Touring from town to town and just making friends, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien stopped by UCLAs 4th Annual Hip Hop Appreciation Week. However, he may have experienced a different crowd than at rap epicenter, Long Beach, the previous night. For such a large school in a city considered a melting pot the audience was not as diverse as the shows performers. Yet despite the rainy night, people were fired up for some of hip-hops hottest acts at the Student Unions Grand Ball.
Like the first time you listened to Tribe, thats how old-school were going to keep it. Amanda Diva was the first-ever female to perform at UCLAs Hip Hop Appreciation Week, boasting former credentials of appearing on Def Comedy Jam, Best Week Ever, and MTV 2. Between the nineties sing-a-longs and freestyles she emphasized the importance of purchasing over downloading, reinforcing that musicians need record sales to continue making music. Hip-hop chick Diva kept her confidence in the foreground as she acknowledged that, instead of marketable boobs, she boasted ill rhymes and high top sneakers.
Albino, Midwest rapper Brother Ali showcased a variety of hip hop topics; traversing the lyrical range of familial love, greedy and uninspired MCs, romance, and the lack of socio-political messages in contemporary hip-hop. He too mentioned the importance of buying albums versus downloading. But big Brother Ali exercised playfulness while interacting with the audience between records. Dropping tracks like Truth Is, Forest Whitiker, and continuing the nights invocation of Tribe Called Quest with the chorus Can I Kick It? on Alis own Lookin At Me Sideways, the Wisconsin rapper generated momentum by growling into the mic and exercising his particular flare for call and response. Leaving behind an excitable audience, the mood was ripe for Del to come onstage.
But things came to an unexpected halt when Illa-J made his way onstage. Instead of new school, Illa-J was more like pre-school. The once tangible energy in the room was utterly zapped when the youngster appeared wearing bling and gave a speech that resembled a door-to-door sales pitch. The travesty of pacing back-and-forth and practically begging for hands in the air thankfully lasted only a couple of songs. I felt bad, but not enough to endure it any longer.
While the DJs were swapping, the mic-savvy manager for Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, along with others acts like Blackalicious and Aceyalone, came out to thankfully and miraculously restore the vivaciousness of the crowd. Bukue One delivered his trademark freestyle Cheese Intro, a fervent call and response concerning rappers that are a case of too much hype and not enough skills: Too much CHEESE! and not enough BUTTER!
Del Tha Funkee Homosapiens final emergence from backstage created a climactic frenzy. The man immediately got down to business. With backup from Hieroglyphics counterpart A-Plus, he performed a couple of his own songs and ironically suggested that people download his stuff. However, this tour was to promote Dels new release, 11th Hour, an album set to hit stores sometime this year. Offering that he had already done his share of the recording, the rhymes were more than sufficient as DJ Zac Hendrix complimented the new material by scratching in jams from a variety of old-school artists. Possibly hung over from the previous night, Del setup post at the mic stand but relocated it all over the stage throughout the show. Plenty from the classic catalogue compiled the setlist, which teleported people to the genesis of Del. Favorites like Mistadobalina, Dr. Bombay, and the comedic hygiene advise of If You Must instated the raw wit signature to hip-hop. There came a point in the performance when they honored their peers, like the late J-Dilla and Dels own cousin Ice Cube, paying tribute to those who have contributed to the hip-hop culture. By the end of the set, Tha Funky Homosapien was exhausted and abruptly walked away, returning briefly for an encore of the ever-popular Gorillaz single Clint Eastwood. From everyone in the audience to the Multi-Cultural Affairs Board dancing at the back of the stage, there was a massive display of movement that hip-hop incites in the people. The nights MCs delivered great performances, cohesive under this lyrical artform against phony rappers who do not excite.
