Here’s some advanced SXSW two-triple-oh mathematics: five nights, six clubs, nine separate showcases, and well over 100 different MCs, DJs, instrumentalists, spoken-word artists, breakers, and Cypress Hill. Remember the degree to which jazz set America’s musical tone about 100 years ago? And how it was only getting started? That’s where hip-hop is today. Dre, DMX, and D’Angelo cruise the upper echelons of the pop charts, creating much-needed capital so the ever-diminishing number of major labels can chase after the next LFO. Any FUBU-clad backyard MC in Possum Tail, Mississippi, is a mouse click away from uploading his demo to the Def Jam Web site, as the underground is alive from Abilene to Asia Minor. Back here in Austin, we may just be the “live” music capital of the world — or at least Texas — thanks in large part to the efforts of local MC/industry provocateur Tee-Double. A third of the mighty Hip Hop Humpday triumvirate with Bavu and Garyson, Tee’s Lost Scriptures (Good Vibe) dropped last September. Thirty minutes of straight microphone hustlin’, these Scriptures come with more verses than Longfellow. Checkin’ Ruta Maya, Doris Miller, and his status as “conference panelist,” Tee gives it up to the allergic-reaction scratching of DJ DREZ on “Tried and Tested,” teams with buddy Mirage for the De La-style title duet, and samples FDR’s post-D-Day radio address on “Blazin” (no lie). “Like that blind mack in Goldie, I’ll show you the cream,” he crows, conducting a vivid tour of the ATX rap crowd on “Mixtape Material.” More mix tape material comes from NYC’s irrepressible Jungle Brothers. Closer to Fatboy Slim than the Fat Boys on the bodacious new V.I.P., these original Native Tonguers can still cold rock a party, and do so with Rump-lestiltskin flair on “Get Down,” “Party Goin’ On,” “Sexy Body,” “Freakin’ You,” and about a half-dozen others. Dope House Records’ South Park Mexican is one of the leading lights of Hustle Town’s hard-bitten Southside scene; his new The Third Wish weaves SPM’s tangy tales of Down South street life with cameos from fellow Lone Star ballas Grimm, Rasheed, 24/7 Hustlers, and Austin’s own Pimpstress. Also caught up in the Space City paper chase are Sittin’ Fat Down South standouts the Botany Boyz. Forever Botany (Big $hot$ Records) finds the Boyz buoyed by C-Note, D-Red, and Will-Lean’s tag-team logistics, reworking “Freaks Come Out at Night” and “Posse on Broadway” for the off-ramps and dub sacks of “Cloverland 2000.” Even the most precocious of newcomers must kiss the ring of the Godfather, rap royalty Big Daddy Kane. On ’98’s criminally under-regarded Veteranz Day (Mercury/The Label Records), Dark Gable busts no rhyme before its time, his Brooklyn basso establishing his authority with a Cristal-smooth flow. Big Daddy’s secret to longevity? “When you talk that talk, you got to walk that walk.” Welcome to the Hip-Hop Era. And you thought the Jazz Age was off the hook. (Tee-Double: Saturday, Stubb’s, 10pm; Jungle Brothers: Saturday, Stubb’s, 11:30pm; Big Daddy Kane, Saturday, Stubb’s, 1am Botany Boyz: Thursday, Back Room, Midnight; South Park Mexican: Thursday, Back Room, 12:45am)
This article appears in March 17 • 2000.