by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
This has been a common bill around the old town lately as these Hip Hop Hell regulars have been making the circuit. From TSI to Endo Exo, these hip-hoppers have been making some serious rounds underlining their names to the community ever since the Grind 2 Shine documentary about the local rap scene hit the big screen at the Florida Theatre.
Now I know I am getting old when EU sends me to a hip-hop show at Jack Rabbits, and I’m all decked out in my Wu-Wear and droopy drawers, but I get sucked into the muted episode of 30 Rock on the bar television. Squinting to read the subtitles through a haze of menthol cigarette smoke (Menthol as a style choice for hip-hoppers, not a racial statement.) In fact most Rob Roy shows are pretty white-kid friendly, but one at Jack Rabbits is especially so.
In Jacksonville there is the glitzy side of hip-hop (we’ll call that style Kartouche) and then there is the artsy side (we’ll call that Triple H) and then there’s Swordz. By incorporating rock music in his krunk set, he pulls in that creative and live side of the Triple H crew, but with those flyers that are always bling on black with Zs and Ys where other letters should be, he also has his share of Kartouche. This elusive artist always manages to escape my critique. Honky as I may be, I am a big fan of hip-hop and have been waiting a long time to add Swordz to my lexicon of local acts. Unfortunately, every time I have come out to see him, I have missed his set for one reason or another and this “12 Days of Christmas” performance was no exception.
Usually when Jack Rabbits says the show starts at 9, it starts on the button, but on this night I arrived at the scheduled 9:30 start time and waited an hour an a half for Swordz to start up the show. When my third beer started to taunt my empty stomach, I took a quick run up the street to grab a bite and came back to the applause following his set. Maybe I’ll never see him live.
The ABs delivered that traditional hip-hop show that true fans of the form can appreciate. With Jacksonville stalwarts, Therapy and Willie Evans Jr, this group is bound to get their rhymes and beats right. As Asamov, this now five-piece group climbed from being almost unknowns to being the locals with all of the buzz about major labels. After some struggles with the estate of Isaac Asimov, the band was forced to change their name to The Alias Brothers (The ABs) and their pass-the-mic style is as fun as a Beastie Boys show and almost as inspired as Wu-Tang.
Rob Roy is artsy without losing his street qualities. His experimental trip-hop, sometimes R&B, is tightly slung and intelligent under the pretentious façade of hip-hop’s arrogance. That arrogance is generally more Kartouche than Triple H, but Rob Roy manages to maintain a down-to-earth demeanor without compromising the machismo necessary for success on the hip-hop stage. He’s always personally gracious without sacrificing hip. This character was underlined tonight by his Russian fur cap and Christmas sweater. As per usual, his off-beat beats and circular rhymes were a standout part of the night’s sets, but the best performance of the night, and it especially impacted me since I hadn’t seen him before, was Astronautilis.
This skinny white boy commanded the stage, in front of a crowd full of true hip-hop artists and fans, with only his laptop, his charisma, and his unique style. In addition to his “party trick” of freestyling about topics provided by the audience, and this feat is truly remarkable, his set was intense and surprisingly skilled, even without that part of the show. Sounding like part DMX and part Sticky Fingaz as he spat out his rhymes, the rapping part of his songs was exceptional, but then, to juxtapose those verses, he added a chorus that sounded like an Irish bar fight between Tom Waits and The Pogues, with dirge-like melodies sung in a harsh rasp.
Astronautilis moved too fast for your eyes to catch up and his impassioned songs were gripping and compelling. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of his set was the tribute he gave to the others that he was sharing the stage with that night. His talent is outstanding, and his career is worth watching. This show marked Rob Roy’s farewell performance, so there was an unusually somber undertone to it. Roy is going to Salt Lake City to get into a studio and start putting together his first full-length solo album. Although he will be missed, Jacksonville is home to Rob Roy and you can be certain that we will see him again. Athough this was his “official” last show, he will appear a few more times in town.
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