Three Imaginary Girls

Seattle's Indie-Pop Press – Music Reviews, Film Reviews, and Big Fun

Tonight, the Crocodile is hosting their first hip hop show, and it's going to be quite the party. It's the EP release for Dyme Def's newest album, Panic.

Sampling hooks from known-entities like Beastie Boys and Jay-Z and putting them on top of their own skilled rhymes, Dyme Def has become one of the best hip hop groups in the northwest. The first time I saw them, in 2007, I wrote:

Up until the Blue Scholars took the stage, the highlight of the evening for me was Dyme Def, A local trio whose LP, Space Music, I’ve only just recently become addicted to. Their set was only 30 minutes but it was tight and energetic. I don’t think any of the three rappers ever had their own verse; they seemed to all finish each other’s sentences as a group – which requires perfect timing to pull off – which they, of course, had. They won the crowd over early when their DJ, hot producer Bean One, sampled the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere” and got the loudest applause thus far into the evening. It was at that point obvious that the crowd was 95% Caucasian. They closed their set with “The Game Needs Me,” the best Northwest rap song I’ve heard all year. The chorus is catchy as hell (“Can’t leave rap alone, the game needs me”); the verses are smart and skillful, boastful but not too arrogant; and the beat is energetic and has a few unpredictable breaks. One rapper in Dyme Def said it was in regular rotation on KUBE. That is no insignificant feat. I’ve also heard it on KEXP several times as well.

Also on the bill is One Be Lo, Spaceman, D. Black and (one of my favorites) The Satutrday Knights.

What else ya gonna do tonight?

  • Insanity/Book Of Black Earth/Scorched Earth/Vulgarizer, Funhouse
  • Richard Buckner/Dolorean, Tractor {6pm}
  • Igor & Red Elvises, Tractor {late}
  • Dyme Def {album release}/The Saturday Knights/OneBeLo/Spaceman & D. Black, Crocodile
  • Smile Brigade, Jules Maes
  • Desillusion/Urban Collapse/Wide Eye Panic/Blame It On The Girl, Showbox SoDo
  • Brent Amaker & The Radio/The Redwood Plan, High Dive
  • Peanut Butter Wolf/James Pants/Mayer Hawthorne/Dam Funk, Chop Suey*
  • Dan Deacon/Future Islands/Teeth Mountain/Skeleton Breath, Vera*
  • Bloc Party, Showbox