Word: hip-hop
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Disc jockeys, of course, have been around for decades. In the 1970s hip-hop founding fathers Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash helped turn record spinning into an art. And rock acts--Aerosmith, R.E.M. and others--have long sought to bottle the lightning of hip-hop by collaborating with rappers. Today, though, something new is happening: more rock groups--from Limp Bizkit to Sugar Ray--are making deejays fully fledged members, on equal footing with the guitarist and drummer. A couple of years ago, being a deejay in a rock band was maybe the equivalent of being the backup vocalist-designated...
...Hip-hop? The "Steal My Sunshine" crew? You gotta be kidding me. But if there's anything Len excels at, it's defying expectations. They've got a female vocalist in a male-dominated genre, they've got white guys who rap, they put on a melodic show with turntables, not guitars, they've got a sugary pop single but prefer hip-hop beats and to top it all off, they're Canadian and they don't let you forget...
...crowd went in expecting sugary confections like the summer radio staple "Steal My Sunshine"--and it's pretty safe to assume it did--a surprise was waiting inside the Paradise. It began with Styles of Beyond, an underground hip-hop group from L.A. While DJ Cheapshot of SOB (an unfortunate self-inflicted acronym) laid down some tight beats, the audience seemed to be waiting for more radio-friendly action. Which is not to say that Styles of Beyond is that far from national exposure--MCs Ryu and Tak Bir's smooth rapping styles foretell a possible MTV explosion some time...
...rapping, a little shouting and even less actual singing, the music was refreshingly, well, musical. There were recognizable melodies and sinuous bass-lines, beats to groove to and even a little harmony. Even better, the songs were pretty innovative and incredibly upbeat. This was the most aggressively happy hip-hop ever, with song titles like "Feelin' Alright" and "Beautiful Day?" Len also has a penchant for the robotic-voice vocoder effect, and they made use of it several times, invoking memories of New Wave...
...performance. The drummer, J.D. Blaine, amazed and amused. Even one beat of his drum prompted audience response; he possessed a zany aura that fed into Victor's desire for fun and crazy musical progression. The band's DJ also kept the crowd going, playing Jackson 5 and old school hip-hop, with Wooten's contributions. The combination of the DJ and Wooten brought out some of Wooten's best slapping technique...