Friday Jan 8th @ The FireHouse XIII 41 Central Street Providence, RI 02907
Doors Open @ 9pm | $7 Cover | All Ages

Featuring Performances by: Boombox Saintz
Scribblenauts

Music by DJ Sterby Rock
Hosted by Rock Solid

Open Mic.
Show up early to Sign Up! Each Emcee (or group) gets one beat (max 4 mins).
You can bring your original beats on CD. First Come First Serve Basis.

1 vs 1 Emcee Battle.
Marshall Law defends his 401 Battle Championship Title.
Round One is one minute. Round Two is 30 Seconds. Crowd picks the winner

Live Podcast Recording.
We record the whole show (audio) and turn it into the Official Elevation Podcast
It is featured on 401hiphop.com, iTunes, and the Zune Marketplace.

Late Night Cypher. (Midnight till 1am)
Come for the Open Mic. Stay for the Cypher. It’s a more free flowing emcee session.
Freestyling in encouraged but not mandatory. The Cypher happens over all origin beats from the …

Producer Showcase.
Come check out the hottest producers in the area rocking out live on the MPC.

B-Boy Friendly. Graffiti Art Gallery.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Friday December 18th @ The FireHouse XIII 41 Central Street Providence, RI 02907
Doors Open @ 9pm | $7 Cover | All Ages

Featuring Performances by: A Disturbing New Trend
40 Dash, Big Rush, and Nuke Youth
Music by DJ Sterby Rock
Hosted by Rock Solid

Open Mic.
Show up early to Sign Up! Each Emcee (or group) gets one beat (max 4 mins).
You can bring your original beats on CD. First Come First Serve Basis.

1 vs 1 Emcee Battle.
Marshall Law defends his 401 Battle Championship Title.
Round One is one minute. Round Two is 30 Seconds. Crowd picks the winner

Live Podcast Recording.
We record the whole show (audio) and turn it into the Official Elevation Podcast
It is featured on 401hiphop.com, iTunes, and the Zune Marketplace.

Late Night Cypher. (Midnight till 1am)
Come for the Open Mic. Stay for the Cypher. It’s a more free flowing emcee session.
Freestyling in encouraged but not mandatory. The Cypher happens over all origin beats from the …

Producer Showcase.
Come check out the hottest producers in the area rocking out live on the MPC.

B-Boy Friendly. Graffiti Art Gallery.

Here is the video of the emcee battle between Marshall Law and Flawless at the November 13th Elevation. Pardon the footage, we are still trying to find the best angle to document the event. This battle was dope regardless. Both emcees really brought their A game! The crowd decided that Marshall Law won the battle. What do you think? Who won?

Here is the November edition of the highly anticipated podcast from the monthly open mic called Elevation. This month’s Elevation was also the record release party for Jahpan and his new album “An Album Called Life”. Jah came thru with Pistol Pone, Troop Raw, and Lord Willin and burned the stage down. You can check out his whole set and see why they call him the Prince of Providence.

Marshall Law returned to defend his emcee battle championship against a worthy competitor in Flawless (Realtalk). Can Marshall stay undefeated or will the young Flawless unseat the champ? Tune in and find out!

The open mic was stacked with talented local emcees: Pulugah the Phenom, Jauz the Everliving King, Limits of Control, Russian Roulette, Danny Def Star, Scribblenauts, K.I.T., Classic, Raise, Diamond, Wor Paint, Prov, ABC, and Ready Inc. After the open mic, Vendetta and Big City Bumpas rocked 15 mins set. It’s all her for your listening pleasure.

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast in The Zune Marketplace
[RSS] Add the Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly

Music by: Sterby Rock
Hosted by: Rock Solid
Recorded & Edited by: William Javier

Sponsored by:

Friday November 13th @ The FireHouse XIII 41 Central Street Providence, RI 02907
Doors Open @ 9pm | $7 Cover | All Ages

Featuring Jah Pan (Record Release Party for “An Album Called Life”)
Music by DJ Sterby Rock
Hosted by Rock Solid

Open Mic.
Show up early to Sign Up! Each Emcee (or group) gets one beat (max 4 mins).
You can bring your original beats on CD. First Come First Serve Basis.

1 vs 1 Emcee Battle. Marshall Law vs Flawless!!!
Marshall Law defends his 401 Battle Championship Title.
Round One is one minute. Round Two is 30 Seconds. Crowd picks the winner

Live Podcast Recording.
We record the whole show (audio) and turn it into the Official Elevation Podcast
It is featured on 401hiphop.com, iTunes, and the Zune Marketplace.

Late Night Cypher. (Midnight till 1am)
Come for the Open Mic. Stay for the Cypher. It’s a more free flowing emcee session.
Freestyling in encouraged but not mandatory. The Cypher happens over all origin beats from the …

Producer Showcase.
Come check out the hottest producers in the area rocking out live on the MPC.

B-Boy Friendly. Graffiti Art Gallery.

Sponsors:

Norm’s New Generation Barber Shop
168 Smithfield Ave. Pawtucket, RI -

Elevation is a monthly Open Mic / Hip Hop Showcase. Its also a monthly Podcast. We are proud to debut the first official Elevation Podcast. William Javier recorded the open mic, emcee battles, our features performers, and the cypher. He edited it down to one hour and nineteen minutes of pure Rhode Island hip hop audio goodness.

The Elevation podcast is hosted by Rock Solid. The beats are provided by Sterby Rock and William Javier (except when emcee brought their their own beats). The show features performances by: Rock Solid, Romen Rok, Wor Paint, HW, Vendetta, Boudy, Mic Feen, Big City Bumpus, Reason, Dirty Hank, Marshall Law, Science, Casper and CasUno.

Vendetta graced us with his ability to pick up the mic and destroy at Elevation this past Friday. Between his onstage performance and this quick flow on the side, we notice a level of lyrical integrety surprising and entertaining to the ear. Tune into the podcast to experience the impressive onstage sound and lyrics. Vendetta tore it up that night.

Big City Bumpus is an impressive performer. This talented emcee smashed it on and offstage. He was able to capture the audience immediately. I’ve listened to other tracks from this gifted performer and noted a consistency in his impeccable style and lyrics. This is another emcee that I look forward to listening to in our future Elevation events.

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 …