A week or two ago there was much talk in the blogosphere* about the everyman rapper. The Mac Millers of this world who just rap about mundane everyday shit. Like getting stoned, wearing sneakers and talking to girls.
The outcome of seemed to be more in less in line with my own feelings. People want their entertainers to be entertaining, not plain janes from up the street. And it’s no big effort to get someone to relate to something they do anyways – playing Playstation, partying, getting stoned – but it is no mean feat to get someone to relate to you when you’re talking absolute nonsense, ala Snoop, Gucci, Rick Ross, Biggie et al.
This is where a lot of local rap bores me to tears. Maybe they just grew up with too much Cold Chisel but there’s a lot of “working class man” raps out there that just come across as “pub rock with rapping over top” (well known local rapper who’ll remain nameless for now).
There’s one kid I’ve seen live twice who both times has really made me pay attention and when I got a call from Young Lean the other day telling me to listen to a Beat CD some local producer had made that “I need to hear” and found it was the same guy I was even more intrigued with the kid.
Meeting him he’s a really polite, almost nerdy, guy but the second he steps on stage the “Kwasi” persona takes over. He’s on some spaced out doctor of love shit, almost like a kool keith/dr octagon thing. And it works. Because he gets into character so fully that it’s believable. posture and mannerisms change, dude is suddenly super confident and the audience loves it. Even in some punk rock squat/venue thing he had the crowd eating out his hand.
The easiest thing to compare Kwasi to is someone Like Kool Keith, Bobby Digital or Viktor Vaughn even if it’s just being lazy to do so. It is some slightly psychedelic, twisted, rap fantasy shit, created late at night in his bedroom. But I can’t think of a local release that has tried to do that. And he has the stage presence to follow through with it. If record deals were still made off live shows rather than tumblr hype the kid would be in talking to people right now.
Next week (sat 20th?) he’s doing hype-man duties for forthwrite as a support act for Pegz album launch but I’d love to see him, at some stage, performing infront of a larger audience to see if the persona still translates well in a less intimate setting.
And, to quote Briggs when we were talking about the bullshit Jackie Chain says in his raps “He’s not a bad rapper but he entertains me, which is the main thing cunts forget to do”
And an instrumental
*No Homo.
PS, yea, a black kid who lives in Hawthorn.
there's a bluebird on my shoulder 