Rhymesayers. Stones Throw Records. Two labels that are known to represent Hip-Hop to fullest. Aesop Rock & Rob Sonic (Rhymesayers), Homeboy Sandman (Stones Throw Records), MC’s who have continued to raise the bar every step of their career…all live right here in Richmond at one of my favorite venues: The National.
Rhymesayers. Stones Throw Records. Two labels that are known to represent Hip-Hop to fullest. Aesop Rock & Rob Sonic (Rhymesayers), Homeboy Sandman (Stones Throw Records), MC’s who have continued to raise the bar every step of their career…all live right here in Richmond at one of my favorite venues: The National.
Now its not often we get this caliber of lyricism in our fair city, but things have been changing for the better as of late with artists like AZ, Atmosphere, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon (8/14 at The National), Oddisee, Styles P. They all having Richmond on their radar; and I’m sure the crowd of 700-900 people at The National Monday night would tell you no different. To put it lightly, they got exactly what they came for.
Homeboy Sandman (image below) was the first to hit the stage, backed by DJ Zone, to rock a set spanning several of his well-known records as well as joints off his latest album Kindness For Weakness. The first thing I noticed was that people in the crowd knew this man’s lyrics, regardless of whether it was one of Homeboy Sandman’s nod inducing tracks where he slowly yet confidently delivers and enunciates his lyrics, or one where he snaps and hits you with a complex polysyllabic barrage of bars.
He worked the crowd, had their hands in the sky, and was more than just a warm up for what was to come. Though it was great to see him do tracks like “America The Beautiful” and “Talking (Bleep)” the best part of his set was that it was clear he was having fun.
After a brief intermission and some work by DJ Zone, Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic hit the stage and immediately hit the audience hard.
Aesop Rock (image above) is no joke. His lyrics are complicated without pretension, his vocabulary is vast, and his delivery is nothing short of precise. Couple that with the brute force stage presence and delivery of Rob Sonic, and you have what the people in my circle refer to as “some real shit happenin…” His new record, The Impossible Kid, is both dope and strong and when Aesop played “Blood Sandwich,” I was definitely impressed as it was even better live than it is recorded.
But it became clear around the time when they did “Whales” that these guys were not holding back. Rob Sonic goes hard, Aesop goes in, and the chemistry between the two was undeniable as they ran through song after song. They also gave DJ Zone the stage to hit the crowd with a quick display of his skills via some straight up turntablism, then immediately got right back to business.
It was great to see a diverse crowd that knew the words to not only the hooks, but the often complex verses as well, and to see some of Richmond’s own MC’s such as PT Burnem and Goad Gatsby in the crowd to see someone that is an inspiration to them rock.
And let’s not forget the epic encore, where Homeboy Sandman came out and rocked a few tracks off he and Aesop’s collab EP Lice, including my favorite track off that record “Environmental Studies.”
Richmond, you showed love (shout to the dude in the green shirt in the front row), and after the set as I shook hands with Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, DJ Zone, and Homeboy Sandman and congratulated them on a job well done, I could see it was that very love that was shown, that was the love that was felt.
