingly thought-out rhymes utilizing these impromptu suggestions.
This time it wasn’t the rapping that inspired me, although Blak was like an impassioned, young Mos Def, it was the beats that Joe Beats made. Using two samplers, Joe made most of the beats live. Joe mixed and made beats live while Blak rapped. During intense hip-hop instrumental, he was mixing every drum strike and sound by the push of the button.
Joe Beats set up in the middle of the dance floor, since the crowd was a bunch of laid back white kids afraid of the throb of a big city club, and Blak invited everyone to step up and watch as Joe Beats danced his hands on a series of light-up buttons on two samplers to create a break beat that was both basic and avant-garde. His rhythms felt new and fresh in a world where beats are laid on us by every television commercial and radio break since MC Hammer.
Check out Joe Beats on joebeats.com or go to his myspace at www.myspace.com/joeynosebeats. The concoctions featured on these websites are not even close to what he does live, but it does give you a good idea about what this artist is capable of. Since DJ Shadow broke, there hasn’t been anything this worthwhile coming from the underground hip-hop scene. He is a true musician and a deft composer of primitive and soulful songs on a complex device.Once again, TSI has not let me down. Even without the best live music setup in town, they have consistently delivered quality live acts that don’t cease to impress.
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