Music Review: EL-P and MC Killer Mike at the Trocadero

This wasn't corporate hip hop filled with boastful champagne toasting, clean beats, and singsong choruses. This was raw and real.

EL-P pretty much summed up his role in hip hop from the start of his Troc gig. "I'm a Garbage Pail Kid calamity artist," EL-P barked during his set's first song, the murkily psychedelic "Request Denied." With a drumming guitarist and a DJ/programmer behind him, EL-P ranted through abrasive high-pitched whines, sliding whistles, and dropped-deep beats on tunes like "The Full Retard." On "Oh Hail No" the night's opening act, Philadelphia stoner-rap MC Asher Roth, added his nasal voice to the Pink Floyd-like swirl with Killer Mike, too, jumping in to catch a few verses during EL-P's set. The Brooklynite turned the show into a friends-and-family affair, especially when reaching into his trick bag of oldies. "I'm very relaxed tonight, and that's not just because of the copious amount of alcohol I drank," EL-P said before blaming his fans.

Atlanta's Killer Mike appeared right before EL-P and made it hard for the headliner to top his warm-up act. With an over-sized physical presence as renowned as his deep throaty voice and his decade-plus time in the rap biz, Mike made the idea of "Kryptonite" sound enticing and turned "Reagan" into a politicized anthem of fear and loathing.