The Kings Court Tour (full list of dates here) graced us with their presence on the second-to-last
day of Mission Creek. They played at Gabe’s, one of my favorite venues here in Iowa City. The show got started about forty minutes after it was supposed to, so while we were waiting for Phat Kat to come on, two DJs whose names I didn’t catch entertained the crowd in the meantime. They were really fun guys that kept the fairly large crowd at that point from getting too impatient. I automatically liked them because they yelled “F**k Donald Trump” in the middle of one of their songs and the whole crowd went crazy. Another interesting thing that happened was one of the DJs even took the time to ask the girl in front of me for her number because she was freaking out so much over him. It was actually pretty cute.
Finally, Phat Kat, a small time rapper from Detroit came on stage. After a little research on the artists beforehand it did not take me long to realize that they all hail from Detroit, Michigan. I am surprised Phat Kat is not more popular than he is. He has an
old-school rap sound that is almost non-existent in today’s hip-hop community. He had a demanding presence on stage and really knew how to get the crowd going. Everyone was jamming along with him and the atmosphere in the place at this point was fantastic.
Up next was Guilty Simpson. He had a very imposing presence and a hard posture, but his rhymes were smooth and flowed with ease. “Hip hop is in the house” was the first thing he announced when he walked onto the stage, before him and Phat Kat rapped together as he closed out his set. He talked a little about how all of the artists that played last night were from Detroit and how we as the crowd were “part of hip-hop history.” Guilty Simpson made it hard for you not to watch him because his sheer size demanded your
attention. He kept the crowd rolling until the next act.
After Guilty Simpson was Black Milk, whose beats are notorious. He was even discovered by Slum Village and produced a track on their 2002 mixtape “Dirty District.” Black Milk is an excellent artist. I do understand why his beats are so famous because he had the crowd moving around the whole time during his set. I don’t think I saw one person standing still, which was a pretty
big accomplishment because the crowd was almost doubled in size by the time he came on. I couldn’t even get a decent picture of him performing because I kept getting bumped into every time I tried to take one. He kept everyone’s attention, especially mine, and he was pretty cute which helped.
Lastly, Slum Village closed down the party with their old-school, hip-hop funk sound. Pretty much everyone in the crowd was rapping along with them to every song. They definitely brought the biggest crowd. They were constantly moving all around the stage and like all the other acts, brought the party atmosphere in the room to an all-time high. It was pretty late at this point; the show went till about 2 am but I wasn’t 100% sure because my phone died after Black Milk’s set. They still kept the ball rolling and ended it on a high note leaving the crowd satisfied.
Overall this was a fantastic show. I was a little apprehensive at first because I don’t listen to much hip-hop/rap but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would definitely see any of the artists again if I got the chance.
