TopBillin Presents RA The Rugged Man
Plymouths hip hop scene was booming when I first moved to the City thanks to Promoters Top Billin', I had only been living in Plymouth for roughly 5 months and had already seen the likes of Taskforce, Skinnyman, Contact Play, Children Of The Damned, Cyrus Malachi, Klashnekoff and many more. Moving into 2011 the gigs began to slow down and there was only one every 3-4 months, the last one I remember being Souls of Mischief which was supported by Jehst and The Scribes - Which by the way, was immense.
Then it flat lined for a while and nothing seemed to be in the pipeline for whatever reason, then I noticed Top Billin' created a new event on Facebook. The event (13/12/12) was an early Christmas present for any hip hop head, Top Billin' had only gone and booked hip hop legend R.A The rugged Man. Peep the official flyer for the gig below, featuring some of the UK's finest spitters supporting RA.
As per usual I'm always there early when everyone seems to congregate at the bar looking at the dance floor in fear while the equipment is setup, a few plays on the shoot em up House Of The Dead, a couple of cigarettes later and we're in business.
Big Rain with DJ Magna Kuts
The first act to hit the stage was Big Rain who's been on our radar since he dropped 'Running For My Freedom', fellow label mate DJ Magna Kuts was also there taking control of the decks. They both killed it without any doubt, Big Rain played a number of songs from his latest Mix tape titled 'Scribbles In The Margin' which is available for free download from Life N Times official Bandcamp.
Gramma K / Bones
Both of these Emcee's are in GV Clik along with a few other dope emcees, I've seen Gramma K a few times and am familiar with his music and he's certified nang, a really home grown emcee. It was the first time seeing Bones live and he's also ill with his penmanship, if anyone has a link to his music then hook me up!
Split Prophets
At first Split Prophets was not mentioned to be supporting RA and then Si hit us with another surprise that they would indeed be doing a set. Now Split Prophets is a big crew so at first I wasn't extremely hyped as I was unsure who would be there, again I wasn't disappointed. Over half of the Bristol Collective was there and that was my first time seeing them spit their dutty rhymes, they played one of the livest sets I've seen/heard. They played number of tracks from their debut album Scribbled Thoughts, Datkid did Home By 8 and Jman hopped on the stage to participate in a track with the collective which hasn't been released yet, to sum it all up their set had already made the night a sick one.
Jman
Jman has been a regular in the Plymouth Hip Hop scene for a long time so it's only right he gets to bless the mic. Jman stepped up to the Mic and played a couple of his tracks from his up and coming album dropping this year, some of the tracks were 4D Reality, Any Point Of The Day and more but I'm unfamiliar with them. I remember his last track of the set was immense, there was a brief moment where I thought Jman was going to com-bust due to his energy, he can without any doubt get you hyped even if you haven't heard his music before.
R.A The Rugged Man
Everyone who has followed the real roots of hip hop will know about R.A The Rugged Man and his work dating back to 1992. The second R.A walked out of the backstage area you knew New York was in the building, a sense of unpredictability hit the room. RA comes across as a guy who'll do what the fuck he wants and won't take any shit, unfortunetly the DJ seemed to take the brunt of this in the beginning due to slight miss-communication as to when the beat drops.
After one or two rewinds R.A and the DJ was in full force and RA performed bar after bar and track after track of his ill-est back catalogue, tracks such as Lessons and his notorious Uncommon Valor track which airs his fathers (John A. Thorburn) time as a Vietnam Veteran effected by Agent Orange. Unfortunately I had to miss the last track or two of his set due to my9-5 mundane job, however it was one of the livest hip hop gigs I've been to thus far and I'm waiting for the next announcement from the Top Billin famalam.
Big up everyone involved in setting the night up and those who attended, underground hip hop is where the real talent dwells and you can count on Top Billin' to bring the fire to Plymouth every time. I have a feeling I've missed an Emcee or Two, had to have a smoke break here and there so my bad! You can find more pictures of the night here and big thanks to Zinzi for the photos, the pictures are dope!
