MASTERS OF CAMARADERIE

Hip-hop has always had a tradition of competition. From KRS-One vs MC Shan to Jay-Z vs Nas, battling on wax—taunting allusions and one-upmanship—has long been a staple of the genre. Live, freestyle battles between performers, popularised by Eminem in the film "8 Mile", remain a good means for upstart MCs to hone their craft and gain notoriety. But Brown Bag Thursdays, a regular event hosted by the Brown Bag Allstars, features none of this. No feuding. No winners. No losers. If there is a support group for aspiring rappers, this may be it.

Held at the Voodoo Lounge (also known as Marfa Music), a basement club in Manhattan's East Village, Brown Bag Thursdays showcase a selection of underground alumni and home-grown amateur rappers eager for an audience. With its blood-red walls adorned with bicycle tires, the Voodoo is an unlikely hip-hop venue. But the event tends to fill the nondescript club to capacity.

About an hour after the show’s scheduled start-time, the DJ was still playing classic Kool Moe Dee from a Macbook covered in indie label stickers. Finally the first MC approached, burdened with the task of warming the crowd. Crown Height’s own Scienze, in a green Oscar the Grouch hoodie, climbed on stage and worked through his five-song set. By the time the self-proclaimed “producer, not a rapper” Verse-All, the evening’s second MC, made his way to the front, we were swaying to the beats and bobbing our heads. There were no hard stares or cold shoulders as the rappers traded the stage. Only compliments and congratulations. The final MC to face the crowd was the high-energy Hi Jynx, who called for an encore applause for all of the evening’s performers.

At the close of the show, the performers jumped off stage and mingled with the audience. The energy in the lounge was still high as the crowd swarmed around the MCs handing out copies of their fledgling mixtapes and demos. Nearly everyone came away with one; the rappers shared their albums as freely as they'd shared the stage. In what may be music’s most judgmental genre, it was refreshing to see some fraternity.

The next two Brown Bag Thursdays are on November 4th and the 18th.

~ JAMES RODRIGUEZ