Grand Nucleus Crew

At times, hip-hop is famous for its Voltron-like music cliques. The genre has always had its share of groups and solo artists who reside within "crews" for performance purposes — Juice Crew and Boot Camp Click come to mind, but the list of these affiliations are endless. Here in South Florida, it's the Grand Nucleus Crew that's trying to make the strongest impact on the local hip-hop scene. The bulk of the crew are all transplants from New York, New Jersey, and Jamaica, but they call Broward and Miami-Dade home. Essentially, Grand Nucleus is the brainchild of local hip-hop wise guy Black Sno, who formed the crew circa 2001. It was a concept back then, but now that all the players are centrally located and able to rock shows, they plan to be a part of the hip-hop scene in a collective fashion starting now. Next week, they kick off their debut show with performances by the Ego Killers, DJ Nasty, the Burnaz, Ted Bundy Jr., and Reed Richards. They all bring a fresh style of lyrical dexterity to their sets and have varied rhyming styles that should make for a good show. There's also an MC challenge taking place that night sponsored by Hi-Top Studios, and the winner gets a $50 cash prize and a free tattoo. Anyone with a love for ink and hip-hop should come out and support.

Grand Nucleus Crew performs Wednesday, April 25, at Roxanne's on Main, 3148 NE 12th Ave., Oakland Park. Admission is $5, and doors open at 10 p.m. Call 786-274-3914, or visit www.myspace.com/roxannesonmain.