Hoping to see Verbal Kent perform, I trekked back to SubT. Unfortunately, I found out earlier in the week the VK was out, but his Gravel Hip Hop peers, Alltruisms and Earatik Statik, would be opening for Lord T and Eloise. Here are ~30 of my favorites. As always, email me if you want your pix or a link to the rest of the ones I took (~200 more)

Lord Treadwell and Maurice Eloise VIII AKA "Lord T and Eloise" came through Chicago with Theodore Roosevelt at the end of July. I had no idea what to expect and figured their myspace page was an exaggeration. Memphis Crunk, or "Aristocrunk", was bass-heavy and high BPM. The crowd had a great time. It was unreal to watch how much energy these guys had for the full hour. T. Roosevelt was a nice add on the drums too. They also covered a few old-school songs - Lionel Richie's "All night long" and Slick Rick's "Children's Story" among them. The were much more entertaining than I thought. Check out their myspace page to hear some songs... And NO, they performed with green lights... I wasn't holding an night-vision camera...

I only caught the last 2 songs from Alltruisms. He was nice on the stage, but the crowd hadn't really arrived yet, so it was fairly empty. I bought his CD a few weeks ago (you gotta support indie artists). It was OK, but I think his best verses are on VK's albums and live on stage.

Eartaik Static also took the stage and I got a few photos from their show. The beats and rhymes were nice, but the crowd was still sparse. Worth checking out, and they'll only get better on stage as time passes.

Peace.