Dilated Peoples Live in Chicago

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.
About one in ten hip hop concerts are truly great and thankfully last nights show with Dilated Peoples, Little Brother and Defari, was one of them. The last show I saw was when MF Doom played in Chicago and while I love the Metal Fingered one as much as the next fanboy, the show I saw epitomised all that I hate about hip hop concerts; everyone and his grandmother on stage for 3 hours and the headliner act is no where to be seen.
After that experience, I was just about sworn off seeing live hip hop again.

That is until last night. Everything was on time, the sound system was loud and clear and the acts were so alive.

Little Brother, featuring Big Pooh and Phonte but missing their producer 9th Wonder, opened and performed a very compelling 45 minute set with cuts from their new album, The Minstrel Show as well as a couple of tracks from their debut LP, The Listening. The highlight was seeing ‘Slow it Down’ performed tounge in cheek as an old soul act with syncronised moves and all.

But all this was just a teaser for the main act, Dilated People. While I’ve listened to their first LP, The Platform, to death, I’ve only casually checked the next three albums, including their latest, 20/20. While the lyrics are definitely more braggadocio than thought provoking, Dilated do know how to put on a show; you would have had to been on Nyquil to not rock your head to it. MCs Evidence and Iriscience were on top form, rapping their little hearts out for their rabid fans and to us in the front rows. At one point they reminded the audience that the back bone of hip hop is the DJ. And so they should since Dilated People’s ace in the hole is DJ Babu from the World Famous Beat Junkies. While only given a few minutes of solo scratching, he showed everyone why he’s a multiple ITF and DMC world champion. (I just noticed on his bio, that he also produced the ‘Super Duper Duck Breaks’ vinyl on Stones Throw.)

For and hour and a half, Dilated dropped all manner of bangers from ‘Back Again’, ‘You can’t hide you can’t run’, ‘Worst comes to worst’, ‘No retreat’, and ‘This way’. If there was a formula to running a good show its have a crowd that knows all your lyrics back to front and only play tracks that everyone can shout along with. Simple. For me, the high point was hearing my favourite Dilated track of all time, ‘Work the angles’ which produced one of those ‘this is why I still love hip hop’ feelings. Damn it good to jump in time with a couple hundred other fans.