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Japanese American Bay area rapper, Lyrics Born. Courtesy of Solesides.com.
Not "The Asian Rapper"
Japanese American rapper Lyrics Born proves he's not just the Asian guy of the Quannum tour but a bona fide stripping emcee.
The House of Blues holds the strange practice of having two shows per night. Arriving at the hardly shocking hour of 10pm for the Quannum concert, I hardly expected to have to wait in line until midnight for the show to start.
Unexpectedly, the intervening two hours in the parking lot turned out to be entertaining enough, due to the hordes of teenage fans with fricasseed hair, tats and pompadours who had come for the first show--a psychobilly band from Scandinavia--and who were now waiting outside for their cars, getting into fights, and surreptitiously checking each other out. As valet after valet pulled up in the parental Minivans and SUV's, I surmised that about 90% of the crowd had to have been from Orange County or the Inland Empire. I restrained myself most of the time from 'mistakenly' remarking about how there were so many "hill billy" fans out tonight...
Finally, the Disney-like doors of the House of Blues were opened and I immediately proceeded to get lost inside its cavernous depths. When we reached the show room, I wanted to sit down after all that waiting in line, but the only seats belonged to the VIP section. Having assured me and my friend that we'd be granted entrance therein, the bouncer seemed to enjoy keeping us standing around outside the VIP section for an hour because "There are people who pay thousands of dollars to have first pick of those seats in there." Oh right, like paying thirty dollars for a show and twenty for parking isn't a small fortune?
But my broke-ass woes ended when Quannum kicked off, and our Asian American interest Lyrics Born, (once known as Asia Born, and also known as Tom Shemura) didn't disappoint. Watching the show, I began to feel it would have been silly to review Lyrics Born alone. Quannum are the friends he started Quannum Records (formerly Solesides) with during his college days at UC Davis in 1992; and they felt like a unified force when they burst onstage in matching royal blue jerseys with 'Quannum' written on the front and their respective names on the back: Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truth Speaker, who together also form Latyrx; Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Joyo Velarde on backup vox, and the three djs, Chief XL, DJ D Sharp and the legendary DJ Shadow.
Quannum warmed up the crowd together, alternating the rapping, and then featuring the mc's individually with singles from their individual releases. There was also some video mixing, with a clip of Double Trouble from Wild Style. Gift of Gab, whose signature is his lightning delivery, teased the crowd asking if "it'd be alright to play my joints?" Like we were gonna say no. L.B. showed the characteristic sense of humor that's evident on his great solo album, Later That Day, by tearing off his blue pants and rapping in his skivvies.
The night continued to be amped and fun. One of the admirable things about Lyrics Born is his unwillingness to cash in on being The Asian Rapper, so he may not have yet had the sort of recognition of other rappers like Jin Tha MC. But if there's any justice, he'll get that in time for his great skills on the mic and craftsmanship as a producer.
Check out dates for Quannum Tour 2004 at: www.quannum.com.
Date Posted: 5/7/2004