Live hip-hop and an audience of smiling faces are rarely seen together nowadays, especially here in Rhode Island. That said; I can’t recall the last time a featured artist kicked off an evening wearing sun-tanning goggles. Romen Rok did exactly that while onstage at Friday night’s Elevation and set the tone for what went on to be an enjoyable, successful open mic night at Firehouse XIII.

Thanks to Rock Solid, who did a fine job of hosting as well as blessing the mic, and Sterby Rock performing scratchutory rape on the tables, the night continued on – and finished – without a moment of silence. Courtesy of some newer names (at least to myself), including Boudy, Wor Paint and Vendetta, and a few of the more recognizable rhyme-slingers, HW, Big City and Mic Feen, the open mic was nicely kept in balance and did a fine job of showcasing the aptitude of our locals.

After a solid head-nodding set from Dirty Hank & Reason (PDP) that even had the three or four skirts in the building shaking their shit, Marshall Law went on to defend his 401 Hip-Hop championship battle title against open mic participant Tec. In short, Marshall seems to be building a rigid reputation for slaughtering all who oppose. However, due to RI’s practically non-existent battle circuit, I’m not sure exactly how much weight that statement holds. (Hopefully those last couple sentences are enough to instigate some future competition…and fire up Marshall for the rounds to come.) Regardless, I know when respect is due, and the kid is definitely an animal when it comes to battling.

The night wound down to a Big City, Cas Uno, Wor Paint, Boudy, Dirty Hank, and Reason (along with a couple others) rhyme-cipher spit over a number of instrumentals spun by Sterby and some live MPC programming from William Javier. Aside from a mere dose of freestyle biting (1:44-1:50) that made me cringe, the cipher, along with the other three hours of Elevation, was dope.

When I initially spoke with Mortal about Elevation, he described his ambitions of having this event act as an ongoing quasi-workshop for emcees, producers, and other local talent. Truly, it’s a great idea. Elevation offers artist’s the chance to meet new people, build, and, essentially, better their chance of being noticed in such an over-saturated genre of music. In a broader scope, Elevation is also an opportunity to end the obviously segregated Rhode Island hip-hop landscape. This is the rebirth of Unity, Rhode Island, and there’s the potential for our scene to receive some well-deserved recognition. So pay attention, spread the good word, and bring your Jason mask out to the next Elevation at Firehouse XIII on November, Friday the 13th.

You can check out the pictures from October’s Elevation below …

Tags: Big City, Dirty Hank, Elevation, Firehouse XIII, Marshall Law, PDP, Reason, Rock Solid, Romen Rok, Sterby Rock, Vendetta, William Javier

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Event Reviews . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.