This should hopefully shut up some of the comments-posters in the TC Hip-Hop Awards report below who don't understand all the positive things that go on in the local hip-hop scene...
Rhymesayers Entertainment just announced another big hip-hop for Haiti benefit Feb. 9 at First Avenue headlined by Brother Ali and featuring a couple of the label's well-known out-of-town cohorts, Sage Francis and Freeway. Other performers will include I Self Devine, Muja Messiah, Sims, Jake One (backing Freeway), Toki Wright, BK-One and King Otto, and Slug will be acting as host. Tickets ($20) go on sale Wednesday at 11 a.m. at all of First Ave's usual outlets and Ticketmaster. The show will benefit Oxfam America, Doctors Without Borders and Yele Haiti. Another all-hip-hop benefit happened last week at the Nomad, put on by Kanser's Haitian born rapper Unicus.
On the local indie-rock front, First Ave will host another big Haiti benefit on Feb. 6 called Gimme Shelter, put together by the Gimme Noise blog and City Pages. Solid Gold (headlining the Current's party this Fri) will return to the club to co-headline this one alongside Mark Mallman. Zoo Animal, Peter Wolf Crier and DJs Jimmy2Times and Mike 2600 are also on the bill. Tickets to that one ($12) are already on sale. Proceeds go to the Red Cross and the Haiti Relief & Development Fund and Architecture for Humanity.
(Brother Ali photo above by Jerry Holt, Star Tribune)
