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 Rahzel & DJ JS One Clwb ifor bach (The Welsh Club), Cardiff
06/02/2003
In order to avoid missing any of this show (including getting in at all) I was determined to be the first punter through the doors to secure my standing space. I arrived at the still-closed Welsh Club at about 8.45pm. With not even a hint of a queue I figured I had plenty time to kill and not in the mood for drinking, I decided to kill an hour by having a meal…
BIG MISTAKE!
When I returned at 9.30 pm, the feared roadblock queue was in full effect. Whereas the Kela gig the night before had attracted a decent amount and variety of people, this Rahzel show was Definitely aimed at students given how most of the crowd comprising a city’s worth of 19 year old white males in their only white shirt determined to get in at any cost. At this point, if I had had the opportunity to go home, I would have. But since I was stuck in Cardiff till the morning, I had nothing better to do than to stick around. So, after queuing for about half-an-hour in the freezing cold whilst shameless tossers tried squeezing their way to the front of the queue, I handed over my £12 - £12? £12!? What!? For one guy making silly noises??? Really?
I made my way into the stuffy, and already Rammed way over capacity venue and after getting an Orange Juice, commenced a brave, yet futile, attempt to secure a half-decent vantage-point in the hall. Rahzel is one of those hiphop artists renowned for demanding the best possible sound for his performances but you would not have known this by The venue’s Rubbish sound that night. Someone had deliberately configured the sound system so that it lived up to the Rap stereotype whereby the bass is turned to the max and the high and mid frequencies are reduced or killed. This intensifying of music’s bass and beat is fine for dancibility but gets boring as a listening experience – and it’s not like there was much room to dance anyway. Before the night’s main event, DJ JS One was on turntable duties. I was expecting him to play a selection from the long list of records he’s worked on and to showcase his own album, Ground Original (Level 1). However, DJ JS One instead chose to wheel out a bunch of party faves and cliché breaks mixed up with a few unexpected records like some Led Zeppelin and then all scratched up to get the crowd amped. And yeh, a lot of people did go wild but I was stuck next to some twats going "let's take it back to 1977" and "I preferred TLC's version!" - Shit, everybody else sounds so stupid and unfunny when you seem to be the only sober person there.
Finally, at about twenty to twelve, Rahzel took to the stage – but by now, the place was so packed out, all most people could see was the back of the head of the person squeezing their way through the heaving crowd in front of them.
Rather than opting to replicate the concise 40 minute set he performed at last year's essential festival, this gig turned out to have more of a meandering party vibe. Subsequently, instead of battling and bouncing off each other in a sound clash stylee, the pattern established early on that night would typically be JS one launching a track and then Rahzel gradually picking up and then taking over. An early highlight of the set came with Rahzel doing the instrumental for Wutang clan aint nuttin to fuck wit, and the wild throng needing little encouragement to provide the choral melody. Whereas the partnership of JS One and Rahzel at Essential had him emulating whatever record JS One flipped such as Ironman, this night’s performance found him churning out too many of his tracks where he raps - he's not a great rapper - hell, he's not even the best rapper with a "z" in his name – fuck! He’s not even the best rapper with a “z” in his name who also beatboxes. This wasn’t too bad when trotting out All I know but he also decided to use this show as an opportunity to showcase some of the new, but nondescript rap tracks from his forthcoming sophomore album Super human. Now Whereas MTM 2000 found Rahzel utilising the same distinctive simplistic rhyme schemes and exaggerated flow of acts famous at the time like busta Rhymes, this new album appears to be more “serious” ie: forgettable mid-tempo monotone raps punctuated by clichéd adlibs and call’n’response hooks for the choruses. After what seemed like hours, things got back on track when Rahzel stuck to what he does best and let rip with his version of Method Man & Mary J Blige's All I need. Rahzel's set then reached its peak with a performance of his signature party piece; an interpretation of Aaliyah’s If your mother only knew with vocals and drums, then drums and bassline simultaneously. This piece never ceases to amaze and amuse no matter how many times I hear it!
With his best piece now out the way, like Kela’s set, Rahzel appeared to have shot his wad halfway into his performance and so needed something to keep the crowd pleased. Fortunately for him, in addition to the majority of oiky students, there was a significant minority of nubile gals in the place so Rahzel decided to hold a "Bubblers" contest to see which girl had the sexiest bot and could jiggle it in the sexiest way to his rendering of Craig Mack's Flava in ya ear and Dawn Penn’s you don’t love me no no no. By this point, I and stacks of other people had pretty much given up on getting anywhere close to the main hall let alone the stage so I can’t comment on the bootylicious antics of the gals..
Rahzel was still on stage as I left at about 1.40am but by now, it had descended into the inevitable random "who wants a t shirt...who wants some stickers" banter. Overall, when compared with the Kela show of the night before, Rahzel put on a much long and technically better show. However, whereas Kela’s performance was a one-off tailored to fit the mood of his audience, Rahzel will have probably put on the exact show for every venue on his tour schedule; only changing the city name in his scripted interaction with the audience. Moreover, whereas Higher Learning had a strong upbeat vibe, with a room just full enough of people having fun, the massively over-packed Rahzel show had far too many people only interested in what they could see and more interested in being seen themselves than in the music.
- Sumo Kaplunk | profile
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