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“I
love all kinds of music…well, except rap.”
This statement is both ignorant and stupid. Don’t
get me wrong, everyone is allowed to have preferences,
including dislike, but in my experience most of those
who utter said statement can’t back it up with
any decent argument. If you’re looking for a
path from ignorance and/or an introduction to a really
cool scene, I have one for you.
Thursday night I walked into Tropics, a modest Caribbean
club down on Forest Lane, and I was immediately faced
with a hanging sign advertising the house specials.
Fried Gizzard Basket $3.99. A small drum kit was the
only indication of a show about to start. The crowd
pitifully small, which is a shame, because those of
you who missed the show missed out.
 When
Astronautalis went on at midnight, he was performing
for about 20 people, of which only half were interested
in the skinnywhiteboy on stage, claiming that he could
rap. It didn’t matter.
He mixes a fast-paced rhyming style with well-timed
breaks and lyrical song, and his style is definitely
reminiscent of the East Coast sound, though you can
hear tastes of Southern flavor seeping into his work
like brandy to mince meat pie. He is MC Astronautalis.
He dominates the stage as a performer,and has teamed
up with Keith (rocking sick sick beats on the kit)
and DJ Rerog (“Ree-Roj” spinning homegrown
breakbeats).
His
freestyle will blow you away and his written word
has a beautiful focus.
The
difference: Freestyle is fun and full of hooting audience
members as they catch geek references or applaud for
a particularly clever rhyme (of which there are many);
His
written word turns the show into more of a typical
concert performance and bridges the usual head bobbing
to full body-rockin’.
Starting off with a written piece, God Was A
Hobbyist, he received a modest reaction for
a more than decent job, and quickly moved on to audience-participation.
Taking a topic from those that were shouted to him,
he proceeded to lay down a freestyle rhyme about Assassin
Smurfs. Yes, you read that correctly. Assassin Smurfs.
The highlight: after taking out Gargamel, the Assassins
moved on to Osama Bin Laden. The crowd dug it. Later
he dropped a huge ‘this guy is really good’
bomb with his Gorilla Suits freestyle, but faltered
with Depends. I can’t blame him though. Depends
is a really lame topic. All of his freestyles are
audience-suggested, and to hear a guy flow for several
minutes about any previously unknown topic is nothing
short of amazing. Astronautalis shines through.
The best of the evening was a written piece called
Garden of Fire Flys. Download it here.
I’ll wait. The message behind this song is one
of new ideas, and we should all take a hint. To get
the full effect, I suggest you check him out. He’s
a time-bomb of talent, and my pitiful vocabulary can’t
do justice to such an artist.
Next
show in Dallas: Nov. 30 @ Gypsy Tea Room (opening
for DJ Krush)
-J. Faulkner, dallasmusic.com
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