Review: Peanut Butter Wolf AV set @ Kazimier, Liverpool

Image: Peanut Butter Wolf

Rapidly becoming one of the best spaces to enjoy hip hop in Liverpool, the Kazimier has been the venue that saw us recently being wowed by Pharoahe Monch and excitedly anticipating Wu Tang swordsmen Ghostface Killah in recent times.

The theatre space, a gloriously intimate stage flanked by balconies and two surprisingly easy to get served in bars, has proved the perfect environment to experience Liverpool's enduring love affair with the boom bap.

This show saw an audio visual set from Stones Throw boss Peanut Butter Wolf, supported by a live performance from scratch and double bass stalwarts Fingathing and the No Fakin DJs. Timing issues meant Skiddle arrived criminally late, catching only the final few songs of Fingathing's performance.

Luckily that included a triumphant finale of 'Superhero Music', complete with it's glorious animated video in full glory accompanying the performance behind them (watch it above). No Fakin's quick warm up to follow on was peppered with a sizable chunk of head bopping classics, starting with A Tribe Called Quest's Buggin' Out' (more on them later) and later Action Bronson's 'Shiraz'.

It set the tone perfectly for Wolf to hit the stage, announcing from the off that he isn't playing vinyl tonight. Normally it's a statement that would invite derision from such a partisan crowd of hip hop lovers, but not on this occasion.

He's whipping up a musical storm not via CDs, MP3s or any of the other ailments that have helped damage an industry he has helped maintain with his reverential crate diggin' label, but via music videos, delivering an AV set which we've been told will blow our minds. We weren;t lied to.

It starts in familiar territory with a J Dilla tribute. Classic cuts from the Stones Throw released Donuts are interspersed with a Youtube review of the album extolling how great it is, but it's when he stitching former Dee-Lite cohort Towa Tei's 'Technova' into the record Dilla built its melody around during his stint in the Ummah, ATCQ's 'Find a way' (below), that the real joy of the video accompaniment becomes apparent.

For all the technicolor lyrics and panoramic beats that enable listening to hip hop to become such a vivid experience, the visual side of things truly enhances it. The sheer simplicity of watching Q-Tip, stunting on the beach as his partner in crime Phife rhymes in front, is a special joy, and it's something that is repeated over and over again throughout the course of the evening.

As well as bonafide hip hop classics, from both the underground and the more accessible aspects of the music, he cuts in a bevvy of eighties soul numbers, made all the more endearing for the videos that accompany them.

When Rick James' 'Mary Jane' slides out of Dr Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg's 'Aint Nothing but a G Thang', it's made all the more memorable for the way the California cook out fades into James' lithe dance moves.

And New Edition's 'Mr Telephone Man' is itself enough to raise a smile musically, but when accompanied by the video (watch for yourself above), complete with ridiculous outfits and goofy construction workers, it shoots the gig with a sense of humour, something which Wolf himself only enhances with his occasional diatribes on the mic.

Whether interspersing the videos with mock hyperbole, confessing to not seeing the talent in Jay-Z after supporting him in 96 (and playing his appearance on the Big Daddy Kane posse cut 'Show and Prove'), or excitedly exclaiming his role as an extra in the video to KRS One's 'Step into a World' ("I'm the white guy!"), his charisma shines through repeatedly, enhancing his love of not only hip hop but the music that engulfs its tapestry of influences.

The rest of the evening continues the head nodding brilliance of the music being juxtaposed with the videos. We're reminded of the camouflage and the Pelle Pel, the Clarks Wallabies and the Starter caps, and the Kangol hats and the boomboxes, taking us on a journey through the fashions, styles and vivid expressions that adorn rappers throughout the ages (LL Cool J performing 'Rock the Bells' on Soul Train another highlight), expertly enhancing the music as a whole.

Case in point the video for Mobb Deep’s ‘Shook Ones (Part II)’ (below); the ode to crime lyrically reveals Havoc and Prodigy to be in their teens with "every rhyme I write is 25 to life", but the accompanying footage of them menacingly childlike adds a gritty realism to it all.

The video in itself might be slightly ridiculous, Havoc in particular looking like a decidedly pre-pubescent gangster in his oversized clothing, but backed by one of the most street reared mic assaults ever it tells its own sinister story of the ghettos of America. Or maybe we're just reading too much into it and it's just a great record.

The tributes kept on coming as well. Amongst the obvious hip hop angles, odes to Guru and Big L joining the Dilla love in, he doffed his cap to both the thirty year anniversary of Marvin Gaye death and the disconcertingly more recent passing of Frankie Knuckles, each greeted with roars.

The latter was honoured via his 'The Whistle Song' after a riotous stage invasion was sound-tracked by him careering through a slew of block party classics like Queen's 'Another one Bites the Dust' and Indeep's 'Last Night a DJ Saved my life', bringing to end a fantastic celebration of hip-hop culture as a whole, and a bloody good party.

Peanut Butter Wolf, as a record label owner, DJ and producer rightly enjoys deity status amongst the more discerning of hip-hop heads, but his ability to showcase the visual side of the genre's history added a greater resonance to his legend during this show in Liverpool.

He started his performance with the admission it had been seventeen years since he last DJed in the city; it'd be a crime if his return was left that long again.

Want to head to the Kazimier for a gig? Check out their upcoming shows here.

And fancy copping some more Stones throw goodness? Peanut Buttrer Wolf has further tour dates lined up, and their rapper Jonwayne heads to the Uk soon, find out here where to catch him.