LIVE: Gift of Gab

Gift of Gab at the Rescue Rooms - photo by Glen Parver

There’s something about hip-hop in the UK at the moment that isn’t quite right. During the early to mid-noughties the scene in this country seemed ready to blow. Imports like of Eminem and Fifty Cent had taken the genre right into the mainstream charts and homegrowns like Roots Manuva were knocking on the door too.

Fast forward the best part of a decade and it looks like the whole thing has died on it’s baggy-trousered arse. Hip-Hop Connection (once not just the longest running hip-hop magazine in the UK, but in the whole bloody world) has folded it’s print edition, Tim Westwood goes live on BBC 1xtra admitting he’s “just spent the last three hours on air talking to nobody” and a big (if still underground) US artist like Gift of Gab stops off at Nottingham and barely manages to scrape a hundred through the door.

I’m probably getting a bit ahead of myself by lunging straight in here, so let’s rewind a little. The night’s support comes from locals DJs Lethargy, Solitaire and Beatmasta Bill and none of them look uncomfortable in such esteemed company. They choose a fine selection of vinyl between them and showed why their own nights like Eclectic and Size? Presents do so well for themselves. Big up fellas!

Then on came the main man himself, Timothy Parker a.k.a. Gift of Gab. For those uneducated in the ways of the Gab, he’s a veteran of bands like Latyryx, Blackalicious and Quannum (you know the crew DJ Shadow formed after he did Endtroducing). A large rotund leather-jacketed rap machine, he breezes through the first few tracks from his new album Escape 2 Mars like he’s playing in his front room.

Gift of Gab at the Rescue Rooms - photo by Glen Parver

Happily, despite the lack of numbers the crowd is vociferous. Sometimes the best gigs are done with more intimate crowds and tonight is full of die-hards. Most of the 1st Blood band are in the house. So is Nina Smith, a crew from Farmyard Records and they all get to see a great show.

Gab showcases a range of MCing styles that other better-known rappers would get down on their knees for. He has the timing of Jay Z, combined with an ability to write lyrics about something more than just how big his car is, or how he likes looking at girls booties etc. But he’s not dating Beyonce and he’s a bit fat, so he’s probably not likely to be troubling the UK charts anytime this century.

At one point he plays Deception (Don’t Let Money Change Ya), a thinly disguised yet beautifully written Blackalicious swipe at former bandmate Cisco (of Thong Song fame). The crowd sing along happily to the ‘dee da da da da da’ bits. Then he plays a couple more tracks and he’s off.

But hip-hop just wouldn’t be hip-hop without the obligatory encore. And when his DJ encourages the crowd to cheer louder to get Gab back on, the noise the small crowd make is impressive. When he does come back on, Gab looks truly grateful for the rapturous reception and addresses the crowd with a heartfelt speech

“I bring a message from all my crew. From Lyrics Born to DJ Shadow to Chief Xcel and more. None of us would be able to keep doing what we’re doing if you guys weren’t out there buying our records and coming to our gigs. So thank you all for doing that.”

He then launches into a few more tunes and at times his rapping is so fast it’s almost like he’s talking in tongues. The night ends on a high.

So where do we go from here? Well, home via the bar for most of us. But Gab has a drive to Bristol in the morning and if the turn-out there is as poor as it is here then he’s bound to start to wonder whether it’s worth bothering to tour this country anymore. And who could blame him for that...

Gift of Gab played at the Rescue Rooms on Wednesday 10 March 2010.

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