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SXSW: 2 Live Crew at the Fader Fort
There were many, many unfortunate things about 2 Live Crew’s closing performance at the Fader Fort Saturday evening. One was, of course, the absence of 2 Live Crew’s front man Luther Campbell who hasn’t performed with the group in years. So the not-quite-as-drunk-as-they-should-have-been-for-this-show-to-work crowd was treated to Fresh Kid Ice and Brother Marquis cranking out verses from “Move Somethin’” and a mess of songs with unprintable titles and lyrics.
Another unfortunate thing was the dancing. It was like a joke about SXSW come to life: Here was a rap group well past its prime de-mothballed for an invite-only party, but since the majority of attendees were skinny hipsters and aging sorority sisters, the dancing was mostly terrible. I’ve never seen a rap group looking like they wanted to de-invite gals from coming on stage to shake it. (Word to that redhead, however.)
Yet, the beats are world-historical. The filling-shattering thump of Miami bass music was popularized by this crew, and their bawdy, sing-along rhymes, schoolyard-dirty in spots, genuinely pornographic in others, changed the game, influencing everyone from arty hipsters such as DJ Shadow to the entirety of the Dirty South rap scene.
As the party wound down, a gent from Rhapsody.com said to a few pals, “Where can they go after 2 Live Crew? Too Short, maybe?” My vote is for Tupac, live from Cuba.
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