We posted the video from Lady Sovereign's performance at Rickshaw Stop on May 24, but for those who want to skip to the highlights (or lowlights, as it were), she performed a whopping three songs, total.
She stopped her set two songs in to go on a rant about the sound, qualifying her harsh words by saying "I'm not being an asshole, I'm just honest." She then dragged out her complaints, adding, "I will never play here again, I swear that. You'll sound crap here," and that the other bands sounded "amazing" while her set sounded like "someone farted."
The thing is, by her own management's account, that farting sound wasn't the club's fault (and by many accounts, the sound was just fine). In a case of "she who smelt it..." these were issues were of her own making, since Lady Sov had fired her sound person the previous night in Portland, and then missed the soundcheck with her new hire at Rickshaw. (She'd lost her passport in Portland and had to drive down to San Francisco in a van, which her manager said left her "tired" and "not relaxed.") Dan Strachota, Rickshaw's talent buyer--and a SF Weekly contributor--says the rest of the band soundchecked without her and sounded fine.
But that wasn't the end of it. Post-rant, it seems the pint-sized emcee left a monster-sized mess in the Rickshaw's backstage area. "After her show she went backstage and wrecked the green room," says Strachota, "breaking bottles and throwing stuff around."
Sov's manager, Zak Biddu, wasn't at the show but admits that things "got a little messy" in the green room. "She was upset, angry, and disappointed," he says. "She wanted a perfect show in San Fran for her fans and it didn't happen."
Case in Point: June 18's show at the Independent featuring locals-gone- outernational Heavyweight Dub Champion and Jamaican rhythmic legends Sly + Robbie.
HDC will be stopping off at home in the midst of a tour which has already hit the Northwestern and Pacific Northwestern states, while Sly + Robbie are touching down for a hot SF minute before their appearance at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival.
If you like your dub rubbed, reverberated, echoed, and phased, and you're not traveling up to Boonville, this is the show you want to be at.
It's always nice when a community shows love. Especially when that love supports a friend in need. In this case, tha homie Rascue (aka Frankie Two-Hands aka Black Burgundy) is in dire need of a kidney transplant. For reals. This ain't no hipster grifter cock'n'bull story. This is 100% on the level, off the wire, on the line, and straighter than Phil Bronstein's shorts.
E'er since I can remember, Rascue has been putting it down for the 'Sco and the Bay. Even back when he was named Rasta Q-Tip, Young Frank was a titan on the wheels, spinning all the dancehall and hip-hop you loved to hear so much at club Deco, Informal Nation, and just about every club from San Mateo to the everlovin' O. As a member of Various Blendz, and later as the DJ for Cali Agents, he blazed trails so all you new-jack underground indie hip-hop cats could have something to look forward to. But the sad fact is, DJs rock the party, but they're often lacking in even basic health care.
Rascue, unfortunately, had no health insurance, and unless he gets a kidney transplant it's gonna be all bad. That's where the Bay area hip-hop community comes in. On Thursday, June 25, TempleSF hosts a benefit for Rascue that should be off the hinges until it singes. Scheduled performers include Dilated Peoples, Opio, Casual, Phesto, & Pep Love (from the legendary Hieroglyphics crew), Azeem, Z-Man, Rasco, Bored Stiff, Lunar Heights, Homeliss Derilex, Amad Jamal, J-Boogie, and many more to be announced. All of the acts will be performing with intention of giving 100% of all proceeds directly to DJ RasCue.
As a press release states, "Finding myself in this position so young I have really taken time to examine and fully appreciate, and cherish my life," notes RasCue. "But perhaps more importantly, I have learned how much it can really mean to a person when someone chooses organ donation." For more info, e-mail JustJay@UrbanUmpires.com or click here.
