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The Mixed Blood Majority's album release party for Insane World took place on Friday night at First Avenue, in Minneapolis.
First to take the First Avenue stage on Friday night was Grrrl Prty, a five piece hip-hop group from the Twin Cities. They are all women and they sing about being a female in the day and age. Their songs are brutal and honest to the point of being completely inappropriate. They have one song all about women being on their periods and guys trying to take them home. They went so far as to throw tampons out. Now, being a twenty something female, I loved this. It was taboo, it was dirty, and it was all true. Ask my buddy Andrew what he thought and he won't have the same enthusiasm as I do about their set.
Although I love all the girls in Grrrl Prty, Lizzo is by far my favorite. Her tagline is “big girl, small world.” I love her, I relate to her, she’s super nice and extremely talented. (Again, all of the girls in Grrrl Prty are super nice in real life and extremely talented.) Unfortunately, Lizzo didn’t make it to the show last night. On Thursday night, she was the guest on The Late Show with Colbert. She announced then that, unfortunately, her grandmother had passed away so she would be flying directly to Detroit in order to be with her family, where she should be. I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed and worried about how Grrrl Prty would do because Lizzo is such a huge part of the group. They killed it, I honestly didn’t even notice something was missing. They went on that stage without their sister and slayed it. Remember that whole resilience thing I always talk about? Prime example!
Last night was a celebration for Mixed Blood Majority’s new release Insane World. MBM is Crescent Moon of Kill Vultures, Joe Hurton of No Bird Sing, and Lazerbeak of Doomtree. So, yes, you could easily call this a super group of sorts for the Twin Cities. Their music, much like majority of the other rap/ hip-hop music up here in Minnesota, was very upbeat and, I would consider it, positive music. Their music was not about getting “turnt up” in “da club”. It was about real life stuff.
They brought Toki Wright on stage to help them out on a song. Toki Wright… you know, the guy is a teacher at McNally Smith College of Music… the same guy who, last week, was on a stage playing to tens of thousands of people at the Rhymesayers 20th Anniversary Party. Toki Wright was on stage with these other legendary musicians in front of a near, but not quite, sold out First Avenue show. I think that is just amazing.
It doesn’t matter how big of a crowd these guys have played in front of, they always come home to the clubs they grew up in. Just like MBM mentioned, First Avenue is sacred. That stage is a sacred platform in a sacred venue. No matter how big a Minnesota artist gets, all they really want is to play on that stage. That stage that I get to stand in front of multiple times a week.
Even though it was MBM’s album release party, local favorite P.O.S. closed out the night. P.O.S. is in the list of my top five local hip-hop/rap artists. That may not sound like much, but for the amount of artists there are in the scene up here, that’s truly a feat.
I got excited before P.O.S. even got on the stage. There was a drum set on each side of the stage. Two drum sets. There was a table towards the back with a couple Apple computers set up and some turntables. Two drum sets + apple computers + turntables + P.O.S + Minneapolis = Marijuana Deathsquads. And that’s what I saw them. I should have known, it should have clicked. I’m glad it didn’t because the second I saw some of the members from Marijuana Deathsquads take the stage, I completely forgot about everything that had been floating through my head.
I’ve talked about Marijuana Deathsquads before so I won’t go over too much but basically, they are a legendary group on in the Twin Cities that rarely plays shows. I have had the luck of catching them three times this year. Marijuana Deathsquads is just a group of geeks that stand on stage, hunched over their computers and turntables while making weird noises that somehow turn into music. P.O.S. is a member of said group but as a hip-hop act, I never thought he would mix his “P.O.S” persona with Marijuana Deathsquads. He did last night and it was better than I could have ever imagined.
Having Marijuana Deathsquads backing him was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It gave his music a whole other level of complexity. The two drum sets going at the same time made it so you couldn’t help but move around. All of the noise, all of the lights, all of the people, all of the smiles. Just perfect. Absolute perfection.
One of the reasons I like P.O.S. so much is his live show. He has so much energy that you can’t help but to completely lose yourself in the sea of jumping people. It doesn’t matter if you have no clue how to dance or even move your body to the type of music he’s putting out, you’re moving and you’re doing it with a huge smile on your face and not a care in the world.
His set was upbeat song after upbeat song. He played old songs, new songs, his solo songs, and songs that he had collaborated with other rappers on. It didn’t matter what he was playing, you could tell he was having a damn good time and that caused you to have a good time. His smile was genuine. When he thanked the crowd, it was genuine.
P.O.S. is set to play the Nectar Lounge in Seattle, Washington, on February 13, 2016.
Grrrl Prty
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Although I love all the girls in Grrrl Prty, Lizzo is by far my favorite. Her tagline is “big girl, small world.” I love her, I relate to her, she’s super nice and extremely talented. (Again, all of the girls in Grrrl Prty are super nice in real life and extremely talented.) Unfortunately, Lizzo didn’t make it to the show last night. On Thursday night, she was the guest on The Late Show with Colbert. She announced then that, unfortunately, her grandmother had passed away so she would be flying directly to Detroit in order to be with her family, where she should be. I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed and worried about how Grrrl Prty would do because Lizzo is such a huge part of the group. They killed it, I honestly didn’t even notice something was missing. They went on that stage without their sister and slayed it. Remember that whole resilience thing I always talk about? Prime example!
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Mixed Blood Majority |
Toki Wright
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It doesn’t matter how big of a crowd these guys have played in front of, they always come home to the clubs they grew up in. Just like MBM mentioned, First Avenue is sacred. That stage is a sacred platform in a sacred venue. No matter how big a Minnesota artist gets, all they really want is to play on that stage. That stage that I get to stand in front of multiple times a week.
Even though it was MBM’s album release party, local favorite P.O.S. closed out the night. P.O.S. is in the list of my top five local hip-hop/rap artists. That may not sound like much, but for the amount of artists there are in the scene up here, that’s truly a feat.
I got excited before P.O.S. even got on the stage. There was a drum set on each side of the stage. Two drum sets. There was a table towards the back with a couple Apple computers set up and some turntables. Two drum sets + apple computers + turntables + P.O.S + Minneapolis = Marijuana Deathsquads. And that’s what I saw them. I should have known, it should have clicked. I’m glad it didn’t because the second I saw some of the members from Marijuana Deathsquads take the stage, I completely forgot about everything that had been floating through my head.
I’ve talked about Marijuana Deathsquads before so I won’t go over too much but basically, they are a legendary group on in the Twin Cities that rarely plays shows. I have had the luck of catching them three times this year. Marijuana Deathsquads is just a group of geeks that stand on stage, hunched over their computers and turntables while making weird noises that somehow turn into music. P.O.S. is a member of said group but as a hip-hop act, I never thought he would mix his “P.O.S” persona with Marijuana Deathsquads. He did last night and it was better than I could have ever imagined.
Having Marijuana Deathsquads backing him was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It gave his music a whole other level of complexity. The two drum sets going at the same time made it so you couldn’t help but move around. All of the noise, all of the lights, all of the people, all of the smiles. Just perfect. Absolute perfection.
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He has so much energy that you can’t help but to completely lose yourself in the sea of jumping people.
|
His set was upbeat song after upbeat song. He played old songs, new songs, his solo songs, and songs that he had collaborated with other rappers on. It didn’t matter what he was playing, you could tell he was having a damn good time and that caused you to have a good time. His smile was genuine. When he thanked the crowd, it was genuine.
P.O.S. is set to play the Nectar Lounge in Seattle, Washington, on February 13, 2016.
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P.O.S. at First Avenue, Minneapolis (11 December 2015) |
