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Blog Entry 14 of 58 The Lush Report
I'm trying to bring some of the more overlooked stuff from the local music scene. I have to balance it against a full-time real job, so I can't be as thorough as I'd like, but hopefully you'll find some of the stuff that Mark Brown and Ricardo Baca don't cover. If you've got a tip on a great venue for live music or great musicians to check out, e-mail me here. To bookmark this blog, click here.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~JohnsMusicBlog

Some got pencils, some got guns

Contributed by: John Zwick   on 5/17/2006

So normally I might go at this with a little more direction, but there's not always a lesson or theme to every story.

I went down to Angelo's CDsin Aurora on May 7 to check out People Under the Stairs. Now, they're not local talent and I've never felt one way or the other about them. No, I was there because opening up PUtS's in-store performance was Asme, also known as Reggie Daoust.

I used to tutor this kid and knew him to be something of a brilliant poet and emcee, even if he leaned a little more in the "art kid" direction of hip-hop than I did.

PUtS took a little longer to show up than expected (par for the course for most in-store appearances,) so that gave Reggie a little extra time on the mic.We got treated to a couple written songs and a whole mess of freestyling. Beats came courtesy of a busted-up, off-brand mp3 player fed into a sound system - perfect fodder for self-reflective freestyling on being too broke for an iPod. When the player started giving way, a store staff member cracked open an instrumentals disc and we got one last bit of Reggie over - what was that - a Ghostface beat?

The crowd enjoyed it (and more seemed to be around for Reggie than People Under the Stairs when they finally arrived,) but maybe the best part? Seeing Aurora rapper Julox (of the late A-Town Click) quietly mouthing the same words back during the written songs.

Here's where this goes on a tangent.

See, there's this song by Minnesota rap group Atmosphere called "Party for the Fight to Write" that's all about the kind of beauty we saw go down there. A few bars if you don't mind:

"Some got pencils and some got guns/
Some know how to stand and some of 'em run/
We don't all get along, but we sing the same songs/
Party for the fight to write, well right on."

The point? There's a weird divide between different elements of the rap scene. If you had to name it, we'd set out a section for popular rap - the stuff you'd hear on the radio, self-described "underground" rap which really describes a sound more than its commercial status, and hardcore gangsta rap. People blur between the lines but fans are really protective of those lines between the scenes - a lot like how a self-described metalhead might take offense or at least laugh at someone calling a simple hard rock band "metal."

For what little mixing goes on between them, though, the creators of the music don't usually jump at the chance to trash-talk the other sounds. Watching Julox enjoy decidedly non-gangsta verses out of the undeniably suburban white kid (and I'm sure vice versa if 'Lox took the mic,) is that kind of respect among creators I'd like to see more of.


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Nichole Cartmell
posted on 6/8/2006 @ 4:50:41 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Wow, thats a great story. I know this kid who's some what like that and who has inspired me to say that you can do whatever you set your dreams on. This story reminds me a lot of him.
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Submitted By: Brendan Leonard
posted on 5/15/2006 @ 1:45:32 PM
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Warm fuzzies for hip hop. you used to tutor?
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