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Urban Games review

article 0086 added 26.09.04 words Sumo Kaplunk technical: Spoon

Event title: CALM URBAN GAMES 2004
Venue: Boxing Ring, Millennium Park, Flitwick Bedfordshire.
Label/organisation: CALM (thecalmzone.net)
date: 19 June 2004
On the one hand, several factors had the odds stacked against this event being a success: remote location, changeable weather, busy live calendar during June, free entry robbing the event of glitsy prestige and possible confusion with another “Urban Games” being backed by a certain soft drinks corporation. On the other hand, at least three factors were there to push the odds far in CALM’s favour. 1: The great and good of London and Home Counties hiphop were united at this one free show organised to raise awareness of a cause far more worthwhile than the need to obey your thirst. 2: The location of this event so far from anywhere meant that the people who did attend were there for the music and not to pose or brawl or participate in any of the chest-beating nonsense that gives hiphop its bad reputation. 3: The free entry should outweigh the practical and financial obstacles presented to punters by the remote setting. Indeed! To see such a star-studded UK hiphop bill at a single commercial event would cost most people far more than the bus and train fares to this suburban venue.
I’d been on the road since 6am to get to Flitwick and the sun was shining – if albeit behind clouds most of the day. Even having set out so early, I could not meet up with Ladycook and go to the event until well after an hour after opening. I don’t think we missed anything. Upon arrival, we were both impressed by the small, yet very varied turnout. The age range was massive; from infants being pushed in their chairs through to men and women in their thirties – but surprisingly, there were none of those crusty hippy types (of indeterminable antiquity) who tend to pop up at these sort of events. Representing both the mode and medium of this wide age range were hordes of young teenaged girls brandishing baby dolls which must have been part of some extra-curricular scheme to scare them celibate.
Upon entering the grounds, all seemed to be scattered far and thin across the field. As far as I’ve been lead to believe, the kids that did use the facilities enjoyed themselves but I don’t think the “urban games” angle was adequately organised for this event. The “Urban Games” were a couple of ramps and once the kids had had enough of them, there were a few fairground rides. For the adults, non musical diversions were even scarcer. Apart from the two food stalls on the site, only one stall stood between the hiphop stage and the drum & base stadium. CALM could have easily made better use of the space with some local businesses running market stalls or demonstrations. There was nothing to encourage the random mingling and meandering typical of all-day festivals. The most notable absence moreover was that of a beer tent. Indeed! People were having their own booze confiscated and not necessarily because they were under-aged.
Following a quick visit to the local supermarket for provisions, we headed over to the boxing-ring hiphop stage. First up was an alright dub reggae set from Andy Attic. Attic’s somniferous grooves would have been fine as a 4am wind-down but it was a sunny lunchtime and the few people that had so far made it needed revving up; not calming down. Premature boredom was setting in fast so we left the hiphop and decided to explore everything else.
After spending some money at the only stall, namely that of Skinnyman’s sponsors THTC hemp clothing, we meandered over to the drum & bass stage. Whereas the hiphop/dub stage was silently snoozing away to almost nobody, the WS Crew’s Berner & Ethics had a gang of excitable teens going nuts. The kids loved it! MC Krafty’s emceeing may have born a stronger resemblance to a rap hypeman from fifteen years ago than a contemporary rapper but he got the job done in the sense that he fulfilled his role as the master of ceremonies; far too many hiphop hypemen mistake their role to be the ceremony itself. I was not familiar with any of the tracks but they all flowed into each other and the mixing was largely of the unbroken shapeless beat-match variety. Subsequently, whereas the dub risked lulling punters into a coma, the relentless pace and throbbing base of this stage was beginning to blur into one long sonic seizure.
Now seemed an appropriate juncture for a lunch break and our sojourn to the town hall was well timed. For half-an-hour the sun gave up the battle for centre-stage with the black clouds and it began to rain. Some of that much-needed community spirit we had expected to witness outside was here in spoonfuls as local Indian ladies served us our curried chicken drumsticks, rice and salad.
