Atmosphere + Blueprint + Grieves w/ Budo – Roseland (Portland, OR; May 9, 2011)

If you want to know what the ladder to hip-hop greatness looks like, go to an Atmosphere concert and watch all the opening acts. Monday’s show was a perfect example. In short, there’s a guy who starts experimenting with records and a turntable, then he meets like-minded nascent musicians and they start a hip-hop group. They ignore the people who hate them and continue thinking they’re ‘the shit’; this attitude gets them far, but once some legitimate music producer informs them that they must change the one particularly damaging element of their act, they’re golden. They tour without having to amp up the crowd because the crowd is already stoked to see them based on reputation and musical prowess alone. Maybe they’ll still lose a few veterans, but they’re young and have much time to refine the details. Years pass, band members switch, life happens, they learn to bare their emotions while puffing themselves up; they learn timing, train their voice, and strike a balance between what pleases them and what pleases the fans. Then, they can be confident that when they walk outside of a venue before headlining a show, their fans will recognize them and feel honored to shake their hand.

DJ Abilities (of Eyedea & Abilities fame) was the guy messing around with records before it all started…before the show started, that is. He provided background music, but little else. Next were the guys who started a hip-hop group for the first time. They knew from watching their hip-hop heroes that it could be done, but spent little time practicing before opening for big names like Atmosphere and, frankly, embarrassing themselves. Sab the Artist’s hearts were in the right place, but it didn’t quite translate at this show. The audience looked stunned, confused, and anticipant as the group sang one cliché after another. “(See you through my shades)”, “(Can’t stop) Looking at girls”, and “(Me for you and you for me)” were among the worst. The trio appeared too eager, lacking the cool collectedness that should balance the performer’s passion. To end on a positive note, Sab the Artist’s EP is far more listenable, even likeable, than the live version (decide for yourself on the Horned Heat website: http://sabtheartist.com/store/).

Grieves w/Budo turned up the heat considerably. Budo (producer) was a dead-ringer for Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock) which a swath of admiring ladies peppered throughout the room had already picked up on. He ran through a gamut of musical instruments including trumpet, keyboard, tambourine, and guitar while Grieves MC’d. The boys’ rapport was charming and immediately likeable; between songs Grieves deftly juggled conversations with Budo and the audience while Budo quipped and smiled incessantly. At one point they both admitted to each other that they were “Just so fucking happy!” The young Seattle natives were indeed feeling really good about being back in the Northwest after touring through the opposite ends the country. Grieves’ confessional raps, which are reminiscent of Sage Francis, are undefensive and emotionally direct with a prominent sinister streak. The words are delivered with urgency, like there could never be enough time to express everything swimming around in his mind. Fortunately, a record of these thoughts, that the duo have been “working on for two years”, called Together/Apart, will finally be released in on June 11th.

Another Rhymesayers artist, Blueprint, performed next, proving himself as the most experimental of the lineup. Synths, keyboards, drum-machines, and guitars accompanied the Soul Position front-man/DJ/Producer as he combined R&B vocals with hip-hop beats and rock-and-roll instrumentals. The combination was intriguing, but difficult to latch onto in a live setting.

Asking for enthusiasm was totally unnecessary for Slug (aka Sean Daley). Atmosphere’s front-man has done his work, and now he can enjoy the simplicity of walking onto a stage prepped and cushioned with uproarious applause. But he doesn’t slack off – he humbly extends his thanks back to his fans as if it could disappear at any moment. “The same people I shook hands with outside before the show are up here in the front row. Would you catch me if I jumped?” They concurred. Segueing from a brief homage to his fans, Slug hit one of many high points during “Shrapnel” – a metaphor-rich song about love, grief, and the struggle to find one’s own sense of self-worth. Highs and low alike, he didn’t hesitate to cool things off with acapellas and (instrumentally) naked spoken-word numbers like “Guarantees” (“No overtime pay no holiday/Months behind on everything but the lottery/Went around the corner guaranteeing that my car died /Wifey having trouble juggling both the part times/My cup aint close to filled up/We trying to build up so we can have enough…/The only guarantee in life is a life worth dying for, ‘cause death don’t wait for no one”). Slug most effectively communicated his experience with simultaneous hardship and hopefulness with “Sunshine” – a memorably heartbreaking and uplifting song about “Giving in to win (“There’s that light that I forgot I possessed…/If I could I would keep this feeling in a plastic jar/Bust it out whenever someone’s actin’ hard”).” He later wove a monologue about his one-year-old son and a woman who “Spread her wings to fly” – meaning hitching a plane to the UK, and flexed his rhyme-abilty with “Modern Man’s Hustle”: “Who cares what Jane says? She always spits the same spit/I’d rather kill the radio then listen to the rain hit…/Riding the outer ring of your own private Saturn/Thoughts scattered all across the grey matter.” Continuing the story, he announced: “Cut those strings, I’m not your puppet!” – rousing everyone to hold up their “scissors” and cut the strings.

After a speech about creating a small community for one night – “All of us coming here and creating a temporary city because we love music, or for whatever reason; to smile and get laid or just to leave your problems out there;” Slug uttered something that, judging from the mass applause, rang true for many of his fans: “This is as close to church as some of us are gonna get.” And for all our sake’s, I’m glad music and poetry (not church) resulted as his atmosphere of choice. 

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