"There's a lot of people in the audience right now who are out there trying to say what B-more Club is" Rod Lee shouted into the mic, from behind the turntables at Ottobar last Saturday night. "It's time for you to listen to us, see, because we made this s---. We the ones who made this, so watch, because this is what it's about." In the middle of a set that bounced from classic early house to disgustingly raw club music, Rod Lee purposely approached his audience with the idea of laying out a sonic explanation of where Baltimore Club came from.
Hardly a new genre, where the main measure of success for a song could be how much your face screws up in belligerent anger, is usually misconstrued by the mainstream underground music scene as a faster, electro tainted offshoot of Hip Hop. And for most of the listeners in the national arena who probably just went to the store and bought a Hollertronix compilation (a DJ collective whose trend hopping landed them in "B-more" long enough to put out a double CD release), the idea of Baltimore Club as super-grimy hip-hop will probably remain.
As for the mostly white crowd that slowly filled the Ottobar during Rod Lee's set, anyone who decided to pay attention received a different and thoroughly better-told story from the godfather of the genre himself. Seamlessly blending one track into another, something hip-hop DJs are rarely found doing opening for another act, he even showcased direct influences.
Occasionally stopping to give a brief statement to the audience, he found himself mixing from a given house track straight into its Club counterpart several times during the set, in the process demonstrating not only history but an unbelievable amount of insight and innovation.
Spinning off a pair of turntables with Serato Scratch live, a program that mimics the tactile aspect of vinyl while using mp3s, Rod Lee rounded out his set with several Hip Hop selections before closing down and ceding the stage to MC Squared. Dressed in a karate uniform, the experienced New Jersey beatboxer appeared and sounded as though he could have been plucked directly from the crowd. As soon as he began his routine, however, he immediately commanded the show, demonstrating an absurd amount of breath control as he surveyed an endless list of beats directly from his mouth to the microphone.
While his performance was comprised of more or less a 20 minute interlude, he took breaks only to greet the crowd and drink some water before starting up again. Almost exhausting to watch, by the time MC Squared left the stage, he had earned a level of crowd response outside the reach of many popular MCs.
Following this was MC Naeem Juwan, better known to the world as Spank Rock. "By the end of this night, I want to pass out on this floor!" He said. This declaration came as he demanded a dance-fest worthy enough to stretch into the wee hours of the Daylight Savings time morning. Spank Rock and his crew brought with them their Baltimore-brewed mixed cup full of B-more club, hip-hop and electro. The result is a gritty, sweaty hodgepodge of jams that grind through the night like a viper out to kill.
For something geared so much towards just getting down and nasty, that's all about letting the true freak out, the audience was surprisingly full of hipsters. Panning the room you could see all walks of hipster dress: the tight jeans rolled up a little at the cuffs, thick plastic lenses. Hipster central. That's probably because hipsters eat this kind of music right up, and with good reason: Spank Rock is the hipster reincarnation of everything lovable and energizing about old school hip-hop.
The crowd fed off of his energy, gobbling up everything about Spank Rock's energetic stage presence. Spank Rock himself rocked two belts over tight jeans rolled up almost half-calf, tucked neatly into huge, old school Nikes.
He looked like someone out of the classic hip-hop movie Wild Style, and he sure seemed to be spot on with emulating the energy of those early days of hip-hop. Already hyped by an amazing beat boxer, MC Squared, after Rod Lee, the audience loved his fresh approach to keeping the chaos high.
He was like the dancing equivalent of Keanu Reeves' bus from Speed -- if that man stopped dancing he was surely going to die. Channeling Michael Jackson Off the Wall era toe-taps and crotch grabs, he bounced around so well and so convincingly genuine to his music, there was no way you couldn't get hooked to his grooves.
Accompanying him onstage was PaseyPase, and DJs Ronnie Darko and Alex Epton. If Spank Rock is equivalent to a perpetual dancing machine, then Pace Rock is the physics that run that machine. This guy never stopped moving, not once, pushing the excitement way up with his Baltimore Club-inspired dance moves.
The DJs kept the sound cohesive and yet destructive, buzzing bass lines and blasting electro beats in a frenzy, scratching and mixing with deadly precision.
Mostly he played from his latest album Yoyoyoyo, including prominent jams such as "Backyard Betty" and "Rick Rubin," then later delivered a killer remix of "What It Look Like," backed by "Bump" and "Sweet Talk." Spank Rock's songs rolled out of the speaker system with an amazing live sound, proving that this man who is all about a nod to hip-hop's past has a secure place in hip hop's future.
