If the League of Extraordinary Gz is Austin’s version of the Wu-Tang Clan, then Reggie Coby is the group’s RZA. The Dred Skott mastermind is quick to let the rest of the crew take the lead, knowing full well that he’ll prove essential to each track’s foundation.
It’s a comparison that was no more evident than at the beginning of LOEGZ’s Wednesday set opening for Pittsburgh’s Wiz Khalifa at Ace’s Lounge, a 30-plus-minute set that found Coby hanging by the decks with DJ Grip and slithering to the front to lace each hard hitting track with his lighthearted, crooning hooks.
The rest of his crew – Southbound’s Lowkey, Dred Skott’s Esbe the Bully, and COD’s Tuk-da-Gat, S. Dot, and Lil J; no sign of Mr. Greezo – prowled about the front of the stage much in the same way Ghostface, Method Man, Raekwon, and company would. Led by solo efforts from Esbe and S. Dot, the crew did plenty to leave the mics hot at the close, flipping new single “Loftin N Austin” and Southbound’s “Keep Movin’” (cleverly sampling the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four”) in between tracks from the group’s forthcoming debut.
An hour earlier, 19-year-old KJ Hines did all he could to wake the sleeping crowd trickling in after ItsRealEntertainment’s brief cameo got the evening off the ground. Flexing a rapid-fire delivery over a platter of hyped tracks from this year’s re-released Capital City, the Pflugerville native backed up the hype surrounding him since he was 17.
This article appears in November 13 • 2009.