Foxy
Brown, One Life to Live, G-Ism, Libretto, DJ Bles
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. 219-9929
9 pm Wednesday, July 21
$23.50
Since I am a long 3,000 miles from home, there was no doubt
that I was going to attend the July 9 Portland performance
of Beenie Man, the dancehall general. Hardcore dancehall
music is foreign to the Northwest compared with the Eastern
seaboard, where concerts are frequent, radio stations aren't
afraid to play these sounds and mix-tapes are easily copped.
My anticipation for the event was as high as the space station,
and this jonesin' for a night of balls-out grooving was satiated
by my Jamaican breddren. Shamir, Little Kirk, Tanto
Metro & Devonte and Beenie Man did their thing on stage,
and audience members did theirs on the floor, filling the
Roseland with the spiritually charged sensuality associated
with dancehall.
Beenie Man boasts a string of hits--especially '98's "Who
Am I?"--that kept the club crunk, but the theater was only
filled to about half its capacity, a situation that might
be stressful for Direct Productions, the local promotions
crew responsible for Beenie Man's Portland stop.
But this notion was quickly dispelled by a rap session
with the cats who run Direct Productions: the ever-laid-back
Ron Enright, who began DP more than two years ago, and young
playboy Ben Oramas. The two simply take everything in stride.
"A lot of our shows are underground, and turn-outs may
not be that great," Oramas said in a recent interview at
Doris' Cafe. "But anybody who comes to that show, they're
walking away enriched."
Some of Portland's best hip-hop experiences have come courtesy
of Direct Productions. OutKast once carried me on an emotional
journey back home to the Dirty South, my feet repeating
childhood stomps on the porch steps in the balcony of the
Roseland. The Roots concert was off the chain, from exchanging
pleasantries with Common backstage to the band's extensive
body-rocking improvisations. But the ultimate hip-hop moment
was walking into the spot and seeing Greg Nice join the
Beatnuts' set, moving the crowd with classic verses from
the Nice 'n' Smooth catalog.
Direct Productions has managed to pull some of the hottest
commercial and underground rap acts into the anti-hip-hop
climate of Portland. In fact, the string of incident-free
shows thrown by Direct has been instrumental in slowly changing
folks' hardened stereotypes of hip-hop culture.
Enright is well aware of the knee-jerk link in many minds
between violence, crime and hip-hop, so he makes doubly
sure peace reigns supreme at Direct's events. Ticket buyers
party like it's the end of the world without a concern for
safety, and club owners are pleased that the joint is still
standing--and about the loot fattening their pockets.
"I'm not doing a show and then bouncing out on people,"
Enright said of his approach to promoting hip-hop shows.
"And that's a big thing, because people like to know you're
not going anywhere."
Enright and Oramas' focus on maintaining high levels of
professionalism raises them a notch or two above the competition,
as does the fact that they're headz to the fullest and understand
the comfort of hip-hop's uniform. There is no bugging out
about red-eyed, baggy jeans-wearing, Timbo-laced, grimy
nuhs being on the guest list. Unlike promoters who
flat-out ignore hip-hop writers, Direct provides constant
updates on future shows as well as access to the artists.
Direct Productions is at it again tonight, presenting the
platinum-selling, ghetto-fabulous Foxy Brown to the people
of Portland. Ms. Brown is the artist people love because
she's so damn fly, but she also draws hate because her gutter-mouth,
showing-the-world-what-her-mama-gave-her steelo is too controversial
for the conservative.
As is typical of Direct's style, hip-hop acts from various
sectors of the local scene are opening for the headliner,
exposing old and new headz to what Portland has to offer.
"Even if they're not Foxy Brown fans," Oramas says of concert-goers,
the concert "may open them up to other artists on the bill,
hopefully get them to know the other elements of hip-hop
and maybe see them at shows they might not normally come
to."
Be on the lookout for Enright and Oramas at the show, tirelessly
passing out flyers for future concerts, whether it be Gil
Scott-Heron, Jurassic 5, GangStarr, Mos Def or the Genius.
Love of the culture drives the pair to keep it live for
you, bringing hip-hop heavyweights to the Rose City. Now
it's time for everybody to return the love. Say word.
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Willamette Week | originally
published July 21, 1999
|
