If you’re looking for lyrical, intelligent rhymes, Scribes has got ’em. Each syllable he drops is complex but still accessible, demanding your attention while the beats move your body. With his baseball hat tilted to the side, he stalked across the stage during his opening number, making eye contact with everyone in the front row like he was daring them to bob their heads. Seattle’s hip-hop scene is filled with the smartypants flow, from Blue Scholars to Common Market, and it’s easy to imagine Scribes joining that list soon.

I don’t know if the audience at Vera’s all-ages stage was looking for rhymes about current events, though. The monitors were blasting Ol’ Dirty Bastard while we waited for the show to start, and that got the crowd interested, but the beatboxing during sound check fell on deaf ears. Why? ODB is fine, but when a guy grabs a mic and drops beats like an 808, you don’t stand idly by. Get up, Seattle youth, and shake your ass.