Little Brother headlined a hip hop jam yesterday in Barcelona. We had 3 hours of local dj’s and mc’s before them, with just a few brilliant moments but things can always be worse. Used to waiting for the American artist by listening to some boring group from Seville, those supporting artists weren’t that bad at all. First we had some djing and La Tecnika (formed by Metro and Soyez, ex-Geronación). Same Metro as usual: social consciousness, irony and too much anachronistic anarchism. Just before Little Brother, we enjoyed a pretty good session by Dj Soak (if you own a club in town, you should hire this guy) and a concert by the local rappers Cero 8. Somebody tell them Spanish hardcore hiphop is dead!

Because the crowd’s reaction towards supporting artists was quite cold, Little Brother dj started with some classic shit as a warm-up. After a bunch of classics (Wu-Tang, Talib, etc) Big Pooh and Phonte came to the stage. The first four or five songs didn’t sound so well. They had some technical problems and generally, during the whole show, the sound wasn’t 100% alright. It was fun. No doubt about it. But they sounded like a good unknown group rather than a solid underground group. The r&b choruses by Darien Brockington were a really good contribution, but live they lose all the soulful spirit they have on record. In my opinion, they shouldn’t try to make shows so hardcore when they could perfectly sound better if they tried to do the same thing The Roots and Jurassic 5 do on the stage. Songs like “Whatever You Say” can’t be played like you were Public Enemy (did they actually play this one? I think it’s impossible not to play their best song but if they played it, I don’t remember).

The audience was formed by the same kind of people who has been going to hip hop concerts in Barcelona for the last two years. Not only bboys, but also local people who likes rap and lots of guiris (guiris=foreigners). The atmosphere in such concerts is much more enjoyable since people with different tastes are attending them. We especially enjoyed songs from their last album like “ExtraHard” and “Good Clothes”. In conclusion, they rocked the party but if they tried to offer a less typical show they would be absolutely mind-blowing because their records are dope. - Grey






Videos from the concert:
Little Brother - Good Clothes
La Tecnika - Esos Rapers Ahi