Nobody Beats The Beats is the brain child of DJ Typhoon and the first release on his Sonny B label. It comprises a large group of Copenhagen DJ’s and producers who contributed to a 2 disc CD compilation with instrumental hip-hop break-beat music. The content of the CD’s focuses heavily on the hip-hop producer, as if to say that they need focus just as well as rappers do. A band complete with guitar, bass, drums, horns and keys is also involved to liven up the deal, and the outcome of Nobody Beats The Beats could be described as a blend of the music played in Det Store Mix both before and after they stop playing hip-hop.
The most appealing parts of the project seen from my perspective is
the “Beat Diggin’ Song” where four MC’s, including avid beat-digger
MadLib, trade stories about collecting records as well as the numerous
instrumental songs by Context, the most talked-about hip-hop producer at the moment.

The Nobody Beats The Beats live experience is made up of the band playing break-beats while a line of DJ’s including Sten Rock aka Pladespiller, Scratch Magic, Noize and Nut scratches, juggles and mixes. On Roskilde they played the, for hip-hop, relatively big Green stage as a link between Erykah Badu and Common Sense‘s concerts.

As it was announced that Nobody Beats The Beats would play the intire break
between Badu and Common, the act was made to seem more like an intermezzo than actually proved to be case, cause they had plenty of good surprises in store. The profilic Per V. acted as master of ceremony and introduced both DJ’s and band-members while hyping the crowd. He delivered a few of his old verses over the instrumental music, but left good room for the DJ’s to get their improvisation on, proving that the turntable has developed into an instrument on its on. The Boulevard Connect‘ed Maylay Sparks also came by and rocked some good rhymes but his ranting and raving could have been toned down a little. Aside from mind-blowing scratch-impro on the decks another high-light came with Context doing a dope verse, instantly shooting him to the forefront of Danish MC’s rhyming in English. The “Beat Diggin’ Song” worked well live too, with Tue Track, who had also been working the one and two’s doing his incredible verse. To make up for the missing Stone’s Throw‘ers Per V. did a non-album verse summing up the concept by rapping: “Kick, snare, kick-kick, snare, der’ingen der slår de beats her!”

Near the end breakers were brought out, and as usual they amazed and
it didn’t get less entertaining by the DJ’s slicing records to pieces behind
the 1210’s. As good as the show was, I was again thinking how much more
difficult hip-hop is to absorb without the MC rhyming on top of it. This
form of music, like Pelding, often pushes the limit of what we understand in a song and with more than three handfuls of people on stage it did at times become confusing as to where to direct the attention. However, the
innovative idea of putting together a gigantic band and a double CD to
bring the producer and the actual break beats to the forefront is noble,
and I’m proud that we have the talent for an accomplishment like this in
Denmark.

Pictures © Kristina Vilderbøll / RapSpot.dk

Nobody Beats The Beats @ The Green Tent, Roskilde Festival, June 29th, 2002
performance:	interesting and original concept-band	OnPoint faktor: Without the DJ hip-hop wouldn’t be here
underholdningsværdi:	lots of high-lights from both dj’s and mc’s
spillested:	the big stage fit the large band well
stemning:	the international audience seemed pleased
street cred.:	Boulevard Connect-gang affiliated	set af: ptas

sådan læser du karaktergivning: 7 x = On Point! 3 x = Nice Shot

6 x = Almost Bulls Eye 2 x = Target Practice

5 x = Heavy Hitter 1 x = Not Even Close

4 x = Hit Potential 1 x = Greatest Miss

Skrevet af ptas 29.06.2002 arkiveret under LiveSpot |