Written by By Dan Sweeney for City Link Magazine

Photos: Chico

Everyone who missed City Link's Scarface and Hip-hop Madness June 11 at Fort Lauderdale's Cinema Paradiso will surely regret it until the day they are cut in two by a man with a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun, just as they're about to launch a grenade at the assassins in their own foyers.



The night got off to a later start than expected, which meant the movie ran silently onscreen while local hip-hop acts performed in front of it, instead of the original plan of doing the music and then screening the movie. In fact, the first performer took the stage - or, more accurately, the area in front of the screen - an hour later than intended to entertain a crowd of about 60 people. The crowd grew and shrank throughout the night as people stepped into the theater to hear a performance or exited into the lobby to have some of the delicious free potato salad that a fellow City Link employee brought out of the kindness of her own heart.



But the growth of the crowd outweighed the dwindling, so by the time the final acts were taking the stage, almost 200 people were milling about the theater and the lobby. Kodack and Purpose were among the first acts to benefit from the thickened crowd. That "Crazy Eye" joint, typical of the duo with its life-threatening lyrics and Dirty South beat, could get spun on the radio with the big boys, and nobody'd miss a beat.

Kodack and Purpose were followed by a few other noteworthy acts. Female vocalist Kedash, with her R&B-inflected performance and pair of talented background singer-dancers, made a good impression, and it would have been impossible to miss Ran Rover. Well, impossible to miss his act, in any case. It was actually pretty easy to miss seeing the guy, what with the dozen or

so people onstage with him, carrying Ran Rover signs and chucking Ran Rover T-shirts into the crowd. His performance was, however, somewhat eclipsed by Colosus, probably the best rapid-fire MC of the night. And what can I say? I like my rappers when they're spitting words like bullets. Besides, Colosus gave a shout-out to the Potato Salad Woman, who sadly informed him that the potato salad had been cleaned out.



T.H.C. Crew wrapped up the night, or at least as much of the night as I stuck around for, with DJ Mega Mix on the turntables. This was a welcome change. Every other act had brought in prerecorded music and just rapped over it - sort of the hip-hop equivalent of being in a rock band with a drum machine. Sooner or later, you're going to have to find a DJ. It's just not the same without one. And T.H.C. Crew demonstrated that point nicely.

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