Warming up for all the UK hiphop big guns were the duo of DJ Skizza and MC Wonder who tried to tempt stragglers away from the fast swelling drum & bass crowd with a sunny blend of “Urban” music. Their selection comprised a vague assortment: some bashment, some hiphop, some R&B, some R&B-flavoured Garage and some of that staccato cassio keyboard garage that is Dirty South Gangsta Rap’s poor relation. In the guys’ defence, their stagecraft and banter with the meagre crowd radiated real enthusiasm and warmth. However, no matter how lively they were, there was nobody there to enjoy it. Then, aiming to bridge the gap between this “Urban” music and the imminent afternoon of proper hiphop, The Realm entered the boxing ring. Comprising one black emcee, one white emcee and a female emcee who sung and rapped, obvious comparisons could be drawn between the realm and Spooks or Big Brovaz. Like those Heinz57 outfits, The Realm offered a generic melange of whatever’s cool in Black pop. Their mumbled, forgettable raps came and went without making much of a mark until they decided to spit over the instrumental for Dr Dre’s Aint nothing but a G thang. This set piece would be replicated by each subsequent act that day who would all go on to rhyme over big-name American instrumentals from The Neptunes, Ghostface and Premier. By the end of their set which they closed by making inaudible shoutouts to their website, a hiphop crowd was thinking about perhaps beginning to gather. The poor attendance of these first two acts suggests that “Urban” is not the over-arching, all-encompassing, universally loved super-genre that the industry believe it to be.
It was now time for the real, unadulterated, original hiphop. CALM could not have found a better host even if they had tried. Skinnyman turned out to be the ideal compare and spent the afternoon shattering preconceptions, overcoming detractors and warming hearts. It turns out that Skinnyman is the grossly wronged victim of his own hype. Far from the po-faced wannabe thug pal of Jehst that his PR portray him, he came across as an endearingly impudent jester. Recent coverage of his album has likened him to Ali G but if there is any comparison to be drawn between this ebullient emcee and any Channel 4 character comedian then surely it’s got to be the outrageous ribaldry of Avid Marian? Indeed! Part of his refreshingly inclusive and friendly banter with the crowd was his amusingly profuse Davina-style apologies for the naughty words coming out the PA system as Klashnekoff’s It’s Murda sneered away in the background. A lot of underground emcees like to drone on about their longevity and Skinnyman is no exception – However, whereas other emcees use their longevity to brow-beat their audience into liking them, Skinnyman gleefully embraced the role of old man of UK hiphop, making grouchy old man comments about Cd turntables and other such undesirable innovations. From the moment Skinnyman took over, the sound system began to fail and he’d live to regret such comments by the end of the show.
Whenever giving run downs of the day’s packed bill, Skinnyman made a point of describing some acts’ contributions as “personal appearances.” This detail made me worry; it was a long way to come just so acts can each do two songs, sign some autographs and leg it. Thankfully, everybody who performed that afternoon put on proper sets; playing for at least half-an-hour. Yungun and sidekick Devise, ably accompanied by Mr Thing, entered into the spirit of the event by roaming the ring like champion adversaries in their corner-colour-co-ordinated hoodies. On the day of this event, Yungun’s thoroughly pleasing debut album had yet to drop. It’s now dropped and stands as a strong contender alongside LPs by The Aspects and Paragon for UK hiphop album of the year. The emcee duo’s quick-witted interplay sparked a great rapport with the audience who gladly entered into some decent interaction. Crowd response was positive and the participation of those on the crowd’s right (from the performer’s perspective) was far more vocal than those on their left. Offering the audience a much-needed chance to calm down for a moment or two, Mr Thing became the focus with his brief selection and cutting up of some smooth grooves. Yungun’s sun-soaked party bangers were great but for most of his set, the sun was hiding behind the clouds. So, in order to at least simulate the sounds, if not weather, of a summer holiday, the onstage trio opened up a can of instant sunshine with their jubilant outing of the energising Kid Frost/Mellowman Ace throw-back bilingual rap Nico Suave. Yungun & co were to be the first, and as it turns out, one of the few acts to make a credible stab at addressing the point of the day. As they succinctly outlined, CALM is for men. However, the first half of the day’s hiphop line-up were to be shown that hiphop is for the children and by the children. Competition’s intense in UK Rap and whilst emcees watch their back, they should be looking at their feet. Devise and Yungun were repeatedly challenged for microphone supremacy by a cute two-year-old who first tried to stomp his elder rivals off the stage and then bust freestyle for the people. Devise, Mr Thing and Yungun handled their warm-up-act responsibilities with unfaltering aplomb but it is a shame they didn’t get a billing their stagecraft deserved and Yungun’s album warranted.
Skinnyman returned to explain that they were still having technical difficulties but assured us Blade would be on next very soon…. In the hope of plugging the whole in proceedings, the mic was passed out to the emcees in the crowd who wanted to bust a quick acapella.
