Party Politics: Musical Culture is Safe With DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and Friends (con.)

Scott Thill

Egon's set, in particular, was a bombshell of bottom-heavy James Brown classics, which hopefully gave the younger fans in the crowd a lesson on a legend that is still too underground these days. Egon's James Brown Productions T-shirt blended in nicely with the grainy concert reels of the Godfather of Funk looped on the screen behind him. If you haven't had a chance to catch Brown in surround sound, Product Placement would definitely do the trick.

He's no mark. Nu-Mark knows what it takes to get a crowd moving -- true hip hop classics. (Photo: Jurassic5.com)

Things only got pumping harder when Jurassic 5's co-DJ (along with Cut Chemist, of course), Nu-Mark, sidled up to his tables to spin the finest hip hop of the last twenty years, including a particularly slamming Public Enemy trilogy consisting of "Prophets of Rage," "Night of the Living Baseheads" and "Fight the Power." The rousing response from the crowd and the stage prompted Nu-Mark's fellow DJs to drape a PE jacket across his shoulder a la James Brown, but it was hard to tell if Nu-Mark -- his head bobbing incessantly, body seemingly immersed in the music -- even noticed. That's the juice that true hip hop -- the type fans remember coming from the likes of Public Enemy, Slick Rick, Run-DMC, Eric B. and Rakim, among others -- can bring to a crowd. By the time Nu-Mark was done with his set, most of the floor was already soaked in sweat, the air filled with applause and shouts.

But the logical musical progression from James Brown to old-school hip hop pioneers like Public Enemy, et. al. fragmented and split when Z-Trip stepped up to the deck and started his truly diverse turn at the spotlight, a set consisting of old-school and new-school hip hop, grunge classics, Beatles songcraft, Top 40 throwaways like the Belle Stars' forgettable, "Iko Iko" (which Z-Trip actually made listenenable again!), and more. Z-Trip fused the DJ's role as frat party soundtracker and hip hop historian, splicing songs from artists as different as N.W.A., AC/DC, Parliament, and Nirvana to the point that the floor was shaking with people who couldn't decide if they'd rather breakdance or slamdance. It was an interesting fusion, one some postmodern theorists would have a field day with, and ultimately one that moved the crowd into critical mass for Shadow and Cut.

"It's the Real Thing"
By the time Cut removed his hat and apron and Shadow finally came onstage, the crowd was ready to roll and, like the originals that the dynamic duo of sample-based musicianship are, they slowed them down to a crawl. That was one indication that their set would consist of more than just songs that everyone already knew, that it in fact would be a self-contained, self-referential exercise unique to hip hop.

"We start down here," Shadow spoke into the mic, pointing low for emphasis, "and take you up to here," he continued, pointing higher. "Then we bring you back down here again."

After heckling the VIPs in the room, which included Beck's DJ, Swamp, Shadow gave props to the groundlings who had been standing for two to four hours awaiting the show's final installment, before he and Cut took off on their excursions into 45 heaven and "Rappin' With Gas." And while the crowd hooted and hollered sporadically -- sometimes prodded into it by the hook from Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" or the urging of the other DJs on the side of the stage -- the majority of the time they stood still, watching the deft hands of Shadow and Cut trading 45s, loading up their players, or effortlessly scratching.

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Either that, or they were unfamiliar with Shadow and Cut's sessions to the point that they were simply confused by the order of things. Some people simply looked lost, and some pockets of loud talkers started up again, none of which kept the rest of us who were enraptured with the main event from digging into the funky collages and letting the vibe spread.

Whoever wasn't paying attention woke up when two of Cut's Jurassic 5 counterparts appeared alongside Marvski for an impromptu version of "The Game" from Quality Control, before Cut and Shadow resumed their operation.

And it was an operation in the full definition of the term, because these guys have hands like surgeons -- it's something else to watch them go to work scratching, blending, or effecting crossovers as smoothly as Allen Iverson. By the time the night wound down with Shadow's transcendent theme from his score for the documentary Dark Days, I felt like I had just stepped out of a dream.

What a ride.

And what a bargain, too -- seven DJs, six hours, free cookies, free milk and enough dancing to get you back to pre-holiday weight. Plus, in true underground hip hop fashion, almost all of them stuck around after the show to chat up their loyal followers, sign autographs, T-shirts and discs -- some of which Egon and Z-Trip tossed freely out into the crowd. It was nice to see the normally reclusive Shadow down on the dance floor, casually chatting up fans, signing one of the only 6000 Product Placement CDs made, a move that might prompt some knuckleheads to make a beeline for eBay. For myself, a chance to get Cut and Shadow's sigs on a disc that I'll count as one of my all-time favorite possessions -- along with the signed Don DeLillo baseball and the autographed book from David Lynch -- was the chance of a lifetime of hip hop worship.

By the time 2am came and the crowd headed out into the foggy Hollywood evening to make their way home, my ears were ringing and my imagination was firing on all cylinders. Shadow and Cut can do that to you, and if you're serious about your music, your culture and your ideas, you'll let them.

Scott Thill -- a media fanatic who finds the time to write on everything that does not include the words "boy band" -- is a gainfully employed dotcom editor currently finishing his first novel, The Dangerous Perhaps.