First Fridays at the NHM have never before been so explicit. The lecture even turned out to be hot. People had to be turned away from Dr. Michael Ryans discussion of Darwins Other Great Theory: Sexual Selection, which, if youre interested, can be heard here.
The evening was best stated when, in the middle of leading the crowd through a series of sing-alongs, Brooklyn area rapper/folk/art star extraordinaire Tim Fite put it bluntly, This is the most times fcks been said in this room EVER. It wasnt hyperbole. At first, my mom instincts were to grab Bodie and pull him away; this was not the usual indie fare I had come to expect on NHM First Fridays. But then, I snapped out of it. Hes nine-and-a-half, and while it seems young, Ive seen enough 5-year-olds singing about their lovely lady lumps to know that his exposure to explicit lyrics is inevitable and unavoidable. Since I cant really control that, NHM provided me the rare opportunity to expose him to a better class of raprap and hip-hop in its rarest and most artistic form: intelligent, poetic, socio-political, ironic, creatively sampled & fused with various genres and, well, fcking amazing. So, I rolled with it.
Jeremiah and Vanessa couldnt make it to this one, so my fiance Fernando Sillas and I helped Bodie with the photos and Im filling in for Vanessa as writer. Before Tim Fite came out, the stage was curiously set. A projection screen wore a hand rendered hearted handgun and beneath that on a raised pedestal was one of the most amazing crafts Ive ever seena felt boom box in warm hues. Little handguns were added in all the appropriate places. There was a box of hard hats and, surprisingly fitting for the venue, animal pelts beneath the laptop mixer stand.
Tim Fite hit the stage hard in mis-matched socks, a pink polka dotted tie and a blue and white striped outfit that matched his co-star Sexy Leroy. It was obvious very quickly that this show demanded crowd participation. And to that end, a series of narratives rolled out behind them on the projection screen. It is as if Tims ideas and worlds are far too big to be contained in lyrics alonethey spilled onto the screen behind him as his drawings, lyrics, and sometimes footage of himself on various instruments, played back up and prompted the audience to sing along. Sexy Leroy was also vital in getting the crowd to join in. He quickly jumped on a rolling cargo box and when he found he was unable to ride it alone enlisted my help to push him into and around the crowd. He swam two laps through the crowd who were surprised and delighted; one girl even gave him a slap on his ass for good measure. Both performers maintained their amazingly high energy and creative pace throughout the hour-long set. Tim Fite might easily be an anarchist sermonizer railing against vapid consumer culture with songs like away from snakes and burn it down but he isnt so easily defined. His song about not-so-cuddly koalas and two different versions of the childhood classic Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes displayed his quirky sense of humor. Even his seemingly deep obsession with guns seems more curious exploration than exploitation.
Tim Fite finished the set with Away From Snakes as Sexy Leroy put hard hats on the people in the front row and carried a ladder to the middle of the crowd. As he climbed up, Tim had the audience build a forest around him with their hands stretched up and wondered, Is there a place where I can go where the rich don’t get rich and the poor don’t get shit on?” A question I think we all would like to have answered. Keeping consistent with his ideals, Tim Fites 2006 album Over the Counter Culture wasnt released commercially in honor of the subject matter; instead, he made it free and available here
Tim Fite and Sexy Leroy came down from Brooklyn, but the next artist that was up is a LA local by the name of Busdriver. Busdrivers been rapping since he was nine (what a great age) and his experience is obvious. While Tim Fite gave the audience the lyrics to sing along to, Busdriver didnt even give them a chance. His hyper-literate, frantically paced show only rarely mellowed into slower beats. Busdrivers use of voice modulators often tested the limits of audible experience, but never fell into the trap of sounding like a cheap ploy. Instead, they were a deliberate and well-executed extension of the experience. His two djs mixed frantically and skillfully in order to keep up with his pace. Busdrivers body matched his music (and presumably his mind) as it too raced to keep up. Double-jointed fingers stretched out and his hands flapped as fast as he rapped. Busdrivers style perfectly matched with Bodies recent slow shutter experimentation. He was able to capture his momentum into near abstraction. Busdriver told the audience he wanted to go somewhere else and asked them to go with him. Wherever it is, you are clearly only a visitor in Busdrivers somewhere else. But it is an amazingly textured landscape to visit, where ideas appear, expand and change in a matter of seconds. Thatcoupled with his pleasingly high rate of dinosaur referencingmakes the Natural History Museum a perfect backdrop in which to experience his world. It was also a great place to lay the foundation of my sons rap repertoire.
