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Live From the Bay: Devin the Dude’s Herbal Essence · by Abe Beame
Something that ten years as a dedicated patron of live Hip Hop has taught me is the tried and true adage that practice makes perfect. I can’t recall one up and coming new jack who hasn’t gotten on stage and mortified me by screaming over his own vocals with no less than 20 hypemen.
If you’re lucky, which you often are, it’s over in about 20 minutes. On the other hand there are few things that rival the joy of seeing a seasoned veteran help his audience understand why MC stands for Master of Ceremony. The set is well paced, the lyrics are crisp and enunciated over an instrumental played at a perfect volume, the hype man plays his position, the DJ knows the punchlines the crowd will respond to in unison and there are always a few small curves thrown into the set to keep things interesting.
As I accumulated ticket stubs I began to see a clear pattern in the shows that floored me: Busta Rhymes, Outkast, Cypress Hill, Snoop and of course, The Roots. (Among others) Not much unifying that top 5 other than the fact that they’ve all been doing this since 94, if not earlier.
With all this in mind, I embarked on an ambitious couple of days in SF: Sunday night at Mezzanine to see a twin bill of Devin the Dude and Bun B, followed by Tuesday at the Independent to see the Gza performing Liquid Swords. That’s a combined 45 years of experience, if not more, suffice to say I was hype.
I never time concerts right; I’m inevitably late or way too early, and this evening it was the latter. The best part of this hour or two proceeding the appearance of Bun was the DJ sets in between god-awful local opening acts who were rightly booed off the stage. Normally it’s the same set of familiar easily recognizable 94 Wu bangers, but this dude came eclectic with special props for throwing on “The Vapors” and “Soul Clap.” I think the coolest part was when he ran through a contemporary West Coast set and started playing songs I had never heard before that the entire crowd knew the words to. (“Blow the Whistle” by Too $hort is “Rapper’s Delight” out here)
Bun B had a high energy, perfunctory, greatest hits set, and I’d like to see him again sometime to better focus my energies, but he wasn’t the star of this evening’s show. In the weeks leading up to the concert I had been working on a review of To tha X-treme, an album that I feel stands as Devin’s best work, and probably a serious contender for a list of the top 10 albums released during this rapidly concluding decade. The review focused on Devin’s stoned existentialism, how the blazed apathy powering songs like “Right Now” and “Anything”, and the detached humor of “What?” and “Go fight some other crime” are a sign of a kind of enlightenment, Devin is smarter than the misogynistic hedonist crooner he appears to be. I have abandoned the piece; Devin live is a decidedly raucous, fratty affair, with the removed, refined air of the inebriated philosopher I find in selected studio works largely absent. And in many ways this persona is more interesting, and kind of terrifying.
Devin strolled on stage promptly following Bun’s set, a surprising, welcome deviation, and launched into……… Actually I can’t say. It was at this point I pulled out the Swisher stuffed with some bomb shit I got from a co-worker and proceeded to burn one down to my head. I was reared on Mexican brick weed and Canadian Beasters when I was lucky, I don’t smoke that much out here and never smoked an entire blunt of Cali bud to the head before this evening. Here are a few scattered, random recollections.
- Devin looks really old
- As a venue, Mezzanine is eerily reminiscent of B.B. King’s in Times Square
- Devin is a frighteningly polished performer, to the point of excess. It’s not enough to deliver every word clearly with perfect (Southern) diction, he acts out each punch line in a kind of fucked up pantomime.
- The Dude is famous for his many cameos, but “Fuck you” off the Chonic 2001 might be my favorite. I think Devin and Nate Dogg should form a hip hop folk duo that performs a two part harmony with Devin as Simon and Nate as Garfunkel. Obviously this group would make nothing but songs about smoking weed and knocking hoes.
- Maybe it’s the lights, or the music seemingly alternating between speakers on the left and right, or maybe its just Devin’s general mania but I think this entire set is made to fuck with people who are high
- It’s oddly refreshing to be at a Hip Hop show that is not predominantly white, grungy and male.
- Devin should not be doing slick seduction raps with red lights on live, it’s fucked up and creepy.
- Is Devin extremely popular here? How else can you explain the huge gangs of preppy white girls knowing his lines off shit from Fadanuf Fa Erybody!! And how did Odd Squad decide on that as the title for their album?
- They don’t sell Vanilla Dutchmasters in California in the event someone would be tempted to stuff an entire Dutchie with this shit.
A 40 dollar bar tab and a MUNI ride later I woke up the next morning over my sheets, fully clothed. And decided I’d stay sober for Liquid Swords.
Comments for "Live From the Bay: Devin the Dude’s Herbal Essence"
sounds like a dope night, curious to hear how the GZA show stacks up
— sankofa May 14, 07:44 PM
I saw Devin perform here in Helsinki a few months back and it was the best damn show I’ve seen in years. Actually one of the best ever. Devin was so laidback, entertaining, and funny that I can’t help but wonder. What a fun night.
— Perttu May 15, 02:25 PM
that was a funny and enlightening review. I had always assumed Devin was a supreme performer.
by my count Devin has two classics.
— 911 Jun 1, 01:46 AM
“- It’s oddly refreshing to be at a Hip Hop show that is not predominantly white, grungy and male.”
Yeah, theyre called titties you muffin head.
— hater? Jun 6, 01:41 AM