Since the Needle and I started this blog, I’ve been meaning to post about my favorite local band, The Urban Sophisticates. Based out of Greensboro, NC Urban is officially composed of six members, two on vocals, and others on trumpet, trombone, drums and bass guitar. Brothers Benton & Aaron James perform the vocals – Benton tackling MC duties, while Aaron brings an R&B and soul influence to the tracks. Due to the sound and size of the group, they naturally gain multiple comparisons to the Roots.
The Urban Sophisticates – “3 Minute Promo Video”
At a Talib Kweli show my senior year of high school I was able to catch the group open and was captivated by their unique, professional sound. Live, the group brings incredible energy and enthusiasm to their performance – some songs are outright dance parties, others become much jazzier, smoother and mellow. After the performance, I picked up both a cd and a t-shirt – in large part because I was hooked by their song, “Chapel Hill.” As a proud Chapel Hill/Carrboro native, I loved the song dedicated to marrying a girl from my hometown.
The Urban Sophisticates – “Chapel Hill”
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On disc, their sound is much more laid back and darker – but equally addicting. The album I picked up, “Coward’s Anthem,” is my favorite output of theirs and truly deserves acclaim. Each song fits well within the sound of the album and its completely void of filler. Refreshingly, Benton’s lyrics are not laced with arrogance and anger like stereotypical hip-hop lyrics – but rather speak to insecurity, struggles, and topics more relateable to a wide-spectrum audience. Since being put on to the group I’ve tried to make the majority of their concerts at the Cradle – and traveled to Greensboro to see them open for Talib Kweli a second time.
The Urban Sophisticates – “We Can Watch It All”
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By far the most impressive part of the band to me is they are truly great people. I don’t know them at all personally – though I did have a run in prior to a show. I had shown up much earlier than the band was supposed to perform, early enough that the club they were performing at was still serving dinner. Recognizing I was out of place and there for the show, the band invited me to eat dinner with them before they performed. Needless to say, their hospitality was much appreciated. Its obvious from their shows that this large group of diverse musicians truly just loves making music together – and the crowd definitely feeds off it.
The Urban Sophisticates – “I’m Feelin’ It”
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I’m not going to post too much of their music – as you can buy it on iTunes – so I greatly encourage you to pick it up. Also, for local readers – they’ll be playing a show February 17th with other local hip-hop acts Inflowential, Kaze, & the Beast.
I’ll be the first to admit it, I am an unabashed Wale stan. When I found out he was coming to Cat’s Cradle, I bought my tickets, told everyone I knew, and eventually rounded up a group of 10-15 to head to the concert with me. I arrived slightly before doors to ensure front row standing space and then anxiously waited through the opening acts in anticipation of Wale. The opening acts were a lot better than anticipated, Kooley High (Raleigh, NC) was entertaining and I enjoyed Colin Munroe despite getting no love from the crowd. J. Cole, a new signee to RocNation and a product of Fayettville, NC, was overwhelmingly impresive. I tend to think I stay pretty current with the music scene, so when I had never heard of him prior to the show, I wasn’t expecting big things. The two songs that stuck out to me were “School Daze”, which borrows a sample from Ahmad’s “Back in the Day,” and “Grown Simba.” You can tell he is far from a finished product, but he has talent, a love of hip-hop, and being signed to Jay-Z’s record label won’t hurt him. I’ll give you more from him later in the week, as his new mixtape “The Warm Up” dropped yesterday.
Let me just say that live hip-hop is probably one of the reasons I love the genre so much. When a crowd is really into a show, an artist has perfected the art of being a true M.C., and your standing for 4 hours straight in a packed, sweaty, hole in the wall venue, I struggle to find a better form of entertainment. When a hip-hop artist adds in a live band… multiply the previous statement by 100. Reading interviews by Wale, you can tell he takes his live show very seriously and wants it to be something that defines him as an artist. Needless to say, he has succeeded. Having not released a official album – you’d think he’d struggle to fill an hour and a half set… but at the end of the show, there were still countless songs the crowd was begging to hear (Leaving one in attendance to chuck a New Balance at the stage because he couldn’t hear “DC Gorillaz”). Performing with UCB, they reinterpreted some of his more “popular” tunes – mixing Jay-Z’s “Sweet” into “Back in the Go-Go”, Dr.Dre’s “Next Episode” into “Artistic Integrity”, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” Not uncommon to rap shows, several surprise guests showed up as well – 9th Wonder, David Banner, and Young Gunz’ Young Chris. I managed to get some HD video courtesy of a flip cam of the show which is posted in chronological order below. These videos made their rounds on 2DopeBoyz and elitaste. As corny as it sounds, all I could think of during the show was “I love hip-hop.”
Wale – “Intro/Breakdown”
Wale – “The Artistic Integrity”
Wale – “Chillin”
Wale – “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.”
My favorite part of the show (unfortunately not on video) was Wale’s performance of “the Elevator.” He did the song to a much more simplified beat than the recorded version, which explicitly highlights the cadence Wale mimics with his flow. Below is a video posted from HardKnockTV, at the 2:20 mark you can catch a glimpse of the performance.
The show ended in chaos with a performance of “Nike Boots.” As the song came on, Nike’s all around Cat’s Cradle were lifted into the sky as Wale desperately tried to sign each and everyone of them. As the song progressed, fans started jump on stage turning it into one massive dance party, the likes of which I haven’t seen since Talib’s Cradle show in 2006.
