Two rather intriguing hip hop and dance oriented events happening this Sun., Aug. 2, one in Hillsborough, one in Northern Pinellas. Check ’em below.
Greenhouse Lounge, Moka Only, Illa J Greenhouse Lounge marries organic instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums) with laptop programming, electro effects and pulsing dancefloor rhythms that amp up to break-beat paces or ease down to mid-tempo groove-sways. This night finds the Jacksonville three-piece joined by Moka Only, an underground hip hop artist from Canada, while Illa J has a soulful singing quality to go with his own rap chops, both as a solo performer and member of Detroit groups Slum Village and Yancy Boys; he’s also J-Dilla’s younger brother. The latter two recently traded rhymes and harmonies on “Explosives,” a slinky track by Vancouver/Montreal production duo Potatohead People. (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin)
Ol’ Dirty Sundays with Nick Bike Another hip hop-rooted music purveyor from Canada, Vancouver-area DJ Nick Bike, is a two-time scratch-capable Red Bull Thre3style champion whose edits and bootlegs have been tapped by the likes of Jazzy Jeff and Diplo, among others. The “Best of the West” mix that earned him first place in the 2015 qualifiers touched on EDM (Disclosure, Flume, Major Lazer), both old school and new school hip hop (Missy Elliott, Run the Jewels, Nas, Future), and the odd unexpected outside-the-box selections (Radiohead, Donna Summer). (Crowbar, Ybor City)
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2015.
