in quite a many ways, sxsw has brought about a bit of a musical and magazine-nical revival in me. i suppose part of it is that i have realized i like to meet people. i have a greater yearning to be a social person than i previously thought. when i was really young i was totally the leadership, outspoken type… but then some shit happened and since then i have been kind of more of the sidelines type of person with occasional desires to be a leader. i think this dichotomy and confusion makes it very difficult to be myself sometimes. i want to be social and outgoing, and i sometimes am, but for the most part, it feels awkward and i’m not sure quite how. and it’s quite frustrating because i would love to be the sociable, PR-friendly, outgoing type of individual who can really talk and learn to sell the hell out of shit. but, as it stands now, i am just kind of fucking confused. blawrghasg.
anyway, what does liking to meet people have to do with music revival and magazine revival? i suppose what it has to do with it is the fact that i’ve realized i want to be a part of the music industry and that i should take advantage of that desire through the magazine medium since well, i don’t play an instrument and am not suitable for PR. so how else?
anyways.
tonight i went to a hip-hop show at the high dive, and it was fucking fantastic… for the most part. here is a live show review on my own accord. first time seeing any of these bitches, other than onry of grayskul (but i haven’t seen him solo either).
PIRATE RADIO (or at least i think that’s who it was)
nice name — which carries with it a lot of weight — but these guys are precisely the type of hip-hop i dislike (i mean, not that there’s only one type). simplistic, poorly lyricized… i find nothing particularly likeable about it. a bit cruel, but some other people seemed to enjoy it, so it’s just my tastes, honestly.
ONRY OF GRAYSKUL
i was told that it was well-known in grayskul that onry is not the performer, but he is the better lyricist. i would agree with this. his songs tell a story and are just fine and his rapping is just fine and dandy when the music is blaring, but when he’s singing hooks he just seems lethargic and lacking. he needs to figure out some other kind of solution. he also doesn’t engage the crowd… barely looks them in the eye and all that. i mean, he can rap… but good lyricism and rapping skills honestly only take you so far. the performer side is quite important — if not often MORE important in this day and age.
RUDY AND THE RHETORIC
rudy makes the beats and rhetoric does the rhymes. let me just say that i think rudy is amazing — particularly his new stuff for their upcoming album, gutter brook. the beats are … oh oh oh so good. they are obviously influenced by electronica and sometimes even funk… and can i say? they are just fucking good. the only thing i’d say is that while rhetoric can throw up a good performance (better than on disc, i think), there needs to be a little bit more diversity in the delivery.
TYPE
hmm, well, his songs are interesting lyrically but are terribly, terribly juvenile. half of them are talking about his penis or shit like going to the lusty lady, and evidently, he says the same shit during every show, and around in the same order. i mean, that’s lame shit if it’s true. not down with pre-scripted shit… 
that being said, some of the songs are good, particularly if you like the dancey, good-feeling type of stuff 
GRIEVES
i love love love… love love love grieves. he is goofy as fuck and an extremely good performer, even if he looks like he is 16 (i mean, i’m not one to talk… not at all). i actually bought his album… first hip-hop album i’ve bought in a long time. lol. years. like… four or five or six of them. quite funny moments on stage… i’ll post a video or two soon. but yeah, there’s a reason, i think, that he was the headliner.
also, there was this girl there who was a huge fan of rudy and the rhetoric and grieves — knew all of the lyrics to all of their songs. it was nuts. she was dancing like a mofo. i’ll post a video of that soon, too.
