Meant for the Milk Crate Kicks It at The Cobra

The Spin wants to see hip-hop take off in Music City. As long as we can remember, there have been talented and hardworking MCs, DJs and producers in town, but it seems like every time a scene starts to gain momentum, it fizzles out. Hip-hop provides a cultural space where all kinds of people are having important conversations about race, class and other issues, and it’s one of the most vibrant parts of the global music industry, where young artists are finding their voices and innovating faster than in any other segment of the biz. If we don’t develop the talent we have here — if the narrative continues to be that you have to move to Atlanta, L.A. or New York to have a real rap career — then we’re missing out on a huge opportunity as a city.

The good news is that the need for solid infrastructure is well-known, and folks are putting in the effort to build it back up. It’s not every weekend we can stroll into a neighborhood bar and sample a slice of the local hip-hop scene, but thanks to AL-D and E.T., that’s exactly what we got to do on Saturday when we headed over to The Cobra for their recurring showcase Meant for the Milk Crate.

We rolled in a little early, which was fine — it gave us time to sit back and appreciate the subtle artistry of DJ Vamp, who mans the decks for most MFTMC shows. From his perch in the middle of three other DJ rigs, he fired off a steady stream of boom-bap bangers that he blended into a continuous flow with tasteful use of turntablist techniques to get the beat to sit just right. We found ourselves grooving in a relaxed trance around 10:30, when the beat from AL-D and E.T.’s “High Elevation” called everyone to attention. The evening’s organizers, promoters and hosts are also a class-A MC tag team, and after a genial introduction, they delivered a handful of their agile rhymes. The pair raps very intelligently about what they know, and that’s being rap fans — some of their best lyrics look at the impact hip-hop has had on their lives and the importance they see it having in the lives of others.

We could’ve listened to them wreck shop over old-school-leaning beats all night, but then we’d have missed out on Jordn and his DJ cohort Namir Blade, purveyor of some of the most forward-looking productions around. They steered the party hard toward the glitchy, trappy end of the spectrum, but Jordn’s stage presence made the transition smooth as silk. The lean, lanky MC weaved and dipped as he unfurled his futuristic flow, bending his way around the beat like he was dodging bullets in The Matrix.

Some of the audience cleared out before Tiara P.’s set, and we feel genuinely sorry that they missed out. The recent Louisville transplant cleared her throat with a jaw-dropping rapid-fire soliloquy, and her set only got better from there. The MC and producer mixed it up between cuts from her previous release The Young and the Reckless and a forthcoming EP called Balancing Act, and she got some of the best crowd participation all night with a chant of “You ain’t gotta like me / But you gonna give me my respect.” She mentioned tentative plans to move back to Louisville in the winter, but said the love she’s been getting from Nashville is convincing her to stick around — let’s hope it works out that way.

James Fate was on next, with Black Cat Sylvester running the beats and making them extra freaky with help from the instrument he invented, a synthesizer-turntable hybrid aptly named the SynthTable. Fate led off with “Retro,” our favorite of his cuts, in which he raps about how hip-hop helped him find his path as a youngster. He paused mid-set to do a routine in which he had everyone hold up what was in their pockets while he improvised a freestyle rap about what was in our hands — that bit wasn't really our bag, but he still worked hard at it, and throughout his set.

Remsteele got off to a little bit of a rocky start — there was a lot of “when I say this, you say that” while the MC got his footing — but his flow was like butter once he caught his stride. Rem is a keen observer who has a lot to say about what it takes to get by, and we need another record from him as soon as possible. DJ Suspicion’s turntable drum solo near the end of the set was also a helluva lot of fun.

BEZ closed out the main portion of the show, and his set flew by in a flash. He came out of the gate bristling with punk-rock energy — something he perfected as frontman of Stereomonster, a rap-punk outfit in his native Columbus, Ga. — dropping rhymes that seemed impossibly rapid to be so articulate. One standout was “Legalize Murder,” a top track from his 2016 album The Fountain City Classic, which captures the fury of what it’s like to have to worry about being killed in an interaction with the police because of the color of your skin.

The hour was growing late, but there was still plenty of energy left for the cypher, the freestyle session in which everyone who’s interested circles up and spits the best bars they can come up with on the spot before passing the mic. Most of the performers, as well as people who’d been chilling in the back all night (and that one dude who’d been dancing hard in the front for most of the show) took turns flexing their lyrical muscles to a slew of beats provided by DJ Vamp. We left feeling good about getting to cover a community that supports gatherings of diverse talent like this, as well as excited to see what grows out of it.

See our slideshow for more photos.

In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.