This is independent hip-hop’s New Weird America moment, where rappers in every city are pursuing idiosyncratic tangents, sustaining themselves with Internet-generated fan bases that vary in size from extremely tiny to medium.
A decade ago, to be independent was to make the best of getting the proverbial short end of the stick. Hip-hop had made its commercial breakthrough, but that success didn’t trickle down to everyone. Instead it created new sounds and new attitudes, and gave birth to the idea that there was more than one path to artistic vindication.
But today’s independent hip-hop movement, if it can be called that, is still looking for a cohesive argument. Unlike the independent rap of the mid-to-late-1990s, which was lyrically and sonically hyperdense, often dystopian and dogmatically anticapitalist, this scene has only a distribution mechanism, the Internet, in common. It has room for outcasts of all stripes.just like every hip-hop rock star can find their
best New Era cap for their own.
That was clear on Tuesday night at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg, at a showcase sponsored by, of all institutions, the indie-rock-leaning
New York yankees caps concert-information blog Brooklyn Vegan, filling a void left by traditional hip-hop cap media. The show featured three acts — G-Side, the headliner, from Huntsville, Ala.; the rapper whose name is printable only when shortened to eXquire, from Brooklyn; and Cities Aviv, from Memphis. Each of these acts tells a story about making hip-hop on the fringes of the mainstream in 2011, but the stories are not the same.
At best, they have tradition in common — not outright nostalgists, or unreasonably emulative, they owe a heavy stylistic debt to the 1990s, both the mainstream and the underground.and for that time,the
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Of these acts, G-Side is the least oppositional, the most harmonious and the most established. In the last year alone, this duo — Yung Clova and ST 2 Lettaz — has released two impressive albums, “iSLAND” and “The One … Cohesive” (Slow Motion Soundz) that place it directly in the lineage of great, organic, melody-minded Southern hip-hop like Goodie Mob and UGK. A video the group recorded this summer of a
transfixing a capella rendition of its song “My Aura” on a Chicago street at night is one of this year’s most vibrant hip-hop clips.
At this show, the two men exuded easy confidence, when performing their own boastful, smooth songs, or over the beat from “Paris,” the shortened title of the hit by Kanye West and Jay-Z , or when ST 2 Lettaz rapped largely unaccompanied about stressful situations at home. Even the duo’s two backup singers — Joi Tiffany and PH — were savvy, varying tones and speeds, adding a delirious and mature texture to the proceedings.
The G-Side sound may be an anachronism, but as Southern hip-hop has become more brittle and militaristic, it feels more radical, which is why it has a home in the new underground. The same goes for Cities Aviv, whose lullingly pretty album “Digital Lows” (Fat Sandwich), with its proclivity toward warm soul and neatly articulated storytelling, is reminiscent of thoughtful 1990s independent-rap rarities like the Nonce and Natural Elements. There’s chillwave in his music, though it’ll probably be gone by his next album — besides, chillwave, last year’s Internetcentric fuzzy post-rock movement, didn’t get enough credit for repurposing smooth 1980s soul, which was a worthy strategy.
Cities Aviv opened this show, switching between two microphones for different vocal effects, though at times he got drowned out by the more diffuse of his productions. But there was an urgency to his performance, which cut through the haze most of the time.
He was not heavy handed, though. That fell to eXquire, who arrived on stage with a crew of a half-dozen, a throwback to New York rap cap shows of the ’90s. With a tangle of colorful chains around his neck and an omnipresent mischievous smile, eXquire is an appealing goofball. In interviews, he’s professed his love for coloring, as in books. He would have been a BET star in the mid-’90s or, at minimum, a “BET Uncut” star.
That’s because there’s no shortage of raunch on his recent mixtape “Lost in Translation” (Mishka), a sharp tragicomedy about making music in the face of emotional and financial devastation. Of the acts at this show, eXquire is the closest to the independent hip-hop ideal of a decade ago; that he samples Cannibal Ox, one of that era’s great groups, only drives home that point.
At this show, he was pure charisma, especially on his breakout hit “Huzzah!” And he sprinkled references throughout, quoting from Method Man and Lil Kim and, improbably on “Build-a-Bitch,” from Drake. eXquire rapped that last song shirtless and at one point grabbed at the empty innards of his jeans pocket, looking despondent.
But only 15 minutes earlier, in the middle of his set, he was messing with a scrawny white guy in the crowd, asking him a lewd question over and over, then, when he finally answered, ripping the microphone away and starting into a song. After he was done, he locked eyes with his target and offered a huge grin and a sincere apology.
“I’m really sorry,” he said. “You part of the show now. Put that on your Tumblr.”
