The Oddibles ~ LIVE ~ Chinatown

Taking a breather from Superbunker's Swap Meet at Beta-Level, Taco plowed across the street to check in with Grand Star and we're glad we did. Many might know Grand Star for their bangin' Firecracker Fridays, which focus mostly on spins of blazing hip hop for a packed crowd.

Grand Star introduced us to an amazing new talent Saturday night, The Oddibles, who represent Gardena. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, we heard some dude rapping as fast as lightning, with a style somewhere between Atmosphere and Pharohe Monch, utilizing both the clarity and speed of those two artists' respective abilities.

The voice's owner was C-Spills, who has an incredible ability to flow fast and tight. His ryhme partner SirReal is equally gifted, with a slightly more aggressive stance that was punctuated by the semi-auto on his white tee. Their DJ Steadfast has gnarly cuts and wicked beats, as their other mixmaster DJ Soulspeak took some time to pound on his electric bass. Guest performer InnaStella kept her tight corn-rows down in a drum machine, tapping out sick live drum breaks on the MPC2000.

If people could get over the perceived novelty of non-black rappers, these kids would already be big. Eminem big. If fresh live rap that pushes the envelope of creativity does it for you, you'd best go check them out opening for Mr. Hyde & 2Mex at Chinky Eyed Productions 5th Year Anniversary on August 24th at Hollywood's Knitting Factory. These guys have a future and it's blindingly bright.