After a few acts of the quality I was expecting from the evening had performed and one no-show, I was thoroughly impressed by the headliners. The first of these was Kev Martin and Edgar Sosa, performing as each other's hypeman, each with a smooth flow laced over the mixture of old-school boom-bap and electronica samples that has become a college party staple.
Before the DJs returned and my friends and I left to catch some shuteye before work in the morning, Moreno Valley-based Speak wrapped up the live action for the evening. We had noticed this Zach Galifianakis lookalike earlier, chatting with the girls inexplicably selling what looked like thrift-store clothing from a rack in the back over a PBR. Now he took the stage in a Jesus costume, playing off the resemblance in the lyrics to his opening track. Thumping, bass-heavy beats propelled his set forward as he bounced around the stage, yelling "SWAG!" at every conceivable interlude and shouting out such hip-hop luminaries as "Mac Miller's Unibrow" and "Big Sean's Mustache". From this description one would dismiss him as simply another hipster rap flash in the pan, but his versatile flow and acerbic wit had even the thugs in the room on their feet and nodding along. It was then I realized this was the very MC whose Spaceghostpurrp collaboration inspired this rap-royalty-baiting piece from LA Weekly, and decided the number of freelance photographers encircling the stage were more than mere vanity. I went home with all my expectations for an Inland Empire rap showcase well exceeded.
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