COMMON with JAY ELECTRONICA at Kool Haus, Thursday, December 11. Rating: NNNN
Common and Jay Electronica, two of the most respected MCs in hip-hop, brought their Nobody’s Smiling tour to Toronto for the final hip-hop gig at the soon-to-shutter Kool Haus. The two share predilections for introspection and poetry but their performance styles differ vastly.
It’s been four years since Electronica’s audience poll about choking women during sex at a free Yonge-Dundas Square show. The New Orleans native and Roc Nation signee’s long-awaited debut LP is still long-awaited so – devoid of any controversy – this show was almost identical to past gigs. He wasted no time jumping into the crowd, and then invited delighted fans onstage as he spit his searing a cappellas.
While Electronica erases barriers between audience and performer, Common is unapologetically theatrical. At times, the Chicago MC’s near two-hour set felt more like a one-man show as he acted out skits and recited monologues about police violence, the late producer J Dilla and his purpose in hip-hop as a man of the people.
It also featured a DJ scratch battle, a freestyle serenade to a female fan, a crowd-pleasing freestyle about Toronto (that referenced Rob Ford and DeMar DeRozan, and likened his bald head to the SkyDome) and beautiful vocals by singer Maimouna Youssef.
There were moments that dragged, but the whole set had a feel-good, classic vibe and the sound was so pristine – especially the warm, funky, jazz-infused productions by Kanye West and J. Dilla – that it was hard not to get caught up.
