music
It’s a truism that hip-hop in Charlottesville doesn’t get a lot of attention compared to the other genres here that have had break-out local artists. But one hopes that’s changing, as Outback Lodge has started a new underground hip-hop night, beginning with last Wednesday’s Killa, Endless Mic and Touch show.
The show opened up with Dareales, a local rapper. He went on a little earlier than he had planned, and it showed a bit in his stage presence. Although he only performed a couple of songs, Dareales shook off his nervousness and got a call-and-response session going fairly quickly, with a slow, bouncy rhythm to his songs.
 Droppin’ rhymes like nerds, ya heard? North Carolina’s Endless Mic give it their geeky-MC best during a set of hip-hop tunes at Outback Lodge. |
| Take a listen to "Watching Your World" by Endless Mic
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After the laid-back feel of Dareales, Endless Mic’s sudden energy came on as a bit of a shock. Mostly playing beats off a laptop, they started rapping after the first note and suddenly were jumping around the stage and the audience like the second coming of the Beastie Boys. Endless Mic is just this side of nerdcore—the group is named after a "Pete and Pete" character, reference Skeletor from "Masters of the Universe," and sample from White Town’s "Your Woman." The crowd wasn’t particularly into it, and the fact that they weren’t using Ducktape as a live DJ made it harder to win the audience over.
After a brief break, Touch came on. Another local rapper, he was able to switch instantly from double-timing his verses over the beat from Ghostface Killah’s "Back Like That" to turning Mims’ "This is Why I’m Hot" into an ode to popping pills, with a suitably calm and menacing delivery. He managed to keep his cool throughout the set, even as more and more folks encroached upon the stage. During his last song, as the beat dropped out behind him, Touch kept rapping for another two minutes or so, crouching lower to the stage as the audience surrounded him.
It was nearly a quarter to 1am by the time Killa got up on the stage, following a few quick verses from local kids Q Black and Marqui, as well as Zano from Endless Mic. Killa’s set was pretty straightforward—holding a mic in one hand and a beer in the other, he made boasts over synth-heavy tracks from the DJ. But the late hour was taking a toll, sapping the energy of both the group and the audience. Charlottesville’s newest hip-hop night may have opened up with a burst of energy, but it ended anti-climatically as the crowd filtered out into the rain.