Thursday, March 12, 2009
Posted at
04:11
by
Chris Faraone
If you see an
older white Cambridge intellectual correcting someone who says “breakdancing”
instead of “breaking,” or explaining how the term “hip-hop” dates back to the
1940s, chances are he or she attended “Expect the Unexpected” last Tuesday, an
evening of boom-bap flair and Jody Adams flavor at the celeb chef’s heavily
propped Charles Hotel high-grubbery, Rialto.
While Lino “Leanski”
Delgado and his Floorlords crew warmed up behind curtains, I joined about 50
academics and assorted hip-hop fans and students for a three-course feast.
Following the Hennessy-laced red velvet cake, hosts from the Harvard Hip-Hop
Archive cherry-topped the evening with a casual lecture on dance movement from
famed Philly choreographer Rennie Harris and an unprecedented in-restaurant
Floorlords stampede.
After Harris had
talked himself to happy tears about hip-hop, Boston’s top-skill DJ, Lazeboy, opened with
one of his trademark scratch-tastic routines. A lot of people didn’t know what he
was doing with those swift paws of his, but they knew it sounded fresh. Then
came the Floorlords: one by one, two by two, three by three, and eventually all
at once. As amazing as their aeronautics were, the true miracle was that no
diners got their teeth kicked in. The encore — which featured Delgado, Harris,
and Spanish Harlem legend Popmaster Fabel — was especially remarkable, with
exalted stalwarts representing three historic scenes taking cues from one
another.
Sure, the idea
of Harvard cats getting schooled by a bunch of Boston
kids is almost richer than Rialto’s
deservedly renowned gnocchi. Yes, it’s voyeuristic to sip Malbec and enjoy a
$100 prix fixe (not me — I jumped on the press list) while watching delegates
from generation hip-hop spin around on their heads. But as someone who’s been
marginalized for years as a writer, intellectual, and human being for
preferring cold rhymes and bass lines to rock guitars and screeches, it’s nice
to see overdue respect served up on silver platters.
