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Cuts like a knife
Dagha, Insight, and Edan can rock it like that
BY ELISABETH DONNELLY

" I know I slowed the pace up and made everything strange, " shrugged Edan, humbly magnificent as always, as he came on during Dagha’s blistering Saturday-night set at UndergroundHipHop, the Huntington Ave retail version of the popular dot-com store. Dagha was celebrating the release of his solo debut, Object in Motion, alongside long-time compatriots Edan and Insight, to a crowd that included hip-hop heads, a fair number of girls, several adorable toddlers, and a solid Emerson contingent thanks to WERS 88.9’s sponsorship. Doors opened at seven and the show started at eight; that led to an awkward scene where the stoic crowd stood stock-still bobbing their heads to DJ Real’s Gang Starr beats. Eventually, Insight kicked it off with early stuff and rarities like " True to the Game, " varying texture through a tricked out echo-effect mike and changing his flow to take on 17 different rappers in " 17 MCs. " A charismatic dude, he owned the crowd, drawing a picture for an adorable four-year-old girl in the front row and going so far as to give out orange juice to the people while rapping in a flurry. " You’ve got crazy juice! " shouted one appreciative fan.

But it was Dagha’s night, and he dropped some bangers while repping hard for indie: " D-A-G-H-A ain’t down with your label! " Insight provided able support on the awesome " Rock That, " and then Edan came up to perform " Rock N’ Roll, " from his sideways masterpiece Beauty and the Beat. Using a mike attached to a guitar pedal, Dagha thundered through his standout verse in the latter, then held up records as visual aids during Edan’s verse, making the crowd chuckle at the " X " scrawled over Lenny Kravitz’s record while Edan sniped about Kravitz’s legacy of ripping off Hendrix. Inspired, Edan then boomed through " Fumbling over Words That Rhyme " while DJing at the same time. After Edan hustled off stage, kids swarmed around him looking for autographs while Dagha stayed on mike, making the crowd spell his name and getting hands in the air.

There were rumors that Edan would spin the following night at the debut of " Retox Sundays, " which is run by his friend Apollo Sunshine’s Jesse Gallagher — but Edan was (in his own words) too " eccentric " to show up. Gallagher, a Berklee grad, kicked off the month-long residency with a bouncy set that deserved a way bigger turnout than it drew: awesomely eclectic and reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack, it wowed one uninhibited ZuZu attendant, who got down with trance moves and breakdancing in the middle of the floor while Gallagher dropped Ray Charles’s " What’d I Say, " Kid Creole’s " In the Jungle, " and a sweet remix of Beck’s " Girl. " As Gallagher experimented — slowing down vocals, making them sound like a chopped and screwed Louis Armstrong over hippie ’70s guitar — the exuberant dude on the floor brought out his hand drums and got down. Spread the news: provided there’s no snow or Dinosaur Jr. show, ZuZu’s Sundays are now for dancing.

Elisabeth Donnelly can be reached at elisabeth.donnelly@gmail.com


Issue Date: December 9 - 15, 2005
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