We Review: Parker Brothaz and GMK @ Chop Suey

After the lukewarm show on Friday night, Seattlest wasn't sure we were up for any more unsure bets on local hiphop shows. However, we bundled up, put on a brave face and ventured back to Chop Suey last night for the Parker Brothaz/GMK show. What we came away with: GMK is incredibly tight and infectiously energetic, the "L" in "put your L's UP!" stands for Lucciauno (as in "Free Fatal!"), and we want DJ Nphared to follow us around doing the soundtrack for our lives.

AK consists of two white guys pounding out a thick, insistent hiphop that is, judging by most of their lyrics last night, all about the "pussy." A blank-faced, blonde girl and then a nasal guest singer named LJ joined the two on stage for various songs, and while we appreciated the variety, the guests didn't add much to the performance.

SK is two skinny black guys, rapping to some awesomely deep, resonating, epic beats. The guys' vocals and stage presence weren't as compelling as DJ Nphared's beats behind them; they needed to rehearse a little bit more, though they definitely had the "Put your motherfucking L's up!" phrase down pat. We did some investigative journalism and asked around about the L's, since most of the groups were asking us to put them up. We got three "I don't knows" from the guys around us, but on the fourth try (this guy hailed from Maryland and he knew all about it, somehow) we struck gold: Fatal Lucciauno, convicted of drive-by shooting, is the center of a "free this rapper" campaign. Some say he should have been given a lesser charge involving unlawful discharge of firearms. Seattlest says we don't know about the charges, the Free Fatal campaign, or the L's, but we DO know that we absolutely love the music we've heard from Fatal Lucciauno, and we'd put our L's up to that any day.

Kingzmen came out in matching striped jumpers, which was cute. They certainly have charm, Nphared's beats were beautiful again, and if the Kingzmen tighten up their presence just one notch further, they'll make our list of groups to be excited about. Here's who we ARE excited about: GMK. Bright, bursting energy, hustling like a pro. This guy is flying, he's got the spark, and everything about his act works really well. He only had fifteen minutes on stage, but after the Parker Brothaz (not bad, just... flat), it was clear GMK deserves to headline. The Parker Brothaz were formulaic, packaged, commercial ("Where's your iPhones? Where's your Sidekicks?" is the refrain in their latest single), but admittedly smooth. Smooth, but not inspiring. GMK, on the other hand, got the crowd swooping and bouncing right along with him. Good man, good man. "Baby wanna drop that? Go ahead, drop that." Encore!

Photo of GMK in action courtesy of MySpace.