Sacred Hoop & DJ Badrok

Despite the Suicidal Tendencies show a couple of blocks away; despite the fact that all hip-hop shows don’t traditionally get a warm welcome by Chico music fans; despite the calendar ignorance of the "established" local weekly; and despite the occurrence of this show the day after Labor Day (when most residents who would consider attending a show like this are burned out from the river-bound and other nefarious activities of the previous day), last Tuesday’s Sacred Hoop show was by all accounts a success, boasting one of the Bay Area’s best independent hip-hop crews, stiff drinks and a well-behaved, large crowd.

Kicked off by mix-master DJ Dirty Sanchez, the still-growing audience was treated to a nearly two-hour set of old-school and underground hip-hop classics, along the lines of the standard set performed by the Bender Brothers every Tuesday evening at Mr. Lucky. (The Bender Brothers were, apparently, too busy runnin’ shit to take the stage themselves. Yeah, right — players.)

Dirty Sanchez bumped the jams as the room filled, and at about 11 PM, DJ Badrok took the stage to work his turntable magic. A set by Badrok is always a treat. The current U.S. Vestax Battle Champion can flip everything from old-school favorites to abstract, straight vinyl deconstructionist turntable noodling, and on this particular evening, Badrok came with a new twist — he had a guy with him just dropping beats on a single turntable while Badrok did nothing but cut and slice like a chef at Bennihana — fast, accurate and sick as fuck. After a quick half hour, Badrok gave the stage up to Sacred Hoop’s DJ Marz, who flashed his own chops for about 15 minutes, not to be outdone by his old friend.

It wasn’t long into Marz’s set that Hoop rappers Luke Sick and Z-Man (whose home-team crew is the Bay Area’s venerable 99^th Dimension) took the stage. Rocking the mics like pros (which they are), the duo represent lyrical ability of the highest caliber. Luke’s rhymes hark back to the days of rappers telling stories, propping themselves and dissing wack MCs with clever verses and catchy choruses that, as De La once noted, "might blow up but it won’t go pop." His work with the Hoop is the variety of rap that, as he stated in a drunken A-Tak Web board posting, is designed to "rock a party."

Z-Man is a gangly dude with a head full of huge dreadlocks who can play a crowd like a piano. He spent most of the evening on a speaker box in front of the stage over the audience, bouncing back and forth sporting a wide grin as he spit rhymes. Z’s Hoop raps come mostly from the Tales from the Hump Hut release, but we also got some flavor from his work with Hoop producer Verse Murphy — a duo called the Bachelors. Crowd members lucky enough to be privy to the not-yet-released Wine, Women & Song collection of tunes recognized some of the Bachelors’ dopest shit.

Luke Sick kicked jams mostly from the later Hoop releases, tracks like "Smoke Bomb," "Not Our House" and "Cremonia" (the latter two featuring tight verses from Z-Man), but one thing Sacred Hoop fans noticed was Luke’s swerving back and forth between Hoop rhymes and those from his other project, the rap-metal amalgam, Brougham. Though it was a little disappointing to some hardcore Hoop fans, it certainly didn’t hurt the show at all, and I’m willing to bet that most folks didn’t even notice.

Unfortunately, rapper Joe Dubbs, who was on the bill and who actually made it to the show early, had to leave because of a bad case of Chico taco gut, an affliction that attacks those unfamiliar with the varying of south-of-the-border fare this town has to offer. It was a shame, and Joe’s set was missed, but Sacred Hoop held it all together effortlessly.

Random highlights of the evening: a guest rhyme by a female member of the audience who Z-Man pulled up on stage; songs from the forthcoming Hoop release Sleep Over, most notably "Worst Person"; and a cover of Jay-Z’s "Big Pimpin’" with all the lyrics switched up, thereby removing most of that song’s inherent wackness. Things kind of deteriorated after that, with the same female rapper kicking the "Big Pimpin’" chorus and random fools trying to jump on stage and grab the mic like it was a free-style free-for-all. (A word to all mic jockers and wack rhyming fat-heads: unless you’re invited on stage, stay the fuck off.)

The Hoop, burned out and beat, called it a night and let Mr. Lucky resident DJ MC "H" close it out as Luke sold merchandise and Z and Marz worked the room. The illest hip-hop show of the semester so far, Sacred Hoop’s evening at Mr. Lucky showed that it can indeed be done in Chico, and will hopefully spawn more shows of the same ilk.

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