Words: David Durney
Photos: David Durney

Appeared:
September 14, 2007
Crowbar, Ybor City

Braving the god-awful evening humidity, I made my way through Ybor City to Crowbar for the Rawkus 50 Show. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Laws perform earlier this year and was looking forward to a belated encore, as well as seeing what else the infamous indie label had to offer.

Up first for the evening was Laws and I’ll put it simply: 110 serious flow with a powerful presentation. It was like a personal Christmas seeing him perform again. From what else I’ve heard around Tampa and St Pete, I’d say he is one of the strongest voices in local hip hop.  Laws is a tight emcee and a cool guy, plus he’s involved in my punk rock poetry slam at Uptown *shameless plug*. Suffice it to say Laws of the jungle started the night out properly and set the theme for Dutch Massive’s set.  He’s a young guy and definitely still learning his personal style and method of presentation, but still a confident emcee with concise flow and a good mix of themes in his work. Note to self: video game cheat codes make great hooks. Willie Evans Jr. was an interesting cat: original flow with a completely irreverent personality. He was casual and very specific in his style, plus it was hilarious watching him do his beats, rap at the same time, and pull it off well. Now onto The Smile Rays: just fucking amazing. The three performers, Daisy, Therapy and DJ Batsauce, are so very obviously meant for live performance it is just impossible not to lose your mind for these cats. Therapy is sick. Daisy has a set of pipes on her gilded in the most polished of gold. Batsauce was just… I mean innovation was like word of the week with this man, and damn if he didn’t set the most perfect backdrop for an emcee and vocalist. With an onstage “swordfight” wielding long-stemmed daisies you really get a complete show there.

I’d highly suggest every one of these artists be added to your CD collection; meaning go out and buy their shit and bring it home!  Rawkus impressed us and I feel confident in speaking for the crowd on that. Having seen legends from KRS to Gift of Gab in the Tampa Bay area previously, I stamp my indie-rap seal of approval on anything Rawkus. They know their shit.