Live: Ghost Arm and MC God at Snooze Theatre, July 22

Ghost Arm
With MC God
The Snooze Theatre, Lake Park
Friday, July 22, 2011

Better than: No freestyle Fridays.

Red-haired Miami hip-hop duo Ghost Arm kicked off the evening, with their newest addition, DJ Ames. As he began

to set up, it became known that there would be a lull in the start of the

show. MC God had not shown up, and nobody had heard from him all day.

Showgoers spent some time conversing and playing darts until Snooze owners Jordan Pettingill and C.J. Jankow came to a solution. They goaded Rolodex and SPF into doing a full set of freestyle battles to pass the time.

The crowd reacted warmly, eager to see what the two could do straight

off the dome.

The guys instantly brought the room to attention as the beat from the Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." began to play. Rolodex instantly jumped in, being a longtime disciple of the Wu. He spat out an uninterrupted, unfettered flow for a full two minutes before finally giving partner in rhyme SPF a chance to demonstrate. He did so masterfully, picking up right as the other had left off. They carried out the rest of the set in a jovial manner, taking time to crack jokes as the other flubbed, taking friendly jabs at each other, and so on. DJ Ames' selection was choice, setting the background of the battle to classics such as the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize," Dr Dre's "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)," and 50 Cent's "In Da Club," to name a few.


























As their actual set began, Rolodex joked, "We had a couple of jokes too, but we don't know how funny they actually are."

While both MCs executed their verses excellently, the set caught a few snags. DJ Ames proved to be a little wet behind the ears as a handful of technical difficulties put on the brakes. A long pause came just as they had floored the room with "Pillage and Prosper," Rolodex and SPF both with flushed faces after giving a visceral, breath-gasping performance. After catching his breath, Rolodex sarcastically added, "Thanks for watching us and shit." After a handful of laughs from the crowd, they decided to share some of the jokes they had hinted of earlier:

"What's the difference between a baby and a bag of coke?" SPF asked.
"Eric Clapton would never let a bag of coke fall from a balcony."



Keeping with the classy tone they had set, the introduction from Europe's "The Final Countdown" began to play, brazenly signaling that the problem had been fixed. Rolodex shouted, "WE DO THE INTRO IN THE MIDDLE, BITCH!" and finished the rest of their set like champions, shrugging of all of the evening's mishaps.

Next up was MC God, who showed moments before Ghost Arm had ended. As he mounted the stage, he asked all of the white girls to report to the front. White girls in attendance continued to converse with their male counterparts. After a garishly long, awkward pause, he went on to ask if anyone liked '90s booty music. After another cold response, he began his set, shouting "I love white girls" ad nauseum in a whining sneer over beats found in a sample version of Fruity Loops. As the song ended, he asked the crowd, "How many girls liked that?" Someone in the back of the room shouted "NONE!"

He struggled through the rest of his set, vivaciously embracing the nerdy, white MC stereotype, hamming it up whenever possible. His songs touched on subjects like "bitches in Melbourne [where he is from] looking for that dick," having sex with girls while living in your parents' house, and, of course, an inflated infatuation with Hispanic girls, complete with overworked lyrics in Spanish, bad accent included.

Critic's Notebook

Best Heckler Award: As MC God went on about "lurkey turkeys" (chubby girls on the hunt for fornication), he asked women in attendance to look him up if they were ever in his hometown of Melbourne. An attractive young woman set her beer down, looked over, and with illuminated eyes shouted back: "I'd rather get fucked up!"