I love you Converse Rubber Tracks. The free concert series sponsored by the shoe giant brought Mississippi hip-hop artist Big K.R.I.T to The Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts last night. I'd like to thank the good people at Converse for making this happen because this could very well end up being one of the best shows of the year.
My friend and I got to The Sinclair about an hour before the doors opened. I had no idea how these Rubber Tracks Live shows worked as I've never been fortunate enough to get tickets for one before, and since entry was not guaranteed, I wanted to make sure I had the best possible chance of getting in. Thankfully, we were amongst the first ten or so people to arrive, so my fears were all for naught. This was the first time I've been to the Sinclair and I have to say it's a pretty sweet venue. It reminded me a lot of Boston's Paradise Rock Club-just condensed into a smaller space.
About an hour and 15 minutes after doors opened, the show's lone opener Michael Christmas hit the stage. I knew literally nothing about him before the show. When I was waiting in line, I found out that he was from Boston, which is cool as hell because there isn't much of a hip-hop scene in the city. As for the performance itself, Christmas was pretty damn good. He nicely balanced tongue-in-cheek humor with a lot of personal, emotional anecdotes in his songs. His ability to drop punchlines of varying tones at a rapid pace gives him a uniquely goofy, honest voice that you seldom see in modern hip-hop. His lyrical diversity also allows him to rap over a variety of different beats with relative ease, which is always a huge plus in my book. As you would expect, Christmas was warmly received from the hometown crowd. A lot of his family and friends were at the show to support him, which gave the room a really great vibe the entire time he was performing. Having all that love from the audience payed dividends in the quality of his performance. Christmas is definitely an artist to keep an eye on in 2015. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if he picked up a sizable following by year's end.
After an almost half-hour wait, Big K.R.I.T finally came out to perform. The first time I saw K.R.I.T was when he was opening for Macklemore in late 2013. While he was definitely good, the arena setting was just too big for his low-key, old-school southern hip to have its intended effect. Ever since that show, I'd been dying to see him perform in a smaller venue. I just had a strong feeling that he would absolutely rip shit up in a club setting. After last night I can confirm that my hypothesis was correct. K.R.I.T. came out and absolutely owned the 525-capacity Sinclair. The intimacy of the room allowed you to feel every bit of the energy, soul and power of the beats that drive his music. His music was pretty much made to be played in dingy clubs, so it was great to see finally be able to see him in a setting that properly accentuated the strengths of music. Aside from the high quality of the production, K.R.I.T. is one of the most technically impressive MC's in the game. The fluidity and clarity that he raps with on every song is astonishing. I've seen some rappers (*cough cough Kendrick Lamar*) not be able to match the technical prowess of their studio material live: K.R.I.T. does not fall in that camp. He is able to duplicate every bit of the sharpness he shows in the studio on stage. The highlight of the night was watching him do the entire second verse from "Mt. Olympus" A Capella. I didn't expect him to do that verse at all, let alone with no beat backing him. K.R.I.T's ability to deliver that verse live at the same speed as he does on the studio version without screwing up any of the lyrics or timing left me awe-stricken. There is no rapper currently in the game that is slept on more for their abilities on the mic than K.R.I.T. About the only knock I have on K.R.I.T.'s show was that he didn't perform over half of the songs in his set in their entirety. While he did an excellent job with the verses he did perform, it was still disappointing to see him cut so many songs short. Big K.R.I.T.'s incredible stage presence paired with his excellent chops on the mic make him one of the premier live acts in hip-hop right now. Thank you Krizzle for making my first show of 2015 a very memorable one.
Scores:
Michael Christmas 7.5/10
Big K.R.I.T. 8.5/10
Big K.R.I.T. (missing 3-4 songs and out of order in the middle) :
King Without a Crown
Country Shit
Something Right
Talkin' Bout Nothing
New Agenda
Lac Lac
Rotation
Cadillactica
My Sub Pt. 3 (Big Bang)
King of the South
Only One
Pay Attention
My Trunk
Money on the Floor
My Sub
I Got This
Just Last Week
Soul Food
The Vent
Mt. Olympus
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