WWW.RIDESIDE.NET

Ok, so the "Sony PlayStation Presents: The Breed Love Odyssey" wasn't as comercial as it could have been, but there were people conspicuously carrying around Personal PlayStations, wearing "PSP" t-shirts, and one dude at the small booth even had a square, triangle, X, and circle tattoo (the four buttons of PSP?). Whatever, it's how I got the tickets. After a slice from New York Pizza and a Brubaker at the Tam, Honor, Miriam, Eliza and myself headed into the show - 1,600 to 2,000 people? Settled upstairs, where we could all see and even sit. Jean Grae started about 3 minutes later. A pleasant surprise, funny, conscious, and was miced well. Her song about kids born in the 70s was pretty memorable. After Ali Kwaan(?) did a KRS-1 style slam/poem/freestyle session was Pharoahe Monch and his DJ. Wearing a bright white Snoopy t-shirt, his first words were: "Monch Pissin' on the White House lawn/I'm the Pharoahe/Gone/Feds missin' me/so long" and it kinda went from there. Pharoahe Monch's socially conscious rap was disappointingly mostly Bush bashing, an easy target for a diverse Boston audience. Towards the end of his set, when Pharoahe Monch did his hit "Get the Fuck Up" whose chorus is exactly that line with a wonderful triplet sample, he got everyone to shout "Fuck you George Bush" alternating lines with the actual chorus. Kanye West must be happy, but it isn't pushing hip hop forward. Talib Kweli came on for Pharoahe Monch's last track, as did Talib's DJ: making for 2 DJ's, both miced, one with four turntables, one with three. Then two side singers came out, stage right: one chubby female and one skinny-as-hell dude. The track was about the beginning of hip hop with a chorus something like "...birth of hip-hop/listen and learn/go back to the tip-top" and everyone on stage contributing to it all. Stunning. After two of Talib's solo career songs (which I don't really know), he launches into a cover of Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock's 1988 masterpiece "It Takes Two". Awesome, "...it takes two to make it outta sight". Brought down the house. He then did the whole "Old School" song off of the new MF Doom/Dandermouse collab "Dangerdoom". Instant classic, but to be honest I like Talib's voice better on studio recordings. It's a rather high voice, not breathy and urgent like Ghostface, but almost like Nas with a pinch of Kermit. It could have been his mic, but it just seems like Talib has to strain a bit when live on stage, and he lost some of his casual/cartoony pitch. Kweli went on for a 2 or 3 more songs with scattered shout outs to "Boston" and "Edu-mic-ated Motherfuckers". Mos Def came on for the last four tracks, two were recognizible, one definitely a BlackStar track. Pretty fun with the side singers, and Mos Def's tune carrying rhyming. Talib Kweli left to thunderous applause, and his DJ stayed on for a quick turntablism session. Mos Def was in a good mood, and did a "brand new one, I've never done before". His rhythym isn't brilliant, yet he almost sings, at times sounding practically Dancehall without the reggae beat. Still after over 2 hours of it all, my mind did drift, and sad to say, we left before Mos Def even finished. It felt like it was Talib's night anyway. "It's just that I'm old school like that, Roll that rap over soul loops like that."