Lyricist lounge hit atlanta last night. . .
by Correct
via the HipHop Mailing List

Here's the breakdown: the open mic had some dope mcs. . . and some not sodope mcs. . . one cat who looked like a tupac impersonator tried to rip it but was so terrible that one cat tried to wrestle the mic from him. . .

hosted by xzibit, which is about all i can say, except that xzibit may be the most OVERRATED mc out there. . .

first act was rah sun, which everyone knew was gonna be shitty when they came out yellin "where da thugs at?" at one point one cat said, "i don't think atlanta wants to hear me freestyle" "no they don't want that dog"and proceeded to kick the sorriest prewritten shit . . . they left the stage to the sound of laughter and booing . . .

next was the syndicate. . . tey had skills, but their voices reminded meof some horrible group that would be on at the end of BETs comedy show

then natural elements came out. these cats were dope. . . they werepiss drunk, but they still had skills. they started off with mayday offof lyricist lounge vol 1. they went on to explain that even though theywere on a major (tommy boy) now that they were still true to hiphop andthe underground.

next was dead prez. outstanding group of mc, spitting knowledgeeverywhere. . . they were rhyming about the pigs, how high school isbullshit, and about being vegan. their shit was dope, for real. . .

then came last emperor. unbelievable. this cat was so DOPE. i haven'theard skills like that in a long time. . . he did a joint about comic bookcharacters battling MCs, plus he made all sorts of GI Joe references. . .this cat stole the show.

black star was supposed to be next, but mos def got a job on the tv show "NYPD blue" so it was just kweli, hi-tek, and mr man. this was such aletdown. hi-tek seemed to be in his own world all night. they tried todo a few black star tracks, but it just didn't work without mos def. theytried to do "fortified live" but again mos def wasn't there so it wasmissing something. he did "2000 seasons" and ended with "the manifesto"which was dope. there was just this air of confusion for his whole setbetween him and hi-tek, and he seemed to be getting a little pissed at mr.man. he dropped a couple of freestyles which were good, but nothing;outstanding.

overall, last emperor and dead presidents made the show worthwhile, but if i had had to pay the $20 to get in i would have been really disappointed.. .

"you say i say my name too much/but i bet you say it more than me when themic gets crushed" - esoteric