After some great performances and some not so great, the judges took 15 minutes to decide on the two winners. I was in 100% agreement with their choices of The Crowd and the incredible Kalae All Day. I was especially impressed with Kalae.
I first saw Kalae at SOB's last wednesday. She was tagging along with YC the Cynic in support of his performance that evening. She dropped a few bars for hiphopworld.com's camera and I was left with my jaw on the floor. I haven't heard a girl JUST rap in ages. Far too often for my tastes, female MCs get too wrapped up in the machismo aspect of rapping or have a bad case of Foxxy Brown's disease and only rap about how ill their "nana" is.
Kalae is nothing like those types of female rappers. She's just incredibly gifted with words. She would definitely put you in the mind of Lauryn Hill as she does sing and rap, but she isn't trying to duplicate The Miseducation of... Kalae All Day is doing her own thing and doing it extremely well. Definitely check out her website and blog to keep up with what she's doing. Mark my words, this girl is going to be big!
The Crowd was also a very interesting band. Most members have dual roles during their performances. The guitarist beatboxes. The bassist sings. The drummer raps. It's a beautiful blend of Neo-Soul and Hip-Hop with a touch of Jazz influence. They really kept the audience engaged as those who had not seen them before were wondering what was going to happen next. It was a great set to watch and they were strong throughout.
Here are a few shots of the winners:
The Crowd
Be sure to catch both acts this Saturday, July 10th, 2010! Details below:
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