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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > September > 27 > Entry
ACL review: Del Tha Funky Homosapien
As musical cliches go, rappers claiming they’re all about “real hip-hop” is the one that sounds the loudest alarms. It’s the kind of thing Talib Kweli has said repeatedly for the 10-plus years he’s been preaching crowds to sleep; a signifier that you’re usually in for lots of back-in-the-day speechifying absent that pesky notion called fun.
So there was some worry when Oakland, Calif., rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien was introduced early Friday afternoon, by members of Hieroglyphics and Souls of Mischief, as being about “real hip-hop.” Thankfully, Del knows that the purest essence of the music is entertainment and he didn’t let the entertainment value lag much if at all during his hour in the sun.
The crowd of a few hundred — indie wunderkinds Vampire Weekend were on an adjacent stage — did all the requisite “hey”ing and “ho”ing when prompted, but the crowd antics weren’t really necessary since Del was pretty much spectacular while twisting words on the mic. Mixing in cuts from his new album “11th Hour,” he especially shined on cuts like “Dr. Bombay” and “Mistadobalina,” which is probably the closest thing he’s had to a hit outside his guest work with Gorillaz.
Back to the “real hip-hop” thing for a second. About 35 minutes in Del took a moment to quiz the crowd about their knowledge of old-school funk, imploring them to search beyond milemarkers like Parliament and James Brown. What saved the history lesson from robbing the show of its considerable momentum? The fact that it was immediately followed by head-nodding funk beats and rhymes by an MC who knows how to not take himself too seriously.
Photo: Erich Schlegel FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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