Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Blackalicious, Blood of Abraham & DJ Badrok

Chico’s own man of the steel wheels, Badrok, kicked the evening off. Always pushing into the new and exciting realms of turntable manipulation, Badrok's first set was dedicated to old-school hip-hop. Rocking classics from EPMD and NWA, the crowd filed in to the sounds of old-school rap being sliced and diced by a real pro.

The first touring group to kick it was Blood of Abraham, and I was really feeling what these guys were doing. Featuring a live band behind the two Blood of Abraham MCs, they rocked minimal party-style rhythms while steering clear of too much noisy or busy rock. The band consisted of a couple of members from a group called The Breakestra, and included drums, bass, guitar, and a DJ who was using just one turntable and a sampler. Their 30-minute set prepped the crowd for more prime hip-hop.

Badrok jumped back onto the wheels and rocked his ever-popular Run DMC "Mary, Mary" routine, the beginning of a second set that included a lot more scratching than the initial one, and the crowd was dumfounded by his quick and clean chops. After Badrok's mind-blowing shenanigans, a lone lyricist took the stage and began rapping to the crowd. He announced himself as Buku One, a member of The A-Team, a group consisting of Blowdians' Aceyalone and Abstract Rude. He performed about five songs, using a minidisk device to play all of his background beats, and his style harbored an old-school flavor with a new twist and a fresh attitude. I especially enjoyed his comparison of Wyclef Jean’s dreads to Jar Jar Binks’.

Blackalicious followed Buku One’s solo set, led onto the stage by DJ Chief Xcel, who spun a really funky intro for rapper Gift of Gab’s entrance. The stage was also graced by other figures, including two hype singers and Lateef The Truth Speaker, of the hip-hop super-duo Latyrx, who is on the road with Quannum label mates in Blackalicious. The pair of MCs, Lateef and Gab, broke into an a cappella intro that sweetened up considerably when the beat dropped in. The crowd was really into what these guys did all night, and they ripped it throughout their 45-minute set, playing mostly tracks from Nia, one song off the old Melodica EP ("Swan Lake"), one Latyrx song ("Lady Don't Tek No") and one jam from the Quannum Spectrum record ("One of a Kind"). They finished the set with a fresh, two-song medley, starting with "A to G" and gliding into "Alphabet Aerobics," Gab dropping verses in which each word begins with a letter of the alphabet, increasing in tempo with each alliterated verse so that, by the end of the song, he was spitting rhymes at lightning speed.

I do believe Blackalicious, with the added bonus of Lateef, left the place wrecked. But after the whirlwind of talent that is Blackalicious, we were still awaiting Del The Funky Homosapien, great granddaddy of Hieroglyphics. Del brought with him DJ Jay Biz, his sidekick K.U., and the Hiero producer, Domino, who came out on stage to get the crowd hyped. As the "At the Helm" beat dropped, Del came out in full-force, ready to rock the crowd. I was pleased to see that Del’s set included songs from all four of his albums, including crowd favorites "Dr. Bombay," "You're in Shambles," "Boo Boo Heads" and "Phoney Phranchise." Alas, it seemed to me that the audience was pretty worn out; Blackalicious tore the roof off The Brick, and the people just weren’t as energized for Del. He ripped it up, nonetheless, and hip-hop heads got their money’s worth. The show’s popular success (there still should have been more people there) will hopefully pave the way for more like it.

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