Yo, D’O and I just completed the first date of our short tour to promote our new single Come Find Out, hitting Adelaide and linking up with Social Change from Butterthief family to rock the V.High.P Jam 8 at the Crown & Sceptre venue. It was a dope trip and really re-highlighted for me how vibrant and productive the SA scene continues to be in 2010. We met and built with a number of artists from veterans such as Bdeps and 2Biz to enthusiastic up-and-comers like Jekyl and Grifters Inc. We stopped by the Best Kept Secret show on 3D radio with Stej and Harvey Dent – dudes holding it down in the community radio scene down there. It’s timely, following our trip, to word you up about some new and upcoming releases coming outta Adelaide.
On the jump off, Fat Pockets aka DJ Snair and Funkwig from Social Change present their latest Butterthief Phattape which features a bunch of exclusive material from the likes of Social Change, K21, Dialect, Chris Bass, Crossbred Mongrels, 2Biz and Mesha. The release is a precursor to the forthcoming LP from Social Change which is due later this year and their new tunes were sounding massive live, with Joe killing it with the mic presence, crowd control and rapid fire flow. Snair always dominates on the cuts and Funkwig holds it down on the MPC (is there anyone faster on the pads?). In fact, Social Change are scheduled to roll into town as part of the Tri-State Hip-Hop Jam that the Mercury Switch crew are putting on at the Transit Bar on Saturday May 22 along with Choose Mics and Dialect.
Speaking of Dialect, dude is a beast on the mic and impressed us in Adelaide with a number of razor sharp freestyles. He’s definitely one to watch in 2010 with his second LP just on the horizon. It’s a collaboration with producer Despair and features Delta, Social Change and Motion on guest vocals. Really looking forward to this one and predicting it will be one of the standout releases of 2010.
The more rugged and raw tip is Evolve who impressed with his no-holds-barred old school aesthetic. Dude really speaks his mind and epitomises the ‘move-the-crowd’ motif. He’s a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of cat and recently released his debut LP The Dirt Merchant through Battlehogs/Snipershot. With heavy head-rocking percussion supplied by Trials, Conceps & Beats, K21 and Sublime, Evolve has also enlisted a who’s who of militant MC styles on the assist from the likes of Conceps, Mids, K21, Realizm and Mortar. If you like your sounds heavy and neck-cracking you should give his tunes a listen.
Grifters Inc have been bubbling around the Adelaide scene for a minute now, hustling a number of limited pressed EPs hand to hand at shows, and I managed to grab a copy of their latest offering Checkout Chicks, Bargirls and Goths. For a young duo, they exhibit a real professionalism and maturity, and their music has a heavy Atmosphere influence.
Gotta give props also to One Above who opened the night with a showcase of instrumentals from his forthcoming LP. He also recently won the beat battle in Adelaide too, and from what I heard on the night, I’m expecting some really nice sounds on his LP coming with that dusty blunted style.
Anyway, that’s my rant for the month – hope to see you all out at shows in Canberra in May and don’t forget to tune to 2XX 98.3FM every Tuesday from 9.30pm to hear from all the above releases and more.
Roshambo
