Concert Review: KRS-One/3LG,
Nightclub 9:30, 9/11/94

September 17, 1994
by Sean G. Thomas

KRS-One, founding member and creative force of Boogie Down Productions, played a short but impressive set September 11 at the Nightclub 9:30, weathering a midnight curfew and faulty sound system with enough humor and energy to make it all seem planned.

While BDP are respected for such acclaimed albums as Edutainment and By All Means Necessary, KRS-One's impressive but sometimes didactic intellect has been eclipsed by the lazier, hazier messages of Compton and Cypress Hill. His first solo release, last year's Return of the Boom Bap, went largely unnoticed in this age of the gangsta.

Surround him with a few hundred hardcore fans, however, and KRS-One will quickly restore your faith in hip-hop's ability to move, in every sense. Taking the stage an hour late, he bounded into a seamless retrospective set that rarely paused for applause, mixing old-school and dancehall styles with blinding speed. The seriousness displayed on record was traded for a vibe of pure, positive energy.

Like any idealist, KRS-One sometimes stumbles on life's mundane inconveniences: when the show's start was pushed back till 11:00, presumably to ensure maximum attendance, little could he have known of the nightclub P.A.'s legendary flakiness. When the mics and beats began to buzz and fade, however, KRS handled it with professional panache, engaging the crowd in call-and-response contests and even obliging several requests of "freestyle!"

Local hip-hop act 3LG, who opened for Digable Planets this time last year, warmed up with a set that left the small early crowd justifiably impressed. Their style falls somewhere between the playfulness of early De La and the slippery rhyme schemes of Oakland's Souls of Mischief. Their formidable live backing band includes a sax, two percussionists, guitar and keys, and the vocals were mixed at the same level to hypnotic effect.

3LG's thick but focused strain of acid jazz has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 12 months; wise listeners would be well advised to catch this band very soon.

Sean G. Thomas, Sean Thomas, Sean Garrett Thomas