Yesterday evening I had the good fortune to find myself watching the indomitable Nova Scotian alt hip hop guru, Buck 65, at the Jazz Cafe in Camden, North London.
As a musician who has long transcended the rather harshly drawn lines that define traditional hip hop, it shouldn't come as a surprise to discover that his show has so little in common with the likes of 50 Cent that the label of 'hip hop' starts to wear terribly thin. Then again, is a skinny white Canadian dude ever going to even try to enter the gangsta rap world? Probably not.
As the man himself makes clear, he's always been interested in things much bigger, in a sense, and certainly much older, then strictly hip hop on it's own. To that end, his show was something of a combination of slam beat poetry and spoken word, punk and rock, folk and blues - and that's not even including the frankly hilarious quasi-stand up routines between tracks (the tale of the booze fuelled orgy with a shop manikin will bring a smile to my face for a very long time indeed.)
The showmanship was fantastic, the backing mixing and decks provided by Buddy Peace were great, and I loved hearing such a diverse set list - a personal favourite was the bluegrass inspired song about a grave dinner who couldn't be killed - and I loved the sleazy, dirty disco version of Wicked & Weird, an classic Buck 65 tune that goes straight to the heart of what his music is about. Even the technical problems (dead iTunes!) at the end of the set couldn't take away from what was a fantastic evening, and the impromptu acapella ending was really refreshing to see.
If you're looking to see someone very different, very genuine, and overall, very likeable, you can't go wrong with Buck 65. His ability to bring together to many different musical styles and influences, to fuse them into a style so uniquely his own, and deliver such blindingly articulate lyrics and stories, which can be both poignantly sad and wonderfully funny (often at the same time), makes this guy one of a kind.
One of the best gigs so far this year. Highly recommended.
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