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 Cappo
& the P Brothers
live in Liverpool
article
0076 added
15.02.04 words Coakley
technical:
QED
25th Jan 2004: 'Sunday Service' @
the Magnet, Hardman St, Liverpool.
 OK
then! The Magnet, long standing Liverpool Soul & Ska club in the middle
of town, turning left out of Liverpool Central train station, and the
home of Liverpool Hip-Hop Society's 'Sunday Service' night.
Everything about the place is perfect for Hip-Hop clubbing. The decor of
the Magnet is reminiscent of the café/restaurant dance scene in Pulp
Fiction with 50's coffee bar style seating and deep red and orangey
yellow walls. There's an aura of Soul boys skanking to Curtis Mayfield
or some lost northern soul classic in the atmosphere of the club. In
short it's the perfect environment, aesthetics wise, to get down to some
dirty booming Hip-Hop beats.
We start up in the back room were the aforementioned coffee bar tables
and lounge seating allows you a good half hour to sit off and chat to
mates and have a few scoops in peace, while one of the resident DJ's
(Sketchy Bwoy I think) cuts up some funky Hip-Hop with some nice
scratches thrown in. The usual stuff (Nas, J5) and no complaints from
where I was sitting. A pretty dope, and well executed set. I have more
money in my pocket than I thought so the drinks are now flowing.
 It
appears we're fashionably late getting over into the main room as DJ
Blast's main set has just finished. I have no idea what the capacity of
the Magnet is but the main room is large enough to fit approximately 100
with another 50 or so on the sides and to the rear (where there is more
Pulp Fiction-esque coffee/lounge bar style seating). Most people seem to
be congregating around this seated area or along the sides towards the
rear of the club and it's a battle for emcee Oscillate who's spitting
some nice verbals on the in house sound system to get some crowd
participation going. At his request to get our arses over to the front,
my pal and I shift on over, along with a group of girls and a few other
lads, but for some inexplicable reason the rest of the heads stay sat
down at the rear. Oscillate professionally carries on with the job at
hand and his flow's pretty good. Unfortunately the sound systems clearly
not the best and his vocals are too 'muddied' for me, to make sense of
them. It's clear though that the lads a good performer. Shame the room
isn't packed out.
It becomes immediately apparent that the vast majority of the Scouse
Hip-Hop fraternity aren't gonna make it to tonight's session by 11 or
11.30. In a way it's very disappointing and you feel for the promoters,
who I know from a personal point of view spent a lot of money they
didn't have to get Cappo & co over, with little chance if any of seeing
a return. I'm told that the night rarely breaks even on a good night so
the effort has been made for the love of Hip-Hop and the local scene and
this will be another thing learned. In a way it's to be expected, since
1) It's Sunday Night, 2) Payday's at least a week a way for us monthlies
3) It's less than a month into the New Year and everyone's skint and 4)
the new University semester starts the following day.
Having said all that I'm looking forward to hearing the excuses of a few
of my best mates, the SAME types who always moan about there not being a
big local scene AND! Who moan about the state of UK Hip-Hop….actually
preferring to go to RJ's in New Brighton (think cheesy Ritzy style club)
instead of showing some love to 'Sunday Service' & Cappo.
Moving on. One of the P Brothers (Paul S I believe) steps to the stage
and drops an incredible mash up mix of Hip-Hop and Funk Soul breaks, the
basis of which you can tell influences his production style. Except I
have no idea it's one of the P Bros, since he's not introduced himself.
In and out of dope shit like Kane & Rakim goes that Barry White cut Nas
used on 'No Ideas Original', expertly blended and with a few nice
juggles. You can tell this guys done it all a million times before. He's
fucking good. Indeed the P Brothers have DJ'd for Marley Marl, Jeru,
Masta Ace, Noyd and countless others. Then the other P Brother (Ivory I
think) cuts up some hot tracks using a few clever cuts and juggles also.
He's also top draw on the decks.
