Local rap crews Too High Crew, Rap Goofz, Forgetful Jones party hard

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      Too High Crew/Rap Goofz/Forgetful Jones
      At the Astoria on Friday, May 16

      Too High Crew have gotten a hell of a lot of mileage out of jokes about sex and weed. Since 2011, the local rap collective has amassed a Bandcamp catalogue of 11 releases—including singles, EPs, full-lengths, and a compilation—and these are rife with foul-mouthed lyrics and hilarious hedonism. But even if the group’s many members prefer to rap with their tongues planted in cheek, this Friday-night gig proved that they take partying very seriously.

      The evening began with a DJ cuing up tracks while the punters gradually filed in. The show didn’t get under way until after 11:30 p.m., with opening act Forgetful Jones taking the stage and wryly noting, “It’s a Friday, I’ve got work tomorrow.”

      He clearly wasn’t discouraged by the prospect of getting up the next day, since he got things off to an energetic start with chants of “Hey! Hey!” and repeated calls for the gathering crowd to “Put ’em up.” Despite being named after a Sesame Street character, Jones was the night’s most straight-faced performer, hyping up the crowd on darkly thumping tracks like “Freaks of the Night” and “Patio Party”.

      For his finale, Jones invited up local hip-hop MC Evil Ebenezer, who took over the mike while Jones acted as hype man and punctuated each line with backing raps.

      After a short break, Rap Goofz arrived on-stage with a cry of “Where my goofs at?” The musicians were cartoonishly dressed, with Jbone wearing a tuque over his pulled-up hoodie, while Honest Bucs donned a jewelled ball cap and oversize sunglasses with absurdly dangling chains. The rappers were accompanied by Skinny Pete, who served double duty as a DJ and MC while dressed in an Amish-chic wide-brimmed hat.

      The lineup expanded over the course of the set, as the initial trio called up AfroDayZiak during the head-bobbing “Dream Girls”. Between her verses, she writhed and gyrated while someone in the audience showered her with fistfuls of flowers.

      By the end of the set, there were six members packed onto the cozy stage. Tracks like “Tropical Birds”, which used cockatoo similes in an attempt to be sexily seductive, meant that Rap Goofz lived up to their silly name, but they delivered their frequently humorous material with earnest energy.

      They finished by recruiting Too High Crew’s Chrissy—the rap alias of prolific local musician Chris Van Der Laan—to appear on the bass-laden “Chill It”, which featured a group-chanted refrain about “sippin’ on a KFC gravy”.

      Rap Goofz drew a blurry line between comedy and sincerity, and the same could be said for Too High Crew. It was almost 1 in the morning when the large ensemble gathered at the front of the room, opening with “Alien Azz Pharm”. Within the first minute, the entire crew had abandoned the stage to hold court in the middle of the checkerboard dance floor, and they shouted together during a massive chorus of “It’s an alien invasion and we get laid.” Inevitably, this inspired microphone-holding members to quip, “Take me to your dealer.”

      It was chaotic on the dark dance floor, making it impossible to tell exactly how many rappers there were (there appeared to be around 10) or who was doing what. Although the Astoria was below capacity, nearly everyone was gathered in a tight circle around the performers, and these few dozen fans gave the impression of a jam-packed room.

      The Crew ping-ponged around the floor, sharing a fleet of microphones as they rapped along with the booty-shaking, floor-rumbling beats. Most of the members delivered their wisecracks with fairly simple rap flow, although core members Chrissy and Ryry displayed honest-to-goodness talent on the jittery set highlight “Best Ev’s (Part I)” by spitting rapid-fire rhymes.

      At one point, Ryry alluded to a facetious feud with the openers, joking, “Does anyone remember Rap Goofz? Me neither.” This led to Jbone coming to the centre of the floor to join in on a spirited rendition of the diss track “Frenemies”, which was laced with back-and-forth insults and, ironically, culminated in communally uplifting shout-along choruses.

      To close out the night, the Crew reprised “Alien Azz Pharm”, while Chrissy clambered behind the DJ decks to retrieve Heat Sheets, who had been handling beats as the sole member on-stage.

      Chrissy picked up the DJ and forcibly lifted him into the fans’ waiting arms. By this time, however, the late-night audience had thinned out enough that proper crowd-surfing wasn’t possible, so Heat Sheets was simply carried around the floor by a handful of lifters. This display was chaotic, ridiculous, and extremely fun to watch, making it a fitting end to the party.

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