The Platinum Pied Pipers, or Triple P, as they are also known, are a post-hip-hop electronic music outfit from Detroit. By post-hip-hop, I mean that while their sound incorporates elements of the genre--beats, rhymes, handclaps, and loads of bass--they eschew the aspects which have made hip-hop so tired and predictable. They do maintain plenty of swagger, but they also incorporate the Afro-futurism inherent in Motor City techno, cross-referenced with an updated version of Motown R&B. Their new record, Abundance, diverges from their debut, Triple P, considerably. Evidently, they couldn't stay locked into one groove, even though that groove might have been funkier than a mosquito's tweeter--because to them, that time has come and gone. In other words, Triple P are on some next-level ish, evolving quite literally at the speed of sound.
Triple P play tonight at Mighty, and opening will be another next-level act, producer/emcee Trackademicks, who's remixed everyone from J'Davey to E-40 to Goapele to Honeycut. Track is quietly becoming one of the most prolific contributors to the constantly-developing Bay Area sound, and being equally versed in hip-hop and electronica, he also knows a thing or two about avoiding the clichés of urban music. All in all, this is a show definitely worth catching - unless you prefer tired, predictable clichés. Ticket info is here.
Yesterday, I met with the prolific and talented D'Wayne Wiggins , who's probably best known as the guy in Tony Toni Tone not named Raphael Saadiq. Though he's a big fat rock star, D'Wayne has remained a humble, community-minded individual. He showed me his studio/office complex near Lake Merritt in the O, which he plans to turn into the Tony School of Music, a place to develop young talent--like his son's boy band Pop Lyfe.
D'Wayne's other Potentially Huge Idea is to turn Maxwell's Lounge --just about the only black-owned club still standing in Oakland's downtown--into a "Sound Stage," with live Internet streaming and both local and national acts performing. He sees the medium-capacity venue as becoming the Oakland equivalent of the Roxy in L.A. The first artist Wiggins is bringing out to test this concept is Van Hunt, the Grammy-winning soul/R&B singer, who performs April 1st. Should be a hot show--no foolin'. Ticket info is here.