Moments into Blade’s set, a gang of teenage girls in England tops stormed the backstage fence to plead with Yungun and devise to sign the copies of The Essence they had just purchased from the THTC stall. These girls are not the target for CALM but it must be a positive sign that the UK hiphop fan base is being replenished by something other than geeky men who lurk suspiciously in dusty record shops.
Blade (and Scottish sidekick/whipping boy Respect BA) were up next and boomed their way through their amped set. The first of only two old songs, Blade performed the title track from “The Unknown”. However, whereas the instrumental retains its freshness, Blade’s lack of commitment to the track’s lubberly lyrics suggested a lack of affection for and faith in the track. Blade appeared most comfortable with his most recent, self-produced material and while Yungun and Devise had the day’s most natural crowd-interaction, it was tracks from the stonking Storms Are Brewing like Scream and I Wonder that elicited the best crowd response with their catchy hooks. With the crowd at frenzy point, Blade and Respect took a backseat for ten minutes to make way for an impressive, symphonic turntable routine from DJ Tigerstyle. Whereas emceeing over the past decade has come on leaps and bounds, the musicality and originality of deejays has not progressed so much – if anything, the deejaying on old Katch 22 and Hijack records is more aesthetically pleasing and exploits more rhythmically interesting breaks and rhythms than current production. Matching the inventiveness of the late ‘80s with the technical dexterity of 2004, Tigerstyle used every scratch at his disposal to cut, crab, transform and otherwise create fascinating new melodies and grooves with his breaks. Having guilt up, broken down and flipped the script for nearly quarter of an hour, Tigerstyle’s routine did pan out into an at first exciting, yet soon numbing scratch frenzy over a distorted 808 pulsing beat. The second and last dig in the Blade back catalogue produced a zealous rendition of Britcore classic, Survival Of The Hardest Working. The Bomb-Squad-esc beat was cool but sound problems meant that vocals got lost in the angry mess. Blade continued to exemplify the family vibe of the event by letting his young son share the stage but paternal pride soon turned to fatherly anxiety when his son caught the rock’n’roll bug and tried crowd-surfing. Before leaving the stage to mingle with the crowd and take snaps for his own collection, Blade made a point of making sure the audience understood that he is as much a fan as an artist.
Ongoing technical difficulties prompted Skinnyman to fill time with yet more panto banter and then it was swiftly onto a set from the YnR/Itch FM clique: Jehst, Asaviour, DJ IQ and protégé Micall Parkinsun. Despite members of the audience having been pointing out the error for the past hour or so, those on stage continued to fail to realise that the “w” in Flitwick” is silent. I was not looking forward to this one. Jehst live can be very hit-and-miss and after Yungun and Blade had worked so hard to get the crowd hyper, I was worried that half-an-hour of walkman beats and weeded up witterings would put a downer on proceedings… boy I was wrong! Jehst and co were surprisingly good and lively in spite of the material. It was a wise move of the crew to draw the set’s playlist largely from Return Of The Drifter and not Falling Down. This bunch totally disregarded the “for the children” attitude of previous acts and were free with all the “motherfuckin” cussing and anti-establishment rhetoric. At first, the display of their rebellious streak was amusing but it soon proved contradictory. It is both stupid and hypocritical to spout anti-drug and alcohol disclaimers only to then perform the self-explanatory Evil Ed-produced Weed. Unbelievably apt (if albeit unfortunate) timing then found a performance of Under The Weather coinciding with a heavy downpour. For those who did not run for whatever shelter they could find, the crew offered several detours to break up the routine: a bit of freestyle, some rhymes from Mr Parkinsun and a little party selection from IQ. When IQ flipped from Jehst’s material to that of his US counterparts, a huge gap in production values showed itself between Jehst’s greying MPC-slice driven beats and the adrenaline-charged instrumental for Ghostface Killah’s Run. Skinnyman’s throw-away comments regarding CD turntables earlier that day were about to come back and bite him on the ass. Shortly into IQ’s little selection, the decks started, and would not stop skipping – you wouldn’t get that with CDs would you? Overall, the Jehst set was more successful with the lesser known material – and it looks like Asaviour’s influence is coaxing his man away from the walkman beats and drop-out rambling.
