Saturday Nite Summit Jam at the Auckland Town Hall

By FEDERICO MONSALVE

Although the Roots was a tough act to follow, as some in the crowd pointed out, the trousers were still "low-ridin' and flowing to the fat beats". The hand signals flashed from every direction, and the crews on stage pumped a mixture of verbal mastery and turntablist know-how that ghetto-blasted the Town Hall in a way that it hasn't seen in a while.

Despite an aggressive security staff, this all-ages show for the Aotearoa Hip-Hop Summit was a civilised example that the hip-hop culture's bad rap isn't deserved, or as tough as it makes out.

The impressive line-up included the A-list of Aotearoa's hip-hop underground: DJ Shan, Dei Hamo, R. E. S, Ill Semantics, Deceptikonz, Nesian Mystik, Scribe, and American pop hip-hop legend, DJ Jazzy Jeff.

The overall effect of the night was a jam session that went from the eclectic Pacifica rhythms and lyrics of Dei Hamo, rising slowly to the more hardcore bad-boy attitude of the Dawn Raid Showcase, and bringing the crowd down slowly through Nesian Mystic and the more poppy dessert of the evening, DJ Jazzy Jeff and his charismatic MC, Paulie.

Nesian Mystik unfortunately lacked the energy of some of the acts around them but got the crowd lip-syncing to Nesian Style punctuated, of course, by long, loving sighs from many of the females in attendance.

Deceptikonz's antics, which included having a group of about 25 MCs on stage at one point, blasted the house with a combination of strong physical presence and the rhyming prowess of urban poets full of anger, passion and attitude.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Scribe who more than proved true to his lyrics: "How many dudes you know who can rock a show like this? Not many, if any." His casual prancing around stage while hurling words like they were pebbles made the crowd bounce like hyper ants.

MC Paulie Yamz screamed, "Give us any song and we'll create a new one", as behind him, Jazzy Jeff's turntables re-created everything from Suzanne Vega and De La Soul all the way to Beyonce and Dr Dre.

The crowd bounced and rolled to snippets from American pop anthems (Crazy in Love and Tom's Diner) scratched, fast-forwarded and played backwards and re-worked with the virtuosity of someone who has been in the business for more than 14 years.

Scribe and the Dawn Raid showcase (including Ill Semantics and Deceptikonz) proved that they know where it's at when it comes to pleasing the all-ages Auckland crowd and left the international act a few kumara short of a hangi.