Crown Room Crunk

Portland /// Swan Lewis

Last Thursday (not the monthly event) the Crown Room venued a niiice blend of hip hop based local musical artists.

Skinny Miracles led off this free event with a fine blend of of various genres on the decks and a perfect way to start the night. The first set is often times the hardest to judge as many people are just showing up or have not had their proper amounts of desired drugs to get their asses shaking and energy moving. So on that note, it was nice to roll up in here to a few Butterflies gliding over the floor with hula hoops and a couple of other people testing the waters and waves of the dance floor a little earlier than usual to the funked out beats.

Fogatron hit the stage next and laced the crowd with an electric performance of sure shots, go to beats, familiar sounds and flair of a true showman. Fog was rocking a fucking light up equalizer shirt hooked up to his microphone. No lie. So while he was beat boxing, his shirt lit up to the beats and rhythms. All in the crowd were definitely convinced that Fogatron was indeed at least part robot, if not entirely mechanical.

Next up was the most talked about set which belonged to Justin Jade. The question of the night? “Yo, what type of music is this, anyway?!” True, a lot of heads are already familiar with glitch hop and such, but those that were not, were quickly fascinated by the continuos sound emulating from Jade’s decks. You had to dig the dinosaur (?) tail and horns that he was rocking too. Homeboy hit me up with a CD and that proved that another talented Portland artist is out and about in our venues.

Nicoluminous headlined the event and spun numerous reggae and dancehall riddims to complete the night. He kept the night illuminating forward and added his personal flair to the show as the others. By his set, the place had a nice group attending and many on the dance floor doing their thing thing. Word had it that Nico put this blessed event together.

I did dip out for a minute to cross the street to The Fix, but quickly returned due to the bullshit over there. I just wasn’t feeling it this night. Too late maybe? As I witnessed a drunken-fest of grinding and spilled drinks. And even though the beats were pretty nice, I couldn’t cross over from the art and soul vibes of the other side of hip hop celebrated by quite the diversity of styles coming together with respect at the Crown Room. Oh, and they carry the Caldera I.P.A in cans out of Ashland. Cascadia? For sure this entire night. Love.