It was now tea time and as I enjoyed my delicious jerk chicken, the event’s ideal host became the day’s best act. Skinnyman, his mate and DJ Flip let rip with a deliciously unpredictable anarchic set. Skinnyman may have set out with good intentions, taking his responsibilities as a caring host very seriously. However, whereas he’d spent the bulk of the afternoon faning concern for the children, it was now “Rowdy time!” Now was the time for Skinnyman to wow the crowd by being hilariously politically incorrect. Picking up where his records and interviews have left off, he started out on a paranoiac conspiracy tip. For a verse or two he ranted about The Royal Family being David Icke’s lizard people and The Man but then suddenly creased up and, addressing concerned parents, pleaded that surely the kids know what’s what and don’t need to be spoon fed. The irrepressible Skinnyman was not the only thing in the ring to be jumping, flipping and generally bugging out. Records skipping became an ever greater problem and even with several unplanned restarts masked as “let’s bring it back” rewinds, his audience only got to hear single verses of “Lash Ssuttin and Council Estate of Mind’s lead single I’ll Be Surprised. Skinnyman’s records and public profile has seen him pigeon-holed well within the poverty chic school of London hiphop and so it is unsurprising that somebody was going to call either Jehst or Skinnyman out about this. Unfortunately, the heckler had nothing by way of a follow-up to his little tantrum regarding Skinnyman’s exploitation of others’ hardship - and even though Skinnyman failed to address the substance of the guy’s complaint, Skinny’s opprobrious acapella freestyle about being the heckler’s estranged father showed there was no way to unnerve him. Likewise, when a woman in the crowd later tried to embarrass Skinny on a sexual tip she again came off much-much worse; finding herself on the receiving end of some stunning misogyny. It was only after his set it occurred to me just how few songs he actually performed - but this fact stands as testimony to Skinnyman’s mastery of the hiphop stage show. No matter what is flung at him, even if worst comes to worst, Skinnyman’ll still make like MacGyver or Mr T and work (at most) four songs into an enthralling 30 minute event.
Closing time was drawing ever closer and there were no signs of the main act. Instead, a last minute addition to the packed afternoon was Cambridge emcee Inja and his fellow Delegate of Culture Dr Skuff on the decks. Inja has a wicked flow, informed by dancehall but involving the same sorta exaggerated gasps as Chip Fu, MT or any of those flow-meisters of the early ‘90s. The highlight of his charming set came with a double-bill that saw Badness, (an aggression filled rant much in the same vein as Necro), dove-taling into an intense moral tale about friendship and vengeance. It wasn’t long however before he too reverted to UK hiphop’s most common subject matter, offering his own “smoke till the weed’s burnt, drink till the drink’s gone.” anthem.
The main act had been delayed…and delayed…and the 7pm shut down was approaching. I found out earlier that day that only two thirds of the PLC crew would be performing, namely Nappa and Si Phili. This was disappointing news because Life is the more prominent emcee and the greater showman of the two emcees. On the other hand, this made it possible to do a “Phi-Life Cypher” set, avoiding the crew’s most contentious and family-unfriendly material. Aided by mate Leroy, (who, given all his references to “rims…bitches (and) tha streets” delivered in a voice somewhere between Sticky Fingaz and Busta Rhymes better be an American) Phili performed a few tracks from Millennium Metaphors and Higher Forces including Herbaholics and Over. Irritatingly, Si kept interrupting his own set by complaining about his mic not being loud enough. This depleted headline act did his best but it always felt like watching a PMD/Po/Phife Dawg/Play/MC Ren/Sid Little show. Like those guys, Phili is good at what he does but ultimately lacks star appeal. Furthermore, in addition to profile, it wasn’t long before Si was found struggling for material to perform on his own. Within around minutes, this set plateaued out and was about to become an anti climax. Fortunately, some of that much-famed (though rarely witnessed) UK hiphop community spirit came into play with some of the day’s other acts came back into the ring to lend a tag team hand. So despite getting off to a shaky start, this patchy set culminated in a royal rumble cipher.
I spoke with the organiser on the way out and he seemed reasonably satisfied with the event – well satisfied enough to announce confident plans to set up a nation-wide Phi-Life tour. Next time (and I hope there will be a next time) CALM should consider: an organised skateboard contest, corporate sponsorship and the feasibility of operating an “Urban” market involving local clothing and record stores paying to set up stalls.

- Sumo Kaplunk | profile

Related Links:

The Calm Zone

The ukhh.com CALM Urban Games section including interviews with Blade, Skinnyman, Inja and Si Phili