After last night’s NXNE main stage hip-hop showcase at Yonge-Dundas Square, the Canadian Border Services Agency may have found another pretext to tighten its restrictions on rappers entering the country. Yes, a (non-fatal) stabbing occurred right after GZA’s set. And yes, the Genius’ lyrics contain many references to samurais, swords, and drug wars. But is there really a connection between the two?
After all, rather than glorifying street violence, GZA’s music portrays the perilous criminological realities of inner-city life (see: “Cold World”). Pointing the finger at MC’s is easy, but it would be unreasonable to suggest hip-hop shows beget violence. It’s really ignorance (or in this particular case, a petty schoolyard-level squabble) that begets violence. (And before any racial profilers out there get boners, the suspect in custody is Asian).
However, there is one generalization we can agree upon: where there is a hip-hop show, there is usually also profane language. Last night, it seemed NXNE’s organizers were unfamiliar with this axiom, as they were continuously thrown in a tizzy every time a rapper spat vulgarities over the PA system (we were in a public area, after all). Perhaps they also hadn’t heard Ninjasonik’s music before agreeing to let them play the bill. With frequently obscene lyrics like “Fucked with a slut and I fucked with a star, sorry for the fucks I forget who you are,” MCs Reverend McFly and Telli Gramz inevitably received several warnings to cease dropping the f-bomb or be forced to leave the stage. (Think about the children!)
Refusing to take heed, they launched into “Holla For A Dolla,” one of their most offensive numbers, which featured lyrics like “H-I-V gon’ be the death of me, I wanna fuck, I wanna fuck, fuck” but was bookended with a disclaimer to “wear condoms.” Luckily, the Brooklyn-based trio were permitted to finish their set, perhaps because the crowd went bonkers for their mishmash of irreverent humor, B-more club beats and punk-flavoured bangers.
Toronto’s Candy Coated Killahz provided a temporary relief to the evening’s coordinators with their Z103.5-friendly bling-hop jams. Lead vocalists Tosha Dash and Icon the Anomali slung party rhymes, crooned club-ready choruses, and uttered the word “booty” with Tourette’s-like consistency, but at their best sounded like a poor man’s Black Eyed Peas. Current radio hit “Playboy” elicited a decent crowd pop, but left most audience members feeling like the performance killed more brain cells than the cannabis smoke they had just ingested.
Amid deafening chants of “WU-TANG! WU-TANG!” it was nearly impossible to hear Fab 5 Freddy's gushing introduction to GZA. Once he finally stepped out, the jam-packed Square went absolutely apeshit — so much so that some didn’t even notice King Khan accompanying him on guitar. Decked out modestly in a pea-green golf shirt and jeans, the Wu-Tang Clan’s elder statesman laid out the one-two punch of “Liquid Swords” and “Legend of The Iron Mic” from his ’95 solo debut, Liquid Swords, replete with all the Shogun Assassin soundbytes in between. Khan contributed subtle skank chords on every backbeat, as well as some eerie tremolo picking on “Gold” and “4th Chamber.” The Wu-Tang-aholics were in full force tonight, proudly raising their “W” signs and religiously belting-out each lyric as the Genius revisited Wu cult classics like “Clan in Da Front,” “Older Gods,” “Triumph” and “Reunited.”
“They don’t want us using profane language, but how can we not?” GZA posited at one point. He then dropped an unapologetically dirty a cappella verse from “All In Together Now” before launching into “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” in honour of the late Old Dirty Bastard. Mr. Grice was undeniably on point this evening, his cerebral flow, samurai ethics and gritty realism still sounding as poignant today as they did a decade ago. The only misstep occurred during set closer “Zero Finance,” which saw Khan butcher the song with jarring, off-key meanderings.
It felt a bit bizarre to see GZA open for The Cool Kids instead of the other way around, given that Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish were still watching Smurfs reruns when the Wu-Tang Clan was pioneering the boom-bap attack. Nevertheless, these young’uns had their own sizable share of cult devotees in the audience, many of whom also knew each tunes word for word. Drawing largely on cuts from The Bake Sale EP (“Jingling,””Mikey Rocks,””Black Mags,” “88”) the Chicago-based duo channeled hip-hop’s golden age with sparse, snare-heavy beats and nostalgic references: Adidas track suits, Cuban link chains, boom boxes, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Some starstruck fans even waved vintage Nike high-tops in the air.
Sure, something about the whole shtick smacked of a rap equivalent to the early 2000s garage-rock revival, but the duo’s tongue-in-cheek punchlines, swift lyrical interplay and stitch-inducing crowd banter proved they were more than a mere gimmick act. Meanwhile, more experimental production on newer tracks from their recent Gone Fishing mixtape (“Cinnamon,” “Summer Vacation”) suggested these cats might evolve beyond their meta-rap phase before the market gets flooded with throwback acts just like them.
Overall, the evening proved to be a rousing and enjoyable conclusion to the NXNE weekend — all stabbings and scarred virgin ears aside.