Mixed Hip Hop at Highline Ballroom

It was a motley assortment at Highline Ballroom on Saturday: a red-eyed albino rapper onstage with two rotund jokers, a pretty raunchy woman and a recently-minted solo artist with a vengeance. It was also one of the best hip-hop shows I’ve seen in a long time.

Chicago native Psalm One opened the show and warmed up the crowd with her bawdy but entertaining rhymes. She knew her place in the lineup, and at one point asked if anyone had even heard of her before—a question to which she received some half-hearted mumbles. Nonetheless, by the end of her set there were several head-bobbing devotees in the crowd.

Next in the lineup was Evidence—one-third of the group Dilated Peoples—who is dedicated to promoting his solo career. Despite a brief aside about a recent show at which he threw up due to his antibiotics, Evidence managed to get hands in the air and voices joining him in his spirited and catchy denunciation of the music industry.
Brother Ali, a more established artist than the openers, seemed to have more difficulty proving himself to the crowd. At his best, Ali was inspiring, bizarre and danceable. At his worst, he was pedantic and mushy.

The climax of the evening came when Little Brother, the North Carolina duo comprised of larger-than life MC’s Phonte and Big Pooh took the stage. Literally making the room shake, Little Brother was clearly what this crowd was waiting for. The two joked like comedians, spoke like preachers, danced like—well, similes don’t do it justice—and performed like the truly talented rappers that they are. Their music sounded and felt like a party, and they were called back out for an emphatic, sweaty, and much appreciated encore.

—Rebecca Pattiz