Romancing the Stones Throw
I know I haven’t written about my week in New York yet. Tomorrow, I promise. In the meantime, I wrote a show review for the LA Times about a Stones Throw label showcase that turned into an impromptu tribute to J Dilla. Considering I’d arrived in LA just two hours prior to the show’s start time, I wasn’t really into it initially, but when Guilty Simpson came on-stage at about 10:00, things started to pick up. I’m not sure how far Guilty will go without Dilla beats, but he was surprisingly pretty good the other night.
Percee P followed and damn near stole the show with a phenomenal performance (despite being out of his Gray’s Papaya comfort zone). I wouldn’t sleep on his two months old Madlib-produced Perseverance record either. It’s very solid: raw lyrics and brilliant technical skills and soulful, stoned beats. Plus, you gotta’ respect the fact that the dude spent the entirety of Peanut Butter Wolf’s set hustling his CD in the crowd. As for Madlib, he was everything you’d expect. High as hell, weird and ferociously original. While the mainstream press fawns over Kanye and Timbaland like they invented the 808, Madlib might just be every bit as innovative. Of course, I technically wrote the article for a mainstream press outlet, so maybe we should all just disregard that previous statement and focus on how much fun it is to say “Gray’s Papaya,” out loud. Say it with me, “Gray’s Papaya.”
Los Angeles Times Review of Stones Throw Showcase
Download:
From NBA 2K8: B-Ball Zombie War
MP3: Madlib-”The Wigflip”
From Perseverance
MP3: Percee P ft. Aesop Rock-”The Dirt & Filth”
MP3: Percee P ft. Chali 2na-”No Time For Jokes”
November 12th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I liked your story in the Times, in fact I’m glad the Times even gave room to underground … err, indie … rap. However, I don’t know about Percee P, man. His hustle definitely gets an A+ from me, but his music is sub-par. That said, I am basing that on what I heard from a pre-Perseverance mixtape. Thanks to you now I have to go and actually listen to Perseverance.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Yeah, I was surprised to like it as much as I did. Madlib has some great great beats on there. Percee’s pretty one-note as a rapper but it’s a pretty great note.