18/03/03 – The ‘Bassments of Badmen: Volume 2’ may just be one of the
hottest compilation albums throughout the underground scene in Toronto
right now.
On Monday night, Hand’Solo Records held a release party for the album
that includes the likes of Bending Mouth, The Tooning Spork, SJ the
Wordburglar, Megalynk 3 and more.
Hosted by Fritz tha Cat (one crazy dude in my, as well as many others’,
opinion), the night was packed by ‘future’…to steal Mindbender’s word.
The Tooning Spork was the first crew to hit the stage. Made up of three
men, Orientid, Awristoscratch and Human, this group brings more of that
underground flavour that’s coming up through the ranks of the Toronto
hip-hop scene. Inventive, creative and all other –ive words can be used
to describe these cats.
For example, they started off their set with Orientid on stage claiming
that the other two weren’t there yet. Awristo came up on stage and they
gave each other a high-five, only to have fellow Nextra brother come up on
stage to advertise Chunky Soup… ‘The soup that’s too thick for a spoon, and
too creamy for a fork, so you need to use a Spork!’
All of a sudden, out of the crowd came a man dressed in stripes with a
mask on. What was he doing there? Was he going to steal some rhymes from
the bags of other performers? Yep. He’s SJ the Wordburglar…he burgles words.
In ‘Burglaration’, produced by the Beat Mason, he uses a sample of
Smurfette wanting to ‘smurferbate’. Imaginative sampling and straight-up
weird rhymes kept the heads rocking.
DJ Danimal kept the crowd entertained between sets throughout the night,
as well as held it down on the wheels during some of the performances. If
you haven’t checked his mixing out yet, hunt him down, buy his cd, and enjoy.
This cat is hype.
Ill Seer, what more can be said? He came in with a TV entourage from some
station to do an interview and videotape his performances. Congratulate him
next time you meet up, because he’s engaged now.
Bringing his always-entertaining hard word flow, Seer performed many
favourites including ‘Theory vs. Practice’ along with Vangel.
Vangel kicked a lot of remixes to old tunes from the ‘Leaving Home’ album
he and Dorc put out a while ago, as well as a few new tracks that will
definitely be included in their next LP (no release date yet).
Out of London, ON, Toolshed brought some more of that hard-hitting rap
that’s taking over the underground. Choke, Timbuktu and Psyborg make up this
trio. Hype choruses and ill verses create rhythmatic sounds to please any
hip-hop fan.
With a combination of three tracks on ‘Bassments of Badmen’, Bending Mouth
(Thesis and Self Help) delivered a great performance. Filled with their unusual
singing-like rhyme flow and exuberance, their set was quite energetic. These
two are ‘weird’ (in a good way), to put in mildly.
The second to last performance of the night was by Creature Box. They're
another trio off the compilation and bring a whole new style to the table.
All master of their own instruments/turntables, their intro was a mixture of
an organ, tables and a beat-box. Fresh rhymes and hard beats kept the crowd
entertained.
Mindbender capped off the night with a stellar performance. He even brought
Vangel and Fritz up on stage to perform the track they made as a unit,
‘Bury the Bodies’.
At the beginning of the night, Fritz was mad nervous, filled with thoughts
that he’d blunder his verse. He wasn’t even sure when he was supposed to kick it.
Back to Bender. Whether acapella or with a beat, he had the heads that
remained in the place rocking. He even kicked the track that features Eternia
without her even being there. Ah, the power of technological recording apparatuses.
Keeps your ears, eyes and wallets open for this compilation.