Delorean, The Outfit, TX, Dewayne Jackson Warehouse Live October 1, 2013
"Cut that, I'm done," a visibly exhausted DeLorean said Tuesday night under the warm lights of Warehouse Live's studio room. He had sweated through his white T-shirt, and his eyes had scanned the room and began delivering individual shoutouts through gasped breaths, his closest friends who'd grown up with him asking for at least another song. "We gon' party after this."
He seemed more concerned with his afterparty at the bustling Tuesday night spot Nox than delivering one note of an encore. Yet, here he was, swinging around with a microphone in hand delivering lines from Hood Politics 3's "P's & Q's." This was DeLorean's night for certain -- everything swelled up to be about him, from dual openers Dewayne Jackson and The Outfit, TX to H-Kane's mannerisms controlling the crowd between sets and DJ Mr. Rogers' crafty mixing.
When DeLorean raps, it rumbles out like a Chevy block engine: careful at first but braying and defiant the next. "Ghetto Boy" from Hood Politics 1 felt like a fitting, proper close, but by the time we got there DeLorean's motor had been chugging along through a 40-minute set that touched four separate projects, all with their own rather distinct identities.
"Back Up In My City," with its candor and drop-top fun rang loud but it got toppled like a building by anything from his recent release Grace, especially its lead single "Breathe." Knees buckled, voices cracked and DeLorean led his own version of church, even if at times during the sermon he playfully got to let someone else do the work for him.
Bun B sauntered about, but didn't join him for "Love Me Now." Slim Thug, however, leapt from the crowd to perform "Beautiful Morning." Jack Freeman crooned, Mookie Jones stood on top of a speaker with his long hair gangly and free during "Say Grace," and Killa Kyleon rocked on through "This Is It." All acceptable moments for DeLorean to feel appreciative of the event and the people who surrounded him.
"Me being on this stage shows I'm still working at my craft," he said with a wry smile on his face.
The Outfit, TX, however carried a far more menacing moment with their set, a small smattering of tracks from their lauded Starships & Rockets: Cooly Fooly Space Age Funk mixtape and some loosies. No moment was more stirring than towards the end where Mel Kyle, Dorian and Jay Hawk returned to the stage shirtless, clad in only camo hunter's masks and jeans while a fourth man in an astronaut helmet looked on.
There, Dorian launched into his best Kanye-post anti-commercialism impersonation to a rather bleak track presumed to be known as "Hourglass." Sparse and minimal, it's a clear detraction from anything on SR:CFSAF from the vibrant "Private Dancer" to the rowdy "Rock N Roll."
Review continues on the next page.
