"Up to date / state of the art / take part, get taken apart as I make my mark"
Welcome to the South Easy
Tonight! Slip Jam w/ Mrisi & The Spoken Herd
Tonight’s Slip Jam is headlined by Mrisi (aka Shrapnel) and The Spoken Herd (Brighton’s answer to The Roots) so I’m trying to remember what my arch-enemy Enlish said at last months Slipjam when he followed The Spoken Herd’s Teej in the open mic session. For some reason it escapes me. The first words that come to mind are ‘cosmic bollocks’, it’s more likely they’re mine that Enlish’s but it was certainly something to that effect. I’m also trying to figure out why I find The Spoken Herd’s brand of cosmic bollocks less palatable than, say, that of Big Rube or Yoko Ono. I think it’s partly because I have a deep rooted prejudice against white hippies, I tend to project my own self-loathing onto them, but that’s not the whole story. Something about their music is just way too clean for my taste. They should route that flute through a Big Muff or something. Here’s a video so you can make your own mind up:
I’m also trying to figure out if they’re going to be playing all night. It’s not clear from looking at the flyer if Mrisi and The Spoken Herd are doing separate sets, or if The Spoken Herd are doing their own set and then backing up Mrisi, or what. If they’re backing the freestyle session too there’s every chance they could be playing for well over two hours. This could be a good thing, exhaustion could give the music a bit of an edge.
Whatever, Mrisi is worth checking out in any context. I’ll be honest, I’m way too ignorant of the Brighton rap scene to have heard of him before this morning, but having had a quick flick through his YouTube I’d say he’s relatively talented but hasn’t yet found his own style. He used to be part of a duo Barcode with The Mad Hatter but I can’t find anything recent by them so I’m not sure if that’s still a going concern. He had an album out last year called Englafrique which I can’t afford and can’t find on any of the bootleg sites. He does loads of other stuff which I won’t bother listing because you can just check the extensive bio on his website. Good voice, of the Brighton geezer genus, perhaps a little too sane for my liking but let’s not hold that against him. Thoughtful introspective lyrics, most of which make sense but not all bear close inspection. Had to laugh at the false consciousness suggested by the assertion on ‘Money Mad’ that ‘capitalism is natural to the animal kingdom‘. Looking forward to his forthcoming dissertation on the effect of inherited wealth on life expectancy in sheep and dolphins.
"Up to date / state of the art / take part, get taken apart as I make my mark" 
looool love it the money mad bit had me in stitches, its a gd idea for my next track!! I’m playing with my own live band btw!
Das racist
To be fair I’m probably the only hippy in the Spoken Herd and there’s 11 of us..so don’t tar us all with the same hippy brush
Depends on how you define hippy! But point taken, and sorry if any of the other ten take offence. And me, racist? Guilty as charged. I’m the white Uncle Ruckus. Blame Chuck D, Ice Cube, Mos Def and Howard Zinn.
Self hating white man. Slavery wasn’t your fault, lighten up
Ha! Good luck with that. The only proven method of getting me to lighten up is beer, and I’m thinking of giving that up. Maybe I shouldn’t drink so much coffee?