Oregon Music News

This past Saturday Grayskul came down to Portland to kick off a tour for their new Graymaker album. They started the night visiting Someone Gallery where fellow Oldominion rapper Sleep was doing an in-store performance. The store was open late to showcase the handmade recycled jewelry designs of Marley Avritt.  A number of local rappers were there to perform, including Daps, Diction, Existance and Bad Habitat.

Sleep took the microphone and delivered passionate, rapid-fire songs for the small crowd. Leaving the gallery everyone packed into a few cars and headed over to Slabtown for the kickoff and Taxidermy Records launch party.

Gepetto opened the night with a quick set of his intelligent bangers and loosened up the crowd with his party track “Bring the Funk.” Diction took the stage along with Scotty from Raise the Bridges, who sang backup on a few of his tracks.

Next up was Eddie Valiant for their first real show since forming last year. They combine sequenced beats, live drums, two singers and one rapper. They weave rock, blues, soul and hip hop with carefully structured songs. One singer is bluesy and the other could be fronting an indie rock band, while MC Graves from Nightcrawlers rhymed powerfully in the space between them. The overall sound really appealed to the audience who danced and shouted for the performers.

The next artist up was Brahma Lagah, who will be opening up on the Graymaker Tour. He kicks psychedelic free-form poetry in a harder, east coast style. Raise the Bridges assembled their five piece band and their hip hop influenced Cali-rock sound got the crowd moving. Bastard Patriots got on stage and tore through their aggressive set of politically charged music, finishing with a great song “Peace” where MC Randolf Mctools says peace to everyone in as many ways as you could think of, while getting people to raise peace signs and chant along with him.

Grayskul opened their set with an extended music video premier on the projector.  The lights came up and Onry Ozzborn and JFK took the stage. They pointed to the DJ and said “You know who this is? This is Maker, and he came all the way from Chicago for this, so turn up the beats and make some noise!” The volume went up along with cheers from the audience, but the sound system was clearly not made for Hip Hop. Maker’s beats knocked hard regardless, and the emcees launched into a set of material off their new record, Grayskul classics, and a new song that is going to be in the next season of True Blood.

JFK bounced around the stage at the pace of his rapid multi-syllable rhyme schemes while Onry played the solid role delivering his more somber rap style and commanding the audience to throw their hands up and make noise. After their set, they stuck around till closing to kick it with friends and talk to fans until Slabtown closed the gates and sent us all home.

When I got to the Calabash the house was already packed and in party mode. Big Daddy XL from the Fabulous Saturdays crew was hosting and made it known why we were all there: Flawless from Bad Habitat was celebrating his birthday and IAME was in the house. Local rappers, friends and people who just came out for dope jams filled the room.

Matriarx opened the night, two ladies who trade rhymes and sing soul harmonies. They don’t shy away from the label “conscious rap” and deliver straightforward positivity between sweetly sung choruses. It was a welcome event to see female emcees on the typically male dominated stage of a rap show. Though they just recently got together, their voices are strong and left me interested to know where they are headed.

Daps of Nightcrawlers brought out his new solo set that rips through stories of personal struggle, growth and world madness with a street perspective. Diction came out and swaggered through essay-like songs about politics and independent action. Jimmy Fontaine of Fabulous Saturdays kicked funny, braggadocious rhymes to drink along with, and Tru Game finally got the ladies dancing, with four guys on stage, trading smooth rhymes in between radio-friendly vocal melodies.

Flawless was killing it despite partying like it was his birthday. He rocked solo songs, then amped the crowd with his partners Trafek and Dru Manchu as Bad Habitat. These guys have a strong dynamic together, between harder verses and humor, and clearly they were having a great time throwing down for their crowd.

IAME took the stage and every rapper in attendance stood up to pay attention. Affiliated with both local crews Oldominion and Sandpeople, IAME is well-recognized for his standout voice. He has been grinding on stages much larger than the Calabash for long enough to immediately get in sync with a crowd – hands went up on his call and heads nodded along to the heavy beats. He rocked a mix of classic verses and songs as well as material off his new album I Am My Enemy. His style breaks it down hard but he doesn’t claim any false rep, and goes into detail about where he is from (Lake Oswego) and where his will to rap perfection has taken him. His lyrics are creative, funny, introspective and ready to party. “Heaven Metal”, a track he introduced from his new record, explains it fairly well: with 12 years of experience / and work I’ve earned my peers respect / I’m not perfect but I got the purest intent. A rappers rapper, IAME finished with a thank you and an invitation to join him on stage and freestyle, in a perfect show of support for the open platform that is Hip Hop.