 By
this time some B Boys (those trusty B Boys!) get a few moves going on
the dance floor and a few (only a few though!) of the more adventurous
of us start bopping away on the dance floor. A little bit of floor work
turns into full on windmills and freezes, legs flailing everywhere, from
the B-Boys. 'And' as Barry Norman would say 'why not' since you could
literally throw yourself around the room and not hit a single person. A
thing that makes me laugh heartily is when a few girls actually start
uprocking as if they're gonna start breaking and then start dancing in a
most standard way! I attempt to lighten the mood by doing the running
man frantically, hoping to encourage people to not be so fuckin' cool,
and my mate says "Dave, please stop!" I cave in when I look around and
note that people are staring at me as though I was a newly discovered
species. Despite the level of alcohol I had consumed, this one time
'Carlton Banks Dance Champion' (2003), came over all self conscious and
returned to casual bopping. By now the breakers are pulling off some
truly impressive moves….but if some Tom Jones came on, I would've
properly show 'em up! Trust.
A guy I recognise as being some random dude that was sat off in the
other room a while back, steps onto the stage to absolutely no fan fare
whatsoever. At this point I must stress that there's less than 20 people
on the dance floor.
"Alright Liverpool I go by the name of CAPPO!"……
…he says. Or something to that effect. He encourages the people at the
back to move on forward and this combined with people coming in from the
other room increases the floor count by another 30 heads.
He then proceeds to absolutely tear the house down, prompting even more
wallflowers to dis-attach themselves from the walls of the rear and
sides. The floor is now filling up nicely. Despite the poor sound
quality (I fully accept this might have been my shit hearing) Cappo
spits clear, aggressive, energetic lyricism taken from his album 'Spaz
the World', some pre-writtens and some off the cuff freestyling that
includes references to his surroundings and the city of Liverpool. He is
very dope live.
I know a lot of people reckon Cappo's sound's only nice 'cos of the
production, rather than his verbals, but surely a big part of the appeal
is also the sheer aggressiveness of his delivery. In other words his
spitting is on top form tonight; despite the low attendance he makes the
most of his craft. He flows with ease in a live setting and doesn't drop
the ball once. He's also a competent freestyler. Above all that
aggressive style comes across perfectly.
The only criticism I can give of the performance is that there's no
theatrics, comedy or call and response or much crowd participation, and
that his act consists of simply pacing up and down the stage spitting….
But then the lad's still young and this will come with experience and
experimentation. It really doesn't matter much since his talent and
enthusiasm gets him through the set more than adequately. Also it's hard
to get a chant going at a poorly attended match!
Naturally the P Bros on the decks take care of things nicely for Cappo
and if anyone there had questioned whether to buy the album or not,
they'd certainly nodded their fuckin' heads off and bopped along to the
slamming beats enough to be convinced to get themselves down to HMV.
 We
are then treated to some guest appearances by some North West emcees
(who I believe were from Manchester), who proceed to spit some
freestyles and pre-written ish with Cappo occasionally dipping in with
his two-pennies worth. They get a nice little cipher going complete with
cuts from the Brothers P. One of the guys is called Chuck Nubian or
something and the other guy's name escapes me (apologies mate if you
read this!). They're both pretty good, with Nubian dropping some very
smooth pimp shit in a laid back style and the other dude (who's really
quite dope) dropping some battle lyrics. No complaints here.
We finish off with Cappo promoting a CD he's done and (I think) a
mixtape…. and he's off to do his rounds with them. He gets more than a
few 'pounds and compliments' from the appreciative crowd and has
certainly shown a lot of love back, despite the low attendance. His set
must have been about an hour or more long and you can't say fairer than
that. Cue applause.
The night ends with DJ Blast on the decks where he nicely cuts up some
dope beats and then an open mic where various emcees of varying ability
step up to show what they're made of.
THEN!
Just when people are beginning to settle down and reflect on a good, but
fairly poorly attended night and feeling more than a little sorry for
the local Scouse hip-Hop scene…..out of nowhere, local emcee TL from the
O.I.C. crew steps up to the mic and begins to spit one of the illest,
heartfelt, passionately aggressive verses I have ever heard on an open
mic anywhere (!!!)….delivered in a raw, thick, Scouse accent. Caught by
surprise, most people just stand there blankly staring until he
instructs everyone to get their hands up. Which we duly do! The decks go
silent as TL requests only his voice to be heard. "Where the fuck was
you's ten years ago when we was holdin' it down?" he hypothetically
questions the posers and fakes in the scene who've shown little love to
their own scene, as he spits bar after bar criticising the part timers.
"Yeeeesssssssssssss!" people exclaim.
That sums up the whole night, and indeed the whole Scouse hip-hop scene,
for me. Massive promise, let down by poor local support (bearing in mind
that the majority of the attendees were students from across the UK).
Ultimately the night was well run, well managed and booked brilliantly.
The artists and guests were excellent. The only criticism I would have
of the promoters is that they really need to be expanding their core
target audience beyond a student night in order to progress any further.
Marketing the night towards the average Hip-Hop head on the street is
essential.
I'm sure they'll get the mix right.
Overall rating: 7/10
A well run, well structured night, where Cappo absolutely shines as a
live performer….let down by low attendance.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR CLUB NIGHT FEATURED IN UKHH.com, THE LEADING
UK HIP-HOP WEBSITE, CONTACT
info@ukhh.com FOR MORE INFORMATION.
ALL PROMOS, FLYERS, etc TO THE SAME ADDRESS PLEASE.
- thecoakley@hotmail.com
 Ukhh.com
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© ukhh.com 2004
OK
then! The Magnet, long standing Liverpool Soul & Ska club in the middle
of town, turning left out of Liverpool Central train station, and the
home of Liverpool Hip-Hop Society's 'Sunday Service' night.
It
appears we're fashionably late getting over into the main room as DJ
Blast's main set has just finished. I have no idea what the capacity of
the Magnet is but the main room is large enough to fit approximately 100
with another 50 or so on the sides and to the rear (where there is more
Pulp Fiction-esque coffee/lounge bar style seating). Most people seem to
be congregating around this seated area or along the sides towards the
rear of the club and it's a battle for emcee Oscillate who's spitting
some nice verbals on the in house sound system to get some crowd
participation going. At his request to get our arses over to the front,
my pal and I shift on over, along with a group of girls and a few other
lads, but for some inexplicable reason the rest of the heads stay sat
down at the rear. Oscillate professionally carries on with the job at
hand and his flow's pretty good. Unfortunately the sound systems clearly
not the best and his vocals are too 'muddied' for me, to make sense of
them. It's clear though that the lads a good performer. Shame the room
isn't packed out.
By
this time some B Boys (those trusty B Boys!) get a few moves going on
the dance floor and a few (only a few though!) of the more adventurous
of us start bopping away on the dance floor. A little bit of floor work
turns into full on windmills and freezes, legs flailing everywhere, from
the B-Boys. 'And' as Barry Norman would say 'why not' since you could
literally throw yourself around the room and not hit a single person. A
thing that makes me laugh heartily is when a few girls actually start
uprocking as if they're gonna start breaking and then start dancing in a
most standard way! I attempt to lighten the mood by doing the running
man frantically, hoping to encourage people to not be so fuckin' cool,
and my mate says "Dave, please stop!" I cave in when I look around and
note that people are staring at me as though I was a newly discovered
species. Despite the level of alcohol I had consumed, this one time
'Carlton Banks Dance Champion' (2003), came over all self conscious and
returned to casual bopping. By now the breakers are pulling off some
truly impressive moves….but if some Tom Jones came on, I would've
properly show 'em up! Trust.
We
are then treated to some guest appearances by some North West emcees
(who I believe were from Manchester), who proceed to spit some
freestyles and pre-written ish with Cappo occasionally dipping in with
his two-pennies worth. They get a nice little cipher going complete with
cuts from the Brothers P. One of the guys is called Chuck Nubian or
something and the other guy's name escapes me (apologies mate if you
read this!). They're both pretty good, with Nubian dropping some very
smooth pimp shit in a laid back style and the other dude (who's really
quite dope) dropping some battle lyrics. No complaints here.
www.britishhiphop.co.uk