Friday's show at Nectar Lounge was a great showcase for both classic and fresh, emerging talents in local hiphop. Alpha P, a gratifyingly professional, unflaggingly high-spirited crew of twelve headlining the show, were working NW underground hiphop in the 90s; the other acts on the bill included Tacoma-based Jay Barz (a raucus party act, himself), pissed-off Neema of Unexpected Arrival, fast-talking Premonition and the bulging vein on his neck, and charismatic story-teller Kublakai--interviewed by Seattlest here. Though the show started late, DJ Hanibal won us over when he played Snoop and Dre's "Nuthin But A G-Thang," which we'd coincidentally just finished reminiscing about with our show-going companion.

Though we've seen Asun at dozens of shows working the crowd with his box of cds, we'd never had the chance to see Asun and Jerm head the reputable Alpha P game live. Our high expectations were exceeded: this crew is pro. They are high energy and mature, with flawless mic transitions and instantly familiar, classic, spitfire sound. They absolutely know what they're doing, and their energy seemed impervious to the rapidly dwindling population of Nectar. (Really, Seattle? Stick around for the headliner next time.) Alpha P and Jay Barz both pulled off the everyone-and-his-mother-on-stage look, which Seattlest had previously written off as an automatic drawback; okay, okay, we change our minds. It's not always a bad idea. Check out Bandanaz on their website.

Jay Barz opened, and he was by far the crowd favorite. The short, red-headed rapper hopped up on stage with at least a dozen other guys we'd never seen before, and all thirteen of them danced and rapped and threw down so hard that the crowd could not resist the party feel. He was insistent ("They don't get down like that!"), funny ("How many people are drunk? Raise your hand"), and devil-may-care with a lot of devotion mixed in. "I got one more. If you don't know it," he told us gently, "fuck you." The last song was about the Tacoma Rainiers. We thought it was about Rainier beer, actually, but got called on that one... Of course. Anyway, we loved the song and so did the room.

The party slowed waay down to Premonition's precise, thoughtful spits. He's quick, and he had a guy named Cain up there with him playing electric guitar (!!), but he nevertheless lost the crowd to the allure of Nectar's open-air patio and refills at the bar. The beats backing Premo were uninteresting and repetitive, and he made rapping look stressful. Actually, so did Neema, who seemed extra-angry at the uninspired crowd and exhausted by his own performance trick of jumping on and off-stage. "If you are talking right now, shut the fuck UP," he screamed at the patio, and then gave up on jumping back on stage and walked around to the stairs. We've definitely seen Neema on happier days....Check out his recorded stuff, though.

Kublakai soothed the crowd's ruffled feathers and cut his losses with the patio-chatters. "They're drunk! They don't see me!!" he laughed, and we relaxed just enough to enjoy his set of some of our favorite tracks from The Basics. Check out our previous review of his bangin' music here. An announcement from the stage: Kublakai, Neema, D. Black (We totally thought he said Deepak, thank you Gatsby for the correction) and Cancer Rising are planning a NW tour in coming months, and we might even get to see a documentary about it! We hope it's more I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Wilco-style introspective and less Road Trip, but we'll actually take either one.

Photo of Jay Barz courtesy of Myspace, unattributed. Yes, that is a Gwar shirt he is wearing.