WEEKEND FOR L.A. HIP HOP

It is rare that Los Angeles gets blessed with a plethora of Hip-Hop shows over a short span of time. Even though there is love for hip-hop here, it is just harder to tour the West for hip-hop artists because there is more distance between venues which costs more money and the regional differences in taste are potentially more extreme for hip-hop. Although MC Chris is rolling thru the Avalon on Thursday February 21st for some nerdcore hip-hop of the Adult Swim genre...the rest of the artists hitting town this weekend are West coast residents.

Tonight, in Long Beach, CA at the Vault is one of my personal favorites Del Tha Funky Homosapien. A member of Heiroglyphics, and MC on the original Gorillaz record, and 1/2 of Deltron...Del is simply awesome in concert. He has great stage presence and energy and his rhymes are so unique. He's got great diction on the microphone and he delivers with flavor.

Friday, at Crash Mansion L.A. is Los Angeles residents and Cleveland natives Bone Thugs N Harmony are going ghetto downtown. Some of Bone's recent albums, like STRENGTH & LOYALTY have had some good pop material, like "I Tried (feat Akon)", while maintaining their thug signature "9 mm" and their light singing-type flow ("Flow Motion") . I hope they drop the classic E. 99 & ETERNAL cuts, or even better - "No Surrender" from CREEPIN' ON AH COME-UP. Jupiter Rising will be playing support, and from what I hear they have a good live vibe.

Saturday THE COUP is headlining at Crash Mansion L.A. and it will be dope, I promise. Boots Riley (MC) has recently been on tour with Galactic, perfecting his live flow. I've seen him 6 times in the last two years and he gets better every time. If you want some live funky ass hip-hop, sort of Roots-esque...I would check out THE COUP.

If you are not on the hip-hop tip...check out LIONS at Spaceland on Saturday February 23rd.