Brian Brown, Tripleplay Squeek and More Turn Up at The Blue Room

By sundown on Friday, the roasting heat, the tense yet ineffective special session of the state legislature and a dozen other things on my mind had me ready to collapse under a ceiling fan and call it a day. But on the docket was Mo Better Blue Room, a hip-hop showcase at The Blue Room organized by and featuring folks from the Black City crew. A couple of songs into the first set, I felt like Mario after chowing down on one of those embiggening mushrooms. It was a hell of a party with some of the most charismatic performers and insightful songwriters in a city overflowing with talent. I just hope Brian Brown found his keys. (More on that in a minute.) 

Moody, who kicked the evening off with his band and A.B. Eastwood on the beats, was a late addition to the bill. He’s only been releasing his own music for a few years, but he’s already got a substantial catalog of introspective jams with a strong contemporary R&B influence. I ran into Black City co-founder Justin Causey, who mentioned that the Georgia-born singer and MC was one of the drum majors for the mighty, history-making Aristocrat of Bands when he was a student at TSU — no wonder he absolutely owned the crowd from the get-go.

Following Moody was Saucyy Slim, who likewise dances nimbly around the boundaries between R&B and rap. Her set was short and sweet, with one of the highlights being the infectiously groovy “Max B.” Dropped earlier that day as part of a three-song EP called The Trio, it’s a tribute to the titular mixtape king who put a name to a feeling by adding “wavy” to the lexicon. Fans called on Slim for an encore; she was fresh out of beats, but pulled a jaw-dropping a cappella freestyle out of her back pocket.

Next, DJs Memville and Wrightful plugged in and OGTHAGAWD took the mic. On his tracks, his flow is laid-back and tends to come across as weary, which is fitting for the heaviness of what he’s rapping about. But onstage he kicked the energy up several notches, stoking up an excited crowd with songs new and old. Two of the standout songs were from his February EP The Book of OG: Namely, those were “Money Counters,” with Jay Monie joining in person as he does on the record, and “Small Town,” a piece about making the most of what you’ve got — which is even more powerful for being honest about the pressure that comes with that effort. It’s a low bar to clear, but I’d be remiss to not mention that “Small Town” is a far more insightful song than Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town.”

Tripleplay Squeek knows what she likes — in life generally and from a partner in particular — and has no qualms rapping about it. She draws strength from the bawdy humor and swagger of Memphis hip-hop heroes Three 6 Mafia, which she made especially clear when she performed “W.A.B.,” her spin on Three 6’s “Weak Azz Bitch.” Introducing her 2022 single “Bounce Muzik,” Squeek told us more about her relationship with her music. “When I drop a song, I may listen to it [again], I may not,” she said. “This is my shit. If you know this song, sing it!” Everyone in earshot complied.

Finally came the aforementioned Brown, who began with a warm welcome and a description of a key ring and a pair of AirPods that went AWOL before the show started. With Memville’s support, he glided back and forth through his jam-packed catalog. Older songs like “Stoop Kid” stood comfortably alongside ones from his 2020 LP Journey, his recent EP Two Minute Drill and as-yet-unreleased material. Brown started strong in 2014 with his 7:22 EP and has raised the bar on himself ever since. He’s hands-down one of the most fun people to watch on a stage — it made perfect sense that he was booked on several punk shows this year, and he kept the energy high right till the very end on Friday. 

Nashville has historically had a wealth of hip-hop talent, but the critical mass needed to get it to the next level has tended to dissipate quickly. The wave of Nashville hip-hop that started rising prior to the pandemic feels more sustainable. Crews like Black City, Inner Circle and Six One Trïbe are combining individuals’ efforts to tap resources in ways that are difficult to do without established infrastructure; we are seeing more local rap shows, and we are seeing more MCs come back with repeat releases, getting sync and publishing deals that spread their names far and wide, and building bases of power. This is growth that we as a city need to keep feeding if we want to remain a cultural center for the foreseeable future.

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