On August 22nd I was in a thrill-seeking mood and wound up at my first rap concert – Grieves and Budo. The crowd waiting in the will call line was a small smattering of people — two 15 year-old boys were behind me talking about quitting cigarettes and slapping each other, a very stoic young man was bouncing on his toes in front of me to the heavy bass coming from inside Congress. The building sounded like the badly souped-up Honda civics with rattling trunks you see around town, just trying to impress. All the muffled beats made me wonder what was going on inside, especially if we were outside on the sidewalk.
I soon found my answer. A local DJ was spinning and he ended up running sound for the first two local Tucson rap crews that went on – The Natives Are Restless and Indigo Kids. The Natives Are Restless were pleasantly surprising as they had some varied beats and each individual of the trio could hold their own, rapping with intelligence and awareness. I can’t quite say the same for Indigo Kids, a duo who did their best to cover for technical problems by beat boxing and free styling, but falling short to the task. Halfway through their set, some racially charged comments were made by the artists and after rapping about the importance of hydration for five minutes, Indigo Kids failed to give me any kind of vessel filled with water. Thanks for nothing, guys.
A solo artist from Los Angeles, Intuition, was smooth with his music — not to mention the ladies as well. He was a badass who shared his life with us completely while keeping in rhythm the whole set. He displayed skill even when he wasn’t backed by a beat. Intuition’s songs always felt cut short, however, and seemed to end suddenly.
Grieves and Budo, as well as newcomer Connor, were very cool. Grieves’ lyrics (“I was born with the ability to see stars/ walk steady on the beat meeting each bar/ little goofy motherfucking hitting C sharp”) from No Matter What on “Together/Apart” is an astutely accurate description of the 28 year old Seattle-born rapper. The trio’s timing was perfection, using silent space during songs to build an exciting tension for when the beat came back. Budo played trumpet, electric guitar, and keys while Connor accompanied him with another guitar, smaller, keys, and a stand-alone cymbal. Live trumpet? Does it get much better than that?
Budo seemed stoked the whole time. When he exploded onto the stage and started running all over I could only think, “Who the hell is this kid?” The three had great interaction on stage and bantered constantly – at some point Budo was given the nickname “old balls” and Connor “new balls” by Grieves. Every song had a little hook or story before they started in on it, and usually Grieves would give us hints as to which song was coming up next by casually slipping the title of the song in somewhere as he spoke.
After the show, the crew talked with fans, gave hugs and took pictures, and Grieves was totally nice. The rapper can also really hold a note on his sung choruses – I had prepared myself for a Kanye-West-on-SNL scenario, but I should have known better. You should be excited about this guy because he’s not relying on a bunch of tits and ass to get him through a song – he tells a real story and uses some legitimate instrumentation